Ryan Dube, Kejal Vyas and Anatoly Kurmanaev write:
A 32-year-old teacher, she’s fed up with President Nicolás Maduro’s government. Her salary has fallen to the equivalent of $2 a month with Venezuela’s currency collapse. She struggles to feed her 10-year-old son and is unable to treat the small tumor on her breast because the health-care system is in shambles.
Still, Ms. Meza voted for the ruling Socialist Party in recent mayoral elections, fearing that otherwise she would have lost her state job and benefits—especially the monthly bags of rice, corn flour and other subsidized food she says keeps her family alive. She also plans to vote for Mr. Maduro in the May 20 presidential election
“If I didn’t vote, there would be trouble, I was told,” she said in this arid town near the Colombian border. “They are playing with people’s hunger.”
Would you trade your freedom for mere survival? It’s hard in America to imagine the plight of those living under despotic socialist regimes, using hunger and health as tools of power.
Venezuelans gave away their freedom long ago, with the election of the now deceased Hugo Chavez. With promises of a socialist revolution, Chavez charmed his way into the hearts of poor Venezuelans who were simply looking for a better life. What they got instead was despotism, hunger, pain, and suffering. Now they are so dependent on the government, it can hold them hostage to the hunger it created for them.
The takeaway here is, never sell out your freedom to the false promises of a snake-oil salesman.
