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If Maduro fails, it is because he has reaped the rejection and disappointment of the majority of the Venezuelan people. Neither Ortega nor Maduro are victims of imperialist schemes.
By: Monica Baltodano (Confidential)
HAVANA TIMES – Like millions of other left-wing activists around the world, I was hopeful about the Bolivarian project led by Hugo Chavez. In 1998, he entered government through a clean election and, once in power, boldly introduced a very progressive constitution that emphasized political, economic and social democracy. Ample space was created for citizen participation, including the use of referendums to revoke mandates that were put to a national vote several times with unquestionable support. Chavez could be criticized for the messianic and personalistic turn in his leadership style and other mistakes in his economic policies, but he could never be accused of stealing elections to maintain his power.
Chavez was part of the progressive forces that came to power democratically. Together they proposed a program of profound change, a transformation of Latin America, a scarred region that still bleeds as a result of overt and covert intervention by the United States, right-wing dictatorships and military juntas, which has led to the killing and disappearance of thousands of people.
The new vision aims to transform a continent that suffers from severe social inequalities, where the majority of people are impoverished by corruption and resource plunder. In addition, the region suffers from the effects of neoliberal economic policies that have been imposed on all our countries, including privatization, labor deregulation, market tyranny and the abandonment of social policies.
Obviously, this plan was later completely distorted. It can be said that the main purpose of the transformation plan – to improve the living conditions of the majority of people and eliminate inequality – was abandoned by the new elite and reduced to a vision of power for power’s sake.
At the time, this power was used to satisfy the material interests of an economic minority – those who rule and those associated with them. These failures explain the suffering of millions of Venezuelans forced to emigrate, the social difficulties of all classes within the country, and the collapse of the Venezuelan economy.
Eventually, the leadership of this proclaimed revolution degenerated into a dictatorial and repressive bureaucracy. Unfortunately, we have already suffered the same evils under right-wing dictatorships, in projects such as “real socialism” (which multiplied under Stalin). We experienced this in Nicaragua, seeing the aspirations of the Sandinista revolution turned into the pure and brutal Ortega dictatorship. For us, Venezuela is just another betrayed revolution.
To this day, we Nicaraguans still live under the weight of a dictatorship that claims to be anti-imperialist and socialist, but in reality suppresses democracy and the separation of powers, persecutes all dissenting opinions, and establishes a totalitarian, absolutist, sultanate and mafia-style system.
After assassinations and imprisonment, they expelled not only political opponents but also social leaders, human rights advocates, independent journalists, religious leaders, feminists and historical leaders of the Sandinista National Liberation Front, denationalized many and maintained a political system so violent that its level of violence reached the level of crimes against humanity.
That is why we cannot be indifferent to the possibility of free elections in Venezuela and their outcome. We cannot view it through the cool, rational lens of those who may not have experienced the drawbacks of dictatorship firsthand.
Unfortunately, some of us are now fighting the second of two dictatorships. We began our struggle with weapons in hand, as teenagers, living in stealth, seeing our sisters raped in prison, feeling the grief of so many killed, unjustly imprisoned, exiled and persecuted in both dictatorships, sharing the pain that always vents on the most vulnerable: the poor.
Of course, as in Nicaragua, a leftist opposition in Venezuela is unthinkable. Under the Ortega and Maduro regimes, those from the original ranks of the revolution have been persecuted to an intensified degree because they have exposed the reactionary nature of these governments. But those of us on the left have seen families torn apart, the homeland mortgaged, the government and its institutions crumble, and terror become an everyday occurrence. lifestyle Make no mistake – our first step must be to end the dictatorship at all costs.
Democracy is like that. Latin American countries have transitioned from progressive governments to neoconservative regimes, as with Bolsonaro in Brazil and Miller in Argentina. But as long as there is a minimum respect for the imperfect rules of democracy, the challenge is to build an alternative project from below and then submit it to the sovereign decision of the people. However, under dictatorships, whether the voices come from the left or the right, their demands are violated, suppressed and distorted. Elections are also stolen.
Nicaragua held a presidential election in November 2021, but before the election Ortega jailed all candidates, outlawed all independent forces, and declared himself elected for the fourth time in a row with his absolute control over all state power. In the recent elections in Venezuela, despite all the traps that power could set before the elections – making the elections only partially fair – the people were able to express their will. If Maduro lost, it was because he reaped the denial and disappointment of the majority of the people. Neither Ortega nor Maduro are victims of imperialist plans.
I do not deny that the imperialist powers serve their interests every day. Nor do I deny that the victory of Edmundo González would make right-wing governments around the world happy. But this is part of democracy. It is immoral to continue to blame external factors for the mistakes you have made, in the face of public opinion, and to refuse to recognize the real reasons behind these failures.
“Coup! Coup!” Ortega also shouted, justifying the assassination of more than 350 Nicaraguans during protests in 2018, a repressive crisis that has forced nearly a million people into exile.
The mass mobilization of citizens can never be called a coup!
We have no choice but to join the voices of the Venezuelan people, both inside and outside of Venezuela, who are demanding that the results of the July 28 elections be respected.day Elections must be clearly verified through a vote-by-vote count. We must also raise our voices for national and international demands for respect for human rights.
Stop criminalizing our rights to assemble and protest!
End the detention and all repressive measures against people who defend their democratically elected rights!
Release all detainees and resolve the conflict peacefully!
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