We Are Fed Up with the Corrupt

Last week on Twitter we read how, at an event held in the interior of the country, a businessman told a “prestigious” banker a few home truths. That man had the courage to tell him the truth, and the banker broke off his speech in the middle of the event and left, because people will no longer put up with speeches full of hypocrisy and lies.

The truth is that we Venezuelans are fed up with corruption, with corruption at every level!

And just as that businessman spoke the truth there, each and every one of us must raise our voice when we see acts of corruption around us. As Christians we have a duty to speak clearly and denounce them.

It is so much our duty that last week Pope Francis said that the Beatitudes are the Christian’s identity card. He recalled: “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be satisfied,” and he added that blessed are those who denounce the injustices that come from corruption, from the cronies of corruption, from a politics of business above all else; Jesus reminds us, he said, that those who fight against these injustices are blessed.

Today I want to tell everyone who has spent years doing dirty business, and those who want to start down that “easy” road that later turns out to be very hard, their cronies, as the Pope says, the well-connected insiders, the accomplices and so on, that in this country there are many honest Venezuelans who are FED UP with corruption. Fed up with the corruption that began to be practiced in the Fourth Republic, and even more disgusted by the corruption committed in this Fifth Republic, which is beyond comparison with anything seen before.

We are FED UP, and we want those who are accomplices of this government, those insiders squandering millions of dollars or bolívares while millions of our Venezuelan brothers and sisters are having a very hard time, to know that we don’t want them near us or our families unless they change. However many silk suits they put on, we don’t want them near us, because they can drag us through the mud! So I advise you to reflect, to realize how you are sinking all by yourselves. Try to get out of that hole: repent, be converted, ask forgiveness and give back what you have stolen.

I refuse to accept what Pope Francis says, that it is almost impossible for a corrupt person to be converted because they think only of their own affairs. I know that if you do your part, with real determination to let go of so many material things, you can do it. I pray for you, that you may be converted. And I pray a lot for you because I feel sorrow for your families, for your children. What Pope Francis said, that the corrupt bring “dirty bread” home to their children, is one of the most terrible things I have ever heard.

Remember this: when you make a deal with the devil and let yourself be bought by the “glitter” of power and money, at first the devil keeps you company and you think everything is going wonderfully. But a moment comes when the devil leaves you all alone, and things start to go very badly for you. Whereas honest people, even if they go hungry, have God at their side and are always happy.

Some will think it will be impossible for Venezuela to escape this disgusting web of corruption, but that will not be so, because there are many people here, many business owners, many workers, many honest professionals who have not let themselves be bought and will not let themselves be bought by the temptation of corruption. There are many people here with values, and they are the ones who will move this country forward.

And meanwhile, as Christians, we cannot be accomplices or cronies of those people. Today’s corrupt are very easy to spot, because they live in deplorable extravagance. They think that the more things they have, the more they are worth. No, ladies and gentlemen! They are worth less. And although they look impeccable on the outside, in their designer suits, jewelry and accessories, they are, as Pope Francis said, “whitewashed tombs full of rotting bones.” And they are full of rotting bones because, thanks to their corruption, terrible injustices are being committed in this country, many of them sins that cry out to heaven.

I hope you react and change your lives; I wish it with all my heart, because your children, as the Pope said, “are thirsty for dignity,” not for things.

So let us live that beatitude well. Let us not be afraid to denounce all the injustices that come from disgusting corruption.

The day will come when Venezuela takes another road, and here there will be no room for the corrupt, whether of the Fourth, the Fifth or the Sixth Republic. We are fed up with the corrupt! Let us live honestly and happily, because yes, it can be done! Here in Venezuela there are many people who live that way, and they are the ones who will move this country forward.