September4th., 2006

CHAVEZ SEEKS FOR WORLD TRIBUNE

ABSTRACT:

• Fidel and Chavez evaluate the strategy for Venezuela’s entrance in the Security Council.

• An important aspect will be the imminent meeting of the Non Aligned, in Cuba.

• Winning or loosing, the Security Council issue will be its flag slogan in the electoral campaign.

• Apart from an electoral slogan, what is the interest in Council wherein only the permanent members may take decisions?

• Guatemala assures that it has 98 votes.

• He aspires a personal tribune from the UN, in order to maintain his leadership in force.

• The voice of anti Imperialism, acting limitless and without any supervision.

• In his first formal campaign event he affirmed that there are only two options: Bush or Chavez.

• He will call for a referendum to ask the people if in agreement for an indefinite re election.

• He will implement a new government project, from 2007 until 2021.

• The last Hello President was carried on at the Military Academy, before the presence of the future officers.  “This is where we will meet again in 2021”.

• Chavez has converted the Army in his political instrument.

• Rosales, candidate for the Opposition, started out well his campaign in Caracas.

• Rosales walks, on a daily basis, the poorest areas of the major cities, challenging Chavez to do the same.

• Chavez alleges not to be responsible for the errors of his performance and blames his subordinates.

• Upon the murder of a Doctor of Barrio Adentro Mission, he orders protection for Cubans.  The opposition claims that Venezuelans also be protected, who suffer the drama of insecurity.  Caracas is the most violent city of Latin America.

• What is at stake on December 3 is the dilemma between an unknown neo communist rehearsal, and the opening of paths towards the recuperation of Republican institutions by way of Democracy.

CHAVEZ SEEKS FOR WORLD TRIBUNE

Greeting the hero was the slogan.  Chavez returned from the last circumnavigation, initiated and concluded, as his ritual, in Havana.  The Cubans had the second opportunity to watch on TV screens, the convalescent Fidel, of whom lips we heard him babble:  “success super ceded all expectations”.  The interview took two hours and obviously the issues concerning the Security Council and the imminent meeting in the island of the Non Aligned were discussed.  Both assure Venezuela’s entrance to the Council.  A hero image is the one Chavez proposes to cast if he achieves such victory, in open battle with the US, which government’s rejection to such aspiration is a point of honor.  In the battle between the world’s first potency and Chavez, the latter plays a win-win situation.  If he wins, he demonstrates that he is no laughing matter character, as portrayed by Northern analysts, but a XXI Century David that may defeat the contemporary Goliath, in a somewhat boxing match broadcasted to the entire planet.  From Hanoi, Chavez anticipated that he intends to repeat the Vietnam deed.

If he looses, he will confirm his warning that Imperialism moved all its tentacles to impose a lackey country.  In Damascus, wherein he was acclaimed by concentrations on the streets, he coincided with President Bashar Asaad in that the current Council endangers the peace in the Middle East.  Winning or loosing, the Security Council issue will be his slogan in the electoral campaign as anticipated before the concentration of followers that was organized to welcome him back, last Friday, September 1.  Apart from an electoral slogan, what is the interest in a Council wherein only the permanent members may take decisions?  The answer was given by Mr. Diego Arria, a Venezuelan that exercised the position in the worst years of the Balkan conflict:  a non permanent member, in determined circumstances, may have more media projection than any of the permanent members.

Gert Rosenthal, Guatemala’s Chancellor, the other aspiring country, admits, in an interview with El Nacional newspaper (September 3), that Bush’s rejection of Venezuela’s entrance to the Council is a two edged weapon.  He accepts that the differences regarding Belize grant difficulty for the 25 votes from the Caribbean community, and the election will be defined by Africa’s 50 votes.  President Berger assures that his country counts with 98 votes.  Chavez is counting with MERCOSUR, Bolivia, Haiti, CARICOM, and if, as he claims, he has the support of the African Union, the Arab League and the Non Aligned, it does not seem impossible for him to reach the goal of 128 votes needed.  If he achieves the above, in crucial moments, he will personally use the Council’s platform.

He will speak, from the North American metropolis, in the name of all the peoples that are against Imperialism and he will say that his voice expresses the majority of Christians and Muslims with a will to conquer a different world.  He would not be saying the truth, but his opinions would be the news that would keep him in force in the most diverse scenarios.

He would allege to be the authentic voice of anti Imperialism, and he would act limitless and without any supervision, with the sole purpose of nurturing his project of planetary leadership.  An added value to what he has already conquered in the international community:  numerous countries that for various reasons want him as a friend and others that avoid appearing in his list of enemies.  Additionally, good points for the re election project.

THE COMPLEX ELECTORAL SCENERY

His first formal campaign event was a meeting on Friday, September 1, before thousands of red shirts, brought from all over the country, in official vehicles. He explained him arriving late, on account of his visit to Fidel, on his return from Angola.  I come from the battle field, he proclaimed, from the battle that we are fighting against Imperialism.  There are many candidates, all lackeys of the Empire, on December 3; Venezuela has only two options, Bush or Chavez.  Who will you vote for? He asked the many that held posters of his image as well as that of Fidel and Che Guevara.  The orchestra roared:  Uh Ah, Chavez is not leaving!

He proclaimed that he will not leave, and that in 2008, he will call upon a referendum to ask if the people want his indefinite re election.  It is the people, he expressed, who should decide when and when the mandate is over.  He confirmed that he proposes to reform the Constitution, as he already did in 1999, to derogate the provision that prohibits immediate re election for only one time.  If the Constitution remains in force, Chavez, upon winning on December 3, could not be able to be a candidate once more. 

He announced a project that he called “Simon Bolivar” that he will implement from 2007 until 2021.  Regarding his last tour, he assured to have increased support for Venezuela’s entrance in the Security Council, and that he will travel with the same objective on September 11 to the Non Aligned Summit in Havana.  The Hello President of September 3 was carried on at the Military Academy, having the future Armed Forces offices as public.  “Here is where we will see each other in 2021”, he told them, “to celebrate the achievements of the revolution”. 

Independent press points out that the event was a confirmation that Chavez has converted the Army into his political instrument, in his party, and that with such party he proposes to govern for the next twenty years, maybe even beyond that.  The TV viewers could see that all the uniformed men, from cadets to Generals, saluted him as:  My Commander in Chief.  Not one of them granted him the civil title of Mr. President.  Pro Government and opponents coincide in that the new Constitution will define the characteristics of the XXI Century Socialism, following the guidelines of the Cuban Constitution.

Rosales, the opposition’s candidate, started out his campaign with a popular demonstration in Caracas that surprised many for its big numbers and enthusiasm. He attacked Chavez most vulnerable flanks:  he will not be a puppet from Castro, nor from Washington.  We do not accept, he affirmed, that the President be traveling throughout the world giving away our oil wealth while there is hunger, misery, poverty and unemployment in Venezuela.  It’s enough, he proclaimed, and he maintains the phrase as a campaign slogan, its enough of Chavez turning away from his responsibility for the failure of the Government, granting such failure to his collaborators.

In two weeks of campaign, we can see the following: a)  capacity to unify the opposition; b)  sensible motivation on the part of the abstention’s; c) structuring of campaign commandos in all States, representing the unitary character of the nomination; d)  predominance of young people in such commandos; e)  special attention to poorer neighborhoods, wherein the candidate acts freely, delivers simple messages and captures sympathy; f)  he caused a good impression in the first interview with the correspondents of the international press; g)  appropriate message and responses in the meetings with entrepreneurs.  In summary, the opposition’s candidate is doing well, and he walks the poorest areas of the bigger cities on a daily basis, he challenges  Chavez to do the same, to venture with direct contact with the people, to show his shoes proving that he walks the dusty streets wherein the socially excluded dwell.  Chavez does not accept the challenge.

A war of surveys commenced.  The experts affirm that a reliable result will be available in October.  The preliminary surveys do not satisfy Chavez, who insists in granting bureaucracy the blame for the lack of solution to problems of collective claim.  In the last Hello President, he seemed appalled for the murder of a Cuban doctor in medicine and sustained that the responsible parties for the crime were the Ministers, Governors, Mayors, Chief of Military bases, demanding them to comply with their duties.  He forgot that a similar insecurity situation is faced by all Venezuelans.

From an objective view, and upon three months of the electoral date, the opposition presents a good candidate before a government whose performance does not correspond with the magnitude of the resources it has enjoyed, nor with the popular expectations.  Rosales confronts giant obstacles, amongst which, that the contender has the national treasure as a campaign fund, and manipulates the electoral process as he wishes, since he controls all powers, including the entity that will serve as arbiter.  In the first day of the confrontation, Friday, September 1, the State’s giant audio visual media web offered Chavez 93,4% of broadcasting, as opposed to Rosales´ 6,6%.

 For Venezuela Today, what is at stake on December 3 is the dilemma between an unknown neo communist rehearsal, that insists in the validity of Leninist Marxism, or the opening of paths towards the recuperation of republican institutions by way of democracy.  Chavez is undermined and this is a grave mistake.  Recently, Michael Shifter, Vice-president of Interamerican Dialogue, stated the following from Washington: “The Chavez factor has never formed part of the US calculations facing Cuba’s transition and now it is clear that his will be a fundamental role”.

It would be worth it if the Democratic world turned its face towards Venezuela.