What do you do if you are a Venezuelan? Your country is ruled by a madman, a communist, a tyrant. You are steadily watching as all of your freedoms erode. Your country’s institutions are being rapidly politicized, the gears of your own power are being stripped and you are powerless to stop it.

The U.S. is not going to invade to save you.

What do you do?

You fight. You fight for democracy even though you are deeply discouraged, knowing that not only is your opponent much bigger than you, he’s paid the ref to rule against you. You fight anyway.

You fight like Peruvians to save any scrap of democracy you have left in the face of this onslaught. This month Peru was full of discouraged people and through great courage they voted to keep a tyrant out of power even though they had to vote for someone repulsive.

Venezuelans must do the same thing as elections are being held in December. They cannot close their eyes – much as they must want to. Because if they don’t, there are wholesale expropriations, labor camps, secret police, an end to freedom of movement and a dictator for life waiting. They must fight.

Miguel Octavio at Devil’s Excrement has a truly awesome essay saying this in this must-read here.