6/08/2014

Why raise our voices against human rights abuses?

I wrote something like this in The Guardian after being accused of being a "corporatist slave" because I wrote against Maduro's human rights abuses and the way they are treating Leopoldo Lopez, the other political prisoners, and those who participate in protests in Venezuela.

"I happen to defend human rights in Venezuela because I'm a past victim of human rights abuses by the communist dictatorship run by the Castro mafia in Cuba. I also lived in Venezuela, and I have seen the enormous suffering caused by Chavez and Maduro since 1999.

My experience, what I read in messages from friends, and in the media, and the videos uploaded by the resistance movement in Venezuela make opposition to Maduro and friends the better moral choice.


Most of you who defend Maduro are either ignorant or lack the moral fiber to stand up and fight human rights abuses. And those who remain silent and passive, and won't even raise a finger to write against injustice are just as guilty as the ones who cooperate with the pro Maduro propaganda machine."

I write about human rights abuses in Venezuela because I know what´s going on.

Photograph: Basil da Costa, shot in the back of the head by Maduro´s Secret Police on February 12th, 2014, in La Candelaria, Caracas, Venezuela. 

 In 1999 I wrote against human rights abuses by the US, UK, and other  governments in Kosovo. This didn´t make me very popular in some quarters, but I felt it was the right thing to do. White Alabamans who opposed slavery in the 1850´s and Jews who defended Palestinian rights didn´t do it to be popular with their peers. 

Maybe what I wrote in the Guardian was right, I´m so focused on the subject because they did it to me and they are doing it to people I know. However, even if all you know about  human rights abuses was learned by watching  "12 years a slave" you should consider what you can do about it. 




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