By Humberto Márquez
CARACAS, Jul 7 1995 (IPS)

The country could be facing an explosive situation if the Venezuelan democratic system does not become more open, credible and participative, the president of the Episcopal Conference, Bishop Mario Moronta of Caracas, warned this week.

“A ‘Salvadorisation’ of the country could be generated, a kind of selective civil war, and temptations of radically violent options and assaults on power could be turned to as outlets,” he said.

Speaking with foreign reporters, Moronta said he is concerned about the lack of belief in democracy and dialogue that growing sectors of Venezuelan society have expressed.

A Gallup Poll released this week revealed that 59 percent of Venezuelans were unsatisfied with their democracy in interviews carried out last April.

And 86 percent of those surveyed by the Omnibus company in June said they wanted to live in a democracy, but 81 percent specified “in a better democracy than this one.”

Dialogue in Venezuela was easier during the government of former President Carlos Andres Perez (1989-93), Moronta told foreign journalists.

“With Caldera, there is easy access to him as an individual, but the government atmosphere was better before,” he added.

Coming from a bishop, such an opinion is significant because Perez, who behaves as an agnostic in religious terms, is a social democrat. Caldera, as well as being a practicing Catholic, was the founder and leader for half a century of the Christian Socialist COPEI party (which he later abandoned).

“If the leftist guerrilla struggle of the 1960s had been carried out in today’s social and political conditions, it would have triumphed,” stated Moronta.

Instead of “opening” democracy, which returned on the local scene in 1958 after the fall of the military regime, to make it more representative and participative, “the leadership opted to strengthen the top levels of society.

“Now we are paying the consequences, and we are at a moment in which a democratic opening is indispensable, for that 59 percent which doesn’t believe. What is needed is what we could call a conversion of the leaders, that they stop shutting themselves upstairs.”

If such a conversion of the country’s leaders does not occur, “may God help us” said the bishop, warning of the risk of some sectors of society opting for violence.

Excerpt:

By Humberto Márquez
CARACAS, Jul 6 1995 (IPS)

The country could be facing an explosive situation if the Venezuelan democratic system does not become more open, credible and participative, the president of the Episcopal Conference, Bishop Mario Moronta of Caracas, warned on Thursday.

“A ‘Salvadorisation’ of the country could be generated, a kind of selective civil war, and temptations of radically violent options and assaults on power could be turned to as outlets,” he said.

Speaking with foreign reporters, Moronta said he is concerned about the lack of belief in democracy and dialogue that growing sectors of Venezuelan society have expressed.

A gallup poll released on Thursday revealed that 59 percent of Venezuelans were unsatisfied with their democracy in April.

And 86 percent of those surveyed by the Omnibus company in June said they wanted to live in a democracy, but 81 percent specified “in a better democracy than this one.”

Dialogue in Venezuela was easier during the government of former President Carlos Andres Perez (1989-93), Moronta told foreign journalists.

“With Caldera, there is easy access to him as an individual, but the government atmosphere was better before,” he added.

Coming from a bishop, such an opinion is significant because Perez, who behaves as an agnostic in religious terms, is a social democrat. Caldera, as well as being a practicing Catholic, was the founder and leader for half a century of the Christian socialist COPEI party (which he later abandoned).

“If the leftist guerrilla struggle of the 1960s would have been carried out in today’s social and political conditions, it would have triumphed,” stated Moronta.

Instead of “opening” democracy, which returned on the local scene in 1958 after the fall of the military regime, to make it more representative and participative, “the leadership opted to strengthen the top levels of society.

“Now we are paying the consequences, and we are at a moment in which a democratic opening is indispensable, for that 59 percent which doesn’t believe. What is needed is what we could call a conversion of the leaders, that they stop shutting themselves in upstairs.”

If that conversion of the country’s leaders does not occur, “may God help us” said the bishop, warning of the risk of some sectors of society opting for violence.

Political violence in Venezuela was buried along with the last outbreaks of guerrilla violence in the 1970s, until two bloody military uprisings were staged in 1992, and rumours of others circulated.

That year, Moronta was the member of the clergy most sought after to mediate between rebellious prisoners, the military leadership, the government of Perez and other authorities.

In 1993, Perez was impeached, and began to be processed on charges of funneling funds to Nicaragua, while Caldera won the December elections.

In his year and a half in office, Caldera has boasted that he has pacified the armed forces.

But according to Moronta, disenchantment and uneasiness persist, demonstrated by “more than 7,000 protests” in 1994, many of which were ignored by the press.

The “anarchy of opinions” that followed the failure of the police to save hostages being held by violent criminals on Jun. 23, as well as a recent wave of lynchings of delinquents in poor neighbourhoods, can be seen as expressions of desperation and intolerance.

“The lynchings have their equivalents in the toll taxes and sentry boxes installed by the middle and upper classes in their neighbourhoods, to block transit by others through what they consider ‘their streets’,” he said.

Moronta also deplored that “some sectors want to play the line of national security, resorting to the easy option of a militarisation of activities, authoritarianism and the dissolution of parliament,” thus alluding to proposals put forth by several politicians who support Caldera.

The bishop ruled out the possibility of the Catholic Church playing a role other than the pointing out of options and helping to form new leaders.

“Throughout history, religion and the army have been the most conservative institutions, but now, along with the press, they have taken first place” in terms of popularity, shown by the same surveys in which politicians are bashed.

“But – and the Pope has been very clear in pointing it out to us – our role is not to do the work of lay people, but to support them.”

Criticised as a leftist radical, Moronta said he does not fear being punished, because he simply carries out his religious duties: “If the sitution becomes more extreme, it is up to the Church to become more radical – but radical in calling for dialogue.”

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