The Venezuelan Opposition: Or A Difficult Political Task

Víctor García Crespo
October 12, 2006


On December 3rd, Venezuela will go to the polls for what, I believe, is the most fateful election of its democratic life. Venezuelans will have to decide between either, living in an open society where every citizen can freely think and choice, or allowing themselves to exist under a totalitarian regime beneath the yoke of an egomaniac who disguises himself of democratic just because he has won and “won” several elections. A huge amount is riding on the outcome of this oncoming election. The basic values of democracy, such as economic and educational freedom, independent social institutions and political alternation are at stake. It would be unwise to deny the political strength of Hugo Chavez as well as underestimate his infinite maneuvering capacity. Ever since he took power, he has seized the independence and autonomy of every available social institution, has placed them to the service of his political ends and has been desperately looking for ways to tarnish, deny or divert the rights of Venezuelan citizens to vote. The use of electronic machines has granted him all the raw material for a potential fraud. First, they were bought, installed and contracted by his government through a National Electoral Institution ideological subservient to his interests. Second, there exists a very dubious electoral voters register, and Thirdly, there is an already imposed limitation (prohibition?) that every vote will not be 100% contrasted against the machine’s results, held under proper democratic control, and the people will not tally up real votes in the same place as they were voted, Thus, Hugo Chavez’s opponents or, more specifically, Manuel Rosales, the candidate of the united opposition, is facing a hard, difficult and an unpredictable political task; not to mention Hugo Chavez’s beliefs and determination to remain in power until the year 2.021, as he already claimed he will.

Thus, Hugo Chavez egomania will also come into play on December 3rd. For all we know, his political thinking is far from considering that democratic elections should be the only and best way to achieve the political control of society. His history and beliefs in this respect has been extensively documented. The lieutenant colonel has had no qualms in claming that if the circumstances call for it, he would be willing to keep his Presidency by resorting to violent means. More than once, and in order to stimulate his supporters, he has cried aloud the slogan “Patria o Muerte” paraphrasing his mentor Fidel Castro, to signify his commitment to the revolution and his love for communist ideas. Everybody knows, but Hugo Chavez knows better because he holds power, that dictatorships are usually set up and preserved by means of violence, (Chavez really tried to, in 1.992) but the power can also be taken and preserved using electoral fraud. If such fraud were to go undetected, electoral results would no longer rely on our votes and we, the people, would not even notice we had lost Democracy because we would continue voting.

By having a unique candidate, the Venezuelan opposition awaked from its sleeping mode and for the sluggish confrontation of its vested interests. Manuel Rosales has put forward a government program addressed not only to preserve democracy but also with a profound social content capable to compete with the also social, but demagogue character, of Chavez’s proposal. It would be foolish not to recognize that Chavez still enjoys the support of a big sector of those underprivileged to whom he has seductively fed their souls with hopes of justice and equality beckoning them a sly wink and his intoxicating promises; but equally foolish would be to believe that such a support is completely solid given the rampant corruption and ineffectiveness of the government social programs. Thus, Rosales’s mission, and for that matter that of the united opposition, is to shakeup the beliefs of the underprivileged and to get their support. This is a doable task, but even if it is done, a victory is not guaranteed. As a Chavez’s comrade, Joseph Stalin presumably stated “Those who cast the votes decide nothing. Those who count the votes decide everything”

Hugo Chavez has not political adversaries, he has enemies. Even if you love your country, in Chavez’s eyes you will become a traitor if you don't share his views. Although you strongly disagree with the United States foreign policy you will be labeled subservient of the imperialism because you believe in the western democracy. In a nutshell, according to Chavez, there is not such a thing like confrontation of ideas or different beliefs. His military formation and above all his ideological contexture are stimulus enough for his violent language where the words battle and war always occupy a relevant space. This blindness of his ideological structure poses a big challenge to the opposition. For Manuel Rosales will be facing not only the enormous task of opening cracks to an electoral system that has been designed to please Hugo Chavez, but also a man willing to resort to any means, including violence, to preserve his tenure.

Thus, it is paramount that the leadership of the opposition understands that they are contending beyond an electoral date. If Chavez wins the election and all the circumstantial evidence aims at a fraudulent victory, they will have to carry out the sacred and risky task of keeping alive and turn into triumph the will of the Venezuelan people by devising and transiting every possible political road to oust the cheater incumbent. By the same token, if Chavez wins the election without doubts, then the political force of the opposition has to be converted into the maximum constraint of the so called Bolivarian Revolution so that the grounds of the Venezuelan democratic life cannot be substituted by the foundation of a complete totalitarian government.

In other words, for the opposition, the oncoming election, winning or loosing, has implicit a motivation by selfless service to Venezuela, the spiritual goal that demands personal sacrifice for the greater good of the country. Venezuela is tired of personal ambitions and internal divisions. It has come the time to fight, ahead of the rhetoric, for a future where Venezuelans can live together and in peace in spite of their ideological differences and we can, at last, be serviceable to our next generations.

Let’s borrow the next quote from Samuel Adams as the philosophical agenda for the Venezuelan opposition,
“The liberties of our country, the freedoms of our civil Constitution are worth defending at all hazards; it is our duty to defend them against all attacks. We have received them as a fair inheritance from our worthy ancestors. They purchased them for us with toil and danger and expense of treasure and blood. It will bring a mark of everlasting infamy on the present generation – enlightened as it is – if we should suffer them to be wrested from us by violence without a struggle, or to be cheated out of them by the artifices of designing men."





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