Burned cartridge or silver bullet

By Luis Manuel Aguana

The most powerful argument used by the enemies of consulting the Venezuelan people is that "a consultation was already made on July 16, 2017”. In fact, even some media already qualify the mechanism as a "burnt out cartridge". (see in Spanish PanamPost Emplazamientos y desplantes públicos marcan el inicio de la “nueva ruta” de Guaidó, in https://es.panampost.com/jose-gregorio-martinez/2020/08/24/emplazamientos-y-desplantes-publicos-marcan-el-inicio-de-la-nueva-ruta-de-guaido/) for that very reason.

That's like you disqualifying the marriage institution because your first marriage failed, or saying that cars are useless because you had an accident, or that you don't get on a plane anymore "because they fall". If that were the case, people would not get married and the car and airplane industry would have already disappeared. And you're going to tell me more stupidity, aren't you? Well, yes, that's the argument. But it is not stupid, it is a perfectly directed and orchestrated campaign so that neither you nor I will speak out, leaving it to the broken bats that have driven this opposition ship to decide what will end up happening in Venezuela, including negotiating with the regime.

I have always made it clear that the 1999 Constitution gives us the right to consult the people as often as we want, and anything we consider necessary, fully exercising our right to participation. What is the problem with consulting the people of Venezuela to get out of this crisis, the biggest since our founding as a Republic? In the year 2017 ANCO insisted with the politicians who were then leading the official opposition, that in view of such stupidity of killing us in the streets because the regime decided unconstitutionally to call for a Constituent Assembly without having the qualification to do so, that it would be the people themselves who would decide that through a Popular Consultation.

Well, after practically pulling the rope (not to say the correct Venezuelan expression) the politicians agreed to the consultation but they never had the intention of making effective the mandate that emerged from the Venezuelan people, and on the contrary they changed it for a regional election that the regime took away from them. They saw an opportunity to make a favorable exchange with the regime, but they exchanged their mother for a pair of sandals. Can it be deduced from this previous disappointment of a mediocre and criminal opposition that it was wrong to consult the Venezuelan people?

The political effect that this had at the international level was long enough to appoint a new government with the support of the International Community, AND THEY DID NOT DO IT. Can we blame the Popular Consultation for that betrayal? What idiot could think of that? And excuse me for being blunt. It is the crude and foolish manipulation of opposing factors that HAVE NO answer to give the Venezuelans on how to get out of this trap, and they prefer to point to the institution established in Article 70 of the Constitution as a "burnt-out cartridge" to definitively cancel out that the people can express themselves again and as many times as they think necessary.

I want to repeat again: on July 16, 2017 the Venezuelan people were consulted to reject the call for an unconstitutional Constituent of the regime and to order the appointment of new public powers. If that was not done, it is not the mechanism that is to blame but those who made the decision not to comply with the popular mandate. They had the means to do it even if they shouted that they couldn't. Could they have done it on January 23, 2019 by appointing Juan Guaidó as the President in Charge? They could have done it on July 16, 2017, TWO YEARS BEFORE, BUT WITH THE POPULAR BACKING. Imagine where we would be now if they had done it!

Now, before a new proposal of the Government in charge of "Summoning the country to express its true will through a national and international mechanism of massive citizen participation", the dogs were on top of the proposal to summon the Venezuelans, even without officially announcing the route of the Popular Consultation. In my previous note I warned that even if we distrust those who in the past made the 16J-2017 Consultation fail BECAUSE THEY ARE STILL THERE, it was necessary for the citizenry to actively participate - from beginning to end - and that on this occasion Civil Society should act in the entire decision-making process to ensure that the popular mandate was fulfilled (see Blank check, in https://ticsddhh.blogspot.com/p/blog-page_727.html). This assurance goes through the involvement of the international community and all the sectors in Venezuela that believe that something can be done in the country.

If the Venezuelans fall into the deception that "we already did a consultation" we will be castrating ourselves the power of the Popular Sovereignty, which is established in the Constitution. If Venezuelans do not assert the result of that consultation, it will be better for the last one to go out of the light and lower the Venezuelan bailiwick. On July 17, 2017, there was not a single meeting of the opposition to see how to do with the resounding mandate that the people had given to the National Assembly. They did not know what to do with that! Or rather, they knew and we saw it with the betrayal of that AN Directive that we all know. On this occasion it is better for the government in charge to think about this when the Venezuelan people are consulted.

Many have pointed out the failure of a year and a half of the Responsible Government to get support for this new route announced. It is true. It has been resounding. The mantra of January 23, 2019 has not been fulfilled. But Juan Guaido is still THE ONLY RECOGNIZED INSTITUTION IN THE WORLD and the only vehicle available that we can use NOW to displace the regime of Nicolas Maduro Moros. Its failure cannot be the excuse to sink the only raft that floats after the shipwreck without anyone having presented another one.

And don't tell me that asking the international community to organize to intervene in Venezuela is an option. The way things are going, when that happens all those who are asking for that will have died of old age. It is not bad that you continue to ask for it, but it will be like those who aspire to have the rain appear in the middle of the desert. Instead of denouncing the route, get on it to avoid it from failing! Let's decide among all the questions, the conditions and the mechanism of collection! Because the route will fail if we are not all there to prevent it. And Juan Guaidó and his government in charge must in turn open the doors to a genuine, open and Venezuelanist participation of those of us who are the true sufferers of socialist misfortune, leaving aside sectarianism and political pettiness so that this does not happen, turning a possible "burnt cartridge" into a silver bullet…

Caracas, August 24, 2020

Email: luismanuel.aguana@gmail.com
Twitter:@laguana

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