On Nov. 12 at 7 p.m. in the Gentile Gallery, the Young Americans for Freedom organization on campus hosted Daniel Di Martino to give a talk on his experience with socialism in Venezuela.
Di Martino began with family stories, speaking about his time hiking the Camino pilgrimage with his mom. He gave background of his family, how they had come to Venezuela from Spain and how his family later fled to America.
He explained to attendees the difference between socialism and communism and what occurs when they take over a country, listing examples of other regimes such as Cuba and the Soviet Union.
He then continued with what happened to Venezuela and how it went from a democracy to a socialist regime through years of subtle government changes and lies. Eventually, it became difficult for one to open a business, and most things became government owned and run.
“Venezuela used to be a great country, and with amazing people that welcomed my family, that I grew up with my entire life, and that was transformed as I grew up,” said Di Martino.
“It started with small things, you know?” he continued. “You don’t find something you like in the grocery store, there’s a blackout one day and you don’t know why, the government says an iguana cut a cable off by biting it. You believe it at first…”
Additionally, Di Martino spoke about some of the parallels between the United States and Venezuela that he has been seeing recently.
He said, “I care about this. I care about this because I lived it, and I don’t want other people to go through it. It’s really that simple.”
The talk wrapped up with a Q&A session, and following the talk, Di Martino stayed behind to speak with attendees.