I left Venezuela fleeing from a dictator, only to find another one in America

I remember watching Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez harass people who dissented from his views, calling us “fascists” and “piti yankees.” (little yankees). Now I see Trump and the Republicans call Democrats “socialists” because we defend voting rights; we want to expand access to health care; and, we are making sure that the president is not above the law — as Venezuela’s current president Nicolás Maduro thinks he is.

I will never forget standing in front of our TV in Caracas in 2007, watching in tears the last minutes that Radio Caracas Television — one of the most popular TV channels in Venezuela —was on air before it was shut down by Chávez. He had decided to silence them when months earlier they had exposed the high levels of corruption and the crisis in Venezuela. When a dictator doesn’t like the truth being exposed, they call the media “fake news” and they censor it. If Trump had the power to do the same, you could bet he would shut down CNN and the New York Times.