A Look Inside the Venezuelan Opposition

We spoke with an opposition activist about what’s happening in Venezuela.

2/1/2019

Medellin, Colombia

We spoke with Francheska Salazar, a Venezuelan living in Colombia and an ex-activist for the opposition, about what is currently happening in Venezuela. What follows are her original comments from the Spanish, edited for space and clarity.

MI: When did you leave Venezuela?

Francheska: In 2016 I came here to Medellin (Colombia). I worked here for a while and then I returned to Venezuela. I spent about six months there before I came back to Medellin again in 2017, this time to live permanently.

MI: You told me that you were in Venezuela in 2017 during the last big protests against Maduro. Could you explain that situation to us a bit? What exactly happened?

Franchezka: Yes, I was in Güigüi. I am from the area of Valencia but a small town outside of the city called Güigüi. It is a town that formerly was Chavista..a town where they used to support the government very strongly. I say it “was” because the situation has changed considerably. And I imagine it was due to the hunger and the misery in which they are living. When I returned…in 2017, the situation had become very severe. We lived without food, without money. We couldn’t even acquire basic personal items.

I have three children, so if you could try to imagine what it was like not to be able to provide enough food for the kids, to not be able to get diapers, or really anything at all that we needed daily.

MI: I really can’t imagine that.

Franchezka: And aside from that, I found myself in really bad health, because I was giving my share of the food to the children. I was giving them what little I could, but they were still hungry and kept asking for more. So, I took it upon myself to go without food personally, to give it all to them. I began to suffer from anemia. I lost weight really quickly. And my hair even began to fall out because of the hunger and the stress. I spent every day looking for food and waiting in lines.

I had to wait sometimes two days in lines to buy food, sleeping in the streets. But I…

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