Elections in Venezuela: the country's youth divided between worry and optimism
Audio 01:24
Venezuelan students met on the campus of the Central University of Venezuela closed for 600 days.
© RFI / Stéfanie Schüler
Text by: RFI Follow
2 min
On the eve of the regional and municipal elections in Venezuela, the opposition decided to participate in the polls after boycotting those of 2018 and 2020. These elections are taking place as the country is ravaged by a serious economic and social crisis.
How do Venezuelan youth look at the situation in the country?
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With our special envoys in Caracas,
Stéfanie Schüler
and
Bertrand Haeckler
It has been more than 600 days since the Central University of Venezuela, the most famous in the country, has been closed.
And yet, a few days before the elections, several students met on campus.
“
The universities are at a standstill. There are no jobs. And without training you cannot access the world of work. We young people are abandoned in a kind of void,
”laments Ariana, a 22-year-old young woman.
As the elections approach, Oliver is above all worried.
“
My biggest fear is that the country will remain as it is, that absolutely nothing is happening.
I am afraid because I see that people are losing interest.
We let things continue to deteriorate.
Our national consciousness, our culture is being lost in a sea of real and tangible problems.
But at some point we're going to have to move from suffering to action.
It obsesses me: how to go from suffering to action to improve things,
”he wonders.
At 23, Ruth is far more optimistic than her two friends.
And she is determined to go vote this Sunday.
“
In recent years I was one of those for whom it was very difficult.
We only ate sardines and cassava.
But I never thought of leaving, I always had hope, she
says.
In fact, I am very optimistic.
I see there is a lot of momentum.
We young people, the new generation, must be a force of proposal to move forward
”.
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