BYE BYE CHAVEZ

By Humberto Calderon Berti and - - Reprint | | Print |

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CARACAS, Jul 31 2004 (IPS) - On August 15 Venezuelans will vote in a referendum on whether or not to revoke the presidential mandate of Lieutenant Colonel Hugo Chavez, writes Humberto Calderon Berti, ex-foreign minister of Venezuela, ex-president of OPEC, and a leader of the opposition umbrella group Coordinadora Democratica. In this article, the author writes that the Venezuelan people have struggled for years against the current regime, which has attempted to establish a totalitarian-style government. The referendum is the culmination of a long chain of events in which the electoral authorities, rather than facilitating the process they are charged with managing, did nothing but obstruct it. After the convocation of the referendum, the government began a campaign of intimidation and blackmail against those who had signed, resorting to the usual mechanisms preferred by totalitarian systems. In recent days there have been accusations that the opposition is preparing violent acts. If violence does occur, the regime will be responsible.

On August 15 Venezuelans will vote in a referendum on whether or not to revoke the presidential mandate of Lieutenant Colonel Hugo Chavez, in compliance with Article 72 of the Venezuelan Constitution.

The Venezuelan people have struggled for years against the current regime, which has attempted to establish a totalitarian-style government along the lines of that run by Cuba’s Fidel Castro, whose has found in Chavez his most loyal and docile disciple.

This struggle has not been easy. After the lamentable events of 11 April 2002 (the date of the failed coup against Chavez), the Venezuelan democratic opposition has had to work hard to distance itself from the radical anti-Chavez sectors and to repudiate the false notion the government has sought to disseminate abroad that the opposition is prone to using ”terrorism, coups, and sabotage”.

What is beyond dispute, in contrast, is that Chavez himself is a confessed and convicted coup leader, whose failed 1992 grab for power resulted the deaths of innumerable innocent people.

In the last two years Venezuela has been swept by a spectacular popular mobilisation unlike any previously seen in Latin American or most of the rest of the world.

Venezuelans are not protesting against mere bad government. They are protesting against the attempt of this regime to impose a totalitarian-style system. We Venezuelans have always had bad governments, and we always accepted that the only solution was electoral competition and voting. The August referendum is the culmination of a long chain of events in which the electoral authorities, rather than facilitating the process they are charged with managing, did nothing but obstruct it. We collected signatures to amend the constitution to allow for early elections, but the Supreme Court of Justice ruled against it. We gathered signatures in keeping with the constitutional requirements for holding a recall referendum, but the act was declared null and void.

We were obliged to begin a new process of collecting signatures and gathered over 3.7 million — considerably more than the 2.4 million required — but a new law was passed requiring more than 1.1 million of these to be individually verified.

Despite all of these difficulties, the steel will of the democratic opposition, peacefully guided by the Coordinadora Democratica, an umbrella group of all opposition political parties and the principal NGOs active in politics, succeeded in mobilising the country and did not allow the electoral authorities any alternative but to proceed with the referendum process.

After the convocation of the referendum, the government began a campaign of intimidation and blackmail against its supporters to pressure what amounts to the majority of the population, resorting to the usual mechanisms preferred by totalitarian systems: among others, firing public employees, making it difficult for those suspected of being in the opposition to obtain official documents, passports, and identity papers, and blocking the opposition from doing business with the state.

But it was impossible to thwart the will of the majority of the population. Opinion polls show that a solid majority will vote ”Yes” to remove Chavez.

Obstacles have continued to emerge right up to the eve of the referendum. A large number of citizens have been ”migrated” from their polling sites to other sites across the country in an attempt to keep them from voting. Venezuelans that live abroad, many of whom left because of country’s crisis, will be barred from voting as they were previously allowed to do — by presenting an identity card or passport– because of a new requirement that they show proof of legal residence. This requirement was imposed expressly to prevent thousands of Venezuelans living illegally in other countries from voting.

For its part, the regime is waging a misinformation campaign abroad to advance two lies: that polls show Chavez will win the referendum; and that because of this, the opposition is preparing acts of violence for the day of voting. The intent behind this move, worthy of Castro, is clear: knowing defeat is certain, Chavez is trying to sow confusion and manipulate international opinion.

In recent days there have been accusations that the opposition was preparing violent acts. If violence does occur, the regime will be responsible. Only it would stand to gain from violence. The opposition would neither benefit from it nor be in a position to exercise it.

Understandably, the opposition has been insisting on the importance of international monitoring, whether official, by the Organisation of American States or the Carter Centre — though not the European Union, as it has not been invited — or informal, through the presence of invited figures, some by the electoral authorities, others by the Coordinadora Democratica.

Thus we find ourselves in the final straightaway. A great deal hangs in the balance: for Venezuelans their freedom and democracy, and for the peoples of Latin America, the possibility that Chavez, if he is allowed to remain in power, lacking both control and scruples but backed by his country’s vast oil resources, will plunge the subcontinent into an abyss of instability with his continental plans. (END/COPYRIGHT IPS)