My interview on CNN en Espanol the day following the elections made me think a lot about the country's future. I felt a huge responsibility on my shoulders. As a former TV reporter, anchor and producer, I respect and understand the power of television. I didn't want to sound histrionic or to portend disaster. An important segment of the population, still roiling from defeat, didn't deserve to have more fear pumped into their lives.
Since the interview was for a very brief piece, most of my answers didn’t make it to the air. In the spirit of promoting the on-going discussion of Venezuela’s present and future, I decided to try and remember the questions and answers. Obviously, CNN en espanol owns the footage. To the best of my recollection, and with further notes included in brackets, the following is the rest of my interview which aired on December 4, 2006.
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Q: Are you scared?
A: No. Dictators breed off fear. If I'm scared, then he really wins. Chavez wants us to be scared. He wants us to stay at home, paralyzed. I don't want to play his game.
Q: So you think this is the worst that could happen to Venezuela?
A: No. The worst that could have happened is if one side won and the other side didn't accept it. The worst case scenario is bloodshed. I take that back. The worst care scenario would've been if one side won, and the military didn't accept it. If the National Armed Forces had taken over the country. [Thinking about it now, the worst that could have happened is if Rosales had won, and the Chavistas like Lina Ron and the Tumaparo hit the streets to stop the "counter-revolution." Opposition folks tend to keep guns to protect themselves from thugs. But Chavista thugs keep guns to protect the Red Shirt Revolution* from the Opposition.]
Q: You think the country is going to be Communist?
A: No, there's too much money in the country… too many people with money…I don't think the Communist model is going to be implemented here. [Venezuela is not Cuba where Castro showed up, took power, and executed the enemy. The capitalists fled like rats abandoning a ship. But Red Shirt Revolutionaries have had eight long years to accumulate and enjoy cash. These aren't going anywhere. Especially now when they're enjoying their new homes and I-Pods. Neither are our bankers, and all those fourth republic entrepreneurs who have benefited from fifth republic contracts. Moreover, to implement Communism, Chavez would need to seriously repress half the country, which I don't think he could. Is he planning scary things? Yes, he wants private schools to become public, for instance, though this presents an interesting quandary for the Red Shirt Revolutionaries, since they like having their kids in private schools.]
Q: Would you go back to Venezuela now? Do you want to live there?
A: I would like to go back. Would I go there now? No. I'm more useful alive than dead.
Q: So you fear the government will do something to you?
A: No, the government isn't going to do anything to me. People sit on TV all day and criticize Chavez, and he hasn't done anything to them. I'm scared of the street violence. My family lives in a middle class neighborhood. I'm scared I'd forget I couldn't wear my fake pearl earrings, and walking out of my building, someone would kill me for them. 90,000 people have been killed in eight years. Thousands and
thousands of people.
Q: What about the private media?
A: I don't think Chavez is going to shut them down. Let's not forget that 40% or 50%, or whatever don't support him. They're not going to start watching the state media, and he has to find a way to get his message to them. Plus, Chavez feeds off confrontation, which the private media provides. Chavez doesn't know how to govern in peace.
Q: So you don't think there's going to be Communism?
A: With the financial transactions we've seen, with the development of certain sectors of the economy, no I don't think so.
Q: How do you feel about the money and oil that Chavez has given the poor in other nations?
A: Look, to me, helping the poor anywhere is never a bad thing. Helping the poor is always good. What I can't forgive is this: I'm deeply ashamed of the US representatives who are purchasing Venezuelan oil products at a discount. I understand the sale and purchase of a product. That's called capitalism. But that 40% discount is money that is not going towards the Venezuelan poor. You're turning the US poor into parasites of the Venezuelan poor. That is unforgivable. In my town, there are people so poor that they live in houses with no windows, no electricity, no water. The US poor have these things because they have institutions. You can't compare the two. Joe Kennedy – that is not the legacy that Robert and John left him. I think they would be deeply ashamed of him.
[*I call it a Red Shirt Revolution, and not a Red Revolution like Russia's, because the current process lacks a true ideology or substance. It's really about wearing the right shirt, chanting the right phrases. Chavistas pledge allegiance, not to a flag, or a set of principles and beliefs, but to a very limited and obtuse man...]
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To end, thanks to CNN en Espanol for their excellent coverage of Venezuela.
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