By Luis Manuel Aguana
“Hard times create strong men. Strong men create good times. Good times create weak men. And, weak men create hard times.”
G. Michael Hopf
I was impressed by the answer given by Moisés Naim, a well-known Venezuelan national and international analyst, to a precise question from journalist Adriana Amado of La Gran Aldea, inquiring about the disposition of the Venezuelan parties to solve the Venezuelan political problem:
"AA: -How willing are the traditional political parties to leave the banner of short-term subsistence and put themselves at the service of democracy in the medium term?
MN: -Parties are formed by citizens. The politician also needs opportunities to guarantee his position, because he has family to support, desires to satisfy. Politicians are always watching where the wind is blowing and few manage to break this slavery to the immediate preferences of the voters. Perhaps some minority can become independent of this yoke, but not many and not for long." (see in Spanish La Gran Aldea, Moisés Naím: “Hay que pensar bien con qué se reemplaza lo que la motosierra destruye”, 07-15-2025 in https://laldea.site/2025/07/15/moises-naim-hay-que-pensar-bien-con-que-se-reemplaza-lo-que-la-motosierra-destruye/?s=03) (highlighted our).
We Venezuelans have taken for granted that political parties in general and their leaders in particular -at least those who are dedicated to seek votes to occupy political positions as a trade- are individuals whose efforts are aimed at achieving the welfare of their voters, with a certain vocation of citizen service. We mistakenly think that politics is an office, like any other, exercised by people who, in the best of cases, dedicate their best efforts to the achievement of the collective welfare. However, we forget that these people also have career aspirations and, as Naim reminds us, need “opportunities to guarantee his position, because he has family to support, desires to satisfy”.
And certainly, most are short-term oriented individuals, always putting all their energy into the next election, and satisfying their immediate needs. But journalist Amado's question is crude and even without giving a direct answer, Naim answers it: the parties and the leaders we have are not willing to put themselves at the service of democracy BECAUSE THAT IS NOT THEIR NATURE. Those who are still there are there to solve their own short term problems, even when we know that the Venezuelan political problem is of medium and long term, and that no office in sight will solve the aspiration of Venezuelans to solve the crisis that affects us.
This answer would explain the existence of an alacranate that persistently accepts to go to elections with the regime, and even the participation of well-known opposition political leaders in their localities, in the upcoming municipal elections, who cannot necessarily be attributed any relation with the regime. They are the persistent politicians by trade, that is, “those who make a living out of it” and that nobody in their communities could point out to them as traitors to the opposition cause for their permanent defense of the banners of the traditional opposition parties, wielding in their defense the classic argument of “not losing spaces”.
The big question we must ask ourselves after this, is if with these parties and leadership, defined as they really are, we can solve the major crisis we are in after 26 years of continuous humanitarian tragedy.
What kind of political parties and leaders do we need for our problem TODAY? Certainly, we do not need those who just want to make a living like any other person exercising a trade. Those were required before -and not even- when there was democracy with rule of law. In a tyranny, things are completely different. It could even be compared to the situation that existed when the warlords of the 18th and 19th centuries recruited people to go to war. The only thing they promised in exchange for their lives to those who went “behind the man on horseback”, as Andrés Eloy Blanco described them, was the spoils of war in land and goods, seized in the battles they managed to win.
In the 21st century, I would dare to say that many of the opposition politicians who are fighting against the regime do not do so out of mere patriotism. They are waiting for their “spoils of war” as a reward for their services, a bonus that some “opponents” living abroad have already received in advance. No doubt some of them will justify it for having been imprisoned or risked their lives against the regime.
And it is not that I am setting myself up here as a guardian of ethics and morals, but if they do it for the loot, they could no longer be called politicians but mercenaries. That is why we must be very precise in identifying them, even if it is very difficult at the beginning, but in the end they themselves take off their masks. You must have already identified some of them....
And that is the challenge we face. To get capable politicians whose profiles go beyond the common politician mentioned by Naim, those who “are always watching where the wind is blowing” and “have a family to support”, but rather people dedicated to a very hard apostolate and determined to recover the country. Only with this determination can this objective be achieved. In this sense, we could say that one thing is politics as a craft in a normal situation and another very different thing is politics in the complex situation we are in now.
Perhaps some will tell me that these politicians already exist, and I would have no reason to doubt it. And if so, it would be very important that they manifest themselves soon, since no one could deny to me that they have not made themselves felt enough, given that we are still in the hole where we are.
Exercising politics as a trade in these dark times of war, is a much more necessary and noble act than doing so in the enlightened times of peace. The type of person needed is diametrically opposed to the one mentioned by Naim in his interview. It requires a great deal of courage, vision and intelligence. It requires a breadth and humility of soul, hardly found in any person, because no one personally gathers all that is required to know to defeat this hydra with thousands of heads that we face, so he must humbly let others guide and teach him, and willingly accept that he does not know everything. But above all and most importantly, a boundless love for this country to the point of risking his life in it, and not expect to collect any spoils when he has succeeded in liberating the country.
And you will tell me that there are already people with that profile all over Venezuela, and I do not doubt it. Venezuela has always stood out with honors in this field since the times of Independence. However, for some reason they have been excluded from exercising the noble craft of politics, because those who run it have not yet understood that their bases have changed because the country has changed, and the craft HAVE TO AND MUST BE ANOTHER one in this bitter hour of Venezuela. Here the logic of the american writer G. Michael Hopf, quoted at the beginning of this note, applies perfectly.
The difficult times of the dictatorships of the 20th century created the strong politicians that inaugurated the 40 years of peace and coexistence that the country experienced, the longest period of democracy in its history. Unfortunately, those good times created the weak politicians that generated these difficult times that began in 1999.
At the end of the cycle, these difficult times will create strong men and women for a new era of good times. Hopefully, they will shape politics as a craft, with politicians with the same characteristics as those of the beginning of the cycle, which are not by chance the same ones I described before. Maybe that can guarantee a new dawn for Venezuela.
Caracas, July 18, 2025
Blog: TIC’s & Derechos Humanos, https://ticsddhh.blogspot.com/
Email: luismanuel.aguana@gmail.com
Twitter:@laguana
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