Here’s Ledezma, free in Oslo
to talk about what’s happening in my country
These dramatic images
expose the current situation in Venezuela
I know this is hard to believe
but I swear that I’ve come here to tell the truth
and nothing but the truth
I’m part of a group of over four million people
who were born in Venezuela and who’ve been forced to abandon the lives we once knew
I’m part of these four million countrymen
who’ve been forced to cross a border
as you can see in this image, through Colombia
fleeing from hunger
or lack of medicine to fight a disease
Young people seeking a new life
with stability, safety, and decent working conditions
A few months ago, the first image
I was kidnapped from my home
No one knew where I was for four days
This was very dramatic for my daughters, my wife, my grandchildren
All due to a dictatorship
that has hijacked the democratic institutions in my country
and because I dared to criticize the abuses perpetrated by this dictatorship against the people
In February 2015
more than one hundred armed officers violently kidnapped from my office
Back then, I was the mayor of Caracas
But the dictator did not like that a democratically elected official
showed the world about the tragedy happening in Venezuela
In my country, this tragedy began twenty years ago
when Chávez came to power
camouflaged by elections
and taking advantage of the features of democracy
to then capture the institutions
deprive them of relevance, reducing them to institutional carcasses without independence
This drama has brought as a consequence
the humanitarian crisis I’ve come here to talk about
Humanitarian crisis or human catastrophe as a consequence of having dismantled the rule of law
In Venezuela we don’t depend on the rule of law but on the ruler’s mood
In Venezuela, there’s no separation of powers
In Venezuela, the constitution and the laws are broken at the whim of the dictator
But, it seems that concentrating political, media, and financial power is not enough for those who have hijacked power
and that’s why we also call this dictatorship a narco-tyranny
Because on top of breaking the laws, destroying the rule of law, they’ve also incurred in drug trafficking
More than sixty percent of the cocaine that lands in Europe comes, shamefully, from Venezuela
The parliaments of the world must be independent
This image shows how the Venezuelan parliament is besieged on the outside by the military
and on the inside by violent groups
Protests has been criminalized in Venezuela
This is an image of the young people who have died in the country, simply for fighting for liberty and democracy in Venezuela
That’s why they’ve lost their lives
As I speak, there’s people dying from hunger
A few months ago, these words made me feel a little freer
Thanks to Thor Halvorssen and the Oslo Freedom Forum
for giving a platform to countries suffering from oppression
A few months ago, my daughter Antonietta also had the opportunity to talk on this stage
My wife Mitzy and I felt very proud because of the compliments we received after her talk
But I’m here today, and she is raising her baby; she gave us a grandchild
But this doesn’t mean I feel freer or happier
because every time I see my grandchild
I think about the children in Venezuela who are in this very moment dying of hunger
Undernourished children
More than three hundred thousand children expecting a tragic future
Because they will not be able to fully enjoy life if they grow up chronically malnourished
Women being buried daily because of breast cancer
because they didn’t have access to chemotherapy
This is why I come to you today, to ask for help for Venezuela
I’m not asking for pity for the Venezuelan people
but for help for a country that is being torn apart by a narco-tyranny that’s producing brutal starvation
in the most oil-rich country in the world
even more than Norway or Saudi Arabia
I ask for support from the international community to trigger a humanitarian intervention
based on the principle of the “Responsibility to Protect”
for a country taken hostage by a regime that perpetrates systematic, widespread human rights violations
As I talk, a report is being presented at the OAS which determines that Nicolás Maduro
will be prosecuted in the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity
But our people are still hostage
and that’s why I reiterate my call to all democracies around the world for the application of this principle
because in Venezuela there are no guarantees for basic rights
like the right to access food, safety, and health
I said at the beginning of my talk that I felt freer, but not completely
Not completely free because I know that in my country there’s still prisoners of conscience
like Leopoldo López, Daniel Ceballos, Lorent Saleh, Villca Fernández
People being persecuted like María Corina Machado
disqualified to run like Henrique Capriles
and our people still suffering greatly
I ask for timely solidarity for the people represented by this flag, before it is too late
God bless Venezuela. Thank you very much