In order to draw some useful conclusions for Venezuelans from what is happening in Chile with the Constituent process, it is necessary to review that experience in the two stages it has had, confronting them with the expectations that the people had of being able to reach a solution to their problems through the Refoundational way.
A Constituent Assembly process that takes place in a democratic and politically constructed society such as the Chilean one, has a completely different reading if it takes place in a devastated and devastated society such as the Venezuelan one, so that establishing comparisons and drawing conclusions from such a process in Chile, has a distance measured in light years than doing it in a Venezuela governed by criminals. However, there are aspects that can be reviewed without erroneous generalizations.
In the first place, there is no doubt that the Constituent processes were used in an artful manner by the international left of the Sao Paulo Forum to destabilize governments in Latin America after the success obtained by Hugo Chavez in 1999 in Venezuela. Hence, the Constituent tool for the Refoundation of the State has been denaturalized in the eyes of the whole world, and served to perpetuate authoritarian regimes with the excuse of popular sovereignty. The Socialism of the XXI Century is built on those foundations, and has caused unlimited corruption, extreme poverty, hyperinflation and massive exodus of our population.
In 2019, Chile was involved in a prolonged social protest provoked by the same radical factors that made possible the arrival of Gabriel Boric to power, brandishing the constituent card as a response to the social differences suffered by the country, and using a narrative similar to that sustained by the coup leader Hugo Chávez in 1998, convinced the population of the need to convene the Constituent process to resolve those differences.
But unlike what happened in Venezuela, the barbarity raised in the constitutional text submitted to the consideration of the Chilean people by the Constituent majority, was rejected by 62% of the population, on September 4, 2022: "In retrospect, it can be said that the proposed Constitution was flawed from the beginning and that it tried to cement a certain political vision of the world instead of putting on track the reforms so important for the country. In particular, points such as the abolition of the Senate, the restriction of the rights of the Constitutional Court and the disproportionate weighting of the votes of the indigenous population provoked resistance from the majority of Chileans. The lack of political experience of the elected members of the Constituent Assembly was also criticized..." (see Diálogo Político, La derrota del gobierno de Gabriel Boric, in https://dialogopolitico.org/agenda/derrota-para-gobierno-boric/).
However, despite the opinion of some experts who indicated that the people had already settled with that plebiscite the change of the Constitution, the political factors of the Chilean Congress agreed that Chile should have a new Constitution: "since the people had so decreed in the plebiscite of 2020. Therefore, it was established that the collective idea of a new Magna Carta should not fail" (see in Spanish Diálogo Político, ¿Cómo llegó Chile a este punto?, in https://dialogopolitico.org/agenda/como-llego-chile-a-este-punto/). From that moment on, a complex political process began, the procedure of which I discussed in my previous note (see in Spanish Chilean Constituent Assembly, a question of procedure?, in https://ticsddhh.blogspot.com/2023/05/constituyente-chilena-cuestion-de.html).
This process had an important critical milestone with the election, last Sunday, May 7, of the Constituent Council of 50 representatives elected by the Chilean people, for the purpose of deciding to approve or reject the preliminary draft presented by an Expert Commission. These results gave a resounding triumph to the Chilean right wing of the Republican Party, led by José Antonio Kast, main opponent in the last elections of the current president of the country, Gabriel Boric, definitively removing the Chilean Constituent process itself from the agenda of the Latin American left of the Sao Paulo Forum, which led the country precisely to that process.
It will be in the hands of these new representatives of the people, with a right-wing majority, to change or not the current Constitution, based on the Preliminary Draft presented by the Expert Commission, which is not "Pinochet's Constitution", as the narrative of left-wing radicalism indicates, since the current Constitution has been repeatedly modified since 1980, permanently adjusting it to the situation of the country.
The Chilean case teaches some lessons to the rest of the Latin American countries that are trying to solve the serious political situation we are facing, and where in some cases, such as Venezuela, in the National Original Constituent Alliance, ANCO, we believe that a Constituent process could solve, not only the institutional crisis created by Hugo Chavez and his ill-fated successor, but also establish the basis for the reconstruction of the country.
Chile arrived at the Constituent process in a forced way, not to solve an economic problem because it already had -and still has- the best development indicators in Latin America, but to solve politically how to spread that wealth equitably among the population, reducing social differences through a new Social Pact of coexistence that would allow immediate solutions in all areas for its citizens, such as health, education and social security. Did the Chileans need a Constituent for that? I do not know, but the forces they elected on May 7 for that purpose will decide.
But what I am sure of, is that Venezuelans did not need it in 1999, and our resentment towards the political class of that time, due to their sustained oblivion towards the problems of the population, made Hugo Chávez, with a fatuous flag, put an end to the known institutionality, putting us in a black hole from which we have not yet emerged. That is why if there is any place on the planet where a process is needed to wipe the slate clean of what is happening here, it is Venezuela.
But this cannot happen without knowing what is the model of the State we wish to build after this criminal mafia destroyed the country's institutionality. It is not possible to build the foundations of a State without having a precise idea of the State we want. That is why we have previously proposed to Venezuela a project for a new State, The Great Change, very different from the one that existed before 1999 and the one that exists now, which must be discussed and approved by a legitimate representation of the Venezuelan people through a Constituent process (see in Spanish The Great Change, A Proposal for the Refoundation of Venezuela, in https://ancoficial.blogspot.com/p/documentos-fundamentales.html).
Unfortunately, we are no longer a country with the solid institutions of Chile, nor the maturity of its political leadership, because these were dynamited by those who usurp power. Hence, it is impossible for a two-chamber Congress to have a preliminary constitutional draft of consensus among all the political forces, such as the one that will be submitted to the consideration of the Constitutional Council of Chile. But we could have a consensus of the national country around a Constitutional project as a concerted solution, reflecting a firm and unified decision of the Venezuelans in the face of an International Community that does not understand that the country will never reach a solution as long as there is a criminal mafia that does not wish to abandon power by any means, least of all the electoral one. In other words, a Project that we all agree upon first, to be debated in a Constituent Assembly afterwards. And among all of us discuss how to get there in spite of the tyranny, that is our harsh reality. That is our harsh reality. Is that too much to expect from what is left of the decent political leadership of the country? As long as we do not face that reality, we will come out of the nightmare later...
Caracas, May 11, 2023
Blog:
TIC’s & Derechos Humanos, https://ticsddhh.blogspot.com/
Email: luismanuel.aguana@gmail.com
Twitter:@laguana
No hay comentarios:
Publicar un comentario