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"
Read the original article in Spanish, here: Las cenizas de "nuevo Socialismo Bolivariano del siglo XXI"
English Version: Brandon Joel Queen (USA)
Email: brandon_joel_queen@yahoo.ca
aporreainternational@gmail.com
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