Blanco's dream

www.greenbaynewschron.com By Joe Knaapen For The News-Chronicle

The American Dream - a way of life based on individual freedom, religious faith and free enterprise - is alive and well ... in Venezuela.

The sounds of freedom resound throughout the South American country every night when average people protest against an ungodly government by banging pots and pans for hours into the night.

Sounds of freedom exploded more often as 2002 ticked into 2003 when a general strike shut down the economic system in Venezuela.

"Imagine a country that totally stopped working for a month," said Peter Blanco, an independent business owner from Venezuela. "I live in a country where you can't dream about owning a Jaguar or Mercedes. You need to put food on the table."

Speaking on leadership at a recent convention in Atlanta, Blanco described how last year's protest against the government of President Hugo Chavez led to the current protests to force the president out of office. A general strike in December cut oil production in the world's fourth-largest oil-producing country by 90 percent.

"Eighty-two percent of the people don't want the government" of Chavez because of its corruption and ties to Fidel Castro in Cuba and Saddam Hussein in Iraq, Blanco said. There are indications aspects of the political turmoil stem from international terrorists - possibly a tie to al-Qaida - and drug-running guerrillas on the border with Columbia, Blanco said.

"We have learned from history that Cuba does not have the solution," he said. More important for the audience of business leaders - including several from Door County - was Blanco's message for people in other parts of the world, especially the United States, to guard their freedom.

"Don't be complacent; don't give up your freedom. Your country needs to get stronger," Blanco said.

The alternative, he said, was for complacency to erode into tyranny with the loss of individual freedoms taken for granted in the United States.

"We had our freedom, but we got complacent. We lost it," Blanco said. "Now the whole country has regained its political interest. Imagine a peaceful march held by 2.5 million people."

A series of coups and coup attempts in the last decade upset the stability of the South American country that is home to about 25 million people.

Blanco said the United States should relearn from the situation in Venezuela about how precious are its freedoms and how delicate is the balance that prevents complacency from dismantling free institutions.

The United States remains unique in the world with its political and economic system based on the motto of "In God We Trust" and pledge to a flag that unites the nation "under God," Blanco said.

By contrast, he continued, political leaders in Venezuela have "never been godly," and until godly leaders step forward, the country will struggle with corruption. But, Blanco said, "don't feel bad for us; that is our battle."

When the conference ended, Blanco said he was "going home" to Venezuela and would be "in every march - pray for us."

Most of the details described by Blanco can be verified easily on Internet sites as diverse as the United State Central Intelligence Agency and the World Travel Guide.

But the personal message delivered by Blanco and his wife brought the threat of the political retaliation to a personal, immediate level. From television sets in the conference center, news broadcasts displayed protests in Venezuela even as Blanco was speaking.

Blanco learned the basic principles of being an American as a student at Charleston (S.C.) Southern University in the 1990s. His dream at the time was to play major league baseball. Blanco could bat well enough to earn letters all four years of college, but his arm strength wasn't what the pros wanted in a third baseman, so he ventured into the world of business.

Returning to Venezuela, Blanco began establishing his business and recruited the woman who became his wife. Marjorie Blanco knows the political situation from a different point of view: Her father was one of the few military officers who refused to go along with Chavez during an attempted coup in 1992 and his successful takeover in 1997. As a result, her father had to be secreted out of the country, and she is reluctant to discuss details about her family.

Despite the risks, Mrs. Blanco stood by her husband as he spoke out against the tyranny of the Venezuelan government.

"We'd be lying to our group if we just ran away," she said. "We went out in a peaceful protest a year ago, April 11, 2002, and got shot at by government troops."

Blanco said he wouldn't have known how much he and his countrymen had lost if he hadn't been exposed to principles of freedom while studying in the United States.

The key to those freedoms, Blanco reminded his audience, was leaders who linked their lives and decisions to God.

"We have to stop putting our trust in human beings and look to God," Blanco said.