What Have Our Young People Learned?

The example of fortitude, courage and perseverance given by our students (and by many of their fathers and mothers) has been vital in this historic period we are living through. And no wonder.

Ever since they became aware of the world, our young people have lived in a country with many problems and injustices. They are young people who have suffered the kidnapping or murder of a relative or someone they know. Young people who say goodbye every day as if it were the last time they will see each other, because they know they could be killed in the street by criminals or by the armed colectivos. Young people who watch their parents “kill themselves” working to earn the bare minimum to survive! Young people who are tired of the rhetoric of hatred, of insults, of exclusion, of lies…

Our students have lost days of classes, but they have learned the History of Venezuela in its streets. They have learned to think and speak like adults since childhood, because what they hear and see in the streets and in their homes is not the “Disney world” a few people live in. When you live struggling for “our daily bread,” or waiting to be killed on any corner, you don’t believe that little fairy tale.

Venezuelan young people, as I have said countless times, form a generation unique in the whole world. Never before in Venezuela have so many young people shown such interest in politics, but good politics, at the service of others, not the cheap politicking that steals our Nation’s immense resources in order to live a life of waste.

There are many wonderful young people in our poor neighborhoods, many students from every social class who are fed up with the lies, the inefficiency, the mockery and the corruption. And they are the crane that is lifting many more to join the day-to-day work of building a better country.

How long will that work take us? No one knows. What we do know is that it is not easy, not for them, nor for their parents or grandparents. But we have the great responsibility to keep praying and to ask God to give us A Great Deal of fortitude, so that we can support our children and all the children of Venezuela at this moment in our history.

Thank you, kids, for your wonderful example. Through each of you studying and working with integrity, wherever you are meant to be, Truth and Justice will reign at last in our beloved Venezuela.

On that day we will celebrate in a big way, and ALL of us, the Venezuelans of integrity in this country, will embrace one another to show the world that with Faith, Patience, Courage, Work, Study, Perseverance and Peace, everything evil can be defeated.

Because there are many of us dreaming the same dreams! Because there are many of us who want a better future for our children and grandchildren! Because there are millions of us praying, dreaming and fighting for a better country!

Let us keep going with great Faith and Hope. God is with us, and the Blessed Virgin of Coromoto will cover us with her mantle and will never allow a confrontation between brother Venezuelans. May God bless all the children of Venezuela! Every day I am prouder of my people! Long live our Venezuela, Free and at Peace!