Transcription
Ana Corina, what a pleasure to see you. Thank you for being with us. Thank you for having me.
Ana Corina, what's that hug been like? I say I've been, I've been dreaming about that moment for what seems like the longest time. My mother, as you know, has been in hiding for the last 16 months in complete isolation. I haven't seen her for 2 years because going to Venezuela means risking our lives. The regime goes not just against the people they wanna target, but their family members, so the separation has been very real. And in the backdrop of the Nobel Peace Prize, it was just the story of, of one of millions of Venezuelan families that go through the same and it's just missing their loved ones. And so just with all the attention of the world on her arrival and how the conditions in which she arrived, it was just my brothers and I and and my mother's husband just wanting to see her, to hug her, to embrace her and smell her. It was very emotional. And, um, you know, just starting to recover one of the lost, the many of lost moments that the regime has stolen from us. So many lost moments, you know, your brother getting married, the evolution of a family, the growth of a family in so many ways, and yet you are forced to be separated.
And this moment that you're living through now is a moment that will not last long. Your mother is committed to returning to Venezuela at some point. What do you think about that? As a daughter, it obviously is difficult. It's one of those few moments we've lived throughout our lives in in my family that you, you kind of struggle with that dichotomy of just being a daughter and Maria Corina being a regular mother, but also understanding that she, her mission is much bigger than than us. It's much bigger than than our family. And, um, it is for the future of of a country and and quite frankly for the future of a region. And she stands for freedom, for dignity, for democracy. It, it goes far beyond the borders of Venezuela and even the Americas. So, I guess in a way it helps to contextualize and realize that our our responsibility is also in supporting her and giving her the strength to keep going as a family. Uh, it is difficult, of course. I, I, I can't lie that it that it isn't, but we feel that that the country needs her and the country needs this moment. And, um, that she must return. And we always knew that even before she left that if we were to see her, that means she is going to return back to Venezuela until our country is free. That stays firm. It stays very firm. Uh, Jose, and the people of Venezuela understand that. We understand that as a family, my mother has never broken a promise. She, what has been her true constant throughout these last 20 years is honesty, transparency. She speaks to the Venezuelan people with the truth, as inconvenient and painful as that can be sometimes. Um, she has told, uh, the country she will not part their side, and she hasn't really, even if she is right now outside Venezuela physically, she has never rested a single minute of her life in this last 20 plus years in fighting to free our country. And that has not changed because she's in Oslo right now. If anything, that has given us a huge momentum and the attention of the world is in Venezuela today and is hearing our struggle and is finally understanding that that goes far beyond our borders.
And so that struggle, where does it go from here? Well, it is in continuing to fight. Uh, this, this of course, the, the Nobel Peace Prize and, and the platform that we have been given gives us momentum. It has given us the attention of the world on Venezuela right now, and they understand that it's not a traditional dictatorship and a fight between the right and the left. This is about human rights. This is about respecting the will of the people. We went to uh presidential elections last year, 70% of the population voted the regime out. The world now understands that it's about a criminal dictatorship that has sequestered the country and that there is a need and an urgency for them to leave power. As we speak, there are 887 political prisoners in Venezuela. This is in torture centers. These are from a 16-year-old girl to elderly people to people with disabilities that have been disappeared, separated from their families, innocent people that are dying. A week ago, uh, a former mayor died and was murdered by the regime inside a Venezuelan prison. This is serious. Every day that passes, more Venezuelans die unjustly under the regime, and the world is finally paying attention. So we're getting close and we're going to be free.
And where does your mother's struggle go from here? Well, my mother is going to return to Venezuela and she is going to garner more and more support from around the world. And she's going to continue insisting that there's increased pressure from democratic governments around the world. And she's gonna galvanize the Venezuelan population because one has to understand the regime works has an incredibly sophisticated propaganda, uh, and repressive, uh, apparatus, as you know well from, from, from Cuba. I mean, they, they, it is sophisticated and we should not underestimate what they can do. So the morale of the Venezuelan people has always been at the focus of the regime. They try to crush us with a heavy boot. And this moment, this prize, the fact that she was able to escape from under their noses, the number one most wanted person of the regime, we continue giving them a blow. We continue proving to the world, but to Venezuelans that they are weak, that they are at their weakest moment, that they are fragmented. And this gives us a momentum. This gives us hope. This reignites power in the people that we must unite, that we must organize, and that we must continue forward because what they want is to crush us, to crush the morale, to crush our hope. And where we stand today is that in a, you know, re-lifted population with the attention of the world, it is a very important moment. Every day counts, and my mother is working tirelessly, my mother and her team to make sure that that momentum remains.
Ana Corina, you speak of the death of a former governor and mayor in Venezuela just this last week in the hands of one of the Rodriguez brothers, sister, and that regime in Cuba. There are just recently a political prisoner died while in the hands of that regime in Nicaragua. We see political prisoners and people being lifted from the streets and disappeared. Those regimes have been in power in the case of Cuba 65 years. The Sandinistas have been in power since 1979, and your mother spoke up to Chavez when she was in the legislature, you know, we're talking 20 plus years ago. How do these regimes end when they base themselves on torture, violations of human rights, disappearances, and maybe at their weakest they feel strongest in lashing out and imprisoning and killing those people who are against them? Look, they're at their weakest when democratic governments around the world stand united because these dictatorships that you're describing have been supporting each other for decades. The Venezuelan regime lives out of the Cuban regime and vice versa, and same with Nicaragua. And the democratic governments of the world need to understand this, and we need to stand united, and they need to stand with the Venezuelan people who have spoken out, and we have proven that we want change, that we have voted out this criminal regime. And they need to understand that not only regimes, I urge your listeners and your viewers to, to stand with the people of Venezuela, to stand on the right side of history. We are advocating for the defense of human rights, for dignity, for living in a country with future with opportunity. We want our families reunited. When you ask me about how that embrace felt with my mother, after 2 years, we have millions of Venezuelan families that have been separated for decades. This is, this is about humanity. It's about, it's, it's about the future. It's about freedom. And we ask viewers, we ask governments to stand with the people of Venezuela because as, as these dictatorships around the world, Cuba, Nicaragua, Russia, Iran, they support each other financially, with intelligence, with weaponry to suppress their own people and to remain in power. We need our democratic governments, not only in the Americas hemisphere but also around the world to stand united and put the pressure that we need so that the regime collapses in its own way.
Ana Corina, I thank you very much for being with us. All the best. Thank you for having me. Thank you.