Interviews with Claudio Jose Sandoval

My passion for politics and social work exploded inside me in 2000. I had been developing this political initiative since I was in high school. But it was definitely in 2000, not just me, but thousands of young Venezuelans reflected about the political and social situation of the country that was taking place at that time. There was a coup d´état that year on April 11th. Basically, leaders of the opposition called a march that was later diverted to the Miraflores Palace, which is the presidential residence in Venezuela. This situation produced several confrontations between both sides and ended with the death of a lot of people. Many families lost their children, who were killed by snipers strategically located at different buildings.

That generated in many young people some kind of disappointment because we realized that we were facing a leader, in this case President Chavez, who had no democratic vocation. But on the other hand, we had an opposition that was not behaving democratically because it had brought about a coup d´état took place. We felt used like we say in Venezuela, as cannon fodder by two sectors that were disputing power. President Chavez´s supporters wanted to remain in power, and on the other hand, an opposition who wanted to once more take up its privileged past historic position. All of this motivated me to develop and to create an organization for public policy and discussions of public policy at the Andrés Bello Catholic University. Precisely that year I began to study law.

Where the democratic system has been lost, it is necessary to strengthen or try to promote the democratic struggle and the democratic values and principles. That is where our initiative of “Generación de los Puentes” [“Generation of Bridges”] sprang. It is an organization with educational purposes that promotes democratic values through the organization and conduct of seminars, debates, workshops. It is focused on young people and on emerging leaders. The organization is called “Generación de los Puentes” because we have a split society; we call it the “two Venezuelas.” Precisely, the political role – the political challenge – we have as young people is to try to reunite those two Venezuelas and make them into a single one once more.

So, “Generación de los Puentes” means to build bridges between those two Venezuelas, to achieve an understanding based on values – on democratic values. After all, the lack of unity in Venezuela is due to the fact that the elite holding power does not have democratic values and, even as a minority, is splitting the country and making people realize that some are democrats and others are Marxist socialists. That is not the truth. So, our role has been to spread the message of democracy, and make people realize that they have a democratic essence, especially young people.

Claudio Jose Sandoval is a Venezuelan human rights advocate. He was trained in social work and studied law at Andrés Bello Catholic University in Caracas. After the government of President Hugo Chávez closed down the country’s largest private television network, RCTV, in 2007, Sandoval became active in student organizations supporting freedom and democracy in Venezuela. He was active in the pro-democracy coalition Foro por la Vida (Forum for Life) and co-founded an organization called Generación de los Puentes (Generation of Bridges). His book “Beyond the Student Movement” discusses how Venezuela might achieve national reconciliation.