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"The task is not to silence intellectuals or shield suffering from criticism, but to restore an ethical hierarchy: in concrete conflicts, the first and last word must belong to those living them."

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"When distance becomes authority and abstract principle becomes disciplinary measure, solidarity turns from a bridge into a system of tutelage."

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"Naming this dynamic is not a rejection of international solidarity, but a rescue of it from colonial, imperial, hegemonic drift. True solidarity does not immediately translate, correct, or rank suffering. It starts by giving priority to the voices of those living the violence."

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"The scholar Hannah Arendt warned that human rights become empty formulas when detached from real conditions of belonging. The “right to have rights” is not moral abstraction—it is a situated political condition that depends on recognition and agency. "

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"This leads to what she calls “epistemic violence”: the creation of knowledge that erases, distorts, or invalidates the experience of the subaltern. Distant academic knowledge defines what counts as rational, while lived experience is marginalized."

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"Spivak warns that simply letting the oppressed “speak” ignores the power structures that determine who is audible. The intellectual who claims only to facilitate is still mediating—which can reproduce #EpistemicImperialism under a veneer of solidarity."

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"Drawing on Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak’s idea of the subaltern, the subaltern is not just the oppressed, but the one excluded from dominant circuits of representation. They are not unheard because they don’t speak, but because their speech is not treated as meaningful."

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"This is not neutral. It reflects who gets to be heard and recognized in global debates about authoritarianism, geopolitics, and human suffering—often at the expense of people actually experiencing it."

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"For years, academics, public intellectuals, activists, and analysts—mostly from the global North and metropolitan Left—have produced interpretations of the Venezuelan conflict that circulate with greater international legitimacy than the voices of those under the regime."

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[🇻🇪 Rafael Uzcátegui. Human Rights defender] "The #Venezuelan case offers a particularly clear lens to examine what might be called “minor colonialism”: how distant, well-meaning discourse can shape global understanding of a crisis more than the voices of those who have to live through it."

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"Until that machinery is truly dismantled, suffering continues. Real relief—for prisoners, families, and those in solidarity—only comes with the freedom of all political prisoners."

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"What we’re seeing now is crisis management: controlled adjustments meant to satisfy new international overseers without dismantling the repressive apparatus that keeps the population in fear."

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"But there is still no firm commitment to the unconditional, non-discriminatory release of *all* political prisoners."

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"This leaves some judges and prosecutors “orphaned,” and opens the possibility that some political prisoners may be released to ease pressure and generate positive headlines."

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"After the detention of Maduro and Cilia Flores—who exerted strong control over the judiciary—the internal balance shifted. The Rodríguez faction betrayed them, but the status of other coalition members remains unclear."

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"They are a renewable resource: people are arrested, extorted, stripped of assets, sometimes released—then others are detained. This machinery produces economic, political, and even diplomatic gains."

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"Each power bloc has its own judges, prosecutors, repressive groups, and prisons—and therefore its own prisoners. Political prisoners function as currency."

"Many chavismo actors have their own political prisoners. Among detainees and those released, it’s common to ask: Who was your jailer? Who had you? Different officials have licenses to imprison and extort civilians, soldiers, and foreigners."

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[🇻🇪 Luis Carlos Díaz, Journalist and Human Rights Defender] "One often-missed complexity of political prisoners in Venezuela is this: they are not prisoners of “the government” as a single entity. They are prisoners of the different factions that divide power."

120

"The world must act not based on convenience or political appetite, but with coherence, responsibility, and people at the center. This is a last real chance to mitigate the human cost of this crisis."

"This requires three measurable steps: • immediate cessation of reprisals against civilians and human rights defenders, • unconditional release of political prisoners, • independent humanitarian protection with verified monitoring. "

100

"A reoriented multilateralism could still play a vital role: supporting a democratic transition anchored in human rights, protecting civilians, preventing violence cycles, and creating conditions for the popular will to be expressed and respected."

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"Today’s debate must go beyond legalistic arguments over unilateral actions. It must critically assess failures of the same international system to protect Venezuelans and prevent harm—even as it remains fragmented and conditioned by geopolitical interests."

"Despite technical coordination with international actors, the lack of a proactive political guarantee meant the window closed without a meaningful shift toward democracy. Multilateral inertia contributed directly to the deepening crisis. "

"The 2024 presidential election represented a unique political opening. While imperfect, it offered a real opportunity for a democratic transition with international support and robust election monitoring—something civil society researchers and observers consistently advocated."

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"CEPAZ and allied organizations have long insisted that humanitarian action must be tied to human rights and democratic principles. Separated or compartmentalized responses—humanitarian aid disconnected from rights protections—are inherently ineffective."

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"Instead, multilateral responses were conditioned by political divisions, especially in the UN Security Council, blocking sustained action while risks escalated. This division weakened protective mechanisms when they were most needed."

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"Venezuelan civil society has documented violations, advocated internationally, and pushed for a unified political response. Repeated warnings showed that delayed or fragmented responses would exact higher costs for both Venezuela and the region."

"Since at least 2017, civil society has argued that Venezuela’s crisis could not be treated as a purely internal issue or addressed with isolated measures. A multidimensional problem requires coordinated, strategic, multilateral action grounded in peace and human rights."

[🇻🇪 CEPAZ HDR organization] "Venezuela’s current crisis demands an honest reflection on the role the international community has played—and continues to play—in shaping its trajectory. The opportunity to act responsibly is still present, but time is short."

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"But any serious analysis must also name chavismo’s responsibility—for what happened, for the choices it made, and for how it is now benefiting from the direction events are taking." Source: x.com/fanzinero/st...

x.com

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"Should the bombing be condemned? Yes. Should Trump’s democratic credentials be questioned? Absolutely."

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"Since last year, chavismo had already been signaling a willingness to negotiate an outcome that would leave Delcy Rodríguez in power. The current pattern of cooperation reinforces the hypothesis of a negotiated detention."

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"There is a shared interest that makes this alliance possible: the economy. Stabilization, oil flows, and improving indicators serve both sides, even if their broader agendas differ."

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"In reality, chavismo has acted strategically. Facing an internal crisis and the risk of collapse, it chose to ally with its former nemesis in order to remain in power."

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"This view, often shaped by reflexive anti-imperialism, strips the Rodríguez faction of agency, suggesting they are merely instruments acting under coercion, as if they had no room to decide."

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[🇻🇪 Rafael Uzcátegui HRD] "Several well-intentioned statements claim that “the U.S. has imposed a government on Venezuela.” While understandable, this framing actually obscures the complexity of the current moment—and risks portraying real existing chavismo as a victim."

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“There is no but for invasions.” Agreed. There should be no buts for dictatorships either.

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For Venezuelans living abroad, this moment means going yet again to bed at dawn, glued to our phones, checking if our loved ones are safe. And then being lectured the next morning by people who slept eight uninterrupted hours and only skimmed the news.

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Meanwhile, however, we silence each other. Complexity is rejected because it doesn’t fit certain narratives. People want clean stories. Venezuela is a constellation of rabbit holes, however. And no one in my experience has ever stayed long enough to hear what they look or feel like.

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Violent interventions benefit no one. Democracy in Venezuela benefits everyone. The country has been for far too long a laboratory for repression, one that other authoritarians study, share, and adapt and that across ideological lines.

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In Europe and elsewhere, people warn about imperialism while exercising their own: lecturing migrants who have lived what others choose to ignore, calling them at times "penniless fascists"

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