Doing politics in Venezuela is a risk, and you can pay with your

The words of Juan Guaidó, “Doing politics in Venezuela is a risk, and you can pay with your life,” echo with the solemn weight of blood and sacrifice. They remind us that in lands where tyranny reigns and power clings by fear, politics ceases to be the art of dialogue and becomes a battlefield where courage itself is tested. In such places, to raise one’s voice is to place one’s life upon the altar of conviction. Freedom is not debated in comfort, but defended in peril.

The ancients knew this truth well. In Athens, the democracy that inspired the world was born amid exile, betrayal, and death. Socrates himself, who sought only truth, paid with his life when politics grew fearful of his questioning. In Rome, Cicero spoke boldly against dictatorship, and his politics ended with his head and hands displayed upon the rostra as a warning to others. To stand in defiance of oppression has always been to invite danger.

History offers tragic parallels closer to our own time. In Chile, during the rule of Pinochet, those who opposed the regime often vanished into prisons, tortured, or silenced forever. In South Africa, under apartheid, leaders like Steve Biko paid with their lives for daring to resist injustice. Guaidó’s words remind us that Venezuela’s plight is part of this long chain of human struggle, where the cost of speaking truth in the political arena can be one’s very breath.

Yet these words also call forth admiration for those who persist. For when politics becomes deadly, only the brave remain. Their sacrifice becomes the seed of future liberty, just as the martyrs of old gave their lives so that generations to come might walk free. Tyranny may take their bodies, but their courage endures as a fire that no blade nor bullet can extinguish.

Let the generations remember: to live under oppression is to learn that freedom is never free. Politics in such times is not career, nor ambition, but battle—a risk borne by those willing to pay the highest price. Guaidó’s lament is also a declaration: that even in the face of death, there are those who will stand, who will risk all, so that their people may one day rise from chains to sunlight. For liberty has always demanded not only words, but lives given in its defense.