Dear Diary:

Today, more than ever, I feel a sacred commitment to fight for a free Venezuela. For the love of my country, for the future I long for, and for the future of my children, we need to transform this corrupt and oppressive system that is suffocating us.

Every day, the average Venezuelan, the humble worker, feels the unbearable weight of tyranny on their shoulders. Starvation wages, runaway inflation, institutional anarchy, collapsed public services... and the list goes on.

Today we work only to survive. Young people no longer see universities as a path to progress in life, but rather as an obstacle to their simplest ambitions for a better future. They see the professional—once a symbol of an empowered middle class—now reduced to the image of failure.

They see the man selling hot dogs or the woman at the beauty salon as examples of prosperity. And don't misunderstand me: I'm not diminishing the dignity of these people who work every day to improve their lives and serve the community. But we also need trained professionals in different fields of knowledge so that our country can move forward steadily.

Furthermore, there are sectors of the youth poisoned by the CLAP patronage system, which has done so much harm to our people. Some young people believe it is a privilege to hold these positions, without understanding that they are chains disguised as opportunities.

We need this regime to fall so that we can build, on new foundations, the basis for a dignified and prosperous future for all.

Argenis Tavacare