As someone who has personally experienced the crippling dullness of a communist dictatorship for over six decades, and being intricately connected to Venezuela through marriage, this cause is of utmost importance to me. Today, I echo the pain and struggles of millions of Venezuelans living under dictatorship. This must change.

The nation and its resilient people have been under the iron fist of dictatorship control for too long – political instability and humanitarian crisis have become the Venezuelan norm. The United Nations has reported that an estimated 5.1 million people have fled the country because of extreme political and economic crisis, with 94% of the population living in poverty (UNHCR, 2020). The fundamental rights to live in freedom, to have a say in governance, to have access to basic necessities, have all been eroded.

The regime has turned the country into a refuge for different terrorist organizations and possible passage into the USA. In the same manner, enemies of USA find safe harbor in Venezuela’s territory nowadays. It’s also proven that the regime has participation in the influx of drugs into USA what ends up killing thousands of American citizens.

The Venezuelan people has spoken over the years as in the streets as in elections and they have found the same reaction from the government. Nothing but repression and fraudulent elections while the country collapses and people leave by millions, with an important fraction of the exodus coming into USA.

In July 28’s elections the voice of the majority of the Venezuelan population came together and results awarded an overwhelming victory to the regime’s opposition candidate. Yet, the Maduro’s regime refuses to acknowledge it and to step down.

Venezuelans have been showing their discontent in many demonstrations throughout the country and the regime has sent the police and paramilitary against them causing tenths of deaths and hundreds of detainees. Everyday demonstrations end, and Venezuelans return home, the regime’s forces arrest the ones that have been more vocal, exposed in social media, or finger pointed by the regime’s acolytes.

The new president elect Edmundo Gonzalez and the party leader Maria Corina Machado are Venezuelans’s last chance to get the country back on the democratic track and to furnish a prosperous country for the generations to come but they are both under the threat of being prosecuted by the regime.

USA can’t keep playing the bystander role with all that’s happening in our own very backyard. The stage of diplomatic negotiations, soft talking, void words, and false promises following weak sanctions is already over. 

It is time for the U.S. government to take a more active stance in supporting the brave people of Venezuela striving for liberty, by more than placing diplomatic pressure and calls for open elections, and by more than providing financial and humanitarian aid to those affected.

The way to show solidarity with us, with the Venezuelan people, and countless more who believe in democracy and human rights is by changing to a more vertical stance.

Support our cause; support Venezuela. Please sign this petition and join us in urging the U.S. government to take responsible actions to end the dictatorship in Venezuela. With enough voices, we can ignite change, and transform the fate of millions of Venezuelans. Sign and send this crucial message today.