[This article was written at the request of the Madrid group, Molotov, and
serves to give an anarchist perspective on events in Venezuela. - ed.]
VENEZUELA: CROSSROADS TO NOWHERE by Rafael Uzc�tegui (Peri�dico El
Libertario) On 2nd December 2002, the government of Venezuela, presided
over by Hugo Chavez, was facing 3 work stoppages called by sectors like the
CTV (main union), Fedec�maras (employers' association) and the Coordinadora
Democr�tica (the coalition of opposition parties and various civil
organizations). In just one year, the government has suffered a general
strike, a coup d'�tat, 2 work stoppages and the increasing popular
mobilization of rejection or support of his mandate. What has happened to
the so-called "Bolivarian Revolution" (elected in 1998, and confirmed in
2000 by an overwhelming majority in the ballot boxes)? What has caused the
political crisis which this South American country is going through at the
moment? HEADING FOR A DEFEAT Since its beginnings, the constituent process,
summoned in 1999, has blocked real, popular participation. It took 6 months
to bring about the writing of a new constitution, which the pro-government
majority in the Assembly elected for just this purpose carried on with no
real debate or consensus. The Constitutional Assembly is not an exception,
but an example of bureaucratical waste and the camouflaged exclusion behind
the calls to popular mobilization. The main Chavist political parties (the
Movimiento Quinta Republica/MVR, the Movimiento al
Socialismo/MAS-oficialista and the Patria para Todos/PPT), in addition to
figures from the Armed Forces, held the main state decision-making posts
without transforming, either in any substantial or revolutionary way, key
institutions like the National Electoral Council, the Supreme Court or the
country's main industry, Petroleos de Venezuela S.A. (PDVSA). Another
catalytic element of the crisis has been the manifest impossibility of
carrying into effect promises to fight corruption, to reduce poverty and to
increase the quality of life in general. (For numbers, see the Annual
Report of the Derechos Humanos Provea organization at www.derechos.org.ve).
THE STRIKE By Wednesday 4th December, only two days after it had begun and
with relative success in medium and large private industries, strike was
showing signs of weakness. The incorporation of workers from the merchant
navy and the PDVSA signified a definite boost, adding to the progressively
inter-class mobilization of people without party connections, many of whom
voted for Chavez at the last elections. The callers of the strike, however,
demonstrated some obscure strategy which was contradictory and rather
unclear. They indifferently asked for the president's resignation, for a
consultative referendum, for immediate elections, for the application of
the OAS Democratic Interamerican Charter and for an uprising on the part of
the Armed Forces - a coup d'�tat. This last request was avoided after the
"suggestion" by the US Department of State that "early elections" be held
as a means of getting over the crisis. Opponents of Chavez can be found
over a wide political spectrum that goes from the most recalcitrant
right-wingers to the far left. Old intellectuals and revolutionary
activists like Domingo Alberto Rangel, Agust�n Blanco Mu�oz, Rafael
Iribarren, Humberto D�Carli and Nelson M�ndez have expressed the
inconsistencies of a government which talks fire but acts in an
incompetent, populist manner; in addition to a clear arrangement with those
sectors that impoverished Venezuela over four decades and who have
capitalized, with relative effectiveness, on discontent with the regime.
THE PRESENT AND THE FUTURE As we are writing this report (at the request of
the Molotov collective in Madrid) discussion is taking place on the dates
for the consultative referendum, on an electoral method to be enshrined in
the new Constitution but, paradoxically, eluded by the president who
decreed it. Sectors of the officialdom and the opposition are beginning to
air the possibility of making a constitutional amendment that would shorten
the presidential mandate and smooth the way towards an early general
election. Another proposal which has been raised is that of re-starting the
constituent process, this time without the limitations and manipulations of
the previous time. On the other hand, the formation of the so-called
"Friends of Venezuela" group, headed by Brazil and including countries like
Mexico, Chile and the United States is trying to promote the work of
mediation of the conflict that the Secretary-General of the OAS, C�sar
Gaviria, began a few months ago in Venezuela. All this in a context of
polarization and intolerance, in which political violence has caused the
death of at least 48 Venezuelans during the last year in street
confrontations during demonstrations and riots. If the notion still exists
that Chavez is carrying out some form of socialist revolution, then people
should think again about his government's recent negotiations for the
operating concession of the biggest gas reserves in the country, the
Deltana Platform, to the transnationals British Petroleum, ExxonMobil,
ChevronTexaco and Statoil for 30 years. Undoing his revolutionary mirage is
an arduous task as much inside as outside the country, and those of us who
do so from a revolutionary position have to put up with all sorts of
accusations ("CIA agents", "lackeys of the oligarchy" etc.) and threats
(Blanco Mu�oz, to give one example, has estimated that he has received over
40 death threats by telephone). And what do libertarians make of all this?
It is clear to us that elections will simply become a chance to share out
the state pie, realigning alliances between the parties and the
organization in power of the new and old bureaucracies. Our work must not
fall prey to the risks of spontaneism by sowing autonomous, anticapitalist
values and policies in the effervescence of the situation. The best
motivation for building a distinct, antagonistic alternative to both
tendencies is the transformation of the increasing deception of the
citizens by the media of both tendencies - to "capitalize" conscientiously
on the open spaces which presently exist for popular participation and the
experience of the mobilizations of the people which have taken place in
recent years. The inoperability of Chavez's statist project and the
neo-liberal proposal through the means of the Coordinadora Democr�tica
(reflected in the mirror of our Argentine neighbors) will be an incentive
to continue establishing networks which can strengthen our ideas of
anti-capitalism and self-management. We have a new world in our hearts - a
world which is growing as we speak!
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