By Luis Manuel Aguana
The first time we addressed our project El Gran Cambio (The Great Change) in terms of Refounding the Nation at ANCO was on the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Carabobo, with the Message from the Presidency of the Venezuelan Episcopal Conference (CEV) entitled “To the People of Venezuela on the occasion of the Bicentennial of the Battle of Carabobo”, dated June 23, 2021, which was supported in content and spirit by ANCO's message published on July 3, 2021, entitled "ANCO expresses its support for the 'Message from the Presidency of the Venezuelan Episcopal Conference to the people of Venezuela on the occasion of the Bicentennial of the Battle of Carabobo,' and the creative powers of the Venezuelan people and their republican tradition" (see in SpanishANCO Communiqué, 07-03-2021, in https://ancoficial.blogspot.com/2021/07/anco-expresa-su-apoyo-al-mensaje-de.html).
The Venezuelan Catholic Church, summarizing this profound aspiration of the Venezuelan people in a single concept, accurately interprets the history of Venezuela and the liberation struggle that led to the battle of June 24, 1821, in Carabobo:
"10. The legacy left to us by Carabobo compels us to think about an unavoidable task at this time. It was the culmination of a process and the beginning of a whole project to build the country. The dark clouds looming over the country and the consequences of poor political practices in recent years raise the urgent need to “REFUND THE NATION.” Based on the principles that constitute nationality, inspired by the testimony of so many men and women who made independence possible, the task that concerns us today and for the future is to rebuild Venezuela, but without looking back with nostalgia. The legacy we have received allows us to move forward and build the Venezuela that the vast majority longs for and feels is their task: where justice, equity, fraternity, solidarity, unity, and peace prevail" (see full message from the CEV dated 06-23-2021, in https://conferenciaepiscopalvenezolana.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/5.MENSAJE-DE-LA-PRESIDENCIA-DE-LA-CEV.-Batalla-de-Carabobo.pdf) (highlighted ours).
In that Message to the country, the CEV clearly stated for posterity “the urgent need to REFOUND THE NATION,” a concept fully shared by ANCO on numerous occasions with Venezuelans, and expressed in other words but along the same lines, days before that historic message: "This crisis seriously threatens the existence of the Republic and calls on all Venezuelans to actively participate in the urgent mission of restoring national unity, dignity, justice, social and political peace, freedom, democracy, progress, and the general well-being of our population. This effort must be undertaken through a genuine process of national reconciliation, which begins with the affirmation of the principles and values of our republican tradition, in order to bring about a reunion between national actors and sectors, and thus be able to: Establish a new social and political pact, in such a way that we overcome the conflict that threatens to lead to an undesirable and tragic violent confrontation, and allows us to achieve, in peace and with our own forces, the inevitable transformation of the state and national reconstruction" (see in Spanish Comunicado, ANCO a los venezolanos y a la Comunidad Internacional: La crisis es del pueblo venezolano y solo el pueblo venezolano debe resolverla, 12-06-2021, in https://ancoficial.blogspot.com/2021/06/anco-los-venezolanos-y-la-comunidad.html) (highlighted ours).
From that moment on, the call for an Original National Constituent Assembly has no other purpose for ANCO than to REFOUND THE NATION, as we have been stating for many years with the Great Change Project, which has since become a proposal for the Refoundation of Venezuela.
But The Great Change is not a project that aims to “improve what already exists,” as defined by the DRAE (Reengineering: f. Restructuring of a project, company, or institution in order to improve its results or profits) but goes further, rethinking and reinventing the way we have conducted power in Venezuela since our founding as a Republic, proposing a new distribution of power in Venezuela, coinciding in essence with the business concept of “reengineering,” popularized by authors Michael Hammer and James Champy in their book Reengineering the Corporation (1993):
“Reengineering is a business concept that involves the fundamental review and radical redesign of an organization's processes. The goal is to achieve dramatic improvements in critical performance measures such as cost, quality, service, and speed. Unlike continuous improvement, which seeks to optimize existing processes incrementally, reengineering proposes “starting from scratch” to completely rethink and reinvent the workflow. It is based on a mindset of drastic change, setting aside the question of “how can we do what we already do better?” to focus on “what should we be doing and how?” (see Reengineering: Radical Process Redesign, in https://g.co/gemini/share/41aaa9eeeb23) (highlighted ours).
And that is precisely what the ANCO Project proposes: the reengineering of power in Venezuela, not a government program for after the transition phase. It is about answering the question “What should we be doing and how?”, as stated by the reengineering process. I recommend downloading and reading the document El Gran Cambio, a proposal for the Refounding of Venezuela (see Project in Spanish, in https://ancoficial.blogspot.com/p/documentos-fundamentales.html), or watch the summary in a 23-minute presentation video (see in Spanish The Great Change Project - Call for the Original Constituent Power - Dr. Luis Manuel Aguana, in https://youtu.be/yFhX-r88nrE). These materials will help to understand that what we are proposing is effectively a reengineering of power in Venezuela, and not a post-transition government program.
The Great Change proposes a new set of powers and a new distribution of responsibilities within the three classic levels of the state pyramid (municipal, state, and federal), with a substantial reform of Venezuela's political-territorial distribution, in line with the current circumstances and needs of the population. And that cannot be achieved without a reengineering of the Constitution, discussed in a Constituent process. And what is the ultimate goal of all this restructuring? To establish the federal and state constitutional mechanism to bring the powers of public authority closer to the citizens, inverting the pyramid of power, giving greater weight and resources to the municipalities, so that they are the ones who decide how to use that power to develop the highest possible quality of life for the citizens in each locality of Venezuela.
This is the Refoundation project that we wish to discuss in the phase of the same name of the Displacement-Transition-Refoundation model described earlier in this forum, which perfects the Refoundation of the country. But, as I indicated earlier, this cannot be done without first convening a Constituent process. And to explain that, we need to return to our classic example from 1958.
The political factors reached a momentous agreement during the 1958 Transition, the so-called Punto Fijo Pact, to which few have given due importance, and which was the key factor in the Refoundation phase beginning after the Transition, which arose after the Displacement of the dictatorship of Marcos Pérez Jiménez. That Pact can serve as a guide for what can be done now in Venezuela. Had it not been for the necessary stability provided by the Military Junta during the country's Transition, neither the Pact nor the subsequent phase would have existed.
It was with this stability during the Transition that the Refoundation phase was forged, given that one of the main objectives of the Pact was to finalize an electoral process in December 1958. The Pact was based on the following general guidelines:
“l. In effect, the parties agreed first to establish guidelines for coexistence based on mutual respect, intelligence, and cooperation among the various political forces, without prejudice to the organizational autonomy of each of them or their ideological characteristics. These guidelines for coexistence were considered a guarantee that the united front they implied would not be broken, and they sought to prolong the political truce, depersonalize the debate, and eradicate partisan violence.
2. Secondly, this effort at cooperation between the political forces had an immediate goal: to ensure, among all, that the December 1958 electoral process took place and that the public authorities elected in that process responded to democratic guidelines. It was, therefore, an agreement for the establishment of a democratic system.
3. Thirdly, as a general principle of the Pact, a commitment was made to establish a government and representative bodies that would equitably bring together all sectors of society interested in the stability of the Republic as a popular system of government” (see Allan R. Brewer-Carías, 1961 Constitution, Amendments Nos. 1 and 2, pp. 12-13, in https://allanbrewercarias.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/08/47.-CONSTITUC-1961-ENMIENTS-1-y-2.pdf) (highlighted ours).
In summary, the Pact guaranteed three very important factors for all those involved: 1) Coexistence between political actors; 2) General elections; 3) A stable government with participation from all.
And what was the legal methodology they applied? Although the Act creating the Military Junta of Government overrode the 1953 constitutional provisions on presidential succession and assumed all powers of the State, the Junta left the 1953 Constitution in force, with the modifications they deemed appropriate: "...the 1953 Constitution was left in force and an electoral process was initiated immediately, in accordance with the Electoral Law that had been enacted in May of that same year, 1958, by the Governing Junta, for the purpose of electing the President of the Republic and an Assembly-Congress that was to draft the new Constitution. Therefore, the first commitment of the Punto Fijo Pact was the defense of constitutionality, as established in the 1953 Constitution, with the modifications established by the de facto government" (see Allan R. Brewer-Carías, 1961 Constitution, Amendments No. 1 and 2, p. 15).
The transition under military control provided sufficient stability for the parties that were legalized after the displacement phase to reach a political agreement that allowed for an electoral process under fair conditions. Then, as a result of the pact, they convened to draft a new constitution that would be discussed in the Assembly-Congress elected in December 1958. The new Constitution of 1961 was, in essence, nothing more than that same Pact converted into constitutional law. That was the secret of Venezuela's political stability for 40 years.
The refounding of the country after the 1958 dictatorship is due to mature parties capable of assimilating the lessons of the partisan struggles that gave way to a dictatorship: "...extreme inter-party struggle, based on the destruction of the adversary and the hegemony of one party over others, had led to the destruction of the democratic system in the 1940s and had led to dictatorship. The Punto Fijo Pact was a formally expressed desire to avoid falling into the same situation" (see Allan R. Brewer-Carías, 1961 Constitution, Amendments No. 1 and 2, p. 19).
It follows from the above that if the current political groups and their leaders do not have the political stature to learn from our own history, forgetting that the country belongs to everyone, and continue to act as “saviors of the homeland” while forgetting the rest of society, it will have been a waste of more than 25 years of political tragedy, poverty, diaspora, destruction of the country, persecution, imprisonment, and death of Venezuelans. The byproduct of the Refoundation that materialized in the Constituent Congress and the 1961 Constitution was precisely that these parties understood the mission of building and maintaining Venezuela in freedom, democracy, and development. And the country was destroyed when they stopped supporting it. The same mistake cannot be made again; we now have better tools to prevent it. The path is very clear for those who want to see it...
Caracas, September 20, 2025
Blog:
TIC’s & Derechos Humanos, https://ticsddhh.blogspot.com/
Email: luismanuel.aguana@gmail.com
Twitter:@laguana
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