Interviews with Rodrigo Diamanti

Well, we´re having difficult times in my country. We have been personally threatened by the government. And it´s not easy to be a dissident in my country. You can be in jail. For example, now, we have a very well-known political leader, Oswaldo Alvarez Paz, that only because he repeats what the international press says about the links between the FARC [Spanish acronym for the “Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia”] and the regime, the Chavez regime. And now he´s in prison. So for us, it´s very difficult to say the things that the government– government doesn´t want to hear.

But we take the risk because I think we believe in what are we doing right now, and we want to live in democracy. And the only way to be in that situation again is staying there, in Venezuela, no? Fighting for the democracy, trying to convince people that what is happening is so bad, that in 10 years, we can be, like, in a Cuba regime or Iran or we can be in a situation very similar to China. So– because we don´t want that. We used to have a good democracy, just 10 years ago, not very efficient, not very worried about the social problems – but at least a democracy. And we want to have, again, that kind of democracy, but also, a democracy with more activity in the social subjects.

Rodrigo Diamanti of Venezuela is president of “Un Mundo Sin Mordaza” (A World Without Censorship), a network that promotes freedom of speech in the Americas and around the world.

In 2007, Diamanti obtained a bachelor’s degree in economics from the Andres Bello Catholic University of Caracas. Two years later he received a master’s degree in political studies from Complutense University in Madrid. He is a founding member of the Venezuela Student Movement of 2007, which works for free and fair elections, transparent governance, freedom of expression and association, and reconciliation in Venezuela.

Diamanti is a senior fellow of the Alliance of Youth Movements (Movements.org) and has lectured in Turkey, Spain, Mexico and the United States.