Returning to the constituent theme is for me like going back to my parents' house, many memories of a life experience that still does not end, even though they are gone. And although I know that house better than my own, because I grew up there, I never cease to be surprised by the variations in the different circumstances in so many years and the good and bad memories of the time we have spent in it, as well as those of those who accompanied us and left before concluding it. Because of them, because of us and because of a fixed idea that this is the right fight for the benefit of Venezuela, we continue in it, not only because we persevere convinced, but because time -that variable that everyone sometimes forgets- has been consistent in proving us right.
We have reached the point of no return that we have always warned about: if we do not call for a Constituent process, the regime will do it for us in any way it wants, to establish what Hugo Chávez Frías could not impose with his Constitutional Reform of 2007, a Communal State, to remain forever in power, with a carbon copy of the Cuban Constitution, disappearing all vestige of the direct democracy that we gave ourselves since 1947, freely elected by each one of us, to substitute it for the communal representation of the tyranny, which will decide for each Venezuelan the President and the rest of the Public Powers.
Since we founded the Alianza Nacional Constituyente Originaria, ANCO, what Venezuelans have perceived -including some ANCO followers- from our proposal, has been that the proposal we made to the country was nothing more than another way out of the Castro-Chavista-Madurist regime, and that is a regrettable mistake that is even repeated by the opposition leadership led by María Corina Machado (MCM), indicating that although it is necessary to make “some constitutional changes”, those should be made “after” we leave the regime. This has prevented the people from deciding the political future of the country in favor of a leadership that insists on making mistakes over and over again.
Perhaps we have not known -or we have not been able to- transmit something else, because in the middle of this mistake, the need of the majorities to urgently solve the problem of the Chávez-Maduro tyranny was mixed with a serious proposal for institutional change, without going through the fundamental fact that has put us today in the circumstance we are now bitterly living: the tyranny has been destroying from the beginning and in slow motion, the institutional bases that sustained our democracy and the Venezuelan State as a whole. Anything attempted from the corroded institutions of the regime, the Legislative Power, the Judicial Power, the Moral Power and finally the Electoral Power, would always run into the same wall of failure.
In view of the total collapse of the regime and its “best electoral system in the world” that took place in the electoral process of July 28, 2024, the CNE's ballot boxes are still down because there is no Venezuelan that will trust again in that casino of lottery machines managed by Cubans. Therefore, it is necessary for the regime to reform the political and electoral system, so that those who usurp power remain in power forever without anyone opposing them, not even the so-called scorpion opposition, which will be among the first to disappear with the first electoral application of this Constitutional Reform.
The purpose of the call for a Constituent Convention is to rebuild what has been destroyed, returning the entire Venezuelan institutional system to the first place, with the participation of the genuine representation of the people elected by Venezuelans to represent them, from the entire social and political spectrum of the country. That is, to “reset” Venezuela again. What remains after that will be a new Pact that will continue between the governors and the governed for the times to come, and which would start with a new election of the Public Powers, after the approval of a new Constitution. The “how” and “when” to make all this happen should be a matter of the highest priority for our legitimate opposition leadership. ANCO has always been at hand to collaborate in this matter, as it has done in the past.
For this writer, it is incumbent upon the legitimate political leadership of the opposition, currently led by Edmundo González Urrutia (EGU) and María Corina Machado (MCM), to devise and implement a plan to change the regime that plagues Venezuelans. But it is also absolutely necessary that this plan includes the summoning and subsequent election of the Constituents, with the purpose of re-founding the Nation on new bases, with the final generation of a new Pact between the governors and the governed. And it is precisely at this point where ANCO makes its proposal for the discussion of a new institutional framework for the country where we wish to live, which is outlined in a general way in our Project The Great Change (see in Spanish The Great Change, a Proposal for the Re-foundation of Venezuela, at https://ancoficial.blogspot.com/p/documentos-fundamentales.html).
However, we have seen with great concern that the regime is unstoppably advancing towards a Constitutional Reform and there is still no response from our main opposition leadership to counteract this advance. Once the Reform is carried out, there will be no constitutional way to call for the Constituent Assembly because Articles 347, 348 and 349 which give Venezuelans the right, as the depositary of the Original Constituent Power, to call for a National Constituent Assembly with the purpose of “creating a new legal system and drafting a new Constitution”, will disappear. This is the right to political participation established in the 1999 Constitution.
Therefore, we must not confuse gymnastics with magnesia. Our project cannot be understood as an agenda to get out of the regime. And it is up to EGU and MCM, as opposition political leaders recognized and supported by the majority of Venezuelans, as demonstrated on July 28, to carry out this mission. And it is up to them to propose to the country a way out to counteract this new advance of the regime with its Constitutional Reform. And it is to them and to the country that ANCO's Proclamation entitled: “LET'S MAKE AN UNDATED CITIZENS' REBELLION TO TRANSFORM THE STATE AGAINST THE LIQUIDATION OF DEMOCRACY BY THE WAY OF AN ARBITRARY CONSTITUTIONAL REFORM” of February 24, 2025 is addressed, which is summarized in the following paragraph:
“This unacceptable nonsense only intends to replace the constitutional state model, to impose, through a Constitutional Reform that destroys the basic structure of our fundamental text, which can only be done according to Article 347 of the Constitution, through a Constituent process, and not through the National Assembly. Consequently, the Alianza Nacional Constituyente Originaria (ANCO), expression of the Venezuelan organized civil society, PROPOSES to the Nation, to its truly democratic leadership, a positive, creative and solving scenario: to oppose, to the mentioned Constitutional Reform, a Constituent process of Original character, called by initiative of the popular sovereignty, proceeding, as soon as possible, to collect in a peaceful way, the largest number of signatures of Venezuelans over 18 years old, inside and outside the country. We are convinced that this would constitute the largest CITIZENS' REBELLION in the contemporary history of South America: 15 million signatures (9 million Venezuelans within the Venezuelan territory and 6 million Venezuelans abroad), a formidable figure much higher than the 3.2 million signatures required by Article 348 of the Constitution to call for the initiative of a constituent process”. (see in Spanish ANCO Proclamation Communiqué, in https://ancoficial.blogspot.com/2025/02/comunicado-proclama-anco-hagamos-una.html).
For the regime, the change of the Constitution is a fait accompli because they have the machines to manufacture the necessary votes for the approval of this Constitutional Reform. We see no other way to stop this process but to demonstrate what we have called a CITIZENS' REBELLION to show the world that Venezuelans are not willing to have a constitutional change imposed on us without calling for a Constituent Assembly, as established in the 1999 Constitution, because they are not proposing a reform but ANOTHER Constitution.
The citizens' call is in no way an election of Constituents, but it does constitute a mandate for those who will later occupy power, so that Constituents are elected throughout the country. It is a citizen consultation that could be carried out by non-conventional means that could be audited, and that would include the participation of all Venezuelans inside and outside Venezuela, even on the same day that the regime calls for the voting of such Reform. This would be the way to retake the combative spirit of Venezuelans, who voted on July 28 for a change, and a conclusive demonstration to the Trump administration in the US, that the capacity for popular mobilization is still intact or better, after all that has happened. But there has to be a part of the opposition that distances itself from all vestiges of the interim government in front of the world, assuming once and for all the mandate that the Venezuelan people gave to the Venezuelan government.
ANCO will continue to insist, in all scenarios, on the need for the people to decide, even above their own political leadership. Because as I have pointed out, our proposal has never tried to decide for them how tyranny will finally be resolved. But the interests of the collective come first, and the political leadership must give way to that decision of the people, regardless of how political change comes about. It is up to them to understand the historical time and be part of the process. Otherwise, as it has happened before in our history, events will decide the course for them, and sooner rather than later, the path of democracy and freedom will end up being imposed, but hand in hand with other actors.
Caracas, February 27, 2025
Blog:
TIC’s & Derechos Humanos, https://ticsddhh.blogspot.com/
Email: luismanuel.aguana@gmail.com
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