By Luis Manuel Aguana
Some friends have written to me again asking me what happened to the
Constituent project that I had written so much about, given the regime's frenzy
and its now infamous fraudulent constituent.
I have replied to everyone: we never think of the constituent as an end,
but as a means to build a better country. And the fact that we promoted it in
an organized way from the National Constituent Alliance (http://ancoficial.blogspot.com/) was not due to anything else in that it was
the organized way in which civil society, through the mechanisms established in
our constitution, could kill two birds of a single stone: to resolve the
political crisis with the constitutional substitution of the regime, so that in
the same act we could all discuss a new political system for the country of the
future in peace and reconciliation.
Regrettably, the regime
did what the official opposition gathered in the MUD stubbornly refused to do,
summoning it to screw itself into power and get closer to Cuban
Castro-communism. But that is past history and I do not usually cry about
spilled milk but regroup forces to establish a new strategy that takes us to
the same place that we proposed from the beginning, which is nothing other than
the creation of that new political system that we must build among all.
But regrouping forces is
not easy. We had already taken a certain path in the National Constituent
Alliance until the regime decided to convene its fraudulent constituent without
the consent of the Depositary of Sovereignty. Some joined the ANC, both
individuals and organizations, with the intention of "leaving the
regime". Others - I believe the majority - did so in the hope of convening the
Original Constituent Assembly to discuss a Country Project, with new rules and
institutions, that would put us at the head of a runway – until now imaginary -
to really begin with Century XXI, in the same way as Venezuela did it after the
death of the dictator Juan Vicente Gómez in 1935.
Both groups are still
waiting for the ANC for this new strategy of action. I inform you that we have
not stayed calm. The task is very great and we cannot do it alone. It was always an important task of the Alliance to
convince the political factors that it was, is and still is necessary and
indispensable to achieve a healthy evolution of the country, that after leaving
this tragedy of criminals in power, let us discuss Venezuela in the only space
where it can be done: in a Constituent Assembly called and approved by the people.
And when we concluded that this was impossible to do with the political
factors that are now negotiating our future with the regime in the Dominican
Republic, we decided to embark on the hardest path: to try it ourselves with
the Depositary of Sovereignty and convince them that such a path was possible.
But it was a very long road and we were beaten by the regime. We would have
raised 3 million signatures (+15% of the electoral roll) as required in Article
348 of the Constitution for the convening of the Original Constituent Assembly,
which, with the help of the parties that are now the majority in the National
Assembly, would have been done in days, not to say hours. But they chose another more tortuous one who turned out to be a
loser. But we all lose...
At this moment an
important sector of opposition Venezuela is deciding that this official
opposition that did not understand the path that we had proposed, not only
could have replaced the regime through the suggested constituent path, but also
disregarded the mandate we gave them July 16 in a Popular Consultation, clearly
historical in the annals of world democracy, should be replaced at short notice
by another that best represents the interests of this suffering Venezuela. If this new entity
is to be achieved, it will be for them to decide on the paths and tasks
required for the urgent replacement of the regime of Nicolás Maduro, not
continuing this opposition parody that now exists only to lengthen its
permanence in power.
We at the ANC remain committed to convincing all Venezuelans that
whatever form a new opposition agrees on for the immediate cessation of Nicolás
Maduro's rule and his regime, Venezuela needs to discuss its Social Contract
again. And that is only achieved by calling the Original Constituent. We have a
working paper for that discussion and it is called Project Country Venezuela
Reconciled through Constituent, with some Constituent Bases for its convocation
(see the Project and its Bases in http://ancoficial.blogspot.com/p/documentos-fundamentales.html).
But the most important thing of all this discussion is that, as we begin
a new path with a new opposition leadership truly determined and ready for
immediate political change, the panorama of Venezuela must change, giving hope
to a people that needs answers now, not by 2018.
The international community that has been supporting the people of
Venezuela in this struggle that has cost so many lives of young Venezuelans is
only waiting for us to agree and have the rationality and wisdom to be
consistent with what we have done by protesting in the streets.
If on the one hand from outside they see us "negotiating" with
the regime and tacitly accepting that constitutional fraud of Nicolas Maduro
and Delcy Rodriguez, as the MUD has been doing by attending this
"dialogue" in the Dominican Republic, on the other hand, they will
not be able to continue applying the intelligent sanctions aimed at enclosing
and neutralizing the actions of the main officials of the regime against our
population. There is an urgent need to redefine the opposition strategy, and
this cannot be done with complacent opposition to the regime's wishes.
The urgent start of a new opposition platform would give us the right
framework of opposition to return to the original constituent path of a
reconstruction with reconciliation at the right time, but within a combined
strategy that could never be reconciled with a collaborative and dedicated
opposition. It will never be too late to recover the Venezuelans' hope of
change...
Caracas,
October 3,2017
Email: luismanuel.aguana@gmail.com
Twitter:@laguana
No hay comentarios:
Publicar un comentario