Venezuela, in Brief

Let me tell you about the country I was born and raised in. Venezuela runs along the western spine of the Andes, and Merida holds the highest peaks in the land. Up there sits the paramo, a rare high grassland where a plant called the frailejon drinks the mist and lets it go slowly, working as a natural water tower for everything below. The days are cool, the nights are cold, the light is strong, and the water is clean. It is good country for potatoes, garlic, greens, and trout. And the people are a match for the land: hard working, warm, the kind who show up for a neighbor. That is the Venezuela I know.

Here is the hard part, said plainly. Last century Venezuela was among the more prosperous countries in our region. Over the past decade the economy collapsed. Savings lost their value, public services wore thin, and many people left home to send money back to the families they love. In the towns, and especially in the remote highlands, the electrical grid fails often, water runs only part of the day, fuel can be scarce, and the internet comes and goes. None of this is about blame. It is about a footing that gave way under people who never stopped being capable.

Because that is the thing worth saying twice: the need is real, and so is the capacity. The families in these mountains know how to grow, build, and cook. What has been missing is not skill or will. It is a stable place to stand: steady power, steady water, a way to reach a buyer, and a little capital that arrives directly and does not evaporate on the way. Give people that footing and they produce. I have watched them do it my whole life.

That is the whole premise of Terra Productiva. We are not asking anyone to feel sorry for Venezuela. We are asking for support that produces: money that funds a real venture on the ground in Merida, local families who do the work and earn wages, and revenue that recirculates into the next venture. Support, not handouts. As a Texan now, proud of how we look out for one another here, I want to bring that same instinct home to the Andes. The land can produce again, and the people know how. What they have been waiting for is a footing, and that is what we intend to build.