We the People

By Luis Manuel Aguana

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America”. Thus begins the text of the most perfect Constitution in the world, that of the United States of America approved on September 17, 1787, which without varying in more than 200 years has shown to have faithfully fulfilled the aspirations of those who approved it. WE THE PEOPLE, "WE the people..." in its original language.

And why do I bring up in this special moment of Venezuela this historical text that already belongs to humanity, not only to the Americans? Because if the Founding Fathers of the most perfect democracy in the world demonstrated anything, it is that the principles on which they created it were based on something that is imperishable: the will of the people. And the will of the people, which we later translate as Sovereignty, passes over those who can at some point represent it.

From an extraordinary opening conference of the Francisco Marroquín University of Guatemala in 2010, given by José Piñera (brother of President Sebastián Piñera), who was former Minister of Labor and Social Welfare of Chile and responsible for the reform of that country's pension system, entitled "The Founding Fathers of the United States of America and Lessons for Latin America" (I strongly suggest everyone devote an hour of their time to see it in http://newmedia.ufm.edu/pinerapadresfundadores, or read the transcript on my blog at http://ticsddhh.blogspot.com/2014/09/los-padres-fundadores-de-los-estados.html), it shows how a democracy like the North American one has endured and grown strong over time, precisely because it is built on solid principles. I addressed this issue more than 5 years ago (see in Spanish De Padres, Principios y Partidos, in http://ticsddhh.blogspot.com/2014/09/de-padres-principios-y-partidos.html) and is still fully valid for Venezuela and Latin America.

It emerges from this conference that one fundamental contribution to the humanity of the founders of that perfect democracy, in particular Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826), with the American Declaration of Independence, was to establish that the powers of governments derive from their citizens ("WE the people"). Second, that men "...are born with rights given by their Creator and those rights are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness...And that to secure those rights, men institute governments among themselves, which derive their powers from citizens". "WE, the people", again. In this sense Jefferson defines what a government should defend and guarantee: the right to life, freedom and the pursuit of happiness; and "that men organize themselves into governments to protect these rights. According to Piñera: "In other words, Jefferson teaches us that power, the legitimate goal of governments - governments are power - is to protect our rights. The legitimate goal of governments is not for politicians to enrich themselves or live a life of privilege or abuse their power. No, no, no. Or try to micromanage our lives; try to teach us how to eat breakfast, or try to teach us how to swim. No, no, no. Governments are instituted among men to protect those rights...".

Why all this prior explanation? Because if any country understands the meaning of the actions of citizens to defend freedom over their representatives, it is precisely the United States. It's in their DNA. The citizens of the United States have passed over their governments and representatives, and constitutionally they have changed them by renouncing the corrupt. That is what we want to do in Venezuela, not only with the regime of Nicolás Maduro Moros, but now with the mafia that accompanies President Encargado Juan Guaidó, who yesterday demonstrated that they prefer to betray the commitment with the people to leave Nicolás Maduro first, going to a cohabitation arrangement with the regime, following the Henry Ramos Allup doctrine of "authoritarian enclaves", of coexistence with Maduro and his thieves, unacceptable if we want to start with a clean and free democracy, the only way to rebuild Venezuela. That doctrine is inapplicable because it is based on the conceptual error that this is an old-fashioned dictatorship, not an international criminal and terrorist mafia. And if they are proposing it as a solution, it is because they are part of it.

That is why our proposal for a Popular Plebiscite Consultation goes through the DIRECT exercise of popular sovereignty established in Article 5 of our Constitution. And we require that the International Community understand and support us in that Civil Society has, not only the constitutionally established right but also the duty to exercise its sovereignty directly, by virtue of the aggravation of the crisis that has caused the criminal regime that Venezuela suffers and by the deviations that the National Assembly and President Juan Guaidó Marquez are incurring, criminally delaying the solution of the crisis, negotiating with a delinquent and terrorist regime, and calling for marches that have demonstrated their uselessness and loss of Venezuelan lives in recent years.

The Popular Plebiscite Consultation is a peaceful, constitutional and electoral proposal for the direct exercise of sovereignty, which goes beyond what the representation of the National Assembly, Guaidó or any of their designated officials negotiates with the regime, and its decisions are binding because they have the value of the self-determination of the Venezuelan people itself. That should be a firm course of action for the government of the United States and the rest of the countries of the world: to clearly demand that the regime and the Government in Charge of Guaidó submit to the Popular Sovereignty of Venezuelans through a Popular Consultation established in the Constitution, and administered by the citizens, under penalty of continuing and deepening the sanctions. This is a clear and firm citizen proposal.

It should be understood that if the regime yields to this Popular Consultation, it is because it has given in to the credible threat of worse sanctions (including humanitarian military intervention) and we will immediately receive all the financial and operational support necessary to carry it out inside and outside Venezuela, as well as the assurance that the mandate of the sovereign people will be respected on pain of carrying out that intervention. The Consultation could not take place if the necessary assurances are not obtained from the International Community; but the Popular Consultation would also give countries that wish to support us full authorization from the people to proceed in the event of ignorance of the mandate.

The result of this consultation would be the route to follow (Transitional Government and Free Elections) and the action of the countries in relation to the Venezuelan problem. From there, for example, any country could act, if it so chooses, under the authorization of the people themselves, and intervene militarily to resolve humanitarian aid or forcibly evict the regime. It would be nobody but the people themselves who would decide to authorize the use of international force. That would be unobjectionable within the UN Security Council itself. The Popular Consultation would be a focused pressure from the outside in order to achieve an outcome to this tragedy, which is not happening now.

President (E) Juan Guaidó is already aware of this proposal and has dismissed it due to multiple interests and compromises with the corrupt on both sides. They have been trying to square an impossible circle and the result has been failure for an incredibly simple reason: with criminals you can't negotiate, you just act. And the Responsible Government is already beginning to be confused with the usurper. There is no way to resolve this dilemma without the orderly intervention of the citizens. And since this intervention cannot be made through institutional voting, because ALL POWER ARE POWERFUL AND SEQUESTRATED, IN SPECIAL ELECTORAL, the citizens, the true mourners of this unbearable tragedy, we can make it directly through the means that the Constitution provides us. It is no longer possible ANY electoral solution, as we are stubbornly pretending to sell with the appointment of the Rectors of the NEC when what must be done is to completely dismantle and rebuild the electoral system.

I am not saying that it will be easy, but if this is achieved, if we manage to convince the Venezuelans and governments of the world of this fundamental principle that was enunciated in 1787 in the United States, that the reason why governments exist is to guarantee US, THE PEOPLE ("WE, the people") the right to life, freedom and the pursuit of happiness, and that we are the reason why they hold power, then we will be ensuring that any government that comes later will subrogate itself to the citizens and we will have a truly democratic country, at peace and with freedom forever. We will be putting the horses here in front of the cart because they mistakenly believe that the power that the politicians hold is immovable, when that power is given to them by us, WE, the people to guarantee our rights. Neither Maduro, nor Guaidó, nor the G4-FA, nor anyone else, can restrict that right for us. Let's make it count!

Caracas, November 6, 2019

Email: luismanuel.aguana@gmail.com
Twitter:@laguana

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