A few of you, my readers, have requested a follow-up to my post of just over a month ago about the U.S. government’s incursion into Venezuela and the arrest of President Nicolas Maduro (“Mierduro” to me and others who despise Marxist tyranny). I thank you all for your inquiries into the safety and wellbeing of my wife and family there, and I’m happy to report that in general all is well. My wife did come down with a serious case of bronchitis a couple of weeks ago that resulted in a trip to the clinic and some emergency antibiotics treatments, but she’s over the worst of it now (she’s had bronchitis attacks before, so it wasn’t a new experience). It did have her flat on her back for a couple of weeks, which upset her because it prevented her from supervising the renovation work on our two apartments that we want completed as soon as possible so that she can get them rented out before she leaves to come home. What has her more upset than her bronchitis attack is the accident her mother suffered last week in which she fell and broke her left arm at the shoulder, as well as cut her face above her right eye. My MiL has been in declining health over the last few years, which is one reason why my wife is anxious to get her out to the Island for a long visit before my wife goes home. That was supposed to happen this month as soon as commercial air traffic resumes within Venezuelan airspace, but we’re wondering if the injuries might delay the trip. Mama turns 80 next month, so she’s not getting any younger. I would really like to see Mama, my SiL, and my wife’s two little nephews permanently relocate to the Island so that we can have the family altogether in one place. I’m not sure if Mama will agree to that, however, as her entire family (my wife’s maternal aunts, uncles, and cousins) are all on the mainland. I still think that a move to the Island will do her and my SiL and her sons a universe of good, given that their hometown on the mainland is not a nice city, is rife with crime and poverty, and will slowly drain what little life she has left out of my MiL. Still, it’s ultimately Mama’s decision where she wants to stay and we will respect whatever decision she makes.
As for Venezuela in general, my wife says that things are steadily improving. Although Delcy Rodriguez, Mierduro’s vice president, is still acting president, she knows that she’s on razor-thin ice, both with the Trump Administration and, more importantly, the Venezuelan people. The citizens of Caracas are circulating a petition to rename one of the city’s major thoroughfares “Avenida Donald Trump,” and I suspect that other cities throughout the country will do the same. Trump truly is a liberating hero, according to my wife. He is, for the time being, a national hero almost up there with Simon de Bolivar himself. The more I reflect on it, the more of a shortsighted idiot Mierduro was for making himself so unpopular as to make Trump seem almost god-like by comparison.
So things are slowly regaining a sense of normality in Venezuela after almost thirty years of dysfunction and nightmare. I did see that Trump has announced that regular commercial passenger flights between the U.S. (Miami, specifically) and Venezuela will resume in March. If they do, there is a possibility that I’ll fly down there, spend a couple of months (mixing vacation with work), and then we will return home together, our goal once at home being plans to return to the Island as semi-permanent residents. We’ll see. The future is still too unpredictable to make plans in anything other than wet sand.
So that’s the news from down south for now. I’ll be sure to provide additional future updates as things change. Thanks again to all of you who have prayed for us and wished us well. Neither has gone unnoticed or been in vain!