By:
Doctor Alí Rodríguez Araque*
A CubaNews
translation by Ana Portela. Edited by Walter Lippmann. Original: This Sunday, December 2, the Venezuelan people will go to the ballots again to defend the democratic and participative process written into their Constitution while sectors linked to the imperial centers of power try to subvert the internal order of the country. Why has the opposition now unleashed an hysterical campaign – more hysterical than previously – in face of revolutionary changes occurring in the country? Why then not only from the powerful internal mass media but also on a world scale, has such an enormous campaign been unfurled that has placed the Venezuela subject in the limelight of international public opinion? It is no longer, as it was in the past. Venezuela was news because of its enormous oil wealth nor because it often won the Miss Universe or Miss World contests because of the beauty of its women. Other reasons have aroused the interest of the peoples in the world, as, also, the concern and growing anxiety of the oligarchies, both from Latin America or imperial, especially these latter. ¿What is the Conflict About?February 27, 1989 was one of the most dramatic and bloody expressions of the political, economic and social system of Venezuela that was not free of the wave of neo liberalism that spread throughout the world, with special strength in Latin America. The process of concentrating wealth, literally expropriated from the immense majority of the Venezuelan people, had a starting off point in the problem of distributing its oil income, on which Venezuela demands, for good or not. For good, because it is possible to improve the living conditions of the population with its wealth. For bad reasons, because we are subject to the ups and downs of world oil prices which do not always reflect the decision and will of the oil-producing countries but on circumstances often foreign to its own decisions.What is happening today is an example. High oil prices do not depend on the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) or whether they increase or reduce production. Production can increase and still prices continue rising due to existing unstable conditions in the world. These include the conflicts in Iraq, Afghanistan, the threats against Iran, the serious circulation in futures markets, which have also controlled the mechanisms of oil prices, among other factors.¿How was it expressed in Venezuela?The main interest of the oil countries is the income which can be obtained through its exploitation. And, in this specific case, this income is generated through the royalties it charges for access to oil resources, through the taxation any sovereign State charges in the world, and the profits generated by business investments in the cases which the countries also have with oil companies.Neo-liberalism was introduced into the Venezuelan oil sector, in such a way that contributions through royalties were reduced or taxes eliminated and the Venezuelan national oil company [effectively] privatized.Contracts were signed which represented a true treason to the homeland because royalties of 1/6 that represented 16.6 percent were reduced to one percent. In some contracts, even, to zero percent. Taxes went down from 67.7 percent to 34 percent. A strategy was designed to suffocate PDVSA in an attempt to force privatization.The triumph of Hugo Chavez was a radical move away from the neo-liberal strategy of treason in the best interests of Venezuela that consequently represented a strong cut of incomes from expanded production, a policy that represented the erosion of OPEC. With Venezuela increasing production, other nations did the same, flooding the oil market. Prices fell. In Venezuela oil prices fell to seven dollars a barrel that had a high component in added value by-products. This meant that we were selling oil at five dollars or less, in some cases below production costs. These measures generated serious problems in OPEC that was weakened and saw its own existence threatened.Hugo Chavez put an end to that policy. From the beginning of his campaign in 1988, the President formulated the need to recover national spirit and demanded a series of measures to recover national control of its oil resources. This position caused frustration and disturbance in the imperial centers which viewed Venezuela as their opportunity to resolve the minimum price, almost free, of their oil needs.That is the main hub of the problem although there are other important factors of a political nature. As the nation demonstrated that it was capable of maintaining a sovereign position, of acting according to the mandate of the people, and not in favor of the desires of the centers of power, they unleashed their imperial fury.Since then, an imperial rebellion began against Venezuela through the powerful media it controlled. They unfurled a strategy which sought destabilization of the internal scenario and isolation in the international field.They are desperateThis strategy of the great empires and oligarchies, aiming to destabilize internally and isolate internationally demonstrates their desperation that has tactical expression in every moment. What have they used against the Constitutional Reform? Destabilize the people on the basis of an intense campaign of lies. For example:That Venezuela is using the Reform to move towards a dictatorship. The basis of the opposition relies on the possibility established in the reform that the President can be re-elected continually.They say that this would perpetuate an individual in power. But they hide two details: What if in the election the people want to elect another President, then what happens?Another version could be the reelection of Hugo Chavez. Venezuela has a unique mechanism in the world that is the power of revocation that the President himself incorporated in the 1999 Constitution. Where in the world is this possible? In some cases there is a system for revocation but not for the presidents or prime minister. Also, in Europe 17 countries have exactly this same article in their Constitution.Another argument of the opposition is the abolition of private property. To date the only form of property contemplated by the Constitution including the one of 99 was private property. The Reform proposal maintains private property and introduces four other forms of property (joint, public, communal, social).These proposals were approved by the National Assembly and now pass to the Referendum.Now they begin saying that we are moving towards a communist regime and are going to take away Parental Rights from parents. A total disrespect to intelligence, to the common sense of the Venezuelans.They overturn reality; put it upside down. They barefacedly lie. Of course, that only leads to failure.What will happen on December 2? At the moment there are disruption factors being combined, using students of well-to-do classes, mostly in the private university and also in some public ones where the old left now became the staunch right as occurred, unfortunately, in our beloved Central University of Venezuela. They used these that are not numerous, either – in Venezuela there are now 15 million students – and they do not surpass the figure of three to five thousand students. But they make a lot of noise because they have the support of television, the press, radio and support of the larger media corporations such as CNN and other world media powers. Last Tuesday, November 27 there were a number of students from the Catholic University of Caracas meeting. Globovision reported the news that the students were surrounded by the Chavez repressive forced. By chance the Interior Minister, Tarek El-Aissami, was in the locality and stated that there was not even one policeman. But by then Spanish television was giving the news that democratic-minded students were surrounded in the Andrés Bello Catholic University. They also coordinated lies not only in the country but in the world. In Chile they repeated the news and CNN also converted it into a multiplied factor of the lie that comes from Venezuela. They are desperately searching for a body, as happened in April of 2002 with sharpshooters they themselves placed, to accuse the government of using repression and causing bloodshed. In Valencia, last Monday, November 26, a group of workers were on their way to a factory of petro-homes and an opposition group was barring the road. They shot at the car that tried to pass, wounded a 19-year-old boy in the leg. They even wanted to prevent him from being taken to the hospital. And since they tried they shot him twice more and killed him. But they did not only kill him, they spat at him, kicked him and attacked the others who were with him. This is typical fascist hate, Nazis that are painfully present in the memory of history. Once these periods failed to prevent the Referendum or delay it, both defeated attempts, the tactics of the enemy of the Venezuelan people now is to combine a policy of calling people to vote NO and, at the same time, cause the largest abstention possible. The objective was to claim after the YES triumphed in the Referendum, that the NO vote plus abstention represents a majority and, consequently, that the people are against the Constitutional Reform. Because they have said it; they continue in their attempt to overthrow the legitimate and constitutional government of Venezuela and, above all, the Bolivarian process. Be it as it may we await a new victory on Sunday, December 2. Once again truth will be triumph. * Ambassador of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela in Cuba |
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