Around a quarter of the population (8 million) have fled or emigrated from Venezuela in recent years, leaving all families scarred from their forced break-up.

Following the award of the Nobel Peace Prize to resistance leader Maria Corina Machado, and the US removal of the Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro in January, the framing of the Venezuelan problem in terms of North American aggression intensified in Norwegian and international media.

Voices from Venezuela invariably frame the crisis very differently. Yet most Venezuelans, also abroad, find it difficult to speak up due to threats from the dictatorship at home, and from ingrained international misconceptions about the Venezuelan reality.

We have invited Venezuelan voices of resistance to authoritarianism to shed light on the catastrophe that led to such a massive movement of people.

Professor Leiv Marsteintredet will set the stage with a historical introduction to the Venezuelan cataclysm. Venezuelan Human Rights and LGBTQI+ activist Yendri Velásquez will give an appeal, before a conversation with directors Mariana Rondón and Marité Ugás of It Would Be Night in Caracas.

At 13:45, we walk together to Bergen Kino for the screening of It Would Be Night in Caracas – a powerful drama based on an acclaimed novel by Karina Sainz Borgo. Set against Venezuela’s 2017 social and political collapse, the film follows a woman forced to reinvent herself after losing everything to violence and chaos. Get your tickets at CineLatino

Light lunch served

Photo: Sudaca films