In Venezuela the Poor Are Happy and the Rich Are Mad. That Must Mean Something
In Venezuela the Poor Are Happy and the Rich Are Mad. That Must Mean Something
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By William Ospina and Cecilia Orozco Tascón
Source: Venezuelanalysis.com
Saturday, January 26, 2013
Colombian author William Ospina recently wrote a column in the Colombian daily El Espectador in which he expressed a level of appreciation for Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. But what was perhaps more interesting was the kind of response he got for taking what was called a “polemical” position.
Venezuelanalysis translates here an interview of William Ospina by Cecilia Orozco Tascón of El Espectador. We have also translated his original column, which can be read here.
“Chavez will enter into the mythology of popular folklore”: The famous writer William Opina, whose recent column called Hugo Chavez “a great man who has tried to open the way to a little justice in a scandalously unjust continent”, speaks about his polemical position that is contrary to the majority of social institutions in Colombia and Venezuela, at a moment when the leader is fighting for his life.
Cecilia Orozco Tascón: The very political and belligerent nature of your column last Sunday was surprising. Why did you radically change your topic and tone?
William Ospina: I like to write about books, cinema, travel, but I’m also passionate about politics. Every once in a while, when I am interested, I write columns like last Sunday’s where I take a position and I like it to be clear.
Your defense of the Cuban and Venezuelan governments compares their elections with elections in Colombia and suggests that they are perhaps more democratic than here where votes are “bought and herded”. However, you ignore the arguments of those who accuse those regimes of limiting freedoms.
I don’t say that Cuba and Venezuela are necessarily more democratic than Colombia. I say that their electoral victories are always seen as more suspect. And I say that Colombia is not as democratic as they make it sound. That is something we all know here. It is not a discovery of mine. However no one criticizes the governments of Colombia for their precarious democracy like they do everyday with the governments of Cuba and Venezuela. Now, neither in Cuba nor in Venezuela have there been massacres and holocausts in the last thirty years like there have been in Colombia.
More:
http://www.zcommunications.org/in-venezuela-the-poor-are-happy-and-the-rich-are-mad-that-must-mean-something-by-william-ospina
