About the largest wave of refugees fleeing Venezuela in history, ideas for rebuilding the country and the motivation behind a woman who sacrificed her role as a mother to fight the regime ruling her country – PAP talks to Ana Corina Sosa, daughter of this year's Nobel Peace Prize winner Maria Corina Machado.
On Wednesday, December 10, her daughter, 34-year-old Ana Corina Sosa, received the Nobel Peace Prize on behalf of Maria Corina Machado. Living in the USA, she represented her mother when she was smuggled from Venezuela through the Netherlands Antilles and the USA to Oslo in a secret operation.
PAP: When did you leave Venezuela?
Ana Corina Sosa: It was 2012. I studied engineering. The situation was becoming more and more dangerous for the family. My mother was an MP and a very clear voice against the regime. She was called a radical, a crazy extremist. She replied that they were a criminal dictatorship. Mom was very brave. But she couldn't continue her fight and also have a child who received death threats. Being a voice of opposition meant a threat to her life, including that of her loved ones. The regime knows that the fastest way to reach a mother is through her children.
PAP: But Maria Corina Machado chose Venezuela…
ACS: Sometimes I thought about it like that, especially when I was younger and it was difficult for me to understand my mother's decisions. I often missed her very much. During her 20 years of fighting against the regime, there were many moments when I just wanted her to be a mother, and not the figure we saw on TV screens and at mass rallies. However, she always made it clear that she was doing it for us. And I asked: why does it require such sacrifice?
PAP: Maybe you have Simon Bolivar in your family?
ACS: We don't have Simón Bolívar in our family, but there is one person among our ancestors about whom young people learn from history textbooks. This was my grandfather's uncle. I think he had a great influence on my mother.
He belonged to the generation we call “Generación del 28”. They were students from 1928 who fought against the brutal military dictatorship. They rebelled. Some had to flee the country, others went into hiding. Many were killed, but the dictatorship eventually fell. It's in the textbooks. This is our national pride: students overthrew the dictatorship, inspired by freedom and dignity.
PAP: There are almost no 20-year-olds in Venezuela today. Over the last 10 years, almost one in three Venezuelans have fled their country. Who will rebuild this country?
ACS: Almost a third of the population lives elsewhere. Most are young. Many of them do not know any other Venezuela than the one under Chávez and Maduro. They often don't remember Venezuela before Chavez and Maduro. That's why it won't be a reconstruction. We will create a state from scratch. The bright spot may be that our generation has experienced life abroad and freedom. But a huge number of people left in dramatic conditions and struggle every day to feed their families who stayed in the country. This is the biggest humanitarian crisis in the history of South America.
When we say that 80 percent our GDP has disappeared in 10 years, it is not just macroeconomics. There are lives behind the statistics. We carried bags of cash to buy a piece of chicken. You stand in lines for hours, people look for food. They share news about where “you can get protein.” When I visit Venezuela from time to time, from visit to visit I see my relatives and friends losing weight and the bones under their cheeks becoming more and more visible.
PAP: Or maybe Venezuelans, especially the young ones, no longer have the strength to fight again?
ACS: We carry flags, colors. Abroad we hear all the time that it is rare to find a nation so proud and so loving of its country. Something that was ours was taken away from us – the country was taken over, “kidnapped”. For years we have been associated with corruption and shamelessness, but we want to be known for what is great about us: food, language, way of being, honesty, unique nature. It holds us together and motivates us to maintain our identity.
PAP: Not everyone in the world wishes you success…
ACS: Iran, Russia, Hezbollah, the Cuban dictatorship – networks supporting each other with resources, intelligence, weapons. Some provide oil, others help circumvent sanctions, others provide troll farms, and others provide weapons and mercenaries. The names of these countries appear almost every year when the Nobel Committee announces the winner of the Nobel Peace Prize. Still the same regimes.
PAP: Is the generation that overthrew the dictatorship for almost a hundred years “Generación de 1928”? What should you call yours today?
ACS: We will be the “Comeback Generation”. The return of people to the country, but also the return to decency, identity, dignity. Not the past – because we made mistakes, and Chavez and Maduro did not come out of nowhere. It will be a return to the essence of who we are so that we can start anew.
From Oslo Mieszko Czarnecki (PAP)
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