Venezuelan Immigrant: ‘I Am Seeing The Same Pattern’ In US
By Daily Wire News
Venezuelan immigrant Elizabeth Rogliani warned Americans in a video to be on guard against destroying statues and history because Venezuelans did not take those issues seriously when they started to happen in their country a couple of decades ago, before the nation was under the grip of a dictatorship.
Rogliani has gained popularity in recent days after a different video of her talking about the issue went viral on social media last week and she ended up making an appearance on Fox News’s “The Ingraham Angle” with host Laura Ingraham.
I remember, that statues of Christopher Columbus being knocked down. After that, the street names changed, not all of them, but quite a few of them,” Rogliani said. “They changed the name of the national park in Caracas … to something more indigenous. They changed the flag of our country; they also changed the name. They dismantled our police in 2001 and put in place a new one. They changed our voting system, so the way we voted changed.”
“Why am I worried about statues coming down in the United States?” Rogliani continued. “It’s because I am seeing the same pattern repeat. And I’m not speaking to this as an expert at U.S. politics and U.S. history, but I can recognize the signs, and these are not isolated incidents. I’ve been hearing from people from Cuba, people that left Soviet countries, that they feel the same thing is repeating. … And the attack on history, by first going after those symbols was the first way to do it.”
I just want to talk to you a little bit about why I’m worried about what’s going on in the United States today. For a long time, I stayed away from politics. It was at the forefront of my life, ever since I was a kid, seeing how things changed so rapidly back home.
I remember, that statues of Christopher Columbus being knocked down. After that, the street names changed, not all of them, but quite a few of them. They changed the name of the national park in Caracas … to something more indigenous. They changed the flag of our country; they also changed the name. They dismantled our police in 2001 and put in place a new one. They changed our voting system so the way we voted changed … before the second election of [Hugo Chavez].
Why am I worried about statues coming down in the United States? It’s because I am seeing the same pattern repeat and I’m not speaking to this as an expert at U.S. politics and U.S. history. But I can recognize the signs and these are not isolated incidents. I’ve been hearing from people from Cuba, people that left Soviet countries, that they feel the same thing is repeating. And these countries are not the same, Cuba is not the same as Soviet countries. Venezuela is not the same as Cuba. But yet, the intention was there to topple the current structure and take over. And the attack on history, by first going after those symbols was the first way to do it.
These groups are not hiding their intentions, they’re making it quite clear. Someone, the founder of one of the groups that started this whole attack symbols and statues, already said openly that she’s a trained Marxist. They’ve already shown friendships to the Venezuelan regime. So yes, this is all hitting a little bit too close to home and I’m not a politician. I’ve worked to get away from politics since I moved to the U.S. in 2010. But all this is just bringing me back.
There’s a clear attack to certain symbols and it’s not just Confederate statues. So, let’s get away from this idea that the attack is on Confederate statues and therefore on slavery. The attack is on most statues that are important for U.S. history, Founding Fathers, also strangely enough, Spanish missionaries. … What they all have in common to me is that they are all Western symbols. So the attack is on Western culture and Western history. And is it a perfect history? No. But no history is perfect.
They’ve already made it clear that their intent is to get into political power. For us it was different, for us they were already in place. Here, that’s their intention. Do I believe that the U.S. politics and the U.S. government is stronger? Yes, absolutely yes. But for me the problem is that democracy needs to be defended and guarded and nurtured all the time. Venezuelan democracy wasn’t the strongest in the last few years in 90s, it was taken for granted. It was assumed it was always going to be there and therefore corruption grew. We had that blind spot. We believed it would never happen to us. We believed we were in the right path.
But, here, what I hear from many Americans and many of my American peers and friends is that it would never happen here. It’s impossible. And that to me is worrisome. Democracy has to be protected and nurtured, always. Don’t ever take it for granted. It didn’t work out for us and I really do hope that this is just a passing phase, but I had to say my opinion. This is all just bringing me back a little bit too much.