By Luis Manuel Aguana
The popular advice says "Dress
me slowly, I'm going in a hurry", trying to mean that things that are
important for a good outcome cannot be dealt with in a hurry, no matter how
hurried one may be. Yesterday the deputies of the National Assembly dispatched
in a single session the "Draft Statute Law governing the transition to
democracy to restore the validity of the Constitution of the Bolivarian
Republic of Venezuela" (see news in Spanish in http://www.el-nacional.com/noticias/asamblea-nacional/aprobo-proyecto-ley-del-estatuto-transicion_268617) as if it were something trivial,
being absolutely complex, and carried out with the intention of taking Popular
Sovereignty out of the way (see complete document in Spanish of the Bill of Law
of the Statute approved at https://tinyurl.com/y9nsa8jw).
At first glance it seems obvious
that there is a need for a law to govern the transition process that we know we
already have on top of us. But the problem is how to deal with it, since it
will depend on its delicate balance whether or not we truly come out of the
worst plague that Venezuela has had to live in all its life as a Nation. I am
not going to repeat here the denunciation that I have already made in the
previous note in relation to the "Agreement on the declaration of
usurpation of the Presidency of the Republic by Nicolás Maduro Moros and the
re-establishment of the validity of the Constitution", approved on January
15 (see The 333 is me, en https://ticsddhh.blogspot.com/p/the-333-is-me.html)
but I believe, after reading what was approved in the National Assembly, that
this Bill is nothing more than a trap, a corrected and augmented version of
that Agreement of January 15, 2019.
Even though a "pushed"
path has been advanced to resolve the Venezuelan political crisis, if we have
reached this point it has not been precisely because of the great strategies of
the official opposition or the intelligence of its leaders, but because of the
great pressure carried out by the sovereign people of Venezuela to resolve a
monumental crisis that does not allow us to live. And I say "pushed"
because first there was popular pressure to give the authorization to prosecute
Maduro and declare the Constitutional Power Vacuum, then for Juan Guaidó to
understand that he had to assume the responsibility as President in Charge
since January 10, because the entire planet had already given him its backing,
and now because the parties of that Assembly understand that they cannot dirty
the plate from which they eat by trying not to let go of control so that that
transition flows smoothly. I will try
to explain this better.
The first question we must ask
ourselves here is, is a transitional law required for the regime to leave, or
is a transitional law required for WHEN the regime leaves? Note here the
enormous difference between the two postulates because from there two completely
different laws are derived. Is this a law with Maduro inside or without Maduro
inside? Everything seems to indicate that the law that was approved yesterday
in first discussion is a law with Maduro inside Miraflores. And that is
unacceptable, and even less so with the unanimous support of the civilized
world for Juan Guaidó's Presidency-in-Charge, beginning with the support of the
United States and the determined attitude of its President to evict the
communists.
If the law assumes from the outset
that Maduro acts as a usurper and continues in Miraflores contrary to all logic
and possible legislation, then it is clear that there are articles such as 18
that promote incentives for civilian and military officials to "go
overboard," a system of "transitional justice," and all that
crap that comes with having half Maduro's government in the transition,
dictating unacceptable amnesties for a people thirsting for justice. The
official opposition of the National Assembly must finally understand that Juan
Guaidó IS THE CONSTITUTIONAL PRESIDENT IN CHARGE OF VENEZUELA, that the only
thing he lacks is the necessary firepower in the country to evict the
delinquent from Miraflores and Fuerte Tiuna. I have no need to describe here
that you can have it whenever you want. And in the meantime, the margarita is
being emptied, armed criminals are kidnapping children, murdering and imprisoning
people to the point that in this single month there are the same number of
deaths as in the whole of 2014 (see BBC World https://www.bbc.com/mundo/noticias-america-latina-39956976).
So why should we have a transitional
law that supposes Maduro and his officials are in the country? Evict them! Now
you can proceed. Guaidó already has enough support from a combined
multinational force to do it. Maduro is already a military-police problem. But
no, they want a law to negotiate with Maduro. Why? Let's see, because the worst
is not that.
The desire of the main political
forces of the National Assembly is to seize politically the transition process,
leaving Juan Guaidó as a disposable instrument for these purposes. It is not in
their interest to allow young Guaidó to conduct the process for as long as necessary,
but only to last the 30 days stated in Article 233, regardless of whether
Maduro WAS left to negotiate his departure, and then to form a Provisional
Government that no side is established in the constitution, knowing that it is
impossible to make an election in the stipulated time That is why they speak of
an "itinerary" that "liberates" and then forms a
"provisional government" to then hold free elections (see Articles 2
and 26).
But Article 233 of the Constitution
is very clear. The President of the National Assembly becomes the President in
Charge of the Republic. What happens is that they don't want it to be Juan
Guaidó, whom the Venezuelan people with their monumental pressure invested as
President on January 23rd. And why don't they? Because they got an outsider who
is now, without them having planned it, in all the plans of all the newspapers
in the world by the work and grace of the Venezuelan people. A political
problem was created for them that they are now trying to control and they are not
doing anything but violating the Constitution that they claim to defend,
kidnapping Article 333.
But as I indicated in my last note,
Venezuelans are 333. The 333 is me! If Juan Guaidó cannot technically call an
electoral process with all the guarantees in those 30 days because he would
have to do so with the trapped structures of the regime, then he must call a
process of Popular Consultation to ask the Venezuelan people whether or not it
grants him the time he requires to remake the electoral system, as established
by the legitimate Electoral Chamber of the TSJ in its historic ruling of June
13, 2018, which establishes a Manual Voting System with deep purging of the
Electoral Registry and the clean appointment of the Rectors of the National
Electoral Council. It is the sovereign People of Venezuela who must decide if
Juan Guaidó stays or not, not the National Assembly. We decide.
All of the foregoing, not to mention
the fact that the people grant them, in the same consultation, the time to
implement the necessary economic, social and humanitarian measures, ensuring
the political stability of the country, in order to carry out these elections
in peace and security. I believe that would be in everyone's interest. That is
why the Secretary General of the OAS, Luis Almagro, warned the parties in an
interview conducted by Fernando del Rincón to respect the constitution in that
process, leaving Guaidó as President (see in Spanish Entrevista a Luis Almagro
y Julio Borges en Conclusiones CNN 30 de Enero 2019
https://youtu.be/xW8c6KdiOrQ): "We miss a lot and it
would be a legal nonsense to go another way in this regard…" said
Almagro giving full support to Juan Guaidó lead the process until the election
of a new president.
So, a Transitional Law to be passed
once Nicolás Maduro is freezing with Cilia Flores in Russia, would be
substantially different from a law where it is contemplated that we are
negotiating with him still in Venezuela, which is what is stated in what they
approved. What they approved yesterday is a trap set up for the Venezuelan
people to distort their decision of the 23E. If the 1999 Constitution is
respected as it should be respected, that transition must be carried out,
whether or not the parties of the National Assembly, which the Venezuelan
people constitutionally decided to carry out on January 23, 2019, want it or
not. Then they should kill each other to gain access to the government, because
that is their constitutional prerogative, but they should do so competing
fairly and with all the guarantees in an election called by Juan Guaidó,
President in Charge of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.
I end with
Almagro's words at the end of that interview: "...and the people are definitely the highest legitimacy we can
have in politics. And we hope that the people will prevail in order to achieve
the institutional solutions that Venezuela needs. It's that people who have
more power than people can think..." "...it is the people who are
sovereign, it is the people who are going to recover democracy in Venezuela, it
is the people who are going to overflow the institutions that have not yet
adapted to the democratic system, it is the people who are going to seek
solutions to the humanitarian crisis, it is the people who are going to respond
so that there will be free and transparent elections. It is that Venezuelan
people who have never bowed down and with whom we all have to be consistent. We
all have to maintain the commitment to support him on all occasions..."
Almagro has it very clear, it is the people who decide! It is time that this
Transitional Law corresponds with the decision that the people must make...
Caracas,
January 31, 2019
Email: luismanuel.aguana@gmail.com
Twitter:@laguana
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