Let the Venezuelan people decide

By Luis Manuel Aguana

Versión en español

Since the intervention of Canon Madariaga in that historic "I do not want to command" from April 19, 1810, until the Pastoral of Bishop Rafael Ignacio Arias Blanco, on May 1, 1957, which was the starting point for the fall of the perejimenist dictatorship and the restoration of democratic life in Venezuela (see https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Ignacio_Arias_Blanco), the Catholic Church with its precise interventions has played a crucial role in the defining moments of the life of the Republic.

In this opportunity, and in what has been pointed out as the worst and darkest moment that Venezuela has lived since its foundation, the Catholic Church does not cease to give its clear orientation to Venezuelans.

In an enlightening article published this week in the newspaper El Nacional entitled "Church before urgent national change", Bishop Ovidio Pérez Morales reminded us of the bishops' exhortation last year, "to all Venezuelans to be protagonists of the present and the future of our beloved country "and not mere spectators facing evil." (see article in Spanish at
http://www.el-nacional.com/noticias/columnista/iglesia-ante-urgente-cambio-nacional_217516).

This article by Mons. Perez Morales should be replicated with as much or greater intensity in social networks as the one recently published by Professor Ricardo Hausmann, indicating a military intervention in Venezuela.

The reason? Msgr. Perez Morales reminding us that the episcopate in its pastoral exhortation "Jesus Christ light and way for Venezuela" (13/1/2017) was surprisingly precise in what had to be done last year and was not done, again indicating as a good Pastor of the Church, the path unfortunately political factors ignored in 2017 and stubbornly still insist on ignoring:

"The political change that the bishops propose involves a referendum on the" socialist "system-regime, which goes beyond a simple presidential election, requires reconstituting the National Electoral Council, dismantling the illegitimate national constituent assembly and ensuring the conditions for the demonstration free from the sovereign, it also opens the door to the convocation of a genuine constituent assembly. "

This path is summarized in a single sentence: Let the Venezuelan people decide. That the Venezuelan people decide if they want to be a socialist; that the Venezuelan people decide if they want it to be a sectorized group of the society or the sovereign people with their legitimate representatives, who conduct or not a political change in Venezuela through a National Constituent Assembly; that the Venezuelan people decide their destiny.

This is the same position of principles and proposal of the National Constituent Alliance to all Venezuelans. On October 28, 2017 the National Constituent Alliance issued a communiqué urging the National Assembly to legitimize the holding of a Consultative Referendum to consult the people about the definitive solution to the Venezuelan problem, based on the conceptual vision that is the People and only the Venezuelan people who must determine their own destiny (see The solution resides in Sovereign People, in http://ancoficial.blogspot.com/2017/10/la-solucion-reside-en-el-pueblo-soberano.html).

That solution pass thru the National Assembly complied with its legal and constitutional obligation to appoint a legitimate Electoral Power and that, with the help of international observation, Venezuelans could be consulted about the matters proposed there, in relation to the National Constituent Assembly of the regime and the appointment of a National Union Government, as decided by the Venezuelan people in the Popular Consultation of July 16, 2017 and that was ignored by the political factors calling for that Consultation.

The obligation to consult the Venezuelan people regarding any solution to their future was ratified by the Supreme Court of Justice, with its headquarters in the OAS in Washington, DC, in the Order for Execution of Judgment dated November 30, 2017 (Auto of the TSJL of 11-30-2017 in Spanish at http://ancoficial.blogspot.com/2017/12/auto-de-ejecucion-de-sentencia-tsj.html), according to which: "Because the country is immersed in a deep social and economic crisis that has affected the normal life of citizens, is appropriate the activation of civil and peaceful resistance decreed by this High Court under the provisions of articles 333 and 350 constitutional, which makes it urgent to produce the changes that Venezuela requires for the restitution of the validity of the Constitution and therefore of democracy in Venezuela, therefore, any exit from the crisis that is sought in the political scenario must be made within the mechanisms of popular participation This is enshrined in Article 70 of the Constitution, and never behind the back of the people, with the primary goal of causing the immediate exit of everything that has generated the crisis through which the country is going. "(Point No. 3 of the Order of the TSJL) (Highlight of ours).

This makes consultation with the people of Venezuela mandatory. If the political factors gathered in the MUD ignored the proposal of the National Constituent Alliance and now negotiate an agreement behind the backs of Venezuelans, they can not ignore that any agreement that is carried out passes through the approval of the sovereign People of Venezuela.

The Catholic Church marks again, with these words of Bishop Ovidio Perez Morales, a true path of light for all Venezuelans. After this, Maduro should say like Emparan when the Church represented by the canon José Joaquín Cortés de Madariaga, urges the people to reject their mandate: "If you do not want me, well I do not want to control". And really we dont want him...

Caracas, January 6, 2018

Blog: http://ticsddhh.blogspot.com/

Email: luismanuel.aguana@gmail.com

Twitter:@laguana