Astonishment is an emotion that places us in the least expected physical space, at the least appropriate time and under circumstances that we would never have conceived. We cannot become stunned a priori. That kind of effort is useless, even if we know where the singers are from. In other words, the logic of things is imposed by the facts. Language is another thing.
Given the political situation in Venezuela, we cannot help but bewildered by the correspondence between a significant sector of Venezuelans in exile, the unhealthy influence of influencers in certain digital communities – in short, it is public opinion, an algorithmic loophole – and the health of dictatorships such as those of Maduro and Díaz-Canel, which, to the extent that they phagocytize each other, curiously, feed, sustain and consolidate a certain exile, to the chagrin of those who do fight for freedom in both tyrannies, from afar.
This cocktail is also supported by some media, partly by two radio stations that were strengthened in the nineties, on the occasion of the Mariel exodus, partly by the advent of social networks, a kind of communicational caciquism, of artful, doubtful discourse, which not a few influencers have used to discuss the Venezuelan dictatorship.
And there are sectors of the Cuban and Venezuelan exiles, rooted in the state of Florida, that resemble each other in their parasitic condition of, despite the fact that they want freedom, freedom is not convenient for them. We are facing a vibrant paradox, and beyond the classifications of rigor, the conduct is of an indescribable immorality because what is at stake is the handful of dollars that they receive, the product of the likes even advertisers. In other words, exile is a business.
To give the reader an idea of the power of exile, in the Cuban case, in the nineties the radio station Radio Mambi, La Grande, through the Cuban announcer Armando Pérez Roura, who passed away four years ago, called for a protest on the iconic Calle 8, Little Havana, in Miami, and achieved a unanimous cry for freedom from no less than 1 million people, which was heard on the Cojimar Malecón.
Time, which clears everything, put things in order. The Cuban tyranny took hold, the Radio Mambi station (like La Cubanísima (WQBA, 1140 AM) whose founder and owner was Amancio Suárez, passed into other hands because it represented a serious business and ended up in the hands of Univisión. Finally, one of the two radio stations, La Cubanísima, pioneer of the dissident voice of the Cuban exile, in 2022, was taken over by Latino Media Network. Getting fat to sell is also giving up.
One way of living off the hope of overthrowing the Cuban dictatorship was, in fact, the corporate conviction that knew how to take economic advantage of the misfortune of others, and the same occurs with the puppeteers of the microphone, Venezuela chapter. Through the networks, which did not exist in the nineties, the design of menstruating financially over the dignity of both peoples is repeated with copious unscrupulosity.
Some, the Cubans, in their delirium provoked by discursive mojitos, filled their saddlebags with dollars for more than five decades, believing that Fidel would be dethroned every December. The bearded man died, his brother Raúl left power and Díaz-Canel is still there, like a voodoo doll, stuffed with pins; the others, the Venezuelans (not the average Venezuelan citizen, like the Cuban, honest, aware of the situation, who assumes his honor and exile with aplomb and integrity) who, taking advantage of the condition of influencers, have copied to the letter the ideal of making dollars at any cost, among those calamities of the communication profession, sow the doubt of whether the dictator Maduro will or will not be dethroned, for which his stability in the regime would suit them. Dead dog, no more rabies. Displaced Maduro, business is over.
Like a polycephalic animal, the Cuban-Venezuelan exile, and we are not in the mood to generalize, bites its tail without knowing exactly when the last bite in dollars will be. It must be remembered that an influencer, with a title of journalist, or its equivalent, is not synonymous with veracity, much less transparency. Its nature is associated with values contrary to good journalism and honesty, which is represented by the majority of Venezuelans who live in Florida.
If six more years of Maduro in power will benefit them economically, it is to finally understand that the business of exile has guaranteed an extensive chapter, in golden letters, in the Universal History of Cruelty.
Oswaldo Muñoz is president of The Venezuelan
Independent journalism needs the support of its readers to continue and ensure that uncomfortable news that they don’t want you to read remains within your reach. Today, with your support, we will continue working hard for censorship-free journalism!
Support El Nacional
