Emmanuel Rincón wrote that chavismo had caused harm to 30 million people over 27 years and recounted how, according to him, its policies had affected his family. He said his mother suffered from depression after her three children left Venezuela and that, when she fell ill, some medications were not available in the country and had to be smuggled in. He added that she died and that he could not travel to say goodbye because he feared he would be arrested. Rincón recounted that he had not seen his grandparents, uncles, and cousins for almost a decade, and that a close friend lived in Europe and he had not seen him for 13 years. He also pointed out that his daughter did not know her maternal grandmother and that his wife had not seen her mother for nearly a decade. He stated that the authorities closed and then took over his family's radio station, which had supported his relatives for over 20 years and had been his father's dream. According to Rincón, more than a dozen people lost their jobs, and his paternal grandfather's farm was dismantled and looted. He said that although he graduated as a lawyer from the Catholic University of Táchira at 21, he could never practice in Venezuela. The author recalled Sunday gatherings of about 30 people at his grandfather's house and compared that experience to that of his daughter, whose closest cousin lived a three-hour flight away. He also asserted that the wealth, businesses, and comforts built by his ancestors were squandered by chavismo. Of his 18 closest friends in San Cristóbal, he said, only one remained in the city. Rincón attributed the separation of families, exile, lost time, emotional damage, closed businesses, and lost jobs to chavismo. He also mentioned torture, repression, enforced disappearances, extrajudicial killings, political persecution, and corruption, and said he wanted those outside Venezuela to understand why he wished for that period to end as soon as possible. #Venezuela #Chavismo #Exilio (translated)
