Speech in #TheAlbies / @ClooneyFDN
"Good evening and thank you very much. Hello, to Charallave, my hometown.
I am here today because I owe my freedom and my life to many people. Five years ago, when I was hooded in a clandestine torture center in Caracas, I could only think about my wife. I kept asking myself if she was alone then. For months, I had been taking care of her as she went through chemotherapy.
When the secret police arrested me and held me in forced disappearance, we were going through a very delicate medical situation. But things got even worse. I was not only subjected to an absurd trial for three years, but the officers also looted our home, even taking the money meant for my wife’s medical treatment. They knew what that money was for because they found out during the torture.
Our situation was completely dark. Not only because I was hooded, but also because my entire country had been five days without electrical power. They wanted to blame me, a journalist and human rights defender, for that blackout, claiming that I was a hacker.
But do you know what was the light in all that darkness? That my wife was not alone. Many kind people—friends, colleagues, students, radio listeners, and Internet friends—stood by her in her fight to free me. All of them, together, got me out of there. We fell, but people lifted us up. That day, a network of solidarity won over power. Because what they did was unjust.
There are injustices like this in Venezuela every single day.
Since then, I have become yet another victim of crimes against humanity. My identity is now defined by the fight for justice, by supporting other victims, human rights defenders, NGOs and media, and by the commitment to be a storyteller. I try to be at the service of those who need it because we must walk together to overcome the trauma. We must do everything we can to remain alive and free.
Vivos y libres.
That is what Venezuela is like: millions of people who go through hardships but find ways to help each other and resist a government that attacks its own people and lies, because it always lies. El gobierno miente.
Right now: We have almost two thousand political prisoners (even journalists), more than eight million migrants, a quarter of the population has left the country. Inside: Over 20 million Venezuelans are in need of humanitarian aid. Teachers and pensioners earn less than five dollars per month. This happens because of political decisions, yet the perpetrators and their allies claim that everything is fine or blame other countries for these problems.
This is not normal.
Today, the freedom and future of our country also depends on many venezuelans who are sacrificing everything to reclaim democracy. We won the elections on July 28. That’s the truth. We won by a landslide. But as long as the country remains held hostage, in darkness, and tortured, we need friends around the world who will not leave Venezuela abandoned. The horror must stop, so that the transition to democracy can begin.
That is why we need international justice—real justice. Only then can we build peace and move forward.
This is the story we want to tell, and you are all invited to be part of it.
Thank you very much."
When you buy a gun, you’re shown pictures of gunshot victims.
If your neighbor suspects you of buying a gun, they can call a hotline.
If you’re from a state where guns are illegal, you can be arrested if you buy a gun out of state.
Oh sorry, these are all abortion laws.
Toda la paja del gobierno con el sabotaje es para que lo crea su propia gente en Caracas, los del interior sabemos que ni cuando el petróleo estaba en 140 y vendían 3 millones y medio de barriles le metieron dinero al sistema eléctrico. Año 2008 y lechería se fundía en apagones