lunes, 28 de mayo de 2018

LUCHAS and Critic Thought Exhort Maduro to Fight Corruption, Bureaucracy and Speculation Immediately



By:  



Two revolutionary organizations in Venezuela spoke up this Sunday on the results on the Presidential elections last May 20th, and the measures the President must undertake immediately. These actions must comprise the fight against corruption and speculation as well as the replacement of inefficient public officers in institutions and organisms, among others.



Read the statement by the Unitary Chavista Socialist League LUCHAS and Critic Thought.


"President Maduro: Immediate measures that imply an important change in a new management


A week ago a large part of the Venezuelan people expressed themselves in the presidential elections and the Legislative Councils on May 20, where he was re-elected as President Nicolás Maduro. President who as a candidate promised that if he were reelected - as he was - his pulse would not tremble to immediately undertake the necessary changes that would solve the country's main problems. A week later, those immediate measures that imply a significant change for that management that he promised have not yet been seen.



Given these facts we pronounce ourselves:



Venezuelans also hope that the new government of President Maduro expresses clear and firm demonstrations that there will be a vision that goes beyond next week. Many of those who voted for Nicolás, and another large part of the people in general, still consider that President Maduro, making the necessary changes from his previous administration, can amend this unprecedented crisis in Venezuela. Otherwise, abuse would be too much with the confidence of the Chavista people. Many of that same legion of Compatriots who again showed up at the polls on May 20, did so thinking and saying that this is the last opportunity given to a political and military leadership that until now has shown inefficiency, incapacity and ineptitude in the solution of the serious problems of the lives of Venezuelans and Venezuelans.



These are more than enough reasons to support the demands of a real change of cabinet that already expresses a vision and a plan that attacks structural issues: an effective control of the distribution networks of goods and services. Enough since some corrupt officials, especially the GN, are behind the world of bachaqueo and mafias in the wholesale markets of the states and the supposed protection of the borders and do nothing to investigate and punish exemplary involved but there must also be a new vision in the productive sector, where, if agreements are to be reached with the productive sector, this must be done by imposing on the private sector and those run by state companies higher levels of production and better results in the distribution of what is produced



The terrible economic crisis can not continue to be addressed, through agreements with the private sector, with more of the same than what has already been done, where they extract dollars from the government to produce and import goods and the government has no control over what they have done. that is produced and much less than what is imported. All these items addressed in this paragraph are key to solving the crisis of low production, scarcity, overpricing and hyperinflation. Apparently, President Maduro has not taken into account the reflection of Einstein that you can not expect that doing the same will have other results.



Above all, it is necessary to take measures to replace authorities in key activities in the country, such as oil production and electricity. Today, PDVSA and CORPOELEC are on the ground and current managers have enormous responsibilities, as many as the authorities they replaced. We must be consistent with the statement of fighting corruption, no matter who falls. The government must assume with a character of inflexibility, rigor and firmness the frontal fight against the widespread and scandalous corruption that infects all the public administration. We all know how the alcabalas of our country have become opprobrious places of dispossession, of arbitrariness, of criminal intimidation, which leads beyond the moral and unjust situation per se, patrimonial damage to the users of the roads, in addition to to conform an important condition that contributes to the increase of the merchandise that by those routes are forced to transport the suppliers and distributors of goods of different lines.


The same can be said of the immigration services where the minimum diligence is required as the only condition to have access to the citizen solution of the corresponding services ... and so we can walk through almost all the dependencies of the state finding these terrible embarrassing, despicable circumstances They wither the soul of citizenship and every day they distance it from the credibility of its institutions. If we do not act aggressively against this shameful panorama sooner rather than later, the citizens will exhaust their patience, which is almost totally lost, and the consequences will hit our faces. The public health network is also going through the worst moment in the history of our country. The deterioration of infrastructure, organizational disorder, prevarication, dehumanization, lack and even absolute absence of medicines, medical surgical supplies, damage and inoperability of equipment and laboratories, as well as transport units or ambulance, place the general population and in particular the weakest social and economic in desperate situations and even dantescas because it is impossible to resolve health conditions at all levels, obviously the greatest difficulty when it comes to serious or dramatic diseases such as kidney disease, oncology , cardiovascular, surgical, among others.


What does the president expect to act swiftly, to name people who are tried, sensitive, committed to militant humanism so that they can direct these spaces together with the Communes in such a way that they advance in their recovery? And what can we say about private health? There is concentrated the absolute speculation, the criminal impudence of those who enrich themselves with the pain of others in the most cold, calculating and insensitive way, dehumanized, with the indifferent, complicit gaze of the Venezuelan state. With the double guilt, both for allowing this situation without focusing on exercising control over the merchants of health, and for maintaining the public health network precarious, deficient in all its levels, which causes the population to resort to private centers and there they are plundered by medical mercantilism, where suspiciously everything is found, say medicines, medical surgical supplies and the necessary technology.



The six lines announced by the President, taking away the tone and the rhetorical turns, will try to provoke sympathy, but respectfully we want to remind Nicolás that he is doing it to an audience where for most their hopes are already very finite and where many expressions They sound empty. Apart we say, has fallen into serious errors of historical interpretation to make equivalent the processes of peace of the 60 and 70 and this current release of leaders and cadres of the opposition, which may be a positive measure, but has another historical significance. It is worth remembering that they grant full liberty to many opponents conspirators, while there are imprisoned labor leaders or that they have presentation regimes in Courts, being the cases of some Companions leaders in Civetchí, Corpoelec and in Ferrominera.



The only way to start a new hopeful path and that this is not truly the last opportunity is to honestly assume the line of Popular Power. And this is focused on the development of the Communal State. The same kind of state that President Chávez demanded he made in his intervention known as "El Golpe de Timón". That is the way, apart from breaking and separating the currently leading bureaucracy and fulfilling the promise made more than a year ago that the military would return to their barracks. The FANB is not in its barracks but many times doing actions like the one just done by the GNB with the Compatriots of the El Maizal Commune in the Portuguese State. Members of this Commune were harassed and humiliated by a commission of the GNB that supposedly investigates bachaqueadores of inputs. However, the commoners attended to the CNB with invoices and evidence in the hands of their productive and commercial legality, but also some comuneros went to the CONAS offices in Acarigua where they were arbitrarily stripped of their cell phones and kept incommunicado, according to instructions of the Prosecutor's Office 12 of the State Portuguesa.


Of course, we still oppose the line of paying the horrendous external debt above all else. While doing that the bank refuses to grant new loans, foreign accounts are blocked from the government, imperialism and various governments lackcades block foreign trade to Venezuela and even threaten us with different measures of intervention, even military type. If the country requires international capital, that you make the necessary agreements but not at the expense of sovereignty, as noted in some hiring decisions for the oil and mining exploitation of the country. We reject any attempt to apply a scheme of surrendering the country to transnational capital, much more, if that is done, covered by a shrill and falsely anti-imperialist rhetoric. The people can not stand a new deception.

President, Nicolás, you have the floor.

On behalf of LUCHAS: Stalin Pérez Borges, Ismael Hernández, Christian Pereira

For Critical Thinking: Jesús Puerta, Orlando Zabaleta "

jueves, 24 de mayo de 2018

Wallets in Pain. Prices Rocketed to Bs 1 Million ($2) in Venezuela





By: Panorama digital


23-05-18.-“The old bargain offering everything for a buck is back. Yet, with an  inflationary version: Everything costs Bs 1 million minimum", a buyer said at the flea market, surrounded by items he could not afford.

The groceries in Venezuela broke the barrier of the million bolivars (Approximately US $1): From a package of rice to soap for the laundry. The item nor the place matter now. Both open market on the streets, supermarkets and tables of the "Bachaqueros" (smugglers), any item is offerd above seven digit figures, above the national minimum wage.

Yesimar Guerrero went for groceries as usual. Nothing seemed to change in her routine: She strolled around the little markets in order to buy small amounts of her need. But yesterday she realized that the scenario had worsened: the precooked corn flour got it in 1 million bolivars, the package of rice from a brand that did not recognize also cost the same, the liter of oil saw it in Bs. 1,500 .000 and, to top it off, the egg carton in one million 400 thousand. 


"You ought to be a millionaire to buy food right now. In our house we met and made a list of the products we are going to consume to buy them little by little. Half a kilo of rice, half a carton of eggs and the oil we will see, because everything costs an eye of the face, "said the housewife, in the central town of Maracaibo.The prices "hit" the pockets. The package of 1 kilogram of leavening flour is 1,400,000 bolivars, as "very cheap". One liter of milk was lost sight of: Bs. 1 million 400 thousand marks the bottle. The margarine has already risen to 1,500 thousand bolivars.With the purchase of only one of these products "dissolves" the current minimum wage, set at Bs. 1,000,000, after the recent 95% increase approved by President Nicolás Maduro at the beginning of the month.  



The basket was also adjusted, taking it to 1 million 500 thousand Bolivars. This amount  does not allow to purchase the "millionaire" products that make up the basic basket. 

Even so, with both amounts a person could not afford more than 3 basic products for their food. The vegetables also made their leap. In the Santa Rosalia market in the state of Zulia, potatoes reached 900 thousand bolivars per kilogram. Tomatoes are costing Bs. 800 thousand per kilo, also that of cabbage and paprika. The most distant one million bolivars is the carrot, which was parked in Bs. 600 thousand.Even sauces, condiments and dressings are one step away from joining the "millionaire team." A bottle of tomato sauce is obtained up to Bs. 900 thousand bolivars, while that of marinade is seen in 700,000 bolivars.  

Meanwhile, the molten cheese is seen on the shelves for Bs. 1 million 180 thousand.But household cleaning products soared. The half kilogram of soap powder to wash clothes ranges between one and a half million bolivars, while the packaging of 1 kg reaches Bs. 2 million 500 thousand."We will keep the clothes and the dirty house because it is an exaggeration how much it costs. I haven't been able to do the laundry for a week because I couldn't buy the detergent. I thought it would have been better to buy a panela soap but I was cold when I saw the price: 950 thousand bolivars", said Janica Salazar, who said that chlorine cost him his last week Bs. 700 thousand, as well as a liter of disinfectant.



Read the original article in Spanish, here: Golpe al bolsillo: todo en mínimo Bs. 1 millón 








aporreainternational@gmail.com
 



miércoles, 23 de mayo de 2018

The Ashes of the New Bolivarian Socialism of the 21st Century


By: Javier Biardeau | Saturday, 04/21/2018 06:36 PM

After rereading and analyzing the text "Socialism or barbarity:Story of Posturing, Manipulation, and Lies" by Juan Barreto and Héctor Sánchez [1], I was motivated to write these words for collective discussion, trying to trace not only the content of Chávez's ideological-political legacy [2], but also that of those who have tried to contribute relevant ideas for to that discussion on this new socialism, today completely lackluster and opaque.
These words would need to - in future elaborations - to get back to and organize the relevant written works and analyses on the debate about "21st century socialism" by figures such as: Alí Rodríguez Araque, Alberto Müller Rojas, Jorge Giordani, William Lara, Rodrigo Cabezas, Jesús Farías, Haiman el Troudi, Rodolfo Sanz, Elías Jaua, Rafael Ramírez, and including the association Un grano de maíz (A Grain of Corn) (Toby Valderrama), among other civil and military figures (Jacinto Pérez Arcay, for example) with an interest in the writing of their political views on such a topic and with a certain degree of accordance and dialogue with the very theses of Hugo Chávez.
After four years of disappointing, inconclusive, and erratic results from the management of the Maduro's government (2014-2018) when it's time to assume challenges and threats that in life Chávez himself managed to confront at various junctures, given his performance in matters of:
a) political efficiency
b) social responsibility
c) ethics of general welfare
d) technical/political capability
e) clear situational leadership
It is important to point out that Chávez's political actions were done not only in favorable international conditions (the propagandistic tale of $100 barrels of oil, which is a half-truth, which is also to say a half-lie), but rather, also in conditions not always favorable, for example: low oil prices (less than $40/barrel on average from 1998-2005), imperialist threats (coup and oil sector strike), economic sabotage, speculative pressure on the currency, as well as constant political (and media) plays at destabilization, as well as the loss of political and military unity.
So if you do not want to completely dispel-distort the "National Project" dimension in the Bolivarian process led by Chávez, then you can trace those marks of development of notions and concepts about a socialist debate, not always fully assumed and often relegated, in a historical-political context already clearly post-chavista.
We say that there exists a post-chavista context (a debate that coincides withthe so-called debate about post-progressivism), after having analyzed the patterns of justification of the internal political recompositions that the very government of Maduro has executed since the death of Chávez, some of which are associated with what I will provisionally call in this text the "framework of gradual and selective micro-purges," that were neither expected nor planned in the Farewell Speech to Chávez that 8th of December [3]; for example, figures such as: Vanessa Davies, Jorge Giordani, Héctor Navarro, Ana Elisa Osorio, Antonia Muñoz, Cliver Alcalá, Rafael Ramírez, Miguel Rodríguez Torres, and perhaps an et. al. of unpublicized middle managers, today anonymous.
On the other hand, we must be aware that we are already almost 20 years out from the beginning of that experience of the constituent process (1999), with an exemplary popular call to a National Constituent Assembly; the country would experience, for the first time in its political history, the first constituent call to a popular referendum, or as Chávez literally said: "Here, in all of Venezuelan history, there had never been any referendum.The first was the one that we called for on the 2nd of February of 1999 in order to aks the people themselves if they were in agreement with calling a Constituent Assembly." [4].
This event allowed for the composition and approval (in a second popular approbative referendum) of an advance Constitution (1999) in social and democratic matters, and for the progressive development of an invaluable bill of rights: civil, political (including the popular referendum), social and family, educational and cultural, economic, those of indigenous people, and environmental.
In the sense that it is valuable to acknowledge acts and documents, that perhaps newer generations (those that are currently between 16 and 27 years old), who were less than seven (7) years old at the beginning of said process (1999), who were born during the first ten years of the Bolivarian process, or who currently hold positions of management and political responsibility (who are between 30-45 years old), cannot today manage to comprehend or give importance to its full ramifications, in the heat of the moment and confusion typical of events and trends that have anchored present exigencies in the political and social consciousness of the country, selectively erasing the memory as well as the utopian impulses that each prescient conscience reveals in its relationship to aspects of the "Historical Project."
If it is about choosing the fundamental high points in order to trace those of Chávez's declarations that impacted the formation of a new imagination and emancipation, and that prefigured the basis of his social and political repertory of ideas, we could not stop insisting on the following texts/documents as discursive keys to understanding and interpreting such a project (as well as the excellent materials thematically grouped at http://www.todochavez.gob.ve/ - in Spanish):
1) The Blue Book and central role of the notion of popular Bolivarian democracy (in Spanish) [5].
2) Interview with Agustín Blanco Muñoz entitled "The Comandante Speaks," as well as materials regrouped by historian Alberto Garrido, Documents on the Bolivarian Revolution (in Spanish).
3) The Alternative Bolivarian Agenda (in Spanish) [6] and the proposal of Hugo Chávez for to transform Venezuela, A Democratic Revolution (in Spanish)[7].
4) Fundamental Ideas for the Bolivarian Constitution of the Fifth Republic (in Spanish)[8].
5) 02/02/1999. Investiture of President and Comandante Hugo Rafael Chávez Frías (in Spanish)[9]
6) 05/08/1999.Speech of President and Comandante Hugo Chávez Frías, at the first session of the National Constituent Assembly (in Spanish) [10]
6) Interview with Marta Harnecker: "Hugo Chávez Frías - A Man, A People" (in Spanish) [11]
7) Speech by President and Comandante Hugo Chávez during the meeting "Solidarity with the Bolivarian Revolution with Venezuela" as part of the First Worldwide Social Forum[12], as well as Statements by President and Comandante Hugo Chávez, during the press conference in Porto Alegre (in Spanish) [13].
8) Interview with Manuel Cabieses, Punto Final magazine: "Twenty-first Century Socialism: Where is Chávez headed? (in Spanish) [14]
9) Chávez's speech following the election victory of 3-12-2006 (in Spanish) [15].
10) 10/01/2007. Speech by President and Comandante Chávez during the swearing in ceremony as President of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela for the term 2007-2013 (in Spanish)[16].
11) Preliminary Project for Constitutional Reform, presented by the President of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, Hugo Rafael Chávez Frías (in Spanish) [17]
11) 12/01/2008.Speech by President and Comandante Hugo Chávez during the inauguration of the Founding Conference of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) (in Spanish) [18]
12) 02/03/2008.Speech by President and Comandante Hugo Chávez during the closing act of the Founding Conference of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) (in Spanish)[19]
13) Speech for the inauguration of the First Special Conference of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela, Ríos Reyna Room, Teresa Carreño Theatre (in Spanish) [20].
14) Strategic Areas of Political Action-PSUV (in Spanish) [21]
15) Various texts, "Aló Presidente Teórico" (in Spanish) [22].
16) The easy to understand text about ideas of Twenty-first Century Socialism (in Spanish) [23].
17) Proposal by the candidate of the homeland Comandante Hugo Chávez for the Management of the Government (2013-2019) (in Spanish) [24]
18) The so-called "Turning Point"[25], obligatorily indicating that the text partially regroups Chávez's words on the elaboration of audiovisual efforts (in Spanish).
19) The interview, "From Yare to Miraflores: The Very Subversive - Interviews with the Comandante Hugo Chávez Frías (1992-2012)" by José Vicente Rangel [26] (in Spanish).
This "sampling" of opinions, speeches, and texts by Chávez is not present in its totality in the six thousand one hundred and eighteen archives (6,118) of the important portal of the Hugo Chávez Foundation: http://www.todochavez.gob.ve/todochavez/ (in Spanish), as well as other publications, such as the Essential Speeches of Hugo Chávez (Volumes I, II, and III) (in Spanish).
Here, it is important to highlight that it it is necessary to rely on documented support in order to manage to get off of the "rocky battlefield" and approach debates with a minimum of consistency, where the risk is run that each interest indiscriminately gets into out-of-context citations by Hugo Chávez in order to justify whichever political position or senseless government action.
Here I am in agreement with the French sociologist, Pierre Bourdieu, when he says "[...] it is always necessary to submit citations to criticism, examine their funciton, their veracity, their validity." Later he points out "[...] for this, it is necessary to establish a de-fetishized relationship with writers, which doesn't mean a relationship of disrespect."
All of the semiotics and hermeneutics of the reception of texts and speeches works with similar premises when Bourdieu says "[...] in order to comprehend a work it is necessary to first comprehend its production, the environment of production; the relationship between the environment in which it is produced and the environment in which it is received..."
If causes in the context of the hegemonic and counter-hegemonic action is what it is about, when in the ideological/programatic world the "revolutionary legacy of Chávez" is talked about, it is important to maintain a distinction of politics of interpretation, between a hermeneutics (or interpretation) of documents based on suspicion and unmasking, on the one hand, and a hermeneutics (interpretation) based on the affirmation of logic; that is to say, on the integration of knowledge, discourse, or a text in the field that institutes an instituted tradition, putting forth this last case, "clear limits of interpretation" and even at the risk of instituting an orthodoxy, canon, or dogma.
When we talk, for example, about a hermeneutics of unmasking, we are proceeding precisely to debunk "false continuities of signification and logic" which are established between certain texts and discourses, basing ourselves, for said unmasking and debunking, on evidence, marks, prints, and documented proof which allow the bringing down of meaningful social acts of revision and re-writing which appropriate the texts and communicative intentions of Chávez, in order to produce new or other performative or transpositional effets. It is there that manipulations, falsifications, and posturing operate.
For example, an interpreter of the Constitution points out that the call to a constituent assembly does not require called through a popular referendum according to the following reasoning and argument:
"So then, certainly Article 71 provides for the optional or discretionary choice to call for a consultative referendum on "subjects of special national consequence;" however, there exist objective overriding circumstances that determine the process of setting up the National Constituent Assembly, such as the acute situation of political crisis currently being confronted and which has precipitated the decree of a state of exception still without end, that has provoked the making of basic, expedited, and profoundly constitutional decisions, within which - by initiative of the President of the Republic - it has been resolved to call for a National Constituent Assembly, which can - under peaceful circumstances - get the country into agreement on a new social contract, without making use of this opportunity - because of said circumstances - of that which is permitted in the aforementioned Article 71."
To this argument has been institutionally attributed the authority to be an interpretation "in line with the Constitution." That which we claim here is that such an interpretation goes against the constituent process that was defended at every turn by Comandante Hugo Chávez.
A hermeneutics of unmasking can refute with other textual evidence that indicates that another interpreter - in this case, Comandante Chávez - foresaw in their proposal for a preliminary project the Constitution of 1999 [27] and in their communicative/logical purpose of signification, the following aspects: "Fundemental Ideas for the New Bolivarian Constitution of the Fifth Republic":
Article.- The Constituent Assembly, as an expression of the original constituent power, whose holder is the sovereign people, not only has the mission to approve a new Constitution, but also to freely establish its order of relations with the Constituted Powers, for which it can decide as much the cessation of their duties as requesting them to submit their accounts directly.
Article.- The Constituent Assembly has as its limits the values ​​and principles of our republican history, as well as the compliance with the treaties, agreements and commitments validly subscribed by the Republic, the progressive nature of human rights and democratic guarantees.
Article.- The initiative of convocation to the Constituent Assembly may be exercised by the President of the Republic in the Council of Ministers, the National Assembly by approved agreement of two thirds of each Chamber or by a number not less than ten percent of the voters registered in the National Electoral Registry.
Article.- The convocation to the Constituent Assembly will be considered approved, if in the REFERENDUM called for such purpose, the number of affirmative votes is greater than the number of negative votes. If the result of the referendum is negative, it must take at least one year for a new call. If after that time, the new convocation was rejected, a new referendum may not be called in the same constitutional period.
Article.- The bases to elect and form the Constituent Assembly will be included in the convocation REFERENDUM and will be considered approved if the number of positive votes is greater than the number of negative votes.
Article.- The Constitution drafted by the Constituent Assembly shall be subject to a referendum within thirty (30) calendar days following its approval. The Constitution will be definitively approved if the number of affirmative votes is greater than the number of negative votes. If the Constitution subject to a referendum is rejected, all acts dictated by the Constituent Assembly will be annulled, except those that are strictly indispensable to guarantee the continuity of the Rule of Law. Likewise, a new Assembly of this nature can not be convened in the same constitutional period, and the Constitution existing before the Assembly will remain in effect. "
And if, as support or backing for this second interpretation (which we attribute to Chávez's conception of the constituent process) on the topic of the constituent referendum, we read in other texts[28] or Chávez's speeches:
"91. Until 1996 we had refused to go to elections. Rather we were calling for abstention, as a tactical element or as part of a strategy towards the convening of the Constituent Assembly, which was always our approach.
92. That is how we decided to move forward along this path. Now, you ask: why insist so much on that path? And I answer: because we believe in him and not only as something tactical, but because we strategically believe that it is possible, we said it millions of times "We are going to the Presidency of the Republic to summon the People's Power, to the Constituent Assembly."I myself had great doubts about the possibility of breaking the barriers of the Punto Fijo system and evolving to another situation, but we did it. That same year of 1999 we held the referendum."
"96. The challenge was then how to make a Constituent Assembly by legal means.The first thing that had to be done was to win the Presidency of the Republic so that,from that body of power, a referendum could be convened where the people could speak for themselves.We rely on article 4 of the old Constitution that said: "Sovereignty resides in the people who exercise it by suffrage (the referendum is a form of suffrage), by the organs of public power, and so on."We take a legal and interpretive point from that article that allows the president to call a referendum so that the sovereignty that resides in the people is expressed by an organ of public power.
97. We managed to win that referendum with the banner of the Constituent and although the opposition attacked a lot saying: "With the Constituent one does not eat, no roads are made, no houses are made", the subject stuck at the national level. At that stage, we call it the stage of the convocation to the Constituent Assembly. "
And if we also find greater documented supports in which Comandante Chávez himself states:
"187. The Constitution may have many defects, many gaps, but one of the wonders that it has, and that is enough, is that it establishes the mechanism so that the constituent power is not expropriated from the people.In the case of a political institutional crisis with no exit, there is always a resource: that the people, collecting signatures up to a certain percentage, or the National Assembly, or the President of the Republic, can activate a Referendum to reform, amend, restructure or even elaborate a new constitutional text.To do the latter, obviously, we should exhaust the pre-existing institutions. "
What is the conclusion from a hermeneutical approach to the texts?
It seems much more likely from the point of view of a hermeneutics of unmasking to say that in the conception of Comandante Chavez, it was an indispensable condition to consult popular sovereignty, the authentic holder and holder of the original constituent power, that is, the people by referendum.
In Comandante Chávez's conception, a call of "presidential" form and content that would act under "objective overriding circumstances" is neither ratified nor justified, "acute situation of political crisis" in the framework of a "decree of a state of exception," that would motivate "generic, expedited decision-making" with the purpose of "putting the country in agreement on the new social contract," without any necessity whatsoever of consulting the people.
On this specific point, the "ideological/political legacy" of Chávez would appear to be inclined - without any room for doubt - to a path completely opposed to the course of action that was solidified in 2017 in order to confront a political or institutional crisis with no resolution, without, additionally, the need for "constituent power to be expropriated from the people," in its convocation, in the method of selection of delegates, in its method to annul debates within the NCA, and, finally, in the approval of political decisions in addition to the composition of a new Constitution.
As we can see, critical hermeneutics is an interpretation with political consequences, which does not shun its political effects on the historical level of truth, falsehood, lies and secrecy.
Let us reiterate, it is a hermeneutics that does not reject the consequences of decisions when courses of action confront options of the will-to-do, the know-how, the power-to-do and the must-do, key topics for a "social semiotics of political action". If it is a political line, it is a non-chavista political line.
With this small example, we could address multiple topics or issues of "public policy;" where we could track whether or not we are in a context of policies, courses of action and decisions that we could characterize as connotatively "chavistas," or if it is not already a new post-chavista context, which some have already described without any euphemism as a moment, style or period typical of "madurismo."
Perhaps for such reasons it is worth it not to lose sight of the texts, speeches, and documented evidence on the debate about twenty-first century socialism in line with the expectations/conceptions of Comandante Chávez and his main partners and colleagues, in order to unmask any schemes or posturing plots, manipulations and lies, around the construction of Bolivarian socialism that Chávez always summarized by recalling Bolívar's speech in Agostura as, "[...] alternative to the destructive and savage system of capitalism and with this to ensure the 'most complete social security, the most complete political stability, and the most complete happiness' for our people."

References:
[1] "¿Socialismo o barbarie? Trama de imposturas, manipulaciones y mentiras" by Juan Barreto and Héctor Sánchez https://www.aporrea.org/actualidad/a260884.html
[2]Javier Biardeau: Las Políticas de la Interpretación sobre el Legado de Chávez http://www.granpolopatriotico.org.ve/autores/javier-biardeau/las-politicas-de-la-interpretacion-sobre-el-legado-de-chavez/
[3] Complete transcription of President Chávez's words on his final national channel (08/12/12) http://www.psuv.org.ve/temas/noticias/transcripcion-completa-palabras-presidente-chavez-su-ultima-cadena-nacional-081212/#.WtskCtTwbIU
[4]Interview by Marta Harnecker - Hugo Chávez Frías, Un hombre, un pueblo http://www.rebelion.org/docs/97068.pdf, (p.27)
[5]Hugo Chávez: El Libro Azul http://www.psuv.org.ve/temas/biblioteca/libro-azul-hugo-chavez-frias/#.WtsnA9TwbIU
[6]Agenda Alternativa Bolivariana http://www.imprentanacional.gob.ve/web/libros/libros/Libro-Rojo-11-2-14-fs-web.pdf
[7]Revolución democrática. La propuesta de Hugo Chávez para transformar a Venezuela: https://es.scribd.com/doc/192305304/Hugo-Chavez-La-propuesta-de-Hugo-Chavez-para-transformar-a-Venezuela
[8]Preliminary Constitutional Bill presented by Hugo Chávez in 1999 https://es.scribd.com/document/376357466/19990805-Propuesta-Constitucion-Chavez
[9]Chávez's speech of investiture,1999: http://www.todochavez.gob.ve/todochavez/3013-toma-de-posesion-del-comandante-presidente-hugo-rafael-chavez-frias
[10]Chávez's speech during the inauguration of the NCA- 1999 http://www.todochavez.gob.ve/todochavez/3482-intervencion-del-comandante-presidente-hugo-chavez-frias-en-la-asamblea-nacional-constituyente
[11]Interview by Marta Harnecker - Hugo Chávez Frías
UN HOMBRE, UN PUEBLO http://www.rebelion.org/docs/97068.pdf
[12] Chávez's speech at the Social Forum of Porto Alegre: http://www.todochavez.gob.ve/todochavez/1481-intervencion-del-comandante-presidente-hugo-chavez-en-el-encuentro-solidaridad-con-la-revolucion-bolivariana-con-venezuela-en-el-marco-l-foro-social-mundial
[13]Chávez's press conference at the Social Forum of Porto Alegre http://www.todochavez.gob.ve/todochavez/1789-declaraciones-del-comandante-presidente-hugo-chavez-en-la-rueda-de-prensa-desde-porto-alegre
[14] SOCIALISMO del siglo XXI ¿Dónde va Chávez?By: Punto Final magazine https://www.aporrea.org/actualidad/a16986.html
[15]Hugo Chávez's speech from El Balcón del Pueblo, 3 December 2006 https://vulcano.wordpress.com/2006/12/04/discurso-de-hugo-chavez-desde-el-balcon-del-pueblo-3dic06/
[16]Chávez's speech during the presidential inauguration for the 2007-2013 term http://www.todochavez.gob.ve/todochavez/2705-intervencion-del-comandante-presidente-hugo-chavez-durante-acto-de-juramentacion-como-presidente-de-la-republica-bolivariana-de-venezuela-para-el-periodo-2007-2013
[17]Chávez: Preliminary Bill for Constitutional Reform 2007 http://cdn.eluniversal.com/2007/08/16/reformaconstitucional2.pdf
[18] Chávez's speech during the inauguration of the Founding Conference of the PSUV: http://www.todochavez.gob.ve/todochavez/1575-intervencion-del-comandante-presidente-hugo-chavez-durante-acto-de-instalacion-del-congreso-fundacional-del-partido-socialista-unido-de-venezuela-psuv
[19]Chávez's speech during the closing ceremony of the Founding Conference of the PSUV: http://www.todochavez.gob.ve/todochavez/1709-intervencion-del-comandante-presidente-hugo-chavez-durante-acto-de-clausura-del-congreso-fundacional-del-partido-socialista-unido-de-venezuela-psuv
[20]Chávez: Inauguration speech of the Special Session of the PSUV: http://www.psuv.org.ve/psuv/congreso-extraordinario/discurso-instalacion/
[21]Chávez: Strategic Points of Political Action of the PSUV: http://www.psuv.org.ve/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/LINEAS-ESTRATEGICAS-PSUV1.pdf
[22]Aló Presidente teórico: http://www.todochavez.gob.ve/todochavez/6287-alo-presidente-teorico-n-1 , http://todochavez.gob.ve/todochavez/6286-alo-presidente-teorico-n-2 , http://todochavez.gob.ve/todochavez/6288-alo-presidente-teorico-n-3 , http://todochavez.gob.ve/todochavez/6289-alo-presidente-teorico-n-4 , http://todochavez.gob.ve/todochavez/6290-alo-presidente-teorico-n-5 , http://todochavez.gob.ve/todochavez/6291-alo-presidente-teorico-n-6 http://www.safonapp.gob.ve/?wpfb_dl=7 , http://www.consulvenbilbao.org/chavez/documentos/alo_teorico2propiedad_social.pdf , http://www.psuv.org.ve/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/La-doctrina-militar-bolivariana-y-el-poder-nacional.pdf , http://www.consulvenbilbao.org/chavez/documentos/alo_teorico6__la_formacionw.pdf
[23]Socialismo del siglo XXI http://www.minci.gob.ve/wp-content/uploads/downloads/2013/01/reflexiones_del_siglo_xxicdw.pdf
[24]Hugo Chávez: Programa de Gobierno (2013-2019) http://blog.chavez.org.ve/Programa-Patria-2013-2019.pdf
[25]Hugo Chávez: Turning Point http://www.psuv.org.ve/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/Golpe-de-Tim%C3%B3n.pdf, Chávez's televised speech before the governing Cabinet https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lWRGtVL30qk,https://www.aporrea.org/ideologia/a171154.html
[26]De Yare a Miraflores: el mismo subversivo. Interviews with Chávez, compiled by José Vicente Rangel: http://www.minci.gob.ve/wp-content/uploads/downloads/2013/03/WEBDEYAREAMIRAFLORES140313terceraSG1.pdf
[27]https://es.scribd.com/document/376357466/19990805-Propuesta-Constitucion-Chavez
[28]Interview by Marta Harnecker - HUGO CHÁVEZ FRÍAS, UN HOMBRE, UN PUEBLO http://www.rebelion.org/docs/97068.pdf (p.41)


Read the original article in Spanish, here: Las cenizas de "nuevo Socialismo Bolivariano del siglo XXI"


English Version: Brandon Joel Queen (USA)
Twitter:@BrandonJoelQ 
Email: brandon_joel_queen@yahoo.ca
aporreainternational@gmail.com



(PDF) Bulletin CER Latin America: The "Anti Imperialism" of Maduro's Government and the Polarizing Rhetoric



By:  

22/05.-  The intense crisis Venezuela suffers is explained by Nicolás Maduro's government as the consequences of a series of imperial aggressions fostered from the U.S. government. This is how it seems to elude any responsibility on the current collapse of the Venezuelan "Petrostate" and the suffering of the population regarding the huge decay of their standards of living because of the restricted access to medicines and food items due to high costs and scarcity.

The Venezuelan government's rhetoric pretends to make us believe in an anti imperialist attitude. Yet, it does not resist the lowest contrast with a study of its foreign policy in the world scenario of the last decades. With the aid of an omni present media infrastructure it shows us a polarized world: USA and its partners are the empire. They're evil. Whereas other countries with identical practices are "Anti imperialists". Therefore, they're "The good ones". It becomes necessary to trascend this manichaean logic and to understand the role of emerging superpowers such as China and Russia. Their assets and influence power expand accross the globe by keeping their own interests; also, imperialist...

The current report pretends to make a contribution to the current debate on the imperialism that hits every sector of the world leftist movement. Therefore, we will take into account both the documented historical events and the concerte policies occurred in the last years in Venezuela. We want to trascend the depoliticizing method stuffed with insults and common places in the discussions and debate.

INDEX
 
CONCEPTUAL AND HISTORICAL ASPECTS ON IMPERIALISM
 
 
- Today's Imperialism and Anti Imperialism 
 
- Tussia and China from mid 20th Century until Today

- A Sort of Summary

 
THE IMPERIALISM IN THE HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT OF LATIN AMERICA AND VENEZUELA


- Chávez and his Relation with the Imperialism

 
VENEZUELA-USA (2013-2018). CHRONOLOGY OF FACTS 
 
MADURO AND HIS RELATION WITH THE IMPERIALISM 
 
- The External Debt: A Weapon of Domination and Economic Colonization

- The Opening to the Foreign Investment and the Delivery of the Public

 
MADURO'S GOVERNMENT "ANTI IMPERIALISM" AND THE POLARIZING RHETORIC (As a matter of conclusion)

ANNEX
 
ARE THE SANCTIONS TO VENEZUELA SIMILAR TO THE BLOCKAGE TO CUBA?

 
 


Suscribe to: cerlatinoamericana@gmail.com





English Version: María Eugenia Acero Colomine
Twitter: @andesenfrungen
Blog: fantasiasneurastenicas.blogspot.com 
acerocolomine@gmail.com
aporreainternational@gmail.com

martes, 22 de mayo de 2018

Colombia and Chile Know Plenty of High Figures of Abstention






May 22nd 2018 - Juan Manuel Santos in Colombia, Michelle Bachelet and Sebastián Piñera, in Chile are Latin American three heads of state to win Presidential elections in Latin America with indexes of abstention above %50. Their victories with high abstention figures were not questioned by neighbor countries in the region, neither  by Europe nor by th U.S.A. The international organisms did not question the results, the way right wing governments did with the victory obtained by Nicolás Maduro this May 20th. The candidate of the Wide Front of the Motherland, Nicolás Maduro, conquered 6.190.612 votos -close to 68% of the suffrages- in an electoral event with 46.02% participation.



On December 15th, 2013, Michelle Bachelet won the second presidential round in Chile with 58% of abstention, according to figures published by the Chilean Website El Mostrador.

Six months later, Colombia celebrated elections. Juan Manuel Santos won with %53 abstention, according to the Colombian Newspaper El País. 

Last December 17th, the rightwing entrepreneur Sebastián Piñera won the Chilean Presidency with %54.6 of abstention. A total of  14,347,288 electors were called to vote, but only 7,024,222 responded in Chile.

The abstention has been constant in countries such as Chile and Colombia. In fact, the Chilean media has portrayed electoral participation in this southern nation several times has been the lowest in the region. Even worse, there is no need of any political group exhorting for abstention: It's voluntary.

This situation seems to repeat in Colombia. Since 1978, the abstention in presidential and legislative polls has usually been of 60%. Only in years 1990 and 1998, the electoral participation reached close to 40%, according to a report of the newspaper El Colombiano.

Donald Trump won the U.S. Presidential polls in November 2016. The abstention was of 46%, and the participation was the lowest since 1996, when 53.5% of the American enabled voters attended to the elections.

The Presidential elections celebrated in Venezuela last May 20th had the seil of aggressions by the United States, the European Union and their Latin American allies. The Venezuelan Table of the Democratic Unity (MUD in its Spanish accronym), openly called the Venezuelans not to participate in the last elections this May 20th.


According to a research made by the Venezuelan News Agency (AVN in its Spanish accronym), USA, The EU and its allies rallied 48 attacks against Venezuela and its elections for 26 days in a row. They also launched threats never sent against Chile nor Colombia in the last two decades. 

Paraguay and Costa Rica Also Have Abstention Issues

Paraguay and Costa Rica also celebrated presidential elections this year with high abstention figures. In fact, last April 22nd, Mario Abdo Benítez was elected with 35% abstention. Only 2,595,465 participated from a universe of 4,2 electors, according to reports by the Superior Tribunal of Electoral Justice (TSJE), Russia Today said. 

On April 01st, Costa Rica celebrated a second electoral round. The winner was Carlos Alvarado, Governor of the party Partido Acción Ciudadana (PAC), with 33% abstention. The abstention rate dropped in Costa Rica, comparing with the polls of April 2014, when Luis Guillermo Solís was elected with 43.4% abstention. 

Europe and USA also Indiferent


Europe is not far behind in terms of abstention. On June 26, 2016 general elections were held in Spain, in a day where they were called to pay 36.5 million Spaniards, and finally they did 24,067,438 million, that is to say that abstention was 30.16%, The Spanish portal El Mundo reflected two years ago.

In May 2017, Emanuel Macrom became the elected president of France when he won the presidential election of that year, a day where abstention was close to 26%. In addition, there was 8.49% of white votes and 3% of null votes, the Cadena Ser portal reported on that occasion.

A year later, general elections were held in the United Kingdom. To the day 46,843,896 electors were called to participate, but attended 32,196,918, that is to say, the abstention was of 31,3%, according to results that the Chilean newspaper El Mostrador reported.

Read the original article in Spanish, here: https://www.aporrea.org/internacionales/n325473.html



English Version: María Eugenia Acero Colomine
Twitter: @andesenfrungen
Blog: fantasiasneurastenicas.blogspot.com 
acerocolomine@gmail.com
aporreainternational@gmail.com