We Want No More Violence!

Once again I write my column today with great pain in my heart. These last few days we have seen in the media how some ministers and governors forget the dignity of the office they hold, and the example they should set, and start insulting people and sowing even more hatred than has already been sown during these 14 years.

Last week something happened that had never happened before in our country: a citizens’ assembly led by Henrique Capriles in Maracay was attacked. Dozens of men on motorcycles with stones and sticks assaulted the event. A grandmother who called in to the program Aló Ciudadano told, with great concern, how she was there with her daughter and granddaughter, gathered peacefully, when suddenly they were treacherously attacked. Capriles said they went through very difficult moments and that he doesn’t know what might have happened if his car hadn’t been armored. Meanwhile, the governor of Aragua’s response to that act of violence was: “What is the fascist from Miranda doing here in Aragua?” Not to mention the insults the Minister of Tourism hurled at Governor Henry Falcón over the microphones of Aló Ciudadano. What a disgrace!

As a Venezuelan mother who suffers the anguish of crime every day, I beg all our authorities to do everything possible to rid their hearts of all hatred, because we Venezuelans are FED UP with violence, with hatred and also with rudeness in the way people speak.

Disarmament laws and security and peace plans or programs are worthless if the authorities don’t start by setting an example. Aren’t those who govern, and their families, also tired of so much violence? As far as I know, crime is attacking all of us alike. Last week we saw the tragic murder of the director of the SAIME identity office in Valencia in front of his wife and son. How painful!

Think of your family every time you say a word, because every word of hatred that comes out of your mouth is like a stray bullet left floating in the air, charging the atmosphere. Please, stop fostering hatred and violence!

Once again I call on all Catholics in Venezuela and in other countries (who are following closely what is happening in our nation) to keep praying fervently (the rosary, if possible) for Peace in Venezuela. I am convinced that it is thanks to all our prayers, and to the Church’s constant calls to prayer and reconciliation, that things here have not become even worse.

I also want to recall the message the Virgin of Betania gave María Esperanza de Bianchini in 1984, almost 30 years ago, in which she warned us about hatred in our country. In it the Virgin speaks of her motherly heart rejoicing at each face that comes seeking hope for better days, and of her Son’s desire that all her children join hands on the basis of the commandment “Love one another,” which she calls the only Truth that can save man from a war between brothers. She urges us to sow good, to unite as a people of God longing for social justice, for as long as we are not united we will live in anguish, sorrow and brokenness, and she offers her love as the starting point for a law of Justice, Love, Peace and Reconciliation, asking for prayer, meditation, penance and the Eucharist, and calling herself “Mary, Reconciler of Peoples.” She adds that it is hard for us to understand certain things now (in 1984 we never dreamed of hatred in our country), but that as the days pass we will see the reality, and she asks everyone to rise up and become aware of the moment the world is living.

I end by calling on those who speak or act with violence to set it aside and be reconciled with God and with ALL their Venezuelan brothers and sisters. Understand that violence is the weapon of those who are in the wrong, and that violence solves nothing; it only makes everything worse. Think, reconsider, ask God for help. He will help you.

We Venezuelans want no more violence! The vast majority of our people are people of Peace, because they have Faith and know that up above there is a Father God who sees everything, and that if anything pains Him enormously, it is hatred and violence among his Venezuelan children.

For the good of our beloved homeland, of our children, of our grandchildren… let us ALL be people of Peace! May God and the Blessed Virgin of Coromoto protect us from all evil.