Before I begin, I wish to express my apologies in advance for the particularly lengthy nature of this note. However, each point of the Decalogue expressed by Javier Milei, President of Argentina, in the chapter of CPAC Argentina, Conservative Political Action Conference, original conservative association of the USA, deserves the effort to go through, since it touches every Latin American whose country has been devastated by socialism, especially that baptized as Socialism of the XXI Century, whose main responsible was Hugo Chávez Frías as president, and which expanded mortally as COVID-19 throughout the region, murdering the growth of the States and their possibilities of development, using the resources belonging to all Venezuelans (see in Spanish Javier Milei's complete speech at CPAC, at https://youtu.be/YJd55wHkx94?si=j41ecaWJl5XvIHEL).
This is not only a Decalogue of Political Action for Argentines, as Milei put it, but also a path of action for all of us who share these ideas in the rest of the world. After listening to the whole speech, I can say that it fits, with its natural differences, to what has happened in Venezuela since 1999, the year our tragedy began.
I thought it would be useful for us to comment on each of these 10 “political slogans”, and to analyze to what extent we see ourselves portrayed in them, not only in what has happened to us, but also in what is coming for the future. Each slogan is deepened in the speech and I have only placed here the main idea. You will find, at the end of each one, the URL address to go directly to it for those interested in hearing the detail referring to the Argentine case in the speech. Let's start:
“First: It is better to tell an uncomfortable truth than a comfortable lie. That is, truth, first of all, is a moral obligation. But I have also found it to be operationally effective. Because no measure will work if the previous diagnosis has feet of clay. Trying to adjust the reality of a failed model always results in a catastrophe, no matter how well-intentioned one may be. If the way out is unpleasant, it is better to get through the ordeal as soon as possible. The problem of politicians has always been that they were afraid of losing their privileges if they told the people the truth” (see point in https://youtu.be/YJd55wHkx94?t=955).
Political lying is a worldwide cancer and the main reason why a 180-degree turn is occurring in the politics of countries, and some stakeholders confuse it with “anti-politics”. Parties lost their credibility because their politicians have consistently lied to the people. More and more we will see non-party leaders winning elections -outsiders, as they call them- because the trust of the voters is being placed in one person. In Venezuela the old politics died politically long ago and was buried by María Corina Machado (MCM) on October 22, 2023. But although the people trust her, there are still widows of that old politics that try to sneak in any way they can in the decisions that will have to be taken in Venezuela when Maduro leaves power. MCM will have to be very attentive to this slogan if it wishes to survive politically after leaving the regime.
“Second: We don't give a damn about the opinion of politicians on almost every issue... The caste model is a scheme of wealth extraction by politicians to the detriment of society. In other words, in the caste model, good Argentines have to lose in order for politicians to win...” (see point in https://youtu.be/YJd55wHkx94?t=1126).
When Milei points to “the caste” he has always referred to the politicians who destroyed his country, especially the “lefties” or the left. I made reference to that “caste” in Venezuela last year (see Venezuela's “political caste”, in https://ticsddhh.blogspot.com/p/the-political-caste-in-venezuela.html). Nothing more similar to the MUD/PU than the caste referred to by the Argentine President. And it has been a common feeling and many times mentioned in the social networks, that MCM and Edmundo González Urrutia (EGU) should not govern with that “caste” responsible, in the first place, for the presence of Chávez in the Venezuelan political scenario and then in its sustenance. We shall see how far this “caste” that does not want to die in Venezuela has managed to penetrate when we know who will be the members of EGU's first cabinet...
“Third: Never negotiate ideas to scrape a vote. Never negotiate ideas to scrape a vote! Denying your convictions to get votes will leave you without convictions and without votes. There are many Argentine political leaders who can attest to this. The worst sin one can commit is to betray oneself. That is, you sacrifice the most precious thing you have, which is your identity and the value of your word, and in the long run it is in vain because it does not work, people are not stupid and they realize when a politician is lying” (see point in https://youtu.be/YJd55wHkx94?t=1249).
That is one of the characteristics that Venezuelans have admired in MCM. She has not modified her convictions for political positions. That is why the parties hate her and want to defenestrate her, actively working so that EGU will not be sworn in on 10E. All Venezuelans who voted for EGU, because MCM ASKED US TO DO SO, hope not to be disappointed because we know (remember that people are not stupid) that EGU came out of a political agreement with the leadership of the old politics. The only way for Venezuela to change after Maduro, is not to betray the ideas and to really fulfill the promises that have been made above all.
“Fourth: Unlike the economy, politics is a zero-sum game. This means that the spaces of power that we do not occupy, are occupied by the adversary. That is, they are occupied by the left. That is why we must be determined and practical. We must not be afraid to exercise power. We must use the enemy's weapons. Politically speaking, we can no longer use muskets in the age of drones. In the cultural battle they set the rules and we have to, not only live up to them, we have to outdo them. This is very important!” (see point in https://youtu.be/YJd55wHkx94?t=1906).
This slogan is for the exercise of power by EGU, with the political leadership of MCM behind it. There can be no truce, politically speaking, with what is left of the regime's party after Maduro's departure. Any mistake made -which there will be- will be taken advantage of by the PSUV to try to convince the population that democratic change is a failure. Certainly, the left has used its advantage very well in the cultural battle being waged in the world to destabilize governments. And that left includes the parties and leaders that lent themselves to keep Maduro in power.
“Fifth: The only way to fight organized evil is with organized good. “We must not give in to evil, we must fight it with more strength” Virgil. That is to say, let us not give in to evil, let us not give in to socialism. We must fight them with more strength, and finish kicking them out of the a…” (see point in https://youtu.be/YJd55wHkx94?t=2002).
In this tragic struggle against socialism, this point reflects an endemic weakness of the opposition. The best proof was that an organized opposition, but this time headed by a different leadership, achieved the collection and international publication of most of the voting records on July 28, demonstrating for the first time that the regime lost the elections with the evidence in hand. If there is no organization, it is not possible to confront this evil and defeat it. The EGU presidency has to start by organizing the forces and the people to face the disaster that this regime will leave in every corner of the country when it is gone.
“Sixth: When the adversary is strong, the only way to defeat him is with greater force. This is not only a principle of politics, but also of physics. You have to be relentless and never give an inch. You cannot raise the white flag in front of the left. Trying to appease them is not an option. We have to be aware that they do not act from good faith, but from a criminal ambition for power. They would rather see the country collapse than see it prosper without them. They would rather reign in hell than serve in heaven. And if they have to transform heaven into hell to stay in power, they will do so” (see point in https://youtu.be/YJd55wHkx94?t=2441).
What has happened in Venezuela is the best demonstration of this slogan. Castro-Chavism, and later Castro-Madurism, never acted in good faith, but rather “out of criminal ambition for power”. They preferred to destroy the country rather than give it up. They transformed the heaven that was Venezuela into a hell with almost 10 million exiled Venezuelans. No one like Venezuela can attest to that. Upon taking possession of power, EGU and MCM must exercise it without “white flags” in order to recover institutionality, immediately summoning an Original National Constituent Assembly, and implementing upon arrival a Special Tribunal that will give us the justice that has not been given to us from abroad. They must be firm in recovering primary justice and apply it with all the rigor to those responsible for the crimes against humanity committed against the population and the backwardness of Venezuela for more than a century.
“Seventh: When the adversary chants “retruco”, we chant “quiero vale 4”. Never go back! Always accelerate and walk towards the fire! The best defense is always a good offense. When we are defending ourselves, we lose initiative, we lose agility, we are accepting the enemy's dishonest terms of discussion. But we are not the ones who have to explain to them how we are going to do it, if the ones responsible for this disaster and for having sunk the country into the sixth subsoil are precisely them. Besides, if we give in, they will perceive it as a sign of weakness. We have quickly realized that their strategy is based on threats and intimidation, that is why whenever we receive a blow we have to up the ante and respond with three” (see point at https://youtu.be/YJd55wHkx94?t=2594).
Here there will be no explanations to be given to anyone, especially to the destroyers of Venezuela. Even with Maduro's departure, there will still be factors in Venezuela that will continue to play in favor of the failure of MCM and EGU, and shielding themselves in the special transition period where “everyone must be heard”. However, there will be painful policies that will have to be applied to recover the economic and financial health of the country again, as happened in Argentina during the first months of the Milei administration, with the astonishing results that they are now showing to the world. The decision-makers in power will have to step over many opinions to the contrary, without the use of threats or intimidation. If it is already difficult to get out of the criminals, it will be equally difficult to rebuild what they destroyed.
“Eighth: To fight the cultural battle from power is not only advisable, but an obligation. They already occupy all the places of influence, but we are also beginning to gain some spaces. That is why we must take advantage of them because ideas, unfortunately, do not win by their own merit, they must be actively promoted. The left is the proof that the most terrible ideas can triumph culturally if they have a good marketing. Imagine how much we, who have ideas that do work, have to gain. That's why we are devoting time and effort not only to fix the economic hecatomb they left us, we are also going to make sure that the ideas they ruined don't play alone in the public arena” (see point in https://youtu.be/YJd55wHkx94?t=2713
The Cultural Battle is a subject that has been little or nothing discussed so far in Venezuela. As a new field of development of the international left, it is of utmost importance to know the basis of this issue. Milei rightly addresses the need to use power openly to intervene in that battle that the West is losing, but that can be recovered by knowing what it is about.
Issues such as abortion, sexuality, religious freedom, freedom of expression, the role of the State and its influence on citizens, etc., are touched upon from that area that has to do with the freedom of individuals. I recommend you to research the name of Agustín Laje, a prominent Argentine intellectual who has led this struggle from the standpoint of ideas. To learn more about it in detail, I leave you a link to start (see in Spanish Interview with Daniel Lacalle, Dar la Batalla Cultural cada día, in https://youtu.be/YC_XaJO-cVI?si=tcI2DEHRV_xggzVB). Venezuelans must begin to walk this path, and what better than for MCM and EGU to begin to do so from power as of 2025.
“Ninth: The only way to fight socialism is from the right. The extreme center, its positions and its tools are always and everywhere functional to the criminal left. That is to say, all those lukewarm ones who want to go through the middle, the only thing they do is to give the terrain to the left, and the left cannot be given a millimeter. We are skeptical of the concept of consensus. We are skeptical of dialogue because we are not interested in continuing with the famous political consensuses that are nothing more than pacts to continue living eternally from the tax payer..... There can be no consensus between good and evil. There can be no consensus between what is moral and what is immoral” (see point in https://youtu.be/YJd55wHkx94?t=2777).
This is a complex issue in Venezuela. There have been no right-wing parties in the country's political practice, with real influence in public policies (which does not mean that there are no right-wing characters and movements). It has been affirmed, especially by the regime, that the movement headed by MCM is “right wing”. But the truth is that in Venezuela between the period 1958-1998 the Adecos, who call themselves social democrats but are members of the Socialist International, and the Social-Christians, who many doubt in considering them as right wing, governed, since they combine left and right wing values, which places them in a complex political space.
In Venezuela there are no experienced politicians who have not gone through the traditional parties and none of them can be considered right wing. And this is perhaps the reason why it has not been possible to have a frontal opposition to the regime until the arrival of MCM, but not as a movement, but as an opposition political leader. I believe that the construction of a true right-wing party is yet to crystallize, if there is a real desire to seriously fight socialism, which will not die with the mere departure of Nicolás Maduro Moros from power in Venezuela.
“Tenth: The last and most important of all: We defend a just and noble cause, far greater than each one of us. We people are mere instruments of this cause and we must be ready to give our lives for it. I am talking about nothing less than the historical idea of the West, an intergenerational cause, a thread that runs through millennia. The cause of the Athenian philosophers that, with Alexander the Great, rode to Egypt and Asia. Which the Romans consolidated into the first multi-continental empire, which was reborn from the barbarian invasions in the abbeys and courts of Charlemagne. That resisted the Arabs and reconquered Spain. That crossed the ocean and colonized America, the same cause that turned us into citizens and freed us from the yoke of the tyrant and the cause that discovered the scientific method, that neutralized planet Earth, and that with free enterprise capitalism lifted billions of human beings out of misery. The same cause that took us to outer space, to the Moon, and will make the human species an interplanetary civilization. In short, I speak of the great civilizing feat that is the West. A cause of honor, of courage, of merit and of relentless pursuit of truth. That is our cause. That is the historical line that we have come to restore” (see point in https://youtu.be/YJd55wHkx94?t=3107).
And this is the true and only fight for the values of the West, which are clearly being threatened by the association of the Maduro regime in Venezuela with China, Russia and Iran, three bastions against those principles mentioned by Milei. This is the battle that must be fought in the world, and we have had to do our part because of the mistake we made in 1998 by electing a coup leader who betrayed those values.
We have paid a price that we have not yet quantified, in years of development, poverty, hunger, lives, money, infrastructure and the pain of the Venezuelan family as it disintegrates all over the planet. There is no country that has paid the price we have paid in falling victim to that plague, including Milei's Argentina. But we celebrate that the libertarian movement led by the Argentine President has been born, and we hope that it will grow and develop worldwide. Venezuela is now beginning to be fertile ground for this cause...
Caracas, December 10, 2024
Blog:
TIC’s & Derechos Humanos, https://ticsddhh.blogspot.com/
Email:
luismanuel.aguana@gmail.com
Twitter:@laguana
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