Versión en español
It is good to remember the letter sent by Ambassador Diego Arria to the Board of Directors of Fedecámaras on the occasion of its 71st Annual Assembly in 2015, after the presence of Delcy Rodriguez at the 77th Annual Assembly of that Federation in recent days. Dr. Arria's letter entitled "La Capitulación de Fedecámaras" (Fedecámaras's Capitulation) was circulated again through social networks as if it had been written yesterday (see in Spanish La Capitulación de Fedecámaras, in http://aserne.blogspot.com/2015/07/diego-arria-la-capitulacion-de.html). Even some who did not know it thought that it had been recent given the updated nature of its remarks, since instead of having taken into account those observations in 2015, the businessmen did the opposite, showing after 6 additional annual meetings, a completely open handing over to the regime for the current year 2021.
And the answer cannot be other than the one given by Ambassador Arria in 2015 and summarized in the note I published at that time: The Primacy of Political Freedoms (see in Spanish, La Primacía de las Libertades Políticas, in https://ticsddhh.blogspot.com/2015/07/la-primacia-de-las-libertades-politicas.html): If we want to put food on the Venezuelan's table, the first thing we must guarantee is a political system that respects civil liberties and human rights. It is as simple as that.
But some will say to me, and what can businessmen do if they do not submit to the regime or disappear? And this is an issue deeply linked to ethics, or what should be the minimum operating band that allows the entrepreneur to survive without surrendering to a regime that is playing for the disappearance of the business fabric, within a highly regulated system where the free play of supply and demand is not allowed. What is the type of entrepreneur that has to survive in such an environment? In other words, we should ask ourselves: do real entrepreneurs still exist in Venezuela? And if they exist, how long can they survive in the framework of a regime that maneuvers for their definitive disappearance?
There is a theory that points out that, with very few exceptions, there were never really entrepreneurs in Venezuela in the strict sense of the word. There was never a competitive scenario that allowed companies to grow and develop outside the protective mantle of the all-powerful Venezuelan State. In order to grow and develop in Venezuela, one had to somehow do business with the government, the sole owner and administrator of the ultimate wealth, oil. All roads of Venezuelan entrepreneurship led - and still lead - to that Rome.
The large industrial and commercial sectors of the country have always lived off the Venezuelan State. Hence, it was impossible for the great machinery of the Venezuelan private economy to function with a bankrupt State. When the State and its administrator, the government, have no money to sustain an economy highly dependent on a single export product, we see the debacle we are suffering.
The criminals who dismantled the oil industry piece by piece did not realize that they were sawing off the branch of the tree where they were -and we were all- sitting. Not even the Cubans who invaded us with the treacherous permission of those who govern the country, never understood that they were dismantling with their help, their own future subsistence, acting like the scorpion mounted on the frog when crossing the river, stinging it to drown us both. In other words, they defecated on their plate of food. They did not even understand that the destabilization they continue to promote in Latin America required a Venezuela with full economic strength, since this is the country with an oil industry that should be maintained and protected.
The "businessmen" that have remained in the country and to whom Delcy Rodriguez addressed at the 77th Annual Assembly of Fedecámaras, are not businessmen, so we could hardly expect business conducts in line with that condition. They will be businessmen when they demonstrate that they are willing to impose themselves on the reality that befalls them.
Professor Emeterio Gómez, who in his lifetime was one of the most important Venezuelan authorities in the field of Ethics and Morals, indicates in his work "Moral Responsibility of the Capitalist Company" (1) that: "The understanding of Ethics and the Human Being is to detect when Reality or the World impose themselves on us and when we can impose ourselves on them. Or, also, respectively, what we can NOT change in the World and what we can change in it"..."...Ethics makes sense as long as you have possibilities to impose yourself on vice...or on reality"..."...if you turn around and decide to swim against the current, then the words swim and decide will take on their full meaning. Now you will know what it is to swim and what it is to decide. If you get in the river - or in life - and don't make the effort to "go against the current," then inevitably it will drag you down. And, the most important thing worth reflecting on: if the current is very strong, the effort you will have to make will be greater! And it is also worth thinking that the current may be too strong and that you will have no chance of avoiding being swept away... in which case it is better not to get into the river".
How does this apply to our "businessmen" of Fedecámaras? That there is a reality that has been imposed, the regime. And they, as businessmen, have the obligation to impose themselves on that reality. If any of them is ethical enough, they will try to do so, that is, to swim against the current. If they do not do it, the current -the regime- will drag them, so the effort will have to be much greater. If you are not willing to do so, do not get into the river as Professor Gómez recommended. That is, do not play at being something that you cannot be in the face of an acting reality and if you get into the river and do not swim against the current, you are NOT who you say you are, but something that a reality superior to you imposed on you.
It may seem a play on words, but it is not. There can be no businessmen overwhelmed by a regime, and consequently nothing that can be called "business sector" under that definition. What is left as "businessmen" after the destruction of the economic bases of the country is something that survives and floats like a debris in the strong current of the river that will finally reach the mouth of its definitive destruction, in a system that does not tolerate the concept of private enterprise.
This explains the adverse reaction of the regime to the letter sent to the President of Fedecámaras, Ricardo Cusano, on the occasion of the Assembly by Monsignor Pietro Parolin, Vatican Secretary of State, which was so virulent (see in Spanish Carta del Cardenal Parolín a Fedecámaras, in https://www.diariolasamericas.com/america-latina/venezuela-carta-cardenal-parolin-encoleriza-maduro-n4227812) attacking the Catholic Church, and pointing out the same expedient as always, urging priests to "take off their soutanes and do politics". That is why Delcy Rodriguez must be reminded that Hugo Chavez did not order the priest who would guarantee his life to take off his soutane when he was being kicked out of power on April 11, 2002 precisely for doing nothing more political and humanitarian than that. That is why the Catholic Church is always there. That letter was nothing more than a call to the necessary Ethics and Morals of businessmen in times of political crisis.
In the letter, Bishop Parolin reminds them of the moral responsibility of the businessman by stating "...I consider it important that civil society also be the protagonist of the solution to the current crisis in this beloved country, a solution that will only be found if Venezuelans, and especially those who have some kind of political responsibility, are willing to sit down and negotiate, in a serious way, on concrete issues that respond to the real needs of Venezuelans, and for a limited period of time. This requires political will on the part of those involved, a willingness to let the common good prevail over particular interests, and the responsible support of civil society and the international community" (emphasis added). This is the same position that we have sustained from the civil society in the Proposal to the Nation and the International Community of the Governing Council of the Citizens' Conference for the Constitutional Restoration, where we emphasize the necessary participation of the Venezuelan people in the solution of the crisis, proposing a new course of political negotiation that INCLUDES factors of the civil society. (see in Spanish Propuesta a la Nación, in https://ancoficial.blogspot.com/2021/07/el-consejo-rector-de-la-conferencias.html).
In view of this new capitulation of Fedecámaras, the failure of those who insist on a political solution for the country without the participation of Venezuelans becomes even more evident. "Letting the common good prevail over particular interests" was not precisely what happened in this Annual Assembly of the "businessmen" with the regime.
Once again, the words of the Catholic Church point the way to the Refoundation of the Nation. It will be difficult for us to achieve this with businessmen who are dedicated, and even more so if they intend to continue living off the State's teat after a process of political and economic transformation of the country. This is a good time for true entrepreneurs, those who are struggling to swim against the current, to reflect on the important role they will play in the self-sustained Venezuela that sooner rather than later, we will have to build among all of us.
Caracas, July 25, 2021
Blog: https://ticsddhh.blogspot.com/
Email: luismanuel.aguana@gmail.com
Twitter:@laguana
Instagram: @laguana01
Telegram: https://t.me/TICsDDHH
(1) Emeterio Gómez, La Responsabilidad Moral de la Empresa Capitalista, ISBN 980-6073-83-5, 2005, Pages 33 and following.
No hay comentarios:
Publicar un comentario