A Statement by Venezuelan Intellectuals Against Chavismo

Today, the newspaper Tal Cual published a statement signed by more than one hundred Venezuelan intellectuals urging all Venezuelans to vote "Sí" against Hugo Chávez at the Reafirmazo, which begins on Friday, November 28. I include their statement and my translation of it below, along with a partial list of the writers and artists who signed the document.

(Accents didn't all come through in the Spanish version. I still can't figure out accents and ñs on this blog.)

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"Nosotros, escritores y artistas, queremos sumar nuestra voz a la mayoria de los venezolanos para llamar a firmar con decision y contra toda amenaza la solicitud del referendo revocatorio del Presidente de la Republica, a partir del proximo 28.

Convencidos como estamos de que no hay otra salida civilizada a la dramatica e insostenible situacion del pai­s que darnos la posibilidad de decidir nuestro futuro. Confiados en que la sociedad venezolana encontrará las claves de la paz y la reconciliacion, la transparencia democratica y el desarrollo material que hoy se nos niegan. Igualmente queremos decir, porque es nuestro oficio y destino, que, despues de estos años marcados por el dolor, atisbamos la reconstruccion de una cultura consustanciada con el devenir nacional y deseosa de una distinta espiritualidad colectiva, sin exclusiones. Que deje atras la abulia y el desprecio, el aldeanismo y la miseria sectaria de la actual administracion cultural cuyos emblemas mas visibles podrian ser los desmanes contra el personal calificado de la Biblioteca Nacional, la destruccion del patrimonio artistico urbano o la conversion de nuestros teatros mayores en degradados escenarios partidistas.

Firmar es afirmar los más pristinos valores civicos y democráticos."



(English translation)

We, writers and artists, want to add our voice to that of the majority of Venezuelans to make a call to sign, firmly and against all threats, the solicitation for a recall referendum for the President of the Republic, beginning on the 28th.

Convinced as we are that there is no other civilized solution to the dramatic and unsustainable situation of the country, aside from allowing us the opportunity to decide our future. We are confident that Venezuelan society will find the keys to peace and reconciliation, democratic transparency and the material development that are denied us today. Likewise, we want to say, because it is our job and our destiny, that after these years marked by suffering, we envision the reconstruction of a cultural sphere directly tied to the nation's future and inspired by a different type of collective spirituality without exclusions. A sphere that will leave behind the apathy and hatred, the provincialism and sectarian misery of the present cultural administration, whose most visible emblems could be the excesses committed against qualified personel at the National Library, the destruction of our cities' cultural patrimony, or the conversion of our theaters into degraded partisan stages.

To sign is to affirm the highest civic and democratic values.

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Partial list of signatures:

Edda Armas
Rafael Arráiz Lucca
Alberto Barrera Tyszka
Oswaldo Barreto
Elizabeth Burgos
Rafael Cadenas
Israel Centeno
Carlos Cruz Diez
Jacqueline Goldberg
Patricia Guzmán
Sofía Imber
Ana Julia Jatar
Oscar Marcano
Ibsen Martínez
Milagros Mata Gil
William Niño Araque
Maria Fernanda Palacios
Yolanda Pantin
Armando Rojas Guardia
Elizabeth Schön
Milagros Socorro
Guillermo Sucre
Ana Teresa Torres
Adriana Villanueva
Pedro León Zapata