The presidential elections held in Venezuela on July 28th were a display of citizen organization unprecedented in recent history, not only in the country, but in the world. Thousands of Venezuelans from all social strata participated as witnesses, members of voting “tables” (booth, stations) and volunteers to defend the sovereign will exercised through the vote and to change the political path imposed by Chavismo for 25 years.
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However, the persecution by security forces that intensified after the election day, forced many of those who were protagonists of this civic action to seek refuge or flee the country to avoid the tragedy of being imprisoned in Venezuela.
A group of eight young people from Falcon made the difficult decision to go into exile. Security agencies broke into their homes looking for them for participating in the post-election protests and for defending the votes of July 28th. With only one change of clothes, a small bag, a lunch box with prepared food and just the fare to travel by land, they managed to leave the state of Falcon in eastern Venezuela. One by one they fled to avoid being arrested and imprisoned for simply defending their rights.
The story is told by Marvin José Montenegro Ventura, a 32-year-old lawyer, who almost a month after leaving the state of Falcon, and later, Venezuela, managed to be the last of his group to arrive in Ecuador.
Emigrating to defend the vote
His trip started in the early hours of August 24th in a private car, which took him from Punto Fijo (Falcón) to Maicao (Colombia), from there he continued his journey to Bogotá, and then to the border with Ecuador. A long journey that lasted three days without rest. He is currently in Guayaquil.
Leaving Venezuela was not an option for Marvin José, but the situation forced him because he was a visible face during the campaign in favor of Edmundo González Urrutia. He became a leader in his community actively participating on the day of the presidential election to help in any way possible in order to protect the vote. He scanned the electoral records and organized the peaceful protests that arose in his community the day after the election.
Since then, the persecution against his work team began, mostly made up of childhood friends and neighbors of the populous Las Margaritas sector of Punto Fijo. They decided to join together to promote the work of the so-called “Comanditos” (civic action groups) and encourage voting, but above all to obtain the minutes (officialrecords) of the four voting centers that exist in the sectors of their community.
Police harassment
“The persecutions of the Sebin and the Dgcim led me to leave Venezuela. After the post-election protests and the events that occurred in the Carirubana mayor’s office, a hunt began against anyone who decided to raise their voice against the theft of the elections. The police began to roam Las Margaritas dressed in civilian clothes and in cars without license plates. They searched by name and surname for all those they had classified as the ringleaders of the protests, and those who were in WhatsApp groups they had previously infiltrated. They took several people, including a 19-year-old athlete who lived a block from my house,” he recounts with the same anguish he experienced those days.
That was when they made the decision to leave Venezuela. First, two of them left. “One of them received a call from a childhood friend, who told him that he had to hide and that they were looking for us, that they would let us know, and if we could leave the country, we should leave. My friend was already on his way to Ecuador. After he told us, the SEBIN officials arrived at my friend’s house, who lives five houses away from mine. They broke in and when they only found his brother, they searched the house and his phone, they asked him about his two brothers, and they began to show him photos and ask him about us, if he knew us and if he knew where we lived.”
That childhood friend managed to tell the group that the officials uploaded their photos and names, and that it was best for them to hide or leave. However, the reality is that no one had any money saved, because everyone works, like most in Venezuela, to live day to day. Although Marvin José is a lawyer, he only occasionally got documents to draft, and he did not have a steady job. His childhood friends are barbers, two women are manicurists and waiters, jobs that do not allow them to save money, but rather to bring home the daily bread.
Fear to the core
Marvin hid for several days until he managed to raise money, with the help of politicians, friends and family members, to buy the ticket and go to Ecuador, just like the others who had already left the country. “A relative of one of my friends told us to come and we had no other option. We left to be safe and get here,” he says.
The fear of those days and the anguish did not let them eat or sleep. “These were very hard days, feeling like a criminal, persecuted by the dictatorship just for defending your vote, peacefully protesting and wanting a change in the country, because we did nothing else. I traveled with the fear of being arrested, I had to reformat my phone because I had no way to buy a new one. Fortunately I was able to leave.”
Broken dreams in a small suitcase
Marvin José remembers that seeing Edmundo González’s victory in the different voting centers he visited gave him hope and he saw the light at the end of the tunnel. He felt that all the effort, the hours without sleeping or eating well would come to an end.
“The first thing I thought, when I started to see the voting records in Punto Fijo and as I received information from the other states, was that ‘thank God, my two-year-old nephew won’t have to leave the country,’ because coincidentally a few minutes before they had sent me a photo of him with a flag and it said: ‘uncle, I’m not going to leave anymore. ’ Well, I knew that the process would be complicated, that Maduro and his accomplices would not accept the result, but given the difference in votes, I assumed that the Armed Forces would enforce it, and from that moment on begin a process of institutional reconstruction and, above all, the beginning of a new era,” he recalls.
Marvin José believed that he would freely exercise his career, without having to think that he could be hindered by political reprisals or by government officials. He dreamed that Venezuela would be the same or much better than the one his grandmother and mother always told him about, where their salary was enough to eat, support their family, travel and save being teachers. He visualized a safe Venezuela, with much prosperity.
“Without going too far, I expected a new era like that of El Salvador with Bukele, or that of an Argentina on the way to greatness with Milei, with the advantage for us, that we have a large amount of natural resources that can help us lead Venezuela to greatness. In addition, one day I would aspire to an elected position that would allow me to develop my desire to help the community through politics,” he said.
Committed to freedom
Currently, the group of eight young people are in Ecuador processing political asylum. Although they do not give up and want to continue supporting the decisions of María Corina Machado from their forced exile.
Marvin José participated in political movements from a very young age. He has been a member of Primero Justicia since 2011. He was coordinator of the NGO ‘Voto Joven’ in the municipality of Carirubana in 2014 and coordinator of Falcón in 2015. Since 2016 he has worked as regional coordinator of REC (Red Electoral Ciudadana) which brings together several NGOs operating in Venezuela.
Today he is worried about the family he left behind in Venezuela, especially his mother, but he is grateful to have been able to leave on time. He is committed to continuing to work for Venezuela, because he witnessed each ballot that was uploaded to the system and that is published on resultadosconvzla.com where there is proof of the decision of Venezuelans to elect Edmundo González Urrutia as President of the Republic.