Since Chavismo came to power, newspapers, so important in a democracy, have been

reducing their pages until they disappear. A task that, through the persuasion of its
society and the implementation of a paternalistic state, came to fruition with the simple
formula of generating poverty and offering social plans. It may be simplistic but it took
years of persecution of the independent press, powerful media and the promulgation of
a regulatory plexus that was only possible with absolute majorities in the legislative
branch. All with the support of a sleepy society that came from a long democratic period
that seemed to have no end. Hugo Chávez managed to take advantage of the welfare
state to which society had become accustomed, generating resentment in the most
disadvantaged sectors through a romantic discourse that camouflaged the enormous
hatred that existed in the background.

One of the media outlets that has received the most blows over the years is El Nacional,
the most important newspaper in Venezuela and one of those that had the largest
circulation of physical editions, relegating its publications to the digital space. To date,
without its headquarters in Caracas, stolen from the hands of Diosdado Cabello with the
support of the judiciary, it is responsible for maintaining its role in favor of democracy
through the support of its readers. A work that has also been carried out by other media
that have been born in digital format; Among them, El Estímulo and El Pitazo stand out.
In this entire scenario, the persecution of paper is indisputable, a fact that is reminiscent
of Ray Bradbury's novel, Fahrenheit 451. The dystopian reality of the novel is not far
from the reality of Venezuela.

Just as printed media have disappeared, so have the physical editions of many books,
which end up seeing the light through foreign publishers or self-publishing. Therein lies
the importance of promoting new writers of the 21st century so that their works can
have the necessary reach to reach the hands of Venezuelans. Currently there are great
works that are not being reviewed in national news portals, some of these works are
crucial to knowing various realities represented by literary characters. The greatest
example is En Verano Duele Más, a masterful work by Venezuelan Manuel Gerardo
Sánchez. A fiction novel that should occupy a space on the shelves of any citizen of
Venezuela.

As the years go by, book fairs and writers who dare to take the step of publishing
become scarcer, opening the way to the absence of the reading habit in Venezuelan
society. Something elementary to have an educated society that is up to the task of a
future but important reconquest of democracy. Without education and with an even
more sleepy society, we are destined to repeat the same mistakes that led us to the
apathy in which we find ourselves today. Therein lies the problem of the lack of paper,
one of the greatest achievements of Chavismo and a flag that it seems to continue to
fly. No wonder, the political model implemented cultivates ignorance and promotes
poverty as a means to maintain it. And reading is, in a simplistic way, a basis for having
a society with critical thinking and awareness of its decisions.

After the primaries in Venezuela, a ghost of the past appears again on the political
landscape: the short memory of the Venezuelan. As if the years passed but without
leaving a vestige of wisdom when facing decisions that put the future of the country at
stake. María Corina Machado won in a large-scale and logistical citizen process, a
mass event that moved even the last Venezuelan, including the enormous percentage
that lives abroad; all to send a clear message to the ruling political class and those who
oppose them, so it is unusual that a dilemma is being posed between voting for her or
her candidate, or for the governor of Zulia, Manuel Rosales. Who in an opportunistic
move seeks to be the candidate by issuing speeches full of romanticism and fierce
attacks on Maduro that we had not heard in years.

On July 28, the future of Venezuela will be decided, where we will choose the new
president of Venezuela or, what is even more important, another opposition leadership,
a backward and anachronistic one. We return again to the “Atrevete” that never dared
and to the same leadership that ended up, through innocence or malice, serving as an
accomplice in the expansion of Chavismo. The same ones who, with their silence and
bad decisions, were accomplices and witnesses of the paper gravediggers in
Venezuela.

As a young Venezuelan, I will have to see from forced exile—because the exodus
cannot be called immigration—how once again the future of Venezuela is compromised
by the lack of paper. We continued over and over again in a historical loop of having no
end, a problem that we had already solved with the primaries and the election of María
Corina Machado. The question now is, will we manage to get out of this hole into which
we were pushed by ignorance? The question seems to have an answer, not as long as
we continue without understanding that those who bleed Venezuela dry did not do so
without first extinguishing freedom of thought, paper, and promoting ignorance. It is now
more than ever that we must return to the origin of the problem and educate our society
with the support of letters. My contribution as an essayist is done, now the historical
responsibility remains in the hands of the reader who, through self-diagnosis, gives
them the freedom to identify if they are within the problem or the solution.

Our images do not age, they become stale, they remain as a memory in a forgotten
picture frame in the homes of our families in Venezuela, making our return a utopia that
takes three steps away every time we take two. It seems that these portraits will never
be renewed, which is a great disappointment for those of us who dream of living a
normal adolescence in our land. Many of us want to stop being that portrait of eternal
youth that appears every birthday in the photos of our friends and family. But despite
this being a scenario of gloomy pessimism, it is more a call to reflection, we are getting
old in the loneliness of exile and it seems that we have learned nothing.

The arduous task of re-educating our society and demonstrating that the years do not
pass in vain, that we learn and that we are going to be reborn through education and
letters to rebuild our country from the last foundation, remains in our hands. The lack of
paper in Venezuela then has a more rhetorical and deeper meaning.

Pereira, April 9, 2024.