A Tale of Two Tyrants
For many years I was convinced that Venezuela held no future for most people. That staying was death. That things would not get better, quite the opposite. I felt so strongly that I left without a lot of planning, after 6 months, I was supposed to return from Chile. I could most likely have gotten a position at my old university.
I was told I was an alarmist, that things were not too bad, that it always gets better. But I knew different. Because I had read history, because reading about dictators and tyrants, about cruel megalomaniacs, was something I had done. I knew Hugo Chávez was a monster and a tyrant.
One of the key things that was evident very early was that Chávez would never admit a mistake. He would not accept a defeat. He would always try again, and he would always lie to cover mistakes and hard truths. I remember clearly thinking during a blackout around 2009 that we’d never get stable electricity again, because they would not even admit that there were blackouts caused by their incompetence. Either there were no blackouts, or the insidious opposition was causing them and sabotaging our beloved President. How can you fix that which does not even exist? And to this day, indeed, Venezuelans never recovered stable power and the situation is much, much worse.
I believe so strongly in the fact that Venezuela is a trap that I gave up my former life and career to become a data scientist and work in tech in the Bay Area. I used most of my money to get Venezuelans out of Venezuela, as many as I could. Our efforts, my salary plus some donors, allowed us to get 140 Venezuelans out of the country.
Why I am saying this? Because I want you to understand how clear were things to me. I was not wrong about Venezuela, about the sort of person that Hugo Chávez was. I was sadly, right. And I knew this, and it was so important to me, that I gave up the goal of my life, to become a research scientist. I had been working towards that for many, many years. It was my aspiration, biology was my love and my life. And I had to give it up for a risky bet. I had no clue on whether I would be a good data scientist. I had no clue on whether I could survive in such an expensive city as San Francisco. But I needed to try. I needed to get people out, even if I could not help most and the root problem is out of my reach. I gave away the dream that I worked so hard for, because I understood the lethal urgency of the situation. It was such a hard choice for me, and it still pains me, but I know I did the right thing. And I found a lot here, I am mostly happy, and I love SF. But I will have this little sadness about science inside me.
And, I am feeling exactly the same chilling clarity about Donald J. Trump. I see the same traits that I hated and despised in Chávez. Every day I have constant deja vu. Trump is extremely dangerous, I know this as I knew that Chávez was lethal. I am telling you right now that it is imperative that we get rid of Donald Trump if we want to have a chance of saving this country. I am telling you to vote against Trump as if your life and your rights depended on it, because they do.
A man unwilling to accept mistakes is a man who will never fix them. A man who feels better when he is cruel and mocking others rather than trying to help us all is someone who not only needs to be away from power. but who should be universally condemned.
Vote. Vote. Vote. Let’s try to fix this. We still have time, but not a lot. It will take years to undo the damage that this man and his party have done to our institutions. I have the same certainty that I had all those years ago with Chavez. Now it’s not the time to fight and to be looking for perfection. There is no such thing. Just improving society a tiny bit is hard work, but making it much worse is very easy. Vote, vote, vote.
