Versión en español
I would have been delighted if the figures of a Popular Consultation called by the people, by the Civil Society, had exceeded 10 million participants. However, despite the fact that the results may be between 6.5 and 7 million between electronic and face-to-face, I found them formidable, considering the circumstances. And what were those circumstances? I will point them out so that everyone knows what this effort was like, because an analysis adjusted to what really happened cannot be done without taking these realities into account:
The permanent disregard of political factors for the proposals of Civil Society
Since long before that "hero" of Chavism pronounced his famous question "what does civil society eat with", we citizens have been fighting against the disregard of political factors for the proposals of civil society. And since his swearing in as President in Charge of the Republic, we have pointed out to President Juan Guaidó Márquez that it should be the Venezuelan people who should pronounce themselves on the path to be followed to get rid of the regime that oppresses us, pointing out the constitutional instrument of the Popular Consultation.
In fact, in ANCO's statement dated February 4, 2019 (see in Spanish ANCO press release of February 4, 2019, in https://ancoficial.blogspot.com/2019/02/comunicado-anco-ante-la-propuesta-de_4.html) we pointed out: "It is pertinent that the President in charge of the Republic Juan Guaidó, invested with authority in the terms established in article 333 of the Constitution, calls on the people not invested with authority to collaborate in the realization of a Great Consultation of Venezuelans inside and outside the country...", with the consequent silence that lasted until September 4, 2020 when we were attended to to hear our proposal. Had our request been heard in February 2019, when all of Guaidó's popularity numbers were in the stratosphere, that Popular Consultation would have easily surpassed 10 or 12 million people. The Government in Charge attended to us when its popularity was already irretrievable and tried to use the consultation as a mechanism to raise its head, and not as a means to get out of the Maduro and its criminals.
The "Guaidó’s Consultation”
Once ANCO's proposal was accepted as a civil society organization, political factors decided to use their media machinery to appropriate the initiative, despite the clear warning to the President himself to step aside and let the citizens lead the consultative process. I can say this in the first person with full knowledge of the facts because I was at that meeting. But that never happened. The heavy burden of the many mistakes made by the Presidential Administration and its leadership prevailed over the voters and the enemies of the proposal to convene the citizens. Who would want to vote in a "Guaido Consultation"? Even the pollster Meganalisis asked a question, in my opinion biased, which said: "Will you participate in the consultation of Guaidó and the National Assembly", with a result of 8.3% in the intention to participate (see graphics of the Meganalisis participation survey published on November 30, 2020, in https://twitter.com/Meganalisis/status/1333214455266684928).
And then? If I had been asked that after the cake of almost two years of Guaidó's presidency, without being aware of anything, I would have answered NO, associating directly the Popular Consultation with the Government in Charge and the politicians of the National Assembly. They were NEVER interested in saying that this initiative WAS NOT THEIRS, except for the first time when the Organizing Committee of the Popular Consultation was designated in the National Assembly and because it was convenient for their interests. They did the opposite, in every speech given by the President in Charge or any of the spokespersons of the National Assembly, the emphasis was on calling for the Consulta TO make elections, NOT for the Cessation of Usurpation, which was and continues to be the general cry of the entire population, even if the questions had changed, as we will see later.
The fight for the questions
In addition to having directed the Popular Consultation for its sole purpose, the October 1st Accord turned around the demand of the mantra approved by the population, placing first "an election to remove Maduro" and not an election without Maduro in power, as indicated in the Transition Statute of February 2019. This provoked an internal impasse that threatened to end with the Popular Consultation at birth. We would never be willing to ask the people about going to an election with Maduro in power. And that was what they always intended, to the point that that was the first thing Leopoldo López declared when he set foot in Spain.
After intense negotiations and discussions within the Organizing Committee and the representatives of the High Citizens' Council, including the student representatives, a formula was arrived at that respected the itinerary of the mantra already approved in 2019, beginning with the Cessation of Usurpation and ending with free elections. But the politicians were intransigent in including the Transitional Government. Why? Because they do not want a transition to order Venezuela's disaster, not even to order the CNE's den to hold elections. However, the first thing for us has always been for the regime to leave, then we would see how to solve the transition. In the same way, the ordering of the collection of the popular will. The third question proposed by ANCO was reformulated in the students' terms which strengthened the trilogy of questions that finally began with the Cessation of Usurpation.
In my opinion, this change in the sense that the Venezuelan people had to be consulted in favor of exiting the regime took away the politicians' interest in the Popular Consultation, even though they had already assumed it as part of their political route. They were not interested in assigning an operating budget to the Organizing Committee, nor in moving all the necessary political influence in all the states to make the participation massive. They simply left it at that, as if to say that Civil Society would manage as it could. And we did so, knowing that this will be neither the first nor the last confrontation we will have.
The cold involvement of the Diaspora
The Popular Consultation was proposed in ANCO from the beginning as a global event, where the participation of the Venezuelan exile was fundamental. This required that all those involved, especially the ambassadors to the countries that support the government in charge, work from the very beginning of the decision. However, until very late in the process there were still many questions from abroad about how the Consultation would materialize and how the process would be organized in each country. Many of the ambassadors of the government in charge were unaware of the process and some even opposed it and worked against it. This had a negative impact on the participation of Venezuelans abroad. Fortunately, the connection of many people from the country's diaspora with their families in Venezuela was able to lessen this negative impact and they were able to vote through the electronic platforms provided, without any guidance in each of those countries. However, even so, unfortunately many were left out.
The technological platform for voting
One of the biggest obstacles in this whole process was the detail of the participation through the computer platforms chosen by the Government in charge. Each political leader said something different and contradictory, without waiting for the approval of the Organizing Committee, which was overwhelmed by the leaks of those who were conducting the technical process, without any respect for the forms and hierarchies. Only hours before the start, nobody knew how to vote on those platforms, in a complete and utter ignorance of how to proceed. The first two days were lost, precious for working on assisted voting throughout the country.
The system collapsed on the first day and fortunately straightened out on the second day, with the electronic platform being fine-tuned from the third. But for the Government in charge, the electronic vote was not its priority but the one on December 12th, due to the presence of the people in the streets. This disdain for only being interested in manual voting because of its political impact and not because of the massive voting that would take place from December 7 to 12, left us with a greater participation. The calls for the vote of the Government in Charge only gave importance to the participation on the 12th, not for that whole week, as evidenced by the opening speech of the President in Charge on December 7th in the Plaza de los Palos Grandes. Much of the information to manage the platforms came from the people themselves and thank God it became viralized, diminishing the impact of the information disorder. In this way we lost credibility, time and participation.
The resources, the resources
This was one of the most painful aspects of this whole process. The National Assembly did not give the Organizing Committee of the Popular Consultation a budget to call Venezuelans to a Popular Consultation, believe it or not. Does this seem irresponsible to you? Yes, it does. Hundreds of volunteers from civil society mobilized at their own expense, and from their pockets they took out gasoline, phone cards, food, etc., and a lot of courage for the threats of the regime, to participate in this effort and achieve the incorporation of as many Venezuelans as possible into the Consulta Popular. Our Venezuelan recognition goes to these anonymous heroes from all the Committees of Civil Society of the States throughout the country. Some of them incurred in debt waiting for the commitment of the Government in charge of "lowering the resources" which is how it is called. They never arrived. However, many feel proud of this collaboration for Venezuela, but they are very clear about who is who in this whole process. If without any support the vote rose to the same levels of 2017 when there was full and unrestricted support from the population, you can imagine how far we would have gone in 2020.
In view of the above circumstances, as only some of the most important that were presented, to have reached the announced figures is a miracle of God, only explainable by the vocation of struggle of every Venezuelan located in the most remote part of the country. The message to all politicians was loud and clear: Maduro must leave NOW, and that must be the number one priority of the Government in charge and of all the politicians of the National Assembly, who since yesterday have the MANDATE to manage whatever is necessary to immediately end this regime that violates Human Rights and is guilty of crimes against Humanity. And that means that NOTHING comes before that.
In spite of the above, the first declaration of the President in charge after that forceful, clear and precise manifestation of the population was "We are going to summon our people on January 5th to support the National Parliament" (see in Spanish Guaido convocó a una movilización el 5 de enero en apoyo a la Asamblea, en https://www.infobae.com/america/venezuela/2020/12/13/juan-guaido-convoco-a-una-movilizacion-popular-el-5-de-enero-en-apoyo-a-la-asamblea-nacional/). I couldn't believe it. Instead of declaring what they were going to do with that clear mandate the other day of that extraordinary demonstration by Venezuelans ordering them to get rid of the regime, the politicians of the National Assembly, with Guaidó at their head, are summoning us to save their necks on January 5, 2021 in a clear disregard for our sovereignty. The Venezuelan opposition still does not understand what is happening to the country, or worse, it still does not hear the citizens' demands despite shouting them in the ear. Times of change are coming for Venezuela .
Caracas, December 14, 2020
Blog: http://ticsddhh.blogspot.com/
Email: luismanuel.aguana@gmail.com
Twitter:@laguana
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