The title of this article may seem harsh and I am sorry it is so. But that is what this whole issue of the swearing-in of Edmundo González Urrutia (EGU) is all about. And that is why I feel compelled by conviction to continue insisting that the debate on the swearing in is not in any way banal or protocol, as is being made to seem by a matrix of opinion unfortunately originating from the opposition itself.
The argument has now arisen that it is of no importance for him to do so and that even if it were to happen, it would make no difference because the countries would not pay equal attention to him to achieve the liberation of Venezuela, privileging the actions to get out of the regime that in one way or another countries like the US are advancing, so it would be preferable, according to their logic, for EGU to maintain his condition as President Elect, doing what he is doing, until the circumstances change, and he can triumphantly enter Venezuela to be sworn in the country and take possession of his office.
That sorry narrative ignores how those circumstances will change, how long it will take and what would have to happen for all that to happen. In other words, it does not indicate what would be the succession of events necessary, nor the capabilities of the protagonists of such events, for Venezuelans to see tangible results.
Meanwhile, reality shows that the swearing in of EGU in Venezuela is a mere wish that evades the real situation: neither now nor after the swearing in of EGU, wherever it may be, and especially if it is outside Venezuela, no country has the obligation to help us solve our problems by any means. And to sit and wait for that to happen, the least it provokes is the deepening of the actions that the regime has unleashed to deepen the authoritarian model that keeps the country in misery.
An oath of office would at least make official before the world the support of the 7.4 million Venezuelans who voted for EGU on July 28, 2024, who needs no more than that to be officially considered President of the Republic before the International Community. And that is the only capacity necessary to start working towards the liberation of Venezuela. It is for that reason that some of us believe that he should have it in order to begin to trace the route of the events necessary for the liberation of the country.
And it is not the first time in our history that a Venezuelan, having the recognized capacity to move around the world, was given the power to seek help for the freedom of the country, because it was known that this great enterprise could never be accomplished alone. As you can imagine, that Venezuelan was called Simón Bolívar.
“Much has been discussed about the support of Great Britain to the independence of Spanish America. The first revolutionary leaders such as Bolivar or San Martin were very clear from the beginning that if they wanted to triumph over Spain, it was essential to get British support”.... ”The alliance between England and Spain against Napoleon since 1808 put the British government in a complicated position, because supporting the rebels would not only betray but weaken what was then the only ally along with Portugal they had in their war against France.” (see in Spanish El Debate, En busca de la ayuda británica: los agentes de Bolívar y San Martín, in https://www.eldebate.com/historia/20240221/busca-ayuda-britanica-agentes-bolivar-san-martin-londres_175284.html).
“From the beginning of the struggle for independence, Simón Bolívar, as well as other independence leaders, embarked on a policy of internal indebtedness -which evidently ended up benefiting the local ruling classes- as well as external indebtedness to England and its bankers. In order to be able to borrow abroad, he used part of the nation's wealth as collateral and had to sign free trade agreements with Great Britain”. (see in Spanish Eric Toussaint, Simón Bolívar en el laberinto de la deuda y de las concesiones a los acreedores, in https://www.cadtm.org/Simon-Bolivar-en-el-laberinto-de).
What did Bolivar do? He indebted the country to the marrow to pay for the war of Independence. And with the little money he managed to get after the commissions, abusive interests of the English bankers, and theft by corrupt intermediaries, he managed to pay mercenaries in England: “From the year 1817, and in the five years following, the number of engagements and engagements in the ports of England exceed six thousand men, yet from the 53 ships which formed their expeditions it is stated that some five thousand three hundred soldiers fought. Many of them were veterans of the United Kingdom, including Ireland, some German veterans were also counted in the service of England....” “The British Legions formed an important part of Bolivar's army, who credited them in the battle of Boyaca proclaiming “Those liberating soldiers are the men who deserve these laurels”, and in the battle of Carabobo where he described them as “The Saviors of my Nation””.” (see in Spanish Wikipedia, Legión Británica, in https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legi%C3%B3n_Brit%C3%A1nica).
The International Community in which El Libertador lived did not leave many options: either to align with one of the two blocks of world domination or to seek an option of his own. Not being able to align himself initially with England because of its agreement with Spain against Napoleon, he decided on the independent option of mercenaries, whose officers, experienced in European wars, he would use for the war and the formation of the very incipient army in our country.
But the most important thing: the strategy, and of course the money involved in that war, were not in the hands of England, no matter how much of an enemy of Spain it was, nor of any officer of the legions hired, no matter how experienced they were above the Liberator. It was managed by Bolivar himself, with an army recruited in Venezuela. The British Legions ACCOMPANIED the liberating army, as history points out, and the blood they shed on Colombian soil, beyond the purely contractual matter they had with Venezuela, was recognized with due honors for posterity by the Liberator. As well indicated in history, that borrowed money marked much of what happened in the country after the War of Independence, and had consequences.
But that was Bolivar's decision, and that is what I wish to emphasize here. Whether he decided to put the Republic in debt, bring in the British, declare a war to the death against the Spanish and everything else he did, wrong or right, it was the decisions of the conductor appointed by the Congress of the Republic of Venezuela, which sealed the independence from Spain of the territory of what are now 5 nations. That was the correct course of events.
No one will help us or put their blood for us in Venezuela, if we ourselves are not willing to risk it, firmly driving the steering wheel of liberation, and assuming the responsibility for what has to be done from now on, starting by officially empowering those who were appointed by the popular vote to do what has to be done, to do the task of liberating Venezuela again, because that is what we elected them for. AND THAT IS THE REAL BACKGROUND OF THIS WHOLE PLOT OF THE SWEARING IN OF EDMUNDO GONZÁLEZ URRUTIA. The rest is a bastard care of interests.
Some will say that here Venezuelans have already put the blood and the dead in the streets and in the dungeons of the regime for more than two decades. And it is precisely because of and in respect to that that the conduction of the closing of this tragedy cannot come from other hands than the ones officially decided by Venezuelans in an election that has not been concluded yet, until the swearing-in and passing of responsibilities to those we legitimately elected. Leaving this in the air, loose and unfinished, is a disrespect and a mockery to those who have voted and have put their dead so that this could happen. And yes, this is a war that has not yet ended and that has been declared on Venezuelans to impose on us a model that we will never accept.
If we already have the best “working teams” as María Corina Machado (MCM) mentioned -and we have no reason to doubt it- in her recent interview, then such teams should be officially appointed by the one we elect as President or by whomever he may designate. Not that they come from some unknown laboratory, from those who do not have the official legitimacy to appoint them. That is the legitimate and proper thing to do. And if someone does not like who they put in place, let them say so and support it. That is democracy.
And that is the anguish that we have. Not that they tell us what they are deciding for obvious reasons, because we will finally know that by the results, but that we see who is dealing with this crisis beyond MCM because this problem is multidisciplinary and it is solved with many people in a structured way. In that way, Venezuelans will know if they will indeed be up to that commitment, because here everybody knows each other and nobody was born yesterday.
And if the solution ends up being military or of force, let it come from the best Venezuelans in arms available to us -we have enough of them and very well trained in democracy-, and let them be in charge of that task, appointed by those we elect through the popular vote. That way, their comrades-in-arms who decide to turn their backs to the regime in Venezuela will know who their superior officers will be and into which chain of command they will be inserted at the appropriate time. THAT IS WHAT IT IS ALL ABOUT! As long as we are told to wait for Trump or anyone else to come and save us, while the one we elected precisely for that purpose is going around the world, we see our sovereignty compromised and the promised end ever farther away.
No one will liberate Venezuela, nor will they put the dead for us. The most they will do is to accompany us, as the British did during the War of Independence, but they will only do so if they see us at the front. If anyone believes otherwise, let them simply refer to the American cultural classic: “there is no free lunch”. And so much for figuratively speaking. Literally, history taught us with the Liberator, that the one who puts the dead when the situation has freedom as the resulting prize, is the one who gets the glory. Let us not unnecessarily prolong that moment.
Caracas, February 10, 2025
Blog:
TIC’s & Derechos Humanos, https://ticsddhh.blogspot.com/
Email: luismanuel.aguana@gmail.com
Twitter:@laguana
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