The potential of the diaspora

In no less than 59 countries, companies of different sizes are already engaged, led by Venezuelan entrepreneurs. In no less than 500 companies, distributed in nearly 100 countries, Venezuelan professionals hold executive or managerial positions in virtually every productive sector. To all this, there are hundreds of thousands of compatriots who, in Latin America, the United States, Australia and Europe, work in the most diverse trades or have undertaken innumerable enterprises

. from us, do not listen to the surprising accounts of the presence of Venezuelans in the world. Music teacher in Greenland, coordinator of operations at a catering company in Angola, an electronics engineer who was hired by a food company in South Africa. Although there are countries in which there has been some concentration – in Latin America, Colombia, Peru, Chile, Argentina and Panama – the truth is that we are on five continents.

Specialists from around the world recognize the Venezuelan diaspora, exceptional characteristics. I will mention three of the most repeated factors in the badysis of what is happening. In the first place, the leakage character that, in a short time, has occurred: about 3.5 million people over a decade. Outside of Venezuela, the attitude of "going out in all conditions" of the country is surprising and surprising. Our countrymen are fleeing, leaving the country in despair. The underlying thought is that any reality outside Venezuelan borders is better than the state of things created by the Maduro and Cabello regime.

Second, it is striking the academic level that they have hundreds of thousands of these people. This does not refer exclusively to the quality of education with which they left Venezuela, but to wider and more significant considerations: the cosmopolitan vision, the multiplicity of interests, the mastery of other languages and, above all, continue to learn it

The third element can be synthesized in the word "attitude". Defeatism does not predominate in the Venezuelan diaspora. On the contrary, the vast majority go out looking for work, to shape projects, to look for opportunities to show talent and disposition to the productive. Venezuelans who leave do not come to other countries to knock on the doors of goods, but the doors of companies where they can find paid work.

All this enormous productive current represents a capital and an economic, social and human potential. It must be thought of and transformed into projects. At present, the economic activity of Venezuelans abroad can represent between two thirds or three quarters of Venezuela's GDP. This equates to a tremendous amount of resources, not economic, but of multiple order. In several previous articles, I mentioned the weight that remittances have today for the support of millions of families in Venezuela.

The potential I'm talking about is not rhetorical. Outside the country, the capacity of Venezuelans has increased. Organizations have begun to take shape to receive or help those who arrive. There is a fundamental activism in the field of human rights, which has been successful in awakening the conscience of the international public opinion and in implementing the mechanisms of the authorities and specialized courts. Academic, political, trade union and solidarity activism initiatives are under development and could develop and consolidate in the weeks and months to come.

My perception is that the diaspora is active and that Venezuela is at the center of its thoughts. There is no division between those who stayed and those who left. There is a permanent interconnection, which should be strengthened, and this could be a determining factor in the end of the dictatorship. The diaspora alone has become a political force whose potential remains to be developed. His technical abilities, his relationships in other countries, the knowledge that he has acquired from new technological applications in all productive fields, his learning in the implementation of social programs, are among the best in the world. 39, others among the abilities he has acquired, and

No one should be unaware of this reality: neither those of us who are part of the diaspora should forget that we have a commitment to our country, nor those who remain and resist Venezuela, should forget that there are compatriots scattered on the planet, we are ready to participate in the reconstruction of Venezuela.