History Absolves Nothing

"It reflects the opinion of mediocre and resentful writers, a few renegades who switched sides."

Abel Prieto's response to the letter addressed to him by more than 90 Venezuelan writers, entitled "Venezuela Will Not Be Another Cuba."

This, as Guillermo of Venepoetics states is nothing other than a Stalinist bureaucrat's memorized party-line speech.

That is exactly what it is. It's all about control. Dictators like Castro and Chavez, when faced with criticism or differing opinions, attempt to maintain that control by denigrating their detractors. Dissenters can be briliant, they can be intelectuals (as most are), they can be leaders in thier fields of expertise, but if they do not toe the party line, if they have the courage to speak their minds and call a spade a spade, regimes like Castro's will see to it that people believe they are perverse in some way. Freaks. Idiots. In bed with the enemy.

Sadly, there are those, as in the case of the Venezuelan writers who signed the document against the original letter, that swallow the rhetoric hook line and sinker. It is people like these that do not learn from history. They do not allow themselves to seek truth else it might make their world crumble. They suffer from a myopea of reality.

But the truth is there and it is pure and unadulterated, and history absolves nothing.

Posted by Val Prieto at February 1, 2004 07:40 AM

Comments

Posted by: Howard E. at February 2, 2004 05:01 AM