I cannot deny the satisfaction I had when the Government in Charge and the President in Charge, Juan Guaidó, assumed the Popular Consultation as an integral part of the political route publicly announced on September 7 in the struggle to achieve the Cessation of Usurpation promised at the time of assuming the Legitimate Presidency, on January 23, 2019. The Consultation is not the achievement; the achievement is that the pronouncement of the Depositary of the Popular Sovereignty, which is none other than the People of Venezuela, has been considered fundamental by the Legitimate Government to return the country to the path of democracy and freedom.
Hence, the discussion held on October 1, 2020 in the National Assembly, which proposed in its 3rd point "Draft Agreement to convene, based on the Constitution of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, a Citizen Consultation to obtain a manifestation of the unequivocal popular will on issues of national interest", was of extraordinary importance for Venezuelans (see in Spanish Agenda de la Asamblea Nacional del 1ro de Octubre de 2020, in https://mobile.twitter.com/EliasMattaW/status/1311641939092086787). From this discussion, the "Agreement to Promote a Popular Consultation to Hold Free, Fair and Verifiable Presidential and Parliamentary Elections and to Reject Fraud" was approved (see in Spanish Acuerdo completo in https://asambleanacional-media.s3.amazonaws.com/documentos/acto/acuerdo-para-promover-una-consulta-popular-para-realizar-eleccionespresidenciales-y-parlamentarialibres-justas-y-verificables-y-rechazar-el-fraude-20201001195146.pdf).
In the Original National Constituent Alliance, ANCO, we have been working consistently for several years so that the voice of the people is considered in a leading and constitutional way to resolve the very serious crisis the country is going through, which is why we are celebrating this new Agreement approved in principle in the National Assembly to carry out a Popular Consultation. But as we said before, the Consultation in itself is not an achievement. If it is understood that Venezuelans must be called upon to make their voices heard on the great issues that concern us within the country, this Consultation must have a very clear purpose in order to obtain the results that we Venezuelans want. And that result cannot be other than to evict the opprobrious regime of Nicolás Maduro Moros and his gang of drug criminals involved in crimes against humanity.
Since the beginning of his inauguration as President in charge of the Republic, ANCO has asked Juan Guaidó to call a Popular Consultation (see in Spanish Comunicado ANCO del 4 de Febrero de 2019, ANCO ratifica su firme respaldo al Presidente Encargado de la República Juan Guaidó y manifiesta su posición referente a la propuesta de convocatoria a un Referendo Consultivo, in https://ancoficial.blogspot.com/2019/02/comunicado-anco-ante-la-propuesta-de_4.html). From that moment on, when we finally met with the President in charge within the framework of the consultations open to Civil Society, ANCO expressed a clear strategy regarding the convocation of the Depositary of Sovereignty, which included not only the questions of that proposed Consultation but also how that instrument should be applied, so that it would really be an effective solution to the famous Cessation of Usurpation, the constitution of a Transitional Government with subsequent free elections, and most importantly that the mandate of the Venezuelan people be respected.
Here we were not talking about simple questions to the Venezuelan people, but about a whole political and institutional construct that will achieve the task of evicting, with the help of the international community, the regime and restoring democracy and freedom in our country. I must indicate here before continuing, although it is unnecessary to repeat it, that what I write in my blog is the opinion of who subscribes this note, in no way is the position of ANCO as an organization, which is composed of multiple voices of a civil society spread throughout the country that fights for a true decentralization of power in Venezuela, and which has an indisputable figure that represents it, the National Coordinator of ANCO, Engineer Enrique Colmenares Finol.
After reading the questions that came out in the National Assembly Agreement, my opinion is that unfortunately our approach was not clearly understood. It is not a question of the people "supporting" the national and international pressure mechanisms available to go to an election. We did not consult a people to go to elections for political office. We consulted the Venezuelan people to achieve freedom by DIRECTLY exercising the sovereignty of which they are holders (Article 5 of the Constitution) by ordering the eviction of a usurper. A people is not called to achieve a Presidential and Parliamentary election to end usurpation; the people are called to end usurpation so that free elections can then be held, through a Transitional Government made up of all the factors of national life that will give stability to the country that comes immediately afterwards. On the other hand, the rejection of the Parliamentary elections is irrelevant, not only because the Venezuelan people will demonstrate this at the time by not participating in this fraud when the regime dares to call it, but also because there is no free country in the world that has recognized them because of the illegality of their call.
I want to put special emphasis on the electoral aspect. In point 6.4 of the Agreement it says "The consultation may use as a platform for the exercise of the right to participate all available means, allowing participation through mixed platforms: electronic, conventional mail, face-to-face, itinerant and any other mechanism that technology allows". Within the documents delivered by ANCO to the President in Charge, it is clearly indicated: "ANCO fully endorses the Ruling of the Electoral Chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice of 13 June 2018 that declares "NULL AND INAPPLICABLE as of this date the use of the AUTOMATED VOTING AND SCRUTINY SYSTEM for the election of positions of popular representation of public authorities, as well as for the holding of referendums, in the terms set forth in Article 295. 5 of the Constitution of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela". Hence, our proposal is strictly adhered to that decision". It is clear from that declaration that our proposal does not pose any possibility of admitting electronic or Internet votes in that Popular Consultation. Therefore, what was decided in that Agreement was not what we proposed to the government in charge.
In our proposal, the mandate of the Venezuelan People should be supported BEFORE the Consultation takes place by those who can make that mandate of the People effective by force, achieving as it should the necessary commitments of the International Community. In other words, if the Government in Charge agreed to follow this path, it should first obtain from all the countries that claim to recognize it the support prior to a mandate that only the People in exercise of their sovereignty can give, making effective the Principle of Self-Determination of the Peoples. Hence we always said that Maduro should be pressured from outside by the force of free nations to allow this liberating process to take place. Do you realize that we are not just talking about a few simple questions?
In other words, the Consulta is not a Consultation in itself, it is much more than that! It is the perfect, peaceful, constitutional and electoral mechanism to make effective the eviction of the regime through an unappealable mandate of the Venezuelan people. That is why the questions raised by ANCO are tied to that journey, to get the International Community to help us make the use of force effective, if necessary, but with a clear authorization from the Venezuelan people. Seen as the questions posed by the National Assembly, the problem seems to be not to liberate Venezuela, but to get tiny positions in an election, leaving aside the Transitional Government and the end of the usurpation of Nicolás Maduro Moros. Obviously, the Government in Charge is giving this mechanism another meaning that is not the one we proposed.
As I indicated, ANCO gave the President in charge and his team the questions and all the corresponding information to start this process (see in Spanish Comunicado ANCO informando al país sobre la reunión sostenida con el Presidente Encargado Juan Guaidó, en https://ancoficial.blogspot.com/2020/09/comunicado-anco-anco-informa-sobre-la.html). Unfortunately this was lost along the way. But we leave a record to the Venezuelan people of what we delivered in this communiqué of September 6, the day before the announcement of the Unitary Route of the Government in Charge. I can never be in disagreement with convening a Popular Consultation, whatever its purpose may be and whatever the questions may be for the people to decide matters of extreme importance, since the people can and must be consulted as often as necessary. That is constitutional. The issue is to convoke it without the clear purpose and in the direction of getting rid of some criminals of lese-humanity in power. They are still in time to rectify. The Consultation has not been done yet and there is always a chance to do things well.
At ANCO we never considered this Popular Consultation as just another instrument to confront the regime, as one could do with a march or a demonstration in the street. No. We seriously consider it as the final solution where the Venezuelan People, exercising a clear mandate, puts a definitive end, and without further ado, to the disaster where all those who have administered the country in one way or another have taken us, both on the side of the regime and the opposition, opening the way for a new dawn of democracy and freedom, hand in hand with all Venezuelans. We think big, beyond the pettiness and political appetites, putting the country ahead. We will never leave this crisis with minuscule and subaltern thoughts, looking for a position for the next election. It is time for those who hold the opposition's reins to put Venezuela first. This is the only way we will get out of this tragedy...
Caracas, October 2, 2020
Blog: http://ticsddhh.blogspot.com/
Email: luismanuel.aguana@gmail.com
Twitter:@laguana
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