June 29th., 2007

Does Chavez Understand The New Reality?

“We, the students, the youth, will raise our voice every time freedom is threatened. We demand that our right to express that we think differently be respected. We rebel, today and always, against any totalitarian practice, against attempts to impose a single way of thinking, and against any violation to the right to free expression. They can hit us, they can break our bones, they will only have our corpses, but they will never have our obedience.” The foregoing statements are expressed in the document signed by the student representatives from all over the country at a crowded meeting held in the broad spaces of a university stadium. They stated that the struggle for civil rights should not be solely held by the student movement, and they ask for solidarity and active presence of all Venezuelans sharing their ideas. The student call had an impressive answer: statements of support were produced by university authorities and professors of several institutions, by directors of bar associations, medical, engineering and other professional associations, likewise union federations gathering teachers and education workers, industrial, commercial and agricultural confederations and similar institutions. A great number of the national academia members wrote or prepared statements of encouragement and support to the young movement. The highest authorities of the Catholic Church, in a formal document, after deploring the end of transmissions of RCTV, for affecting the freedom of expression and the right to information, considered that the student-led demonstrations may not be demonized by the government since they constitute “a legitimate expression of the political pluralism.”

“We the journalists are a huge containment wall and we won’t be silenced. We are criminalized for denouncing and making critic journalism, but we are willing to keep the street demonstrations to defend our right to inform and to speak our minds”. Those were statements made by media professionals at the end of a protest march from the National Journalist Association to RCTV. Representatives of journalist associations agreed not to commemorate the Journalist’s Day (June 27^th) but organizing a protest for the closure of the TV station which took place one month ago. Journalists were joined by students and vast representations of the most diverse sectors. Participation was so massive that in the opinion of those reporting the event, remembered the legendary marches of the “old times.”

Chavez -in his strategy of stepping back when the circumstances so demand- stated that the constitutional reform might be postponed for the next year. Certain text was leaked to the press from the commission working on the draft. Its key elements include eliminating the principle of alternation in power, restricting the property right, centralizing the public power in the President, providing constitutional status to the socialism, and defining the Armed Forces as an institution for the security and defense of the socialist system. Is it a step back or just contention for an unforeseen scenario? Some analysts think that he might try to accelerate the reform process for this year.

 CUBAN CONCERN AND BRAZILIAN DISTANCING

Cuba, Russia and Iran have been Chavez’s travel destinations since the unexpected nuance imposed by the political climate created by the student movement to the revolutionary process. This new character was not in the Commander’s script, who launch a counteroffensive, but the contenders answered to the policemen and soldiers aggressiveness with flowers and peace gestures. Apparently in Havana, it was recommended to him to accelerate the development of the single party incorporating “pioneers”. According to Chavez, Castro told him that he could die and the revolution would keep its course because he has a party, but the Venezuelan case is different because without Chavez “the revolution is gone with the wind”. “I realize that unfortunately Fidel is right, if I die, this revolution is gone with the wind, because we don’t have a political party, machinery”. He announced that regardless of the fact that the enrollment process for the aspirants to join the PSUV was concluded, the adolescents studying in education centers of the government will be able to enroll, referring to them as “the precursors”. “With the PSUV -he said- we will be able to extinguish the still-existing aspects of the bourgeois-capitalist state and provide a legal framework for our socialist model from which “the new man” will arise.

The global war prepared by USA after September 11^th, the terrorism as an excuse to attack anywhere on the planet, the acquisition of weapons from Russia and Byelorussia, his alliance with Iran in the light of the new situation arisen in the Middle East, are subjects included in the agenda announced by Chavez before embarking upon his current trip. In the Army Day commemoration, he exhorted soldiers to get ready for the global war that, according to him, has declared the USA, under the guise of fighting terrorism. He thanked Russia for the military support that it ensures to Venezuela by the arm provisions. Previous Saturday, in national radio and television broadcasting, he stated that his conservations with Putin will be held at a high “strategic level,” and that he will give the “last touches” to the acquisition of an anti-aerial defense system from Byelorussia which includes 200 and 300km range missiles. He said that in Iran he will discuss joint investments (17 billion dollars) and the scope of the strategic alliance in the light of the new situation in the Middle East. He concluded announcing a 30% pay rise to the militia and increasing to one million the number of reserve officers, with the proper weapon provision.

The reaction against Chavez is intense in the country and abroad. He proclaimed as a great victory the fact that in the OAS meeting the RCTV issue was not discussed. In Panama it was clear that Chavez’s petrodollars keep hallucinating governments in the region and worldwide. However, the international opinion begins to grow strong, as evidenced by the Brazilian case, the most important “strategic ally” and most favored country by the economic relations with Venezuela. His “brother” Lula, had no choice but a strong diplomatic complaint when Chavez offended the Brazilian Congress because of the motion of support to the freedom of expression in Venezuela. Foreign Minister Amorim, besides considering inexplicable Chavez absence in the MERCOSUR summit, implied the existence of difficulties for the Venezuelan entrance and revealed that Brazil is still waiting for the apologies demanded to Chavez for the insult to the Congress. Lampreia, former Foreign Minister during the Cardoso administration, stated that fortunately President Lula has realized that Chavez cannot be his favorite partner, and that quite the opposite, he might become a serious problem for Brazil, as evidenced by the nationalization of the Bolivian gas. “We should watch out for such a dangerous neighbor and keep a growing distance from Chavez, whose politics are transforming Venezuela in a huge Titanic headed to the iceberg”.

ISSUES WITH EUROPEAN ALLIES  

Regarding Spain, the “strategic ally” promoted with special sympathy in Europe, Chavez himself stated that he “distances himself” from Rodríguez Zapatero’s administration for Moratino’s repeated statements lamenting the RCTV case. In Aló, Presidente, he dedicated long comments to this matter. According to him, the Spanish government acts under pressure exerted by Ms. Rice in her last visit to Madrid. He pointed out that an old superiority complex is evidenced within the context of the criticism by the European Union. Chavez supporters, in several media, discredit the Spanish press like El País, Vanguardia, El Mundo, ABC, affirming that they criticize Chávez because they embody the Spanish oligarchy, at the service of the American imperialism, and despise a “sudaca” who is showing the world the ways to build the socialism of the XXI century. Similar expressions, supplemented with nasty personal insults, were expressed against former presidents Aznar and Fox, and President Felipe Calderón for friendly welcoming Marcel Granier, the president of RCTV in his visit to Mexico. Judge Baltazar Garzón, who came to Venezuela to deliver a conference on the independence of the judiciary in order to guarantee the rule of law, without any reference to the Venezuelan case, was called “clown, fascist, mercenary, immoral, and unethical”. Lech Walesa, who stated in Lima that Chavez sooner or later will have to answer for all his bad actions against the country, was treated similarly by Chavez supporters. The fact is that according to the philosopher Fernando Mires, Chavez operates in line with the dichotomy principle. “He is on the good side of history, and everybody against him is on the other side, are wrong, imperialists, oligarchs and enemies of the peoples”.

In his trekking around the world, Chavez had never been subject to a treatment as ominous as what he is receiving in Russia. Last Thursday, according to AP, the Duma rejected Chavez’s request to deliver a speech before the members of the parliament. The Duma is controlled by the main supporting party of Putin administration. “The possibility of Chavez addressing to the legislators was considered and decided directly from the Kremlin, in order to avoid that the unpredictable Venezuelan President creates any difficult situation” (AP). A Kremlin spokesperson ratified in Moscow that this private visit is on his account and he will be only officially received by President Putin. This Kremlin’s cautious position, according to AP, was evidenced in the opening of the Venezuelan library in Moscow. Among the attending audience in the cultural event, held in the Foreign Literature Library, there were no governmental officers. Putin did not receive Chavez in the Kremlin, but in a private residence. The energetic cooperation was the most important issue in the dialogue, according to the spokesperson of the Russian government. A substantial Russian investment in the national energetic industry is vital for Chavez, given that the fact that the American companies ExxonMobil and ConocoPhillips are ending their business in Venezuela has set off the alarms about the risks on investing while Chavez holds office, and immediately means a drop in PDVSA’s production and bonds issued to resolve the cash flow problems. The internal tension, the end of the honeymoon with the international community and oil problems are issues to be faced by Chavez in this boreal summer of high political temperatures.