“Man’s only guide is his conscience; the only shield that can provide shelter for his memory is the uprightness and sincerity of his conduct. It is extremely unwise to walk through life without this safeguard, for there are so many times when the collapse of our hopes and the alteration of our calculations mock us.
Winston Churchill
Those of us who do not agree with either of the two cards (the 25 or the 68) cannot let them corner us, put us against the wall. Apart from the fact that I am allergic to signing collective letters, pronouncements or declarations of any kind, neither of the two letters (that of Luis Vicente León and his colleagues, like the one sponsored by Ledezma) satisfies me, and of course I would not have signed with my sign none of them, if I had been asked to do so. First of all, I do not refuse to converse with anyone, even with the devil in person, if I consider that I can obtain a laudable benefit and my ethical convictions do not prevent me from doing so. I do not deny that the sanctions can be eased, reduced, but, please, with a compensation in defense of our freedoms. There is a lot of suffering and pain that the regime has caused in all these years, which should never be forgotten when talking to them. Our freedoms, true civilizing conquests of humanity, with particular emphasis on the West, where they were born and first recognized in laws and constitutions, deserve respect, and therefore priority in any treatment that is carried out with their violators. The letter from León and his companions exudes an excess of economism, of mercantilist voluntarism, of appeasement, without the support of a defense of our ferociously violated rights. For this reason, it is an unacceptable and explanatory declaration of the strong repudiation provoked.
The letter from Ledezma and his companions is based on irrefutable arguments about the nature of the regime and its deleterious violation of our most basic rights. My rejection is in its reactive nature and the radicalism of maintaining, contrary to the first letter, that the sanctions should continue and rather be sharpened. It is a letter tinged with negativity, with excessive passions, with unnecessary outbursts, which remind me of the foolishness of Ledezma, María Corina Machado and Leopoldo López, and their radical position in 2014, dividing the democratic opposition at such a level that at these heights the unit seems unattainable.
It is not optimism, rather a deep pessimism that is breathed after the fragile gale caused by the two letters. Some experience we must gather from them; Let us remember Churchill and the wise words that serve as the portal for this writing: Sinderesis, vision, prudence, balance, are flags that must be strengthened, if we want to build a transition to a world that we deserve to be free and authentically democratic.
The entrance Between a rock and a hard place? was first published in THE NATIONAL.
