VHeadline Venezuela managing editor Elio Cequea writes: It was four or five years ago, that I first met the new Venezuelan Vice Consul in the City of Houston. We 'bumped into each other' because of our common interest in the Venezuelan Bolivarian Revolution ... it is also possible that our meeting was stimulated by a search for support in a land where "chavistas" are a rare breed.
Over here, sometimes, we feel like a cockroach in a party of hens...
One can only thank God that there are people around, like Antonio Padrino, who confront adverse situations with courage.
In our first conversations, Padrino suggested that I should organize a movement in favor of the Venezuelan government. I turned the offer down precisely because, other than the land that gave birth to Simon Bolivar (Venezuela), the rest can be considered "enemy territory.!
Yet, alone, and by his own initiative, Padrino organized the first commemoration of April 13 -- "The return of democracy to Venezuela" in Houston. The event took place on a Sunday afternoon in a city park. Someone had to get up at seven in the morning to reserve one of the two gazebos available.
- I consider that whoever did that, is a hero of the revolution. Was it Padrino?
I showed up, with my family, around two in the afternoon. We were a total of about ten people but Padrino was NOT very happy. At that time of the day, the rest of the people from the Consulate were still missing.
I had warned him: the majority of the people in Houston are against the Venezuelan government ... and I did not have any evidence to exclude the employees from the diplomatic mission itself.
Months later, I found out, through the media, that Padrino had been fired from the Venezuelan Foreign Ministry (MRE), but I was happy to discover that he was re-hired some time later and he was sent back to Houston as Consul General.
This time, he was aware of what he was getting into.
Nonetheless, with unbridled enthusiasm he started to work towards a reunification of the disjointed Venezuelan community around the Consulate. He did it without hiding his affections for the Bolivarian Revolution.
Thanks to Antonio Padrino, in April of this year, there was, once again, a commemoration of "The return of democracy to Venezuela" in the Space City ... it was a nice surprise to see that the Consul General's work seemed to be giving results. Several dozen people of all colors (physically and politically), attended the event which was an enormous success considering that only four months before, according to rumors. the government got less than 10 votes from Houston in the referendum for constitutional reform.
The situation is NOW that Antonio Padrino had been fired again...
This time the impression is ALSO that the firing was the consequence of particular and obscure interests.
"Those who fight all their lives are the ones that are indispensable," someone once said... But, if we keep getting rid of those who ARE indispensable ... like Antonio Padrino ... we'll all end up in very deep brown stuff!
The Venezuelan Foreign Ministry had better have a good explanation for this calumny!
Elio Cequea
Feico57@att.net
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Venezuela is facing the most difficult period of its history with honest reporters crippled by sectarianism on top of rampant corruption within the administration and beyond, aided and abetted by criminal forces in the US and Spanish governments which cannot accept the sovereignty of the Venezuelan people to decide over their own future.
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