By Luis Manuel Aguana
I do not want to describe as a
"victory" this momentous milestone of yesterday when the legitimate
Supreme Court ruled in favor of a radical change in the Venezuelan electoral
system (see "Legitimate" Supreme Court declares the use of automated
voting for elections in Venezuela null and void, in spanish at http://ticsddhh.blogspot.com/2018/06/tribunal-supremo-de-justicia-declara.html), because to make it effective we still have to
continue doing what Adriana Vigilanza (@adrianavigi), author in exile of the
electoral recourse that produced the sentence, has been doing for many years:
working, working, working and continuing to work so that there can be
substantial changes in the way things are done in Venezuela.
In this long war, I cannot fail to
remember the most valuable people who have left an indelible mark, because they
were there - and in some ways still are - and without their contribution it
would have been difficult for any judge to have ruled in favour of this change.
Countless public letters and meetings with politicians demanding Authentic
Elections were held with Eric Ekvall, died in the middle of this electoral fight when we
needed him most, the main complainant of the complicity of the MUD in the fraud
of the 2004 recall; Iñaki Gainzarain, mathematician and columnist, profound
political analyst of the fissures of technical fraud and tenacious critic of
the actions of the CNE, from his blog Gainza&Edmat Winds and BitakoraEva; the tireless José Méndez, an energy expert engineer,
who has not ceased to insist and provide evidence at the International Criminal
Court, that what is happening to us has its origin in the electoral crimes
perpetrated in the CNE and that these should also be considered as crimes of
Lesa Humanidad; Pablo Brito Altamira and Luisa Elena Vidaurre, the main
promoters of the Declaración de Caracas, Coalición por la
Independencia y el Progreso and founders of the NGO Por La
Conciencia, who fought in their time for this recognition of yesterday's
Authentic Elections and a fundamental change in the Venezuelan electoral
system, to the extraordinary people of the State of Táchira, authors of that
report reviewed in this blog, “Algo bueno paso en el Táchira” in
2012, extraordinary technicians who signed under the pseudonym Plinio Vargas;
and of course, it is impossible not to remember the disappeared Carlos Lee Blanco, a distinguished Venezuelan university professor, he
is the driving force behind all initiatives for institutional change in
electoral matters.
Maybe some of them remain in the
inkwell who have collaborated in this struggle that begins to see its fruits
with today's sentence of the legitimate TSJ. I just wanted to remember those
who with their efforts have made the difference, and to whom Venezuela owes a deep
recognition. Many people, many memories in this long action that is just
beginning with specific objectives achieved, starting with this historic
sentence that declares void the use of voting and automated scrutiny in
Venezuela.
But as I mentioned, this is only the
beginning. We must continue to work, work and work much more. We must not
forget that this struggle is not only against the electoral system that this
regime has imposed on us for more than 14 years, but also against its alleged
heirs, who are still calling for elections without wanting to modify in a
single millimetre this technical-political monotony that subjugates democracy
and freedom in Venezuela, and who wish to use it for their own ends. That is
why what is at stake here is much more than is superficially perceived.
The politicians
of the MUD-Frente Amplio remain committed to convincing Venezuelans to embark
on another electoral process "with conditions" without explaining
that those "conditions" are impossible to achieve without another
electoral system. That first we have to close that anne called CNE, reform the
root of the system, and then appoint new authorities that can give Venezuelans
confidence that they are choosing their representatives with maximum
reliability.
But that is
not what is being raised here with the official opposition. They intend to
continue using this system but with "other Rectors" and other
"electoral conditions". All of them, without exception, are calling
for elections but without taking a look at the small detail that the system
does not serve as evidenced by the historic ruling of the legitimate Supreme
Court of Justice, and from there the main importance of making it known to the
whole world, especially to those countries that, without knowing the inner
workings of this cage-trap that is the CNE, believe that we will get out of
this serious crisis only by holding elections with "electoral
conditions". As a political friend told me, just because more than 3
million Venezuelans have left the country, you can't go to another electoral
process because it would violate their right to participate.
As the sentence implies, in
Venezuela, NO MORE ELECTIONS CAN BE CARRIED OUT until the electoral system is
changed and the electoral laws and regulations necessary to comply with this
declaration of NULLNESS of the automated voting and counting system for the
election of the positions of popular representation of the Public Powers and
other elections are reformed. In other words, as requested, and declared IN
PLACE, "No elections can be held in
the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela until there is an arbitrator (the National
Electoral Council) and a voting and counting system that allows them to be held
as'genuine' elections, in accordance with the Constitution of the RBV (sic) and
the Human Rights Treaties recognized by it". A morning rooster doesn't crow
lighter.
So let them stop saying, writing,
declaring, demonstrating, communicating, all the spokesmen of the official
opposition, including those from the Catholic Church who do so in good faith,
that what we must do in Venezuela is ask for more elections "with conditions".
Please, that's enough!!!! We Venezuelans must FIRST constitutionally remove
ourselves from Nicolás Maduro's regime, establish a National
Emergency Government that will be able to fully execute this
electoral sentence and then, after a period of stabilization and
re-institutionalization, call for elections again with a new, completely
healthy electoral system. That's the order. Hence the extreme importance of
this ruling which the official opposition has decided to ignore as if nothing
had happened here, as it has ignored the popular mandate of the 16J.
It is not a simple electoral
sentence, it is much more than that because it implies that those Rectors
indicated in the Fourth numeral of the Decision, "It is EXHORTABLEED to the NATIONAL ASSEMBLY that in accordance
with article 296 of the Constitution of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela,
the process of selection and appointment of new Rectors of the National
Electoral Council..." only makes sense if it is done within the
ordered change in the context of the sentence, and placing everything in an
even greater environment of change in the country's political system.
But unfortunately we will see from
civil society, again, a blind, deaf and tiny opposition wanting to make
primaries' to elect a new leadership' of the opposition to seek those
elections, trying again to deceive the people. Please! If I wasn't so pathetic,
I'd be laughing. We citizens must be empowered by these decisions because they
are not precisely aimed at those who have frustrated us and who have amply
demonstrated that they are outnumbered by the country's problem. They are
addressed to us and we must therefore understand them fully.
On June 1,
a group of Venezuelans, aware of this, began asking for the decision of this
National Emergency Government from the legitimate Supreme Court of Justice,
hoping that there will be many in civil society who will support this course of
action. We can no longer wait for Billo's as it was called in my times. People are dying, there's no
more time to lose.
Caracas,
June 14, 2018
Email: luismanuel.aguana@gmail.com
Twitter:@laguana
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