There has been an inauguration of the new on-campus group “Venezuelan Perspective,” who reaches out to Venezuelan students at American who wish to share their feelings and opinions on what’s going on in our country and also invites all of those interested to join. Venezuela is a very rich and beautiful country, which was once known as the “Happiest country in the world,” stated by the Guinness World records, and not to mention it is widely known for having “the most beautiful women on the planet.” But in recent years all of these joyous facts have been replaced by sad yet truthful stories. The most recent poll that came out stated that Venezuela is now the most unhappy country in the world. With all these stories that we hear it is hard to believe that a country so rich could have fallen into such corruption, bankruptcy, and its capitol has become one of the top 3 most dangerous cities in the world. Not to mention the number of Venezuelan emigrants that have fled the country looking for a stable life elsewhere, myself included.
The only way for a country to move forward is with courage and perseverance, which is why this article is to show that no matter what is thrown our way there are plenty of people willing to risk everything for this country. Below are the stories of three powerful women that represent much more that the beauty standard Venezuela is known for — these women symbolize strength, courage, persistence and give hope to all those who listen.
1. Maria Corina Machado is a Venezuelan politician that served as a deputy of the National Assembly from 20112014 where she was wrongfully striped from her title by the current government. Since the election of the current president, which was highly criticized by the media as illegitimate, Nicolas Maduro served as the female leader of the opposition, standing face forward toward the Venezuelan public. Regardless that she has been convicted with fake charges involving her in plans to kill the president (Plans the government has also accused the U.S of doing) she still stands tall in representation of all the Venezuelan citizens, not giving up and knowing that someday, justice will once again reign over Venezuela.
2. Lilian Tintori is the wife of Venezuelan opposition leader, Leopoldo Lopez, who has been imprisoned since February 18th 2014, where he turned himself in, in hopes that justice would be served. As always the corrupt government took him in and there has been no justice served regarding his freedom. Lopez is currently one of many political prisoners Venezuela holds in its cells. Since then, Lilian has taken it into her own hands to fill her husbands place, and has been a face of hope to all Venezuelan mothers and women with family members who are also wrongfully incarcerated in Venezuela.
3. Rosa Orozco— this woman is one to look up to. She is the mother of Geraldine Moreno, a Venezuelan student who was killed in one of the many protests that took place in February 2014 against the current government, by a Venezuelan National Guard, who is still free in spite of his crime. Since the murder of her daughter this woman has put on a strong face in the eyes of the public and has traveled the world to tell her story and represent all those mothers that daily lose children because of the insecurity that Venezuela suffers.
All of these women go beyond beauty, and represent a fire that is within us all that lights up when we must stand for what we believe in. Of course Venezuela has a list of powerful woman, from Fashion Designer Carolina Herrera, to racecar driver Milka Duno and journalist Sofía Imber. Also it has a variety of actresses and beauty queens all hard working and worthy of recognition. But this article is to raise awareness on what actually goes on in this country where people are starving and look for desperate measures to keep themselves alive.
This is why “Venezuelan Perspective” is such an important addition to campus groups, because it can raise awareness and let the story of Venezuela be told, and maybe, hopefully in a near future these will all be stories from the past and we can all see how shines once again proud and strong as the great country it truly is.