As protests heated up in Venezuela following the disputed presidential election, artist and activist Sheila Colmenares joined several hundred fellow expatriates at the Minnesota Capitol.
The tools of her protest: a book and a suitcase. The character she embodied was waiting for a train. In her play “Riel Adentro,” Colmenares tells the story of Latin Americans, especially Venezuelans, who emigrate.
More than 7.7 million Venezuelans have fled the country’s political and economic turmoil in recent years. Their numbers have grown rapidly in Minnesota, from nearly 400 to 2,600 in a decade. After the disputed July 28 election, those numbers could grow further.
The election has left the country on the brink of a crisis, after President Nicolás Maduro declared victory. Opposition leaders, who obtained voting tallies after the polls closed, said they had defeated Maduro by a 2-to-1 margin.
In the protests and government crackdown following the vote, at least 2.200 people have been arrested and 24 reported dead.
Rodney Guerrero, 27, who helped organize Saturday’s rally at the Capitol, said he was threatened, persecuted and imprisoned in Venezuela because of his political activism. Three months ago, he came to the United States and was granted humanitarian parole.
“It is extremely important to highlight what is happening in Venezuela,” said Guerrero. “Not only the theft of the election, that is notorious, but also the violation of human rights.”
Guerrero said the government began a repressive operation called “knock knock” almost immediately after the election.
“They go to the houses of people who have been photographed or recorded at the marches, they knock at their door and they detain them without any due process, without any arrest warrant.”
Sabrina Contreras, 30, who co-organized the Capitol rally, adds that social media also has been monitored as part of the government's crackdown on protesters. From Minnesota, she coordinates with protesters in Venezuela: they send her content and members of the diaspora publish it on social media to ensure the protestors’ safety.
Contreras was part of the party Primero Justicia, or Justice First, in Venezuela. She has been living in Minnesota for seven years now, but her parents and her brother have not left the country. And they do not plan to any time soon. “Everybody is just fighting for the truth, for freedom, in the streets,” she said. “We are just waiting for a peaceful transition.”
Joeliz Rodriguez, 29, attended Saturday’s rally to use the freedom she has in the U.S. to speak out for those in Venezuela who have been silenced. She arrived in Minnesota a year ago after living in Ecuador for five years. Her husband crossed Panama’s Darien jungle to reach the U.S., and she joined him with their toddler afterwards. Her cousins have left the country as well. Only her parents and grandparents still live in Venezuela.
“The state where I am from, Zulia, Venezuela’s oil state, is where there are the most calamities,” she said. “The lights go off a lot, there is no good hospital infrastructure, there are no medications, there are few job opportunities.”
Waving a large Venezuelan flag above the crowd, Alessandra Bajetti, 21, came with her family to the rally. She was born in the U.S., but her family is scattered around the globe. Bajetti’s grandma had not left Venezuela. But now, she is planning to move to Mexico, to join some of her relatives and be in a safer place.
For Bajetti, who’s studying politics, it is the first time an opposition party is strong enough to take down the government.
“These elections were huge because we haven't felt this much hope since Chavez was brought into power in 1998,” she said. “If there is something Venezuelans carry, it is hope.”
Correction: An earlier version of this story had an incorrect surname for Rodney Guerrero.
