[NYTr] A Starting Point for Venezuela

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

Juventud Rebelde - Dec 5, 2007
http://www.juventudrebelde.co.cu/columnists/2007-12-05/a-starting-point-for-venezuela/

A Starting Point for Venezuela

By Rosa Miriam Elizalde

With Hugo Chávez we are used to certain things. Those of us whose
hearts are on the left, condemned as heretics as the late Roque Dalton
would say, expected the victory of the "Yes" vote in the Venezuelan
constitutional referendum last Sunday. We saw it as one more in the
uninterrupted string of electoral victories over almost a decade and
based on the multiple indications of popular support for the Venezuelan
government.

We awoke on Monday with a different outcome, and in a state of stupor
that came from this, which cleared up little by little. What was there
behind the percentage points in the voting, particularly the thin 1.4
percent lead of the Venezuelan opposition? Low blows inside and out,
the US financing of student groups —the proof of which was published on
Sunday in The Washington Post—manipulation and political attacks,
incessant use of selective amnesia and hate fanned by the opposition
media, reform articles insufficiently explained or deliberately
falsified, betrayals, the gap that is sometimes perceived between
Bolivarian policies and those policies’ expressions —as General Alberto
Müller commented to me in an interview— and other circumstances that
would take too long to explain.

However, if one steps back to look at what happened in Venezuela on
Sunday, perhaps the balance is more favorable for the government of
Chávez, despite the orgiastic coverage on Monday by the news media in
that country and around the world. The opposition has stayed an orphan
of its main argument. Wasn't the cardinal thesis orchestrated against
the president's reform the supposed intention of his remaining in power
with an arbitrary and anti-democrat government? So what type of
dictator is it that immediately recognizes the results and does so with
humility? When has something similar been seen in Venezuela?

An editorial of Mexican paper La Jornada commented on Monday that the
electoral victory of the Venezuelan opposition is also, paradoxically,
a moral victory for the movement that Hugo Chávez heads. It recalled,
of course, the numerous occasions in which Chávez’ government has
emerged victorious in popular elections and how much attention is being
given now that the results have been unfavorable. The paper recognized
that the elections occurred with spotless transparency, from the moment
the polling stations opened until the closing late at night. It pointed
out how the president accepted the results without ambiguity. The
Mexican newspaper affirmed that these "unequivocally democratic
attitudes and dispositions should be recognized."

However, there is room for other positive readings. From now on, the
electoral factor should not outweigh concrete circumstances in the
adoption of tactical and strategies as concrete circumstances, which
are of greater direct concern for the needs and rights of the
population. A foreseeable objective for the future will be to identify
additional paths for mobilizing that further consolidate an
indisputably democratic calling for contemporary Venezuela.

This is not the final point of a process; there remain five years in
which Chávez will be able to continue governing in line with the
current constitution, which was approved soon after his arrival in
power. Rather, this is a starting point.

This is a government that survived a coup and a horrendous effort to
sabotage its oil industry; an administration that is well aware that
money-sponsored violence is as dangerous as poverty-driven violence; a
revolution that has achieved the impossible – coexisting with a right
wing that is locked in its self-complacency and disdainful detachment
and disgust for the poor. Such a government, I believe, has infinite
reserves to transform Sunday’s electoral experience into a force that
will legitimize it even more.