Leopoldo López: evaluation

Transcript context

…Here’s a question from a reader, set in the context of what has been happening with the Maduro regime. I quote: “Has there been a right-wing radicalization of Venezuelans? A lot of my Venezuelan friends are now proudly homophobic and anti-feminist, also very disrespectful of anything related to equality and help for the poor. Has that happened because of the failures of an ostensibly left-wing regime?” I certainly don’t think that that is true. I don’t know where you reader knows this group of Venezuelans, but it surprised me, that characterization. I can tell you our own beliefs. We are very open in that respect, and we believe that all rights should be for all the people. In that sense, we have become a movement, a vanguard in different positions. We have the only transgender congresswoman in the entire continent from our political party. We believe that our view for democracy — what we talked about — the best Venezuela, which is, in a way, the promised land or objective, we promote that all rights should be for all the people. What has become radical, I could share with you, is in the rejection of socialism as a concept. The way in which Venezuelans today perceive the word and the concept of socialism — it’s very, very negative because socialism has been the banner under which the destruction of Venezuela happened. Socialism — it’s a very highly rejected concept. With a lot of passion, you will hear people of very humble backgrounds and very humble and poor reality being very charged against what socialism means for Venezuelan people. Socialism for Venezuelan people means the lack of freedom, means a humanitarian tragedy, means hyperinflation, means the collapse of the economy, means the incapacity to provide health services, means the complete collapse of the educational system, the destruction of the universities, the criminalization of the security forces, the incapacity to vaccinate newborns, the incapacity to give running water to the large majority of the people. That reality is what socialism means to the large, large majority of the Venezuelan people. What type of people would you recommend should return to Venezuela now?…

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