December 16th., 2006

Sole Party of the Revolution

ABSTRACT:

• Chavez announces the creation of a sole Party of the Revolution.

• He warns that all those that support him must become party of this organization or separate from the government.

• There will be no Constituent National Assembly, only a Constitutional reform to allow his indefinite re election.

• Likewise, Venezuela will be proclaimed as a Republic that is and will always be socialist.

• “In the people and the Armed Forces there is a war cry:  Socialism or death”. (Hugo Chavez)

• The Law for Mandatory Social Service was approved.

• Venezuelans, between 15 and 50 years of age are obliged to participate in the Government Missions.

• Independent NOG´s manifest their concern upon the evidence that the Missions have had political purposes.

• Provea, and independent NOG, in its annual Human Rights report points out the violations against freedom of expression and information.

• Telesur, a Latin American TV chain, sponsored by the Government buys another Venezuelan TV for 40 Million Dollars.

• The verbal report of the Head of the Electoral Observation Mission from the OAS, regarding the Presidential elections in Venezuela, confirms the critics made by the opposition of the media advantages from the government in the December 3 elections.

• The Venezuelan political future is presented full of questions.

• There is polemic within the followers of the government over the issue of the sole party.

• Will Chavez dare to impose his indefinite reelection without dialoguing with more than 4.000.000 Venezuelans that oppose him?

• What is the XXI Century Socialism?  Nobody knows.  It seems something taken out of Caribbean magical realism.

SOLE PARTY OF THE REVOLUTION

In his first appearance, after the December 3 speech, the reelected President Chavez announced the creation of the sole Party of the Revolution.  He warned that the rest of the members of the alliance that support him should become party of this sole organization, or separate from the government.  “I have seen many say that their party got so and so many votes.  Don’t be fooled, those votes are for Chavez.  One of the greatest dramas of Bolivar was the division of the patriots.  I will not fall in the mistake of allowing a division.  Now we need a structure able to conduct the Bolivarian people in the path to Socialism”. 

He added that the party is not born with electoral purposes that the battalions, platoons and squadrons are now for the battle of the ideas.  Adam Chavez, brother of the President, who acted for years as Ambassador in Havana and is now the Secretary to the Presidency, declared that for the constitution of the sole party, they have studied the Cuban and Chinese models, as the ones from Syria and North Korea, but that the Venezuelan singularities will be determining.

Chavez was precise in another aspect.  There will be no Constituent National Assembly, as suggested by some of his party men.  There will be a reform of the Constitution, drafted by the National Assembly, totally comprised of Chavez followers.  The most important reform, as previously warned by Chavez, is the elimination of the provision that allows for only one re election.  Two options will remain open, which Chavez will decide when he deems it the right moment:  a new re election for 6 years or an indefinite re election.  The only references he has offered to conclude his mandate are that he will govern until 2021, the year of the 200 year anniversary of the Battle of Carabobo, or 2030, which commemorates the birth of the Republic of Venezuela, separated from the Great Colombia created by Bolivar.

The other reform in which he has insisted is the inclusion, in the fundamentals of the Fundamental Charter, of an article that “consecrates Venezuela as a Republic that IS AND WILL ALWAYS BE SOCIALIST.  A Venezuelan type of Socialism, with indigenous and Christian grounds, not ruled by Democracy.  We may not copy the Bolshevik model, because when the Soviet regime fell, not one worker came out to defend it.  In our model, participative and protagonist, that will not happen, the pillars of the Revolution are more solid, and the people have a conscience of a war cry that is the will of the Armed Forces and of the people:  Socialism or death”.

In the December 3 elections, 24 organizations supported Chavez.  Some of the leaders of the minority groups request that their autonomy be respected.  The President states that the electoral result was a mandate for the unity of socialism, that the party parcels must be ended and that he proposes to designate special spokespeople regarding politics and ideology of the Revolution.

MANDATORY SOCIAL SERVICE

The social Missions, upon which the President bases his popular support, acquire an institutional profile.  The legislative Assembly approved the Law for Mandatory Social Service, in which Venezuelans between 15 and 50 years of age are obliged to participate in the government Missions.  They will do so in relation with their academic activity, work activity, skills or other activities not related with their performances.  The Military in service are excepted as well as higher education students that are in the process of complying with their community social service.  Whoever denies rendering the service will be obliged to attend pedagogic courses programmed by the National Commission of Mandatory Social Service, which purpose will be to create a solidarity and participative conscience.  The Law provides for severe monetary sanctions for the private enterprises that prevent their employees from the community work.

Leaders of independent NGO´s call for the attention of the country over a legislation of plausible appearance but of doubtful content.  They point out, firstly, that a good part of the Missions, as acknowledged by the President, have had political purposes and their effect was evident in the recent elections.  The question is if now the citizens who are imposed to participate in the Missions will have to use the red shirt and red cap, as was imposed to those beneficiaries and public employees.  This last fact was evidenced by the Observation Mission of the European Union, and it is so written in the Preliminary Report.

“It is understandable that Venezuela cooperates with a friend country in an emergency, but it is unacceptable that a government authority is entitled to oblige Venezuelans to render social work services abroad”, as declared by Elias Santana, who for many years has directed an private institution called Citizenship School.  In his opinion, impositions of such nature may generate dislike for the social action.  Political columnists affirm that the Law was inspired in a similar Cuban legislation.

This coincided with the Observation Report from the OAS, in which it is attested the media advantages for the government in the December 3 elections with the official announcement that in 2007, the State’s signal will be expanded to radio and television.  Provea, an independent NGO, in its annual report regarding Human Rights, points out that the violations to the freedom of expression and information, in a high percentage, the victims were TV means.  They make reference to the Presidential threats against Globovisión, Radio Caracas Television and Vale TV.  As per the Professor Marcelino Bisbal´s judgment, Venezuela is in for a “one color TV spectrum”, that will go beyond the media close to the regime.  He warned that this situation will affect the citizens because it will not leave space for criticism nor for the diversity of opinions.

Telesur, the Latin American TV chain, sponsored, financially and politically by the Venezuelan government, has just bought a metropolitan channel for US 40 Million.  It will be of open signal for Venezuela.  Currently, it counts with domestic satellites in Brazil and Argentina, and next year it will start to issue the signal to Europe.  Telesur, more than the news programs, in which it presents the vision from extreme leftists journalists regarding world events, with particular attention to Latin American countries, is also the scenario for interviews to the most renown figures of the such political current, and who frequently visit Caracas upon official invitations.

The verbal report presented by the Head of the Electoral Observation Mission from the OAS, regarding the Presidential elections in Venezuela, confirms the multiple critics made by the opposition during the electoral campaign regarding the conditions and lack of guarantees given in terms of the privacy in the exercise of the vote and fundamentally the abusive use of the resources from the State in the campaign for the candidate Hugo Chavez, to the point in which the gigantic network of the audiovisual means of the public sector demonstrated an evident and unmeasured partiality in favor of the President candidate.

END OF THE YEAR REFLECTIONS

The Venezuelan political future is presented full of questions and within a climate of uncertainty, both in the government as well as the parties of the opposition.  In the first one mentioned, the declaration from the leader in that sector, Hugo Chavez, regarding the need to establish a sole party, the United Socialist Party of Venezuela, has unleashed polemic.  Meanwhile the leadership of the Movimiento Quinta República (MVR) party agreed to dissolve the party “holder” of Chavez in Podemos and Patria Para Todos (PPT), sectarism was openly criticized as well as the way in which the whole thing had been handled, without even a previous debate.  Some leaders of the PPT were inclined in maintaining the identity and the letters of their organization to keep the image that the current Parliament is not of only one color, but plural.  In the end, it is foreseen that all will accept Chavez will.

Another question made by Venezuelans is if Chavez will dare to impose a Constitutional reform that allows him to be re elected indefinitely, to the best style of his mentor, Fidel Castro, without pursuing a dialogue with the rest of the more than 4 million Venezuelans that are not in accordance with his thinking and way of ruling.

But the main questioning is the one regarding “XXI Century Socialism”.  What does this phrase really mean?  The answer, up to now, is that no one, absolutely no one knows.  Not even who created it.

It is only mentioned that it is a Venezuelan type of Socialism, a mixture of indigenous and Christian that has nothing to do with the Bolshevik one.  The truth is that the so called 21 Century Socialism reflects a little of that magical Caribbean realism, which shows a type of symbiosis between what is real and what is fantasy, able to include many a things, depending on the circumstances and the moment.  The reference obtained is the one mentioned by Chavez, who manifested his admiration for the Socialism that exists in Vietnam, Byelorussia, Syria and Iran.