It was sad because of the Boston bombing and the families that lost loved ones that day.
And it was sad because the result of the presidential election for Venezuela was released. Two presidential candidates were in the running: One a socialist Nicolas Maduro which would continue with the socialist regime of the previous president Hugo Chavez. The other one Henrique Capriles, a young 40 something year old with hopes to take the country in a new direction.
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| Capriles |
It's been hard to watch my beautiful homecountry of Venezuela steadily decline for the last fifteen years. I so long to go back and visit. I wish my family and friends wouldn't have to endure the uncertainty of living in an unstable economy. You can google Venezuela right now and you would find endless articles of Venezuela being at the brink of a civil war.
During the last fifteen years president Hugo Chavez has been president.
I still remember the day Hugo Chavez attempted to take over the democratic government in a coup d'état back in 1992. I was 10 years old at the time, sitting in our apartment, which was on the 16th floor of our building overlooking the city. I looked out the window to see military armed men patrolling the streets, alarming everyone to go back inside their homes. Suddenly the TV channels went black, and Hugo Chavez came on to give a speech that would change history.
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| A picture of his statement that day |
* Source: http://profesor-daniel-alberto-chiarenza.blogspot.com/2013/02/4-de-febrero-1992-rebelion-de-hugo.html
In his speech he admitted defeat and took responsibility for the events of that day. He gave such a good speech that he began to be viewed as a martyr and praised by the Venezuelan people.
He failed to overtake the government that day and was sentenced to jail for life. Two years later he was granted a presidential pardon and was allowed to run for president in the next election. Oh how different things would've been had this pardon never taken place!
He was elected to president in 1998 and ruled until he passed away earlier this year. Whether I agree with his policies is not relevant in this post, and I could go on and on that subject. But since then the economy of Venezuela has steadily declined. Back then it only took only 4 Bolivares to buy $1.00. Today it takes over 3,000 bolivares to buy $1.00.
Back then large international companies were based in Caracas, Venezuela. Each one representing hundreds of jobs. Each job providing for a family. And today most of them have left.
A good example is the Latin-American headquarters Coca-Cola had in Caracas, Venezuela. (I'm going off in a little tangent here). Brent Willis (pictured below) was in charge of running that office. Years later he would become CEO of Cott Beverages based in Tampa, Florida.
I worked for Cott for a few years and would look forward to his company-wide speeches. I have sat through more CEO speeches than I care to count, and most of them are rehearsed, routine, and boring. Brent Willis was different. He never read off a paper.. He wasn't always politically correct, but he was always energetic and inspiring. I know he had good influence during his time in Caracas.
Less than six months of working at Cott, I attended their first formal Christmas party. This was a pretty big deal as we went offsite, listened to a band and got to bring our spouses. I was surprised to find out when we got there that we had been assigned to sit in Brent Willis's table. It was such a fun night chatting it up with our CEO and two other VPs.
Brent Willis either thought I had a bright future in the company or he wanted to talk about Venezuela. I'm definitely going to go with the latter of the two.
http://www.bizjournals.com/tampabay/stories/2008/08/18/story6.html?page=all
Willis comes to Kmart from The Coca-Cola Company, where he was President of one of their major divisions based in Latin America. In that senior-level position, Willis was the architect of Coca-Cola's turnaround in Venezuela, during which 50 years of competitive brand dominance was reversed. Coca-Cola now leads in Venezuela with near 70 percent market share versus only 10 percent in 1996.
Source: http://www.searsholdings.com/pubrel/kmart/pressrelease/2000/news/pr001204.htm
Today my beautiful homecountry of Venezuela feels empty and forgotten in some ways. In April 15th, Maduros was elected and he will continue with the socialist views previously carried out by Hugo Chavez.
Please pray for this beautiful contry! That it would one day flourish again, that jobs would come back, that it would be a safe place to travel to. Please pray that more missionaries would be led to minister there and bring hope to a very broken community.
