The Popular Consultation is just the beginning

By Luis Manuel Aguana (*)

Versión en español

 

Intervention in the Chat Forum "The Popular Consultation" of the Promotion Committee of the Popular Consultation,

in El Tigre, Anzoátegui State, on November 30, 2020

 

My greetings and thanks to the Promotion Committee of the Popular Consultation of El Tigre, to its Coordinator José Suarez, and to all the brave citizens of that community in Anzoátegui, for the invitation to this Citizen's Forum. It is not unknown for you, since the first time that ANCO promoted the call of the Popular Sovereignty for the call to an Original National Constituent Assembly, that in our tour of many years around the country we have vindicated that the only way to solve the political problem that we Venezuelans suffer is by involving the people in the final decision of what will happen in Venezuela. It will not be the political parties, nor the international community, nor the National Assembly, and even less the regime that began with Hugo Chávez Frías and that is currently held by some criminals, that will end up deciding the destiny of Venezuela.

 

I have the impression that the common Venezuelan has overlooked the achievement that has meant the calling of a Popular Consultation in the terms of Civil Society: that the people demand that Nicolas Maduro Moros abandon the power he usurps, exercising his sovereignty in a DIRECT manner as established in Article 5 of our Constitution; and applying a mechanism established by the same Magna Carta in its Article 70, the Popular Consultation. There is nothing more binding than that. It is not a survey that will be done to Venezuelans. The mechanism is for us to express out loud what must be done, and what must be accomplished if the positive mandate is given in this Popular Consultation. That was the spirit of the 1999 constituent by giving the citizens the direct exercise of their sovereignty, expressed in those two fundamental articles.

 

Three years ago today, on November 30, 2017, the Supreme Court of Justice operating in exile decreed an Order of Execution of the Decision that declared the Constitutional fraud of the National Constituent Assembly called by the regime on July 30, 2017. On that occasion, a group of Venezuelans among whom I was honored to participate, in a document submitted to that High Court, requested the execution of the Ruling issued on November 25, 2017, which declared the Constitutional Assembly of the regime as a Constitutional fraud (see in Spanish the TSJL Execution Auto in http://ancoficial.blogspot.com/2017/12/auto-de-ejecucion-de-sentencia-tsj.html), achieving in it that the High Court expressed itself in the following way, in support of popular participation mechanisms:

 

"...Since the country is immersed in a deep social and economic crisis that has affected the normal life of its citizens, it is appropriate to activate the civil and peaceful resistance decreed by this High Court pursuant to Articles 333 and 350 of the Constitution, which makes it urgent to produce the changes required by Venezuela for the restitution of the Constitution and, therefore, of democracy in Venezuela, Therefore, any way out of the crisis that is attempted in the political arena must be done within the mechanisms of popular participation that are enshrined in Article 70 of the Constitution, and never behind the backs of the people, with the primary aim of provoking an immediate solution to everything that has generated the crisis that the country is going through.(Point No. 3 of the TSJL's Auto) (our underlining).

 

In other words, the crisis cannot be solved without the participation of the citizens. This pronouncement by the Supreme Court of Legitimate Justice is historic and has passed under the table of Venezuela and ignored by the Venezuelan opposition political class...until now, when the government in charge decided to support the proposal of ANCO and civil society in general for the celebration of this Popular Consultation.

 

However, the proposal had its first clash on October 1st when the National Assembly decided to hold a consultation with questions that did not adjust to the itinerary of the Statute for the Transition of February 2019, for which reason ANCO formally requested the Organizing Committee of the Popular Consultation and the National Assembly a rectification on October 24, 2020 in a letter that the entire country already knows (see ANCO Communication in Spanish: Venezuela needs a powerful and enlightened citizen organization, in https://ancoficial.blogspot.com/2020/10/comunicado-anco-venezuela-necesita-una.html).

 

After a great pressure originated by the same citizens all over the country, the questions were modified by the political fractions and announced by the President in charge Juan Guaidó and the Organizing Committee of the Popular Consultation appointed, in a solemn session of the National Assembly on October 19, 2020, establishing the correct order for the exit of the regime, starting with the Cessation of the Usurpation of Nicolás Maduro Moros, in order to reach a fair, free and verifiable election. This is an unquestionable achievement of the citizens!

 

No one can think that this fight cannot be waged from civil society without conquering every inch of ground. It will not happen alone, nor will it be granted to us. Arriving at the Popular Consultation after years was an achievement that has cost a lot in constancy for many people around the country. You are part of it! The fact that it was understood that first you have to leave the regime and then hold elections is another achievement. And what is still missing is the most complicated and difficult thing for the opposition politicians to deal with: that once there is a clear and precise pronouncement by the Venezuelan people, the regime will leave because we demand it. NO. That will not happen easily just with the results of the Consultation. But it is an ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY condition to begin a struggle for its fulfillment.

 

With a third question approved on October 19, which ORDERS Venezuelans to "take the necessary steps before the international community to activate cooperation, accompaniment and assistance to rescue our democracy, attend to the humanitarian crisis and protect the people from crimes against humanity" the way is open for the exercise of citizenship, because who do you think will fight for that once the Sovereign People of Venezuela pronounces itself? WE! Only that in this opportunity it is a clear, firm, sovereign and constitutional mandate that affects even those who can help us from outside. It is a bill of exchange demandable by all Venezuelans invested and not invested with authority! From that moment on, any action that inevitably leads to the displacement of the regime will be unleashed.

 

And you might ask yourself, why does this Popular Consultation unleash this? Why doesn't the same thing unleash itself now without doing it? Because doing so would be a clear mandate from the Venezuelan people without any interception from their representatives, established in the Constitution. It would be an unobjectionable order that would go beyond any decision by politicians and a fundamental guide of action for those countries outside Venezuela if they seriously consider the constitutional mandate of a people. To us it may seem indifferent and unimportant (as some still believe) but on the outside it DOES have a devastating seriousness and beyond any doubt.

 

We from civil society still have a lot to do. Our struggle does not end on December 12th. It begins on December 13 after celebrating the massive participation of citizens in a civic festival in rejection of a regime that has done us so much harm. We cannot disband after having organized ourselves after so much effort. This Committee and all those who have organized throughout Venezuela must remain for the next phase to make effective the Cessation of Usurpation and the subsequent phases of citizen empowerment. No one is going to give us freedom, we have to win freedom.

 

In Venezuela we will be witnesses of a never before seen protagonism of the citizens. No more kidnapping of the Popular Sovereignty by anyone. Although we consider that the 1999 Constitution must be modified, it granted us the right to participate DIRECTLY in the matters that affect us. And what other matter can affect us more than that the regime stays? And after it leaves, what should we do so that this power we have is permanently exercised by the citizens without interception by anyone, developing it at the local, municipal, state, regional and federal levels, above the power desires of the corrupt populism that has led us to this tragedy of more than 20 years? At ANCO we have answers for those questions.

 

This Popular Consultation is only the first of many steps in a long struggle to make the citizen the true center and beneficiary par excellence of the State's activity, but at the same time its responsible before everyone and at the level that corresponds to him, as in any part of the world. The road will be as long as it takes us to understand that we are the true power in which the Sovereignty resides. This Popular Consultation is opening the way for the citizen to do so. Let us participate and make the enemies of citizen participation understand that this process is ours and we will not let them take it away from us because the future of Venezuela is going to be in it.

Thank you very much...

Caracas, November 30, 2020

 

Blog: http://ticsddhh.blogspot.com/

Email: luismanuel.aguana@gmail.com

Twitter:@laguana

 

(*) Luis Manuel Aguana is a Director of ANCO, Alianza Nacional Constituyente Originaria, Doctor in Development Studies, MSc in International Economics and Bachelor in Computer Science, Universidad Central de Venezuela.

By Luis Manuel Aguana (*)

Versión en español

 

Intervention in the Chat Forum "The Popular Consultation" of the Promotion Committee of the Popular Consultation,

in El Tigre, Anzoátegui State, on November 30, 2020

 

My greetings and thanks to the Promotion Committee of the Popular Consultation of El Tigre, to its Coordinator José Suarez, and to all the brave citizens of that community in Anzoátegui, for the invitation to this Citizen's Forum. It is not unknown for you, since the first time that ANCO promoted the call of the Popular Sovereignty for the call to an Original National Constituent Assembly, that in our tour of many years around the country we have vindicated that the only way to solve the political problem that we Venezuelans suffer is by involving the people in the final decision of what will happen in Venezuela. It will not be the political parties, nor the international community, nor the National Assembly, and even less the regime that began with Hugo Chávez Frías and that is currently held by some criminals, that will end up deciding the destiny of Venezuela.

 

I have the impression that the common Venezuelan has overlooked the achievement that has meant the calling of a Popular Consultation in the terms of Civil Society: that the people demand that Nicolas Maduro Moros abandon the power he usurps, exercising his sovereignty in a DIRECT manner as established in Article 5 of our Constitution; and applying a mechanism established by the same Magna Carta in its Article 70, the Popular Consultation. There is nothing more binding than that. It is not a survey that will be done to Venezuelans. The mechanism is for us to express out loud what must be done, and what must be accomplished if the positive mandate is given in this Popular Consultation. That was the spirit of the 1999 constituent by giving the citizens the direct exercise of their sovereignty, expressed in those two fundamental articles.

 

Three years ago today, on November 30, 2017, the Supreme Court of Justice operating in exile decreed an Order of Execution of the Decision that declared the Constitutional fraud of the National Constituent Assembly called by the regime on July 30, 2017. On that occasion, a group of Venezuelans among whom I was honored to participate, in a document submitted to that High Court, requested the execution of the Ruling issued on November 25, 2017, which declared the Constitutional Assembly of the regime as a Constitutional fraud (see in Spanish the TSJL Execution Auto in http://ancoficial.blogspot.com/2017/12/auto-de-ejecucion-de-sentencia-tsj.html), achieving in it that the High Court expressed itself in the following way, in support of popular participation mechanisms:

 

"...Since the country is immersed in a deep social and economic crisis that has affected the normal life of its citizens, it is appropriate to activate the civil and peaceful resistance decreed by this High Court pursuant to Articles 333 and 350 of the Constitution, which makes it urgent to produce the changes required by Venezuela for the restitution of the Constitution and, therefore, of democracy in Venezuela, Therefore, any way out of the crisis that is attempted in the political arena must be done within the mechanisms of popular participation that are enshrined in Article 70 of the Constitution, and never behind the backs of the people, with the primary aim of provoking an immediate solution to everything that has generated the crisis that the country is going through.(Point No. 3 of the TSJL's Auto) (our underlining).

 

In other words, the crisis cannot be solved without the participation of the citizens. This pronouncement by the Supreme Court of Legitimate Justice is historic and has passed under the table of Venezuela and ignored by the Venezuelan opposition political class...until now, when the government in charge decided to support the proposal of ANCO and civil society in general for the celebration of this Popular Consultation.

 

However, the proposal had its first clash on October 1st when the National Assembly decided to hold a consultation with questions that did not adjust to the itinerary of the Statute for the Transition of February 2019, for which reason ANCO formally requested the Organizing Committee of the Popular Consultation and the National Assembly a rectification on October 24, 2020 in a letter that the entire country already knows (see ANCO Communication in Spanish: Venezuela needs a powerful and enlightened citizen organization, in https://ancoficial.blogspot.com/2020/10/comunicado-anco-venezuela-necesita-una.html).

 

After a great pressure originated by the same citizens all over the country, the questions were modified by the political fractions and announced by the President in charge Juan Guaidó and the Organizing Committee of the Popular Consultation appointed, in a solemn session of the National Assembly on October 19, 2020, establishing the correct order for the exit of the regime, starting with the Cessation of the Usurpation of Nicolás Maduro Moros, in order to reach a fair, free and verifiable election. This is an unquestionable achievement of the citizens!

 

No one can think that this fight cannot be waged from civil society without conquering every inch of ground. It will not happen alone, nor will it be granted to us. Arriving at the Popular Consultation after years was an achievement that has cost a lot in constancy for many people around the country. You are part of it! The fact that it was understood that first you have to leave the regime and then hold elections is another achievement. And what is still missing is the most complicated and difficult thing for the opposition politicians to deal with: that once there is a clear and precise pronouncement by the Venezuelan people, the regime will leave because we demand it. NO. That will not happen easily just with the results of the Consultation. But it is an ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY condition to begin a struggle for its fulfillment.

 

With a third question approved on October 19, which ORDERS Venezuelans to "take the necessary steps before the international community to activate cooperation, accompaniment and assistance to rescue our democracy, attend to the humanitarian crisis and protect the people from crimes against humanity" the way is open for the exercise of citizenship, because who do you think will fight for that once the Sovereign People of Venezuela pronounces itself? WE! Only that in this opportunity it is a clear, firm, sovereign and constitutional mandate that affects even those who can help us from outside. It is a bill of exchange demandable by all Venezuelans invested and not invested with authority! From that moment on, any action that inevitably leads to the displacement of the regime will be unleashed.

 

And you might ask yourself, why does this Popular Consultation unleash this? Why doesn't the same thing unleash itself now without doing it? Because doing so would be a clear mandate from the Venezuelan people without any interception from their representatives, established in the Constitution. It would be an unobjectionable order that would go beyond any decision by politicians and a fundamental guide of action for those countries outside Venezuela if they seriously consider the constitutional mandate of a people. To us it may seem indifferent and unimportant (as some still believe) but on the outside it DOES have a devastating seriousness and beyond any doubt.

 

We from civil society still have a lot to do. Our struggle does not end on December 12th. It begins on December 13 after celebrating the massive participation of citizens in a civic festival in rejection of a regime that has done us so much harm. We cannot disband after having organized ourselves after so much effort. This Committee and all those who have organized throughout Venezuela must remain for the next phase to make effective the Cessation of Usurpation and the subsequent phases of citizen empowerment. No one is going to give us freedom, we have to win freedom.

 

In Venezuela we will be witnesses of a never before seen protagonism of the citizens. No more kidnapping of the Popular Sovereignty by anyone. Although we consider that the 1999 Constitution must be modified, it granted us the right to participate DIRECTLY in the matters that affect us. And what other matter can affect us more than that the regime stays? And after it leaves, what should we do so that this power we have is permanently exercised by the citizens without interception by anyone, developing it at the local, municipal, state, regional and federal levels, above the power desires of the corrupt populism that has led us to this tragedy of more than 20 years? At ANCO we have answers for those questions.

 

This Popular Consultation is only the first of many steps in a long struggle to make the citizen the true center and beneficiary par excellence of the State's activity, but at the same time its responsible before everyone and at the level that corresponds to him, as in any part of the world. The road will be as long as it takes us to understand that we are the true power in which the Sovereignty resides. This Popular Consultation is opening the way for the citizen to do so. Let us participate and make the enemies of citizen participation understand that this process is ours and we will not let them take it away from us because the future of Venezuela is going to be in it.

Thank you very much...

Caracas, November 30, 2020

 

Blog: http://ticsddhh.blogspot.com/

Email: luismanuel.aguana@gmail.com

Twitter:@laguana

 

(*) Luis Manuel Aguana is a Director of ANCO, Alianza Nacional Constituyente Originaria, Doctor in Development Studies, MSc in International Economics and Bachelor in Computer Science, Universidad Central de Venezuela.

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