Intervention at the Dialogue Table, "What do citizens think about the Primaries?", sponsored by the Asociación Civil Mujer y Ciudadanía, Colegio de Ingenieros de Venezuela, November 24, 2022.
Good afternoon,
First of all, I would like to thank the Asociación Civil Mujer y Ciudadanía, as well as Espacio Civil AC, and the rest of the organizations present here, for the kind invitation made to the Alianza Nacional Constituyente, ANCO, to this important Dialogue Table that tries to answer the disturbing questions: What do citizens think about the primaries? Are the primaries part of the citizens' priorities? Are they a concern only for politicians?
I have always thought that a great part of the situation we Venezuelans live in is due to the fact that we have insisted on giving answers to the wrong questions. That if we do not ask the right questions, we will never get the right answers. That if we give wrong answers to the right questions, at least we have the opportunity to try again until we find the right answer. But if the questions are wrong in the first place, we will never be on the right track.
Why did all opposition sectors -not only political parties- come to the conclusion that an opposition primary was necessary to oppose the regime to a single candidate? I will give you my version. After the disaster of the 2004 recall referendum, and note that I do not call it a defeat, because it was later proven that the regime has been consistently fraudulent since that year in the results coming from the CNE machines (not by me, but by Smartmatic itself), the ENTIRE OPPOSITION WORLD agreed on the need to aim at the 2006 elections, with only one candidate, chosen among Julio Borges, Teodoro Petkoff and Manuel Rosales.
Those of us with gray hair remember what happened in that election. Venezuela was still waiting in long lines to vote at the polling stations due to the operation morrocoy that the regime applied to us, and at 7pm the candidate Rosales surprises us with a press conference announcing that he lost. Impossible greater disappointment for all of us who put our faith in those elections. Thousands of rumors pointing to the candidate's surrender, which I am not going to endorse here, but the reality of the common feeling of betrayal that Venezuelans felt in that election. Those who wish to review the story of that, I invite you to see it in detail, told by a protagonist who was in that Rosales Campaign Command, the late Eric Ekvall, political advisor of that campaign (search on YouTube Eric Ekvall - Presidential Elections in Venezuela 2012, in https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nSa0kgHgcjs). Draw your own conclusions.
I believe that it was from that moment on that the opposition began to doubt about the effectiveness of the electoral route to remove the regime from power. However, and in spite of the fact that many Venezuelans stopped believing in this path, the parties never let go of it, insisting that in 2012 we would make the difference. And Venezuelans, despite all reservations, backed it. And in 2012, primaries were held which gave Henrique Capriles as the standard bearer, whom, once again, all opponents supported.
The regime and the CNE fine-tuned all strategies aimed at clinging to power, and despite all forecasts pointing to an opposition victory on October 7, 2012, the opposition "lost" those elections. Despite the crude explanations of the then technical spokesman of the opposition, Roberto Picón, accepting that "electoral defeat", Venezuelans went home disappointed. I gave an answer to every misleading statement made in that communiqué in an article entitled "To every frustrated voter: My answer" (you can also look it up in the networks, but I will give you the address: https://ticsddhh.blogspot.com/2012/11/a-todo-elector-frustrado-mi-respuesta.html).
In 2013, after the death of the tyrant, things got worse. Maduro's technical fraud with the 200 thousand and some more votes over the opposition candidate, was so gross that it still does not fit in my understanding that we did not ignore Capriles' salsa and pots and pans bullshit and went all together upset (for not saying the appropriate word) to the CNE to have all those rotten boxes of fraud opened (read what I wrote on that occasion, which I titled "Las 12 Mil Cajas de Tiby" (Tiby's 12 Thousand Boxes), in http://ticsddhh.blogspot.com/2013/04/las-12-mil-cajas-de-tiby.html).
Once again, the electoral technicians of the opposition - Engineer Roberto Picón and his Group La Colina - were used to accommodate this, when they were called by the NEC to attest to the technical "veracity" of the alleged "triumph" of the Illegitimate. And this was accepted without anything happening. Now Roberto Picón is Rector of the CNE, appointed by an illegitimate National Assembly. Draw your own conclusions.
From then on, the history of the CNE is well known. Maduro has screwed himself even more in power, and still the solution that we give from the opposition to the problem of the regime is still the same, asking ourselves if a primary to go to elections controlled by those who usurp power is still valid. And my answer is a resounding NO.
And you will ask me, if it is not that, then what is it? And here is what ANCO has proposed to Venezuela: THAT THE VENEZOLAN PEOPLE BE THE ONE TO DECIDE what to do with this national and continental problem produced by the criminals running the country. Not the parties, not the pre-candidates to the primaries, not the presidential candidates, BUT THE SUFFERING VENEZOLAN PEOPLE. We in ANCO have proposed to call a Constituent Assembly as a mechanism not only to decide the immediate course of the country, but also to decide the Refoundation of the Nation on new bases and institutions. But this cannot be done with a usurper mafia in power.
ANCO has put forward a proposal entitled "El Gran Cambio" (see "El Gran Cambio, Una propuesta para la Refundación de Venezuela", in https://tinyurl.com/5n6enjrr) for this reinstitutionalization, which includes a territorial political rethinking and a profound reorganization of public power, breaking it up in all Federal and Municipal entities, taking power, resources and their administration to the citizen level in a constitutional manner. We are at your disposal to deepen what is expressed in this proposal at any time.
We have asked the Venezuelan people TWICE what they want, once in 2017 and once in 2020, and the answer WAS CONTUNDENT: Maduro out and a call for free, fair and verifiable elections, with all the help that the International Community can give us. What part of this has not yet been understood by those who lead the opposition?
To summon Venezuelans to a meeting of all currents, where they will elect, not a President, but the legitimate representatives of that people, victims of all the atrocities committed, from all corners of the country, to deliberate what to do with what some criminals have destroyed, is nothing more than the beginning of the titanic task of starting over in a UNIFIED and reconciled manner. The Catholic Church has called it the Refoundation of the Nation and we in ANCO have accompanied this concept.
We have proposed to Venezuela and to the International Community that this Constituent election be arbitrated by countries friendly to Venezuela interested in a peaceful, electoral and constitutional solution. This must be negotiated with the kidnappers of power, with the pressure of those who claim to be friends of Venezuela, instead of negotiating with disadvantage, as some negotiators began to do in Mexico without the due representation of Venezuelans, by recognizing the regime as the Government of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela upon signing the Memorandum of Understanding. A group of Venezuelans have filed an Appeal for Protection before the legitimate TSJ in exile for the rescue of the political participation and the annulment of this agreement (you can review the documents in https://ticsddhh.blogspot.com/2022/10/solicitan-nulidad-del-memorandum-de.html).
Summoning Venezuelans again to a primary will not only be a disappointment for all, but the beginning of the most expeditious way to legitimize what has cost us years and blood to delegitimize. Only Venezuelans have the power to decide what to do, whether to continue in the deception or to resist until this gets back on track, based on these fundamental principles.
To conclude, I will try to ask the right question: How long will we continue ignoring the voice of the people in the solution of the country's crisis? Any solution with political stability for Venezuela will involve the participation of the citizens in the final destiny of the country. The Constituent Assembly is nothing more than the basic reflection of this fundamental constitutional principle. To continue ignoring that voice is the mistake that the political elites are making by disregarding the people and using them in the decision making process. We cannot continue to make the same mistake....
Thank you very much...
Caracas, November 24, 2022
Blog: https://ticsddhh.blogspot.com/
Email: luismanuel.aguana@gmail.com
Twitter:@laguana
No hay comentarios:
Publicar un comentario