|
April 30th.,
2009
Military Neo-Totalitarianism
Teodoro Petkoff leads a newspaper
with a critical front against the regime. He is
currently under trial for “participating in a plan which
threatens the nation’s security and the Venezuelan
state”. Chavez is aware that Cuban-style repression is
frowned upon in the international scenario and he has
decided, by criminalizing dissidence and judicializing
politics, to eliminate from the game those leaders which
confront him. Congress passes laws which approve the
transfer of budget allocations and goods belonging to
the Mayor’s Office of Caracas to the officer designated
by Chavez as supreme authority of the Capital Region.
Four of the five municipal mayor’s offices won by the
opposition comply with a legal provision which
stipulates their transfer of an amount of their income
to the Mayor’s Office of Caracas. The Supreme Court of
Justice declares this provision to be null. Congress
publishes the content of the reform regarding “the new
geometry of power” in the Official Gazette, according to
which the communes are the social cells of the territory
and the basic and indivisible nucleus of the socialist
state, all of which was previously denied in the
December 2, 2007 referendum.
Governors and mayors elected on
November 23 turn to the Supreme Court requesting
compliance with a norm which orders the national power
to transfer those amounts of the constitutionally
ordained fixed income and of the Intergovernmental Fund
for Decentralization. The Supreme Court, depending on
the case, either pronounces itself against or keeps
silent.
The Manuel Rosales case, Mayor of
Maracaibo, is pathetic. Accused of presumed acts of
corruption, he appeared before every subpoena he was
served, including a degrading questioning before
Congress. The Supreme Court overruled all appeals filed
requesting that he be judged in accordance with the
Penal Procedures Code; approved moving the trial to
Caracas and violated his right to being tried in
freedom, in the place where he supposedly committed
these acts. Without there being an order of arrest, the
police were following him around as they would a highly
dangerous criminal. The text of the sentence condemning
him was leaked, previous to the audience in which he was
to defend himself. He was to be incarcerated in a highly
dangerous prison, where his life would be in grave
danger. UNT, the party which he leads, advised him to
leave the country. He was granted asylum in Peru, since
he was considered as being politically persecuted.
Chavez withdrew his ambassador from Lima.
Congress is constantly accusing,
through the PSUV (United Socialist Party of Venezuela),
the governors of Carabobo and Táchira, for whom they
expect “severe sanctions”. The governor of Zulia is
being accused of being a “necessary accomplice” in the
crimes of which Rosales is being accused, since he was
his secretary when Rosales was governor.
The governor of Miranda is being
threatened with a trial for alleged embezzlement. The
project of rendering useless the authorities of popular
election which are against the government and
concentrating all the power in Chavez is obvious, except
for some formalities. There are frequent seminars and
forums in the universities regarding “el chavismo”
(Chavez’s doctrine). From a recent one in the
Universidad Central de Venezuela one might conclude the
following: it is the model of military
neo-totalitarianism which Chavez wishes for Venezuela
and exports with oil-dollars under the umbrella of
Socialism for the XXI Century.
SOCIALISM AND THE WORKERS COLLIDE
No one doubts that Chavez has a
totalitarian project. Since Hello President he
has been drawing a perfect country for 10 years and
promising a future of collective bliss. He is the
ideological leader of harsh Marxism and a guarantee for
the military forces, of power as a feast. Social
programs, fed with oil prices, have gained him countless
followers, whose loyalty is questionable if the State’s
financial difficulties continue or worsen. A collision
is beginning between Chavez’s socialism and the conquest
of the workers. Another adverse front is growing which
is not at all related to traditional opposition, but
rather to budget problems in handling bargaining
agreement and salary improvement claims among those
which labor in vital areas: public administration,
courts, education, health, and in the industrial complex
which includes oil, electricity, iron and aluminum. A
large part of those who are complaining have worn the
red uniform. Labor conflicts are increasing and 78% of
them are in the public sector. Currently 200 bargaining
agreements have lapsed and the government refuses to
discuss them, offering in exchange socialist agreements
between the workers and the State.
An investigative report conducted by
El Nacional reached the conclusion that the
government does not want labor unions, because by
concentrating all economic power and the state becoming
the owner of industries and companies, it becomes the
sole employer and can unilaterally impose work
conditions, salaries, severance payments and pensions.
It is the beginning of the collision
between Chavez’s ideas and the workers, regardless of
political tendencies. Even the doctors of Barrio
Adentro conducted a protest “against measures which
affect their labor conditions”. A leader of the oil
workers, identified as a Chavez supporter, declared:
“PDVSA is broke due to terrible management decisions,
but us workers do not have to pay for the desires of
giving away dollars to ALBA free-riders.”
The oil activity is in a contraction
phase: low production, revision of costs and expenses,
overdue debts with workers and service providers is the
situation in PDVSA, whose exportations generate more
than 70% of our income. Our second source of income is
the exportations of the Corporación Venezolana de
Guayana. The Finance Minister estimates that
technological improvements for aluminum companies, labor
liabilities and debts with providers all require
resources of more than US $5,000 million, which may only
be obtained by entering further debt. The Techint group
is threatening with going to international arbitration
for the payment of Sidor; a metallurgical company whose
workers have been informed will not be paid in spite of
the clauses of the agreement executed by Chávez when he
nationalized the company.
Financial troubles are lethally
affecting the cooperatives and co-managements, entrusted
to the Bolivarian circles. As of 2003, 366,000
cooperatives have been constructed, of which only 20,000
are still functioning today; these receive
non-refundable funds from the government. Co-management
has likewise been a failure. The social economy has only
incorporated a 20% of the million graduates from Mission
Che Guevara and their participation in the Gross
Domestic Product is of 1.6%. Economic realities place
obstacles in the way of the totalitarianism which is
being implanted. Will Chavez be able to overcome them?
This is the national question and that which the
international community should be asking itself
considering that this model is a product for
exportation.
A FRONT FOR CONSTITUTIONAL
VALIDITY
We must lead the battle against
traditional oligarchy and promote the advantages of
socialism, ordered Chavez to the hundreds of young men
receiving semester courses in Cuba for their ideological
formation. “There is no possible agreement with the
stateless opposition, defender of the neoliberal model.”
He added that “the presentation of the Bolivarian
project to that society which judges us, even sometimes
fears us” is necessary, “Regardless of how small
the results of the revolution may be, they must
be shown, so that it may not be regarded as a utopian
proposal.” It is the first time he acknowledges the poor
results of the revolution, and that its evaluation may
be feared within the society. Analysts conclude that
this is in part a response to the document of the Annual
Meeting of Consecomercio (National Council on Trade and
Services), where a highly representative part of the
business sector manifested their willingness in
participating in a national plan to face the global
economic crisis, effects of which are being felt ever
more within the country. Business men point out the
annihilation of social trust as the fundamental problem
of the decade, and they propose a great agreement in
order to build an efficient democracy which stimulates
freedom of companies and economic growth, having as
reference the Rule of Law and the rule of the
Constitution. “When these conditions are violated or
disappear, companies close, unemployment grows and
poverty is abundant.” Chavez denies this message,
considering it to be “attacks from the oligarchy” and
bets on the “advantages of socialism.” It is also a
response to the leaders of the opposition, who insist
that it is indispensable that the government open the
gates for dialogue, as key contribution to institutional
stability and peaceful coexistence. The response is
absolute: “there is no possible agreement!
Several sectors propose a national
front, bearing the Constitution as a flag. The
radicalization of the revolution is affecting even
Chavez’s supporters, and in their protests (strikes,
manifestations, documents) they coincide in declaring
themselves victims of the violation of constitutional
norms, clearly stating that they do not belong to the
opposition. However, the confusion of those bearing red
shirts and those of the opposition has already become
frequent in acts of protest. Several analysts are of the
opinion that it would be wise to rescind the use of the
term “opposition” so that unhappy Chavez supporters feel
comfortable in this front whose main purpose is the
defense of Constitutional rights. Several NGO’s are at
work in the organization of a network which puts
together efforts within the 23 states of the country to
promote the understanding of violations against the
Constitution. They assure that their purpose is to
create a link between the constitutional text and
people’s everyday issues: insecurity, poverty,
unemployment and violations committed by those invested
with authority. The Catholic Church assumed vanguard
through the Episcopal Conference, questioning power
which takes decisions regardless of the Constitution.
“Democracy implies plurality of thought and compliance
with the Rule of Law. It is not possible to achieve a
level of understanding or peace when the government
pretends to force its project upon the country.” The
Church has not spoken in vain. The regime is trying to
forbid the celebration of Labor Day on May 1st
and is calling all “red shirts” from around the country
for a manifestation which promises to be filled with
violent confrontations.
|
