New men, new procedures and new ideals

By Luis Manuel Aguana

What is really serious about the recent case of corruption that the press has called "El Cucutazo" is not so much that it originated from the official opposition - which is already scandalous enough coming from those who pretend to be government - but from those who were the object of the robbery. It is as if we find someone to put their hands to the alms of the Church: it is not so much what you steal but who you steal it from.

What is scandalous in this case of corruption is that they discovered those who want to administer the nation's money arguing that castro-chavismo-madurismo is a thief, in a shoplifting operation, hiding the money destined for humanitarian aid. This has a much deeper bottom than simple thieves belonging to a political party.

Corruption linked to the exercise of power is not the monopoly of the PSUV nor of the illegitimate government of Maduro, it is since time immemorial of all the parties in Venezuela in a position to administer what is of the Venezuelans. That is not the problem - which it is - but rather the problem of the mechanisms in place to ensure that administrators do not steal public money, as well as the establishment of a minimum of controls so that this does not happen. Since the criminal cartel has seized power in Venezuela, the entire minimum control structure has been dismantled to prevent corruption. But we know that and that is one of the many reasons why we have to evict them from power.

However, what has not been proven until now is that this custom of dismantling control seems to be very convenient for those who want to succeed Maduro in power. Since the National Assembly merged the Executive Power with the Legislative Power through the Transition Law, nobody knows who controls what of the Republic's resources that have been recovered from abroad, and that have been retained in the different countries for the disposition of the interim government of President Juan Guaidó.

The National Assembly, being by nature the controlling body of the Executive, has not presented accounts or control mechanisms to preserve what has been recovered, nor who is in charge of doing so. The mere fact that the administrative disorder and the theft of funds for the humanitarian aid of Venezuelans abroad by the interim government of Juan Guaidó have been reported through a journalistic denunciation, gives an account of the existence of such a big matter that we could infer that we only know from that the tip of the iceberg, and that we Venezuelans have the full right to know. Otherwise there would hardly be any difference in corruption between what there is and what is intended to come.

But in my opinion, the problem goes beyond that. Unless we import politicians or they are extraterrestrials, the raw material with which politics is made in Venezuela is the same as that of the regime. If you put a magnifying glass over the militancy of absolutely all the political parties, the regime and its opposition, you will see the same political actors in our country, some younger than others, who have used politics to favor themselves, because that is what has finally happened. Without the need to cite names, we cannot justify the goods and the international trips of an infinite number of people from the opposition national politics who have taken advantage of the serious crisis we are going through to improve their living conditions, without having resolved anything for the Venezuelans, only maintaining the illusion that one day we will get out of this. All of this leads us to suspect if they really want to do it in order to continue living from "that" at the expense of our suffering. And that is what is truly aberrant.

All this leads us to a natural pessimism that indicates that we will never be able to solve the problem posed by a regime and an opposition that negotiates its permanence forever. That we will not regain democracy and freedom because a bunch of corrupt want to make and share the spoils of the Republic, leaving only a bit for the rest of us. Under these conditions it is impossible to convince anyone who has any hope. But as I always say to my friends: it takes much more than a corrupt to decline in my incorrigible optimism.

In Venezuela, to a greater or lesser extent, political parties are clubs of friends of their founder or founders, especially new ones. I will not point out any in particular but the only thing they have offered to the country is their charisma and sympathy and then mount on those attributes to request the necessary political capital to access the real booty that is none other than administering the Public Treasury of the Nation.

After they came to power, if they ruined the country, it doesn't matter. The system is built to restart and put trust in another, in an endless vicious circle. The last of them was Hugo Chavez in 1998 and recent political events point to the Leopoldo Lopez-Juan Guaidó dupla. As you can see, this is an unspeakable simplicity that marks the state of political underdevelopment of our people. How to resolve that? Beginning by understanding the cycle and correcting it, although it may already be too late to resolve the present.

What could we do then? Aim longer. Not to offer the country a charismatic and messianic leadership but a new structure on which to cement the Republic with a clear route that allows us to distribute power, putting it in the hands of many. To offer a new conception that, even if it means using the same defective raw material that has been used by all governments since 1811, can guarantee Venezuelans a minimum of control over what belongs to everyone, reducing the risk of handing over the country to an all-powerful messianic leader who invariably ends up defrauding the entire world because it is impossible to manage a modern state placed in the hands of a single human being.

And that cannot be confronted with a "government program" as the parties and Venezuelans are accustomed to, but rather by changing the system of power relations between those who must exercise it, in order to efficiently administer what belongs to all of us, guaranteeing well-being and quality of life for citizens. A system that obliges to build citizenship, correcting in the long term the defects of the political raw material. And it is possible to do this with a system that has been exposed for years by the founders of ANCO, and that we have struggled to make known, which bears the name of Proyecto País Venezuela Reconciliada vía Constituyente (se in Spanish, in http://ancoficial.blogspot.com/p/documentos-fundamentales.html).

It is obligatory to say it after 120 years: given the ruinous state in which the country's political raw material is found from the ethical, moral and political point of view, it requires the contest of "New men, new procedures and new ideals", the successful slogan of the Restorative Revolution of Cipriano Castro in 1899 that marked the entrance of the andines to power, and that changed the system of relations to exercise that power for more than a century, after years of political disorder since our separation from Great Colombia. If history has to repeat itself to enter a different era, I can't see a better time to try a different approach...

Caracas, June 18, 2019

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

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