Douglas Barrios is 22 years old and has been a top student at Metropolitan University, majoring in economics. He spoke on Thursday to the National Assembly, as one of those representing the students who have been demonstrating in Caracas the last two weeks. Below is a written version of his remarks, addressed to his fellow countrymen.
Dear parents, brothers, companions, and whoever might be reading these lines, I write because I decided to try, in a very humble way, to capture the feelings and the thoughts of the Venezuelan youth regarding these sociopolitical issues. This is a big and complex piece of homework, but I am willing to accept it, since I think it is necessary to have the message of our nonviolent struggle set forth in a clear and understandable way to those who may listen to it.
You have to begin to understand that university students are not socialists, but we are social beings. University students are not neoliberals, but we are free. University students are not in opposition, but we do have proposals.
We cannot pretend to become part of a popular mythology or to have our images decorate the walls of the university and young students' t-shirts. Neither can we pretend to decorate the pages of books that are seen by high schools the length and breadth of our national territory, nor can we pretend to have a highway bearing our names. We don't wish "it could have been" and don't want to say, "sorry it passed." Rather, we wish something more: what is "to be" and what "will be."
Students, and young Venezuelans in general, carry on our shoulders the burden of history. We carry on our shoulders the sins of our ancestors, our parents' mistakes and our grandparents' mistakes, but we do not complain. We accept the challenge. We won't let these mistakes, these sins, and this history overcome us. We are members of the future of this country. We have a moral obligation to watch over the present. We accept the moral obligation of building the future. We have the moral obligation to be vigilant.
Our responsibility is to ourselves, to those who preceded us, to those who will follow us, and to those who are with us daily, making life in this country. By evading this responsibility, we would let others down, we would be cowards, we would be apathetic; evading is just not an option.
That is why today, the youth are in the streets. We are not fighting for any business interests, we are not fighting in the name of international interests, and we are not fighting in favor of a political way. We are on the streets making politics without politicians, forging a daily fight in the name of our nation, and safeguarding the interests of our entire society.
We are on the streets because we are democrats and we do not believe in any other option, of any kind of dictatorship. We do not believe in the dictatorship of minorities or majorities. We criticize objectively all forms of government, past or present, that completely take away the right of any citizen to live, and even more the right of any citizen to live in freedom.
We are on the streets. Not only do we require freedom, but also it is our right and our duty to do so. That is why we require conscious plans for social security and health, to secure the right to live. We require education reform to help those less fortunate make progress. That is why we require national reconciliation, to live in peace and tranquility. That is why we require you to let us take part, to listen to us, to consider our proposals and to consider the creation and application of these solutions, since our generation has to live the consequences of what we decide. That is why we require, strongly, that you assure and guarantee the right to elections.
We want to assure the right of the individual to decide what clothes to wear; to decide what name to give children; to choose a profession; to elect the president; to choose what to study and where; to select what to eat and how much; to choose cultural events; to choose a political line; and to read the newspapers, listen to the radio stations, and watch the TV channels of one's choice..
These decisions belong to the individual, the citizen, and not the state. The right to select what satisfies us is what makes us really free; it is what makes us human. Living without elections and without choices is not real life and has no meaning. Such a life would be a robotic existence, without either the positive or the negative. It would be the end.
Our goal is to fight a fight without political ambitions, a fight without violence—we are not trying to take down the government by force; that would be unstable—a fight for freedom, one for the right to choose and to fight like real men, women, students, members of the universities, and above all, as Venezuelans. We cannot stop fighting for freedom. It is our right and our duty, our responsibility, and our moral obligation.
We are a new generation without political debts, a generation without a dark past, and a generation with no hate and no hatred. We young Venezuelans are fully prepared, with force, heart, character, solidarity, happiness, and humility. We are a new generation that is prepared to fail and then to try again, a generation ready to begin from zero, and a generation not able to rest until we see freedom and until we are the society that we should be. A generation that will fight for our country today, tomorrow, and forever to be free, to be truly human beings.
I have no more to say, but to say goodbye as a member of the generation that has made a stand.
Sincerely
Douglas Barrios
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