TICs y Derechos Humanos: Eduardo Colmenares Finol, the premature departure of a distinguished constituent

By Luis Manuel Aguana

I am beginning to think after the tragic physical demise of Eduardo Colmenares Finol that there are indeed dark forces conspiring to make our effort to carry out a Constituent Assembly in Venezuela a failure. I have never felt so much pain, rage and impotence as I did today when I learned of the death of this Venezuelan so valuable to face our future as a Nation. How could we do it without people like Eduardo Colmenares Finol? Eduardo is the brother of Enrique Colmenares Finol, National Coordinator of the Alianza Nacional Constituyente Originaria, ANCO, and an outstanding intellectual of our movement.

So far ANCO has seen the departure, in one way or another, of a unique constellation of unique figures who have left an open abyss of ideas for Venezuela. Illustrious Venezuelans among whom stand out Hinderburgo Becerra, Jacobo Yepez Daza, Rafael Enrique Casal, Rosa María Zulueta, Rafael Grooscors Caballero, and now Eduardo Colmenares Finol, without counting countless missing bastions of our precious regions of the country. Each loss is exponentially more painful when we see that even our message does not reach everyone as it should, lacking the powerful communicational machinery that our staunchest detractors have. The loss of a voice like Eduardo's will be hard but not his ideas, which will remain because we will make them last. Eduardo did not die, he only transcended...

It is not at all unimaginable that a concerned Venezuelan would show concern for the welfare of others. In fact that is what we are seeing more and more when a common plague plagues us all with the intensity we have suffered for more than 22 years. But to see such interest in an educated, successful individual, a successful businessman, when all those of his profile have left the country, is extremely rare. And concerned to such a level of clearly expressing in a work that transcends, the place that civil society must occupy in a nation so that it can develop:

"I have been able to observe in my exchanges and experiences with other cultures, that the political maturity of the peoples achieved throughout continuous struggles for the political rights of their societies, is what results in basic institutions whose fundamental purpose is to create sustainable social welfare, founded on a virtual platform that is the consequence of the rational balance of three autonomous political columns: civil society, as fundamental ethical support, the State as regulating entity, and the modern political parties as doctrinal support. Any one of them that is weakened or ignored, results in political instability where neither progress nor sustained welfare is achieved"(1).

This thesis formulated in 2006, in my opinion, is a precursor of the conditions that Latin American businessmen were already beginning to understand 7 years later as necessary in 2013 when Henry Kronfle, then President of the Latin American Industrialists Association-AILA-, within the framework of the COINDUSTRIA 2013 Congress, in a conference entitled "Dialogue and Inclusion: The Bases for the Development of Latin America", expressed astonishingly: "When we consider development as a goal, we make a mistake. Development is a means. The goal is to create wealth. And the result of creating wealth is to reduce poverty" (see Henry Kronfile's speech at CONINDUSTRIA 2013, at https://youtu.be/llp2D7Zg_RQ).

Eduardo Colmenares Finol had previously advanced conceptually the institutional path necessary to reach this conclusion, analyzing in depth the relationship between civil society and political leadership, which are the natural determinants of the development and wealth of their societies. All this said from the perspective of a member of civil society, not a politician, is a surprising advance that shows that it is us, the citizens, with all the capabilities, who are in the right position to study in depth a problem that concerns us all, given the violent destruction to which we have been subjected. It was Eduardo Colmenares Finol who accepted this intellectual challenge from civil society and described it in depth.

Already in 2014, Eduardo began to publish the initial articles that ended with the publication of his latest work "Venezuela, un País Inconstituido" (work on Amazon.com, at https://tinyurl.com/bdcvby3u), a very concrete manifestation of what definitely needs to be discussed in an Original National Constituent Assembly. Our movement for change has never improvised in the discussion of what is necessary and Eduardo was one of the main bastions of that discussion, which made him a first line candidate as one of our most distinguished constituents at the time of its convocation. Eduardo's teachings, which fortunately remain in writing, will help us to close that void which is completely impossible to replace, with Venezuelans who have already understood the value of his words and the transcendence of what still needs to be done in Venezuela.

Eduardo Colmenares Finol by anticipating his final essay in his series of six articles published "Why a Constituent Assembly?" from October 2014 to October 2015 (2) (and which I suggest everyone in Venezuela to read in great detail) orients the common Venezuelan for the necessary road we will have to travel with an Original Constituent Assembly. Every issue addressed by Eduardo is transcendental. At the end of his essay, Eduardo honored me by asking me to write the prologue to his manuscript, which I present to you on his behalf (see the original Prologue to Venezuela, un País Inconstituido, at https://ticsddhh.blogspot.com/2022/02/prologo-del-libro-de-eduardo-colmenares.html). I am sure that Eduardo would agree with this gift given his permanent interest in making Venezuelans aware of our project and purpose to Refound Venezuela.

I am still shocked by the irreparable loss that Venezuela has suffered with Eduardo Colmenares Finol. I simply cannot accept that people of such worth simply leave at a time when we need them the most. This leaves those of us who are left with a much greater responsibility to advance a crusade defined by people who, like him before him, defined history, even after their death. Sooner or later we will make the Refoundation of Venezuela a reality through a Constituent Assembly process of an Original character, of that I have no doubt. I am concerned about the conditions under which this process will take place and how it will be discussed, and even more important, about the people who will be in charge of it. But I am also concerned that Eduardo will not be there. But we must make sure that other Venezuelans with equal and infinite love for Venezuela will be there.

In ANCO we must take special care of the original ideas for change set forth in our proposal The Great Change, which has in concrete terms that accumulation of concepts that were born from intellectuals such as Eduardo Colmenares Finol and the founders of ANCO, especially his brother Enrique Colmenares Finol, and have been maintained over time because they are still relevant to the Venezuelan problem. We only have to continue, and God knows we will succeed...Eduardo is already with Him to help us....

Caracas, February 12, 2022

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(1) Eduardo Colmenares Finol, La Sociedad Civil y el Liderazgo Político Moderno, Pág. XIV, ISBN 980-12-1974-2, San Cristóbal, Agosto 2008.

(2) ¿Por qué una Constituyente? (I)

Venezuela, un país inconstituído, por Eduardo Colmenares Finol

http://proyectopaisviaconstituyente.blogspot.com/2014/10/porque-una-constituyente-i-venezuela-un.html

¿Por qué una Constituyente? (II)