The Venezuelan process survives and develops in its severe absence. Author: AFP
“Fortunately, this revolution does not depend on one person,” Hugo Chavez told his people with redoubled foresight on December 8, 2012, three months before what respectable Venezuelans would have understood as a “refuted assumption” … Death, which for them and for many in the world was “their sowing”.
Ten years after the sad March 5, 2013, life continues to show that the greatest Venezuelan patriot since Simon Bolivar and his best student were right. The Venezuelan process survives and develops in its severe absence.
Remembering his work, one will never be able to repeat the sad phrase that, alone and exiled, with divided libertarian forces and a victim of betrayal and disappointment, Simon Bolivar uttered, not foreseeing the scope of his feat and his ideas, and which so touched the new leader of Venezuela and Latin America : No, Bolivar did not plow in the sea. And you too, Chavez…
By that time, the slogan “Chávez is all of us”, put forward by himself with courage and intelligence after the presidential election campaign on October 7, 2012, which confirmed his leadership, flooded the Venezuelan squares and somehow warned that what could happen to him, which no one would want.
Concerned above all about the continuation of the reconstruction process that he began after coming to power on February 2, 1999, Chavez personally and urgently undertook to strengthen, as one of his most important legacies, the essential unity and conformity of new leaders who must complement each other in order to to support the revolution after his departure – no matter how hard it may seem to a person who loves life so much – and after, with the last effort, but above all thanks to the roots that he acquired. in his city, he successfully launched a campaign that confirmed him as president.
By doing so, he would have guaranteed the permanence of Bolivarianism in power, if his health, as was supposed then, had fully recovered. But later the facts said that this was not the case.
Since being diagnosed with the disease in mid-2011, he has faced and battled cancer, which unexpectedly – suspiciously to some – took up residence in his robust body and provided him with a healthy body.
He faced it with the same honesty and courage with which, as a young lieutenant colonel of Bolivarian officers hardened in the army at the time, he led the uprising that on February 4, 1992 heralded the dawn of a new age and sowed the seeds of the most important battle for sovereignty: The Bolivarian revolution that materializes the dreams of its paradigm, the Liberator.
Having resolved with intelligence, unshakable joy and optimism the transcendent task of changing the country from its founding through what he called a “peaceful revolution” – the second process of change in Latin America after the Popular Unity created in Chile by Allende, both established by polls, the struggle for their health became for Chavez “an additional, unforeseen, sudden battle for me and for all of us, because I have the happiness of feeling accompanied, and not being alone …”.
Indeed, thousands of candles were already lit that night and for many others on the humble altars of Venezuelan homes, accompanied by prayers asking for compassion for the virgin and more life for the man who returned happiness to the people, a concept adopted from Bolivar, the implementation of which would be for it is essential and which is based on the joy of life and the achievement of the well-being of people. Win the most happiness, he said.
Like many other occasions, this speech on Saturday, December 8, 2012, which began shortly after 9:30 p.m. and was broadcast on the national network, was a kind of radio and television conversation with the people, during which he asked permission from the National Assembly to return to Cuba where he was being treated and undergoing new surgery because a condition that seemed to have been overcome a few months ago, when the presidential election campaign began, reappeared with undesirable brutality.
The personal relationship between Chavez and Fidel strengthened the exchange between the Cuban and Venezuelan peoples Photo: AP.
No one could fail to notice that this was a historic moment when the most popular, charismatic, beloved and transcendent leader of Venezuela since Bolívar publicly proclaimed his political testament to the people. This gesture increased his status as a statesman.
In addition to the permission he formally requested, and following the directions of the Constitution, Chávez implemented the strategic task of requesting support for who, as his vice president, had to complete the 22 days that remained in power at that time. if there is “some circumstance”. » turn it off; He asked for the support of a man who, moreover, and because of his qualities, Chávez understood that he should be the candidate of the Revolution if, given the circumstances of his absence and as dictated by the Constitution, elections should be called again. .
That “in this scenario (…) you elect Nicolás Maduro as president of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela. I ask you from the bottom of my heart,” he said in what he called “the most important thing” he went to say in Venezuela that day, despite the travel’s efforts and the need to continue his treatment in Cuba.
“In any case, we must ensure the march of the Bolivarian Revolution, the victorious march of this Revolution …”, he warned and recalled the new election campaign, which is taking place in view of the upcoming gubernatorial elections, which will also give victory to the revolutionary forces.
And then he lamented: “Within this message, which I, of course, would never want to convey to you, because it causes me a lot of pain, in truth, this situation causes pain, longing for millions of you, because we came, forming a single whole; because – as we have said and continue to say – Chavez is no longer just a man, Chavez is a great collective, as the campaign slogan said: “Chavez, the heart of the people.” And the people are here, in the heart of Chavez.”
This was his last public appearance. Although they refused to believe, many guessed that this could be their farewell.
Chavism without Chavez
If the survival of the Bolivarian Revolution depended on one man, even this great man, the people, the main axis of resistance in Venezuela, would have succumbed to the social wear and tear caused by US aggression through economic oppression and the power of Washington now had the function of protecting right-wing oligarchs – hypothetically returned to power , as it has been for decades after what Chavez called “4th”. Republic”.
Nicolás Maduro, in fact, was his faithful and distinguished successor – sometimes, figuratively speaking, he was called “his son” – and, despite all the shortcomings that he may or may not have, such an assessment could give only the Venezuelan revolutionaries. Chavism without Chavez has materialized as a possible reality, faithfully erected on the foundations he has laid in the 14 years of his execution since his presidency.
Just as, after 1959, the example of the Cuban Revolution was the motivation and paradigm for non-conformists who in Latin America sought true sovereignty and what is now known as “another better” and “possible” world, the socialism of the 21st century proclaimed by Chávez already in a different historical and world context, set benchmarks about the possibility today of a new model against capitalism and its latest expression – neoliberalism.
The seizure of power through general elections and the re-establishment, starting from the bottom, with the promulgation of a new constitution that would change the laws and reorganize the country, was the cornerstone for the creation of her 5th. Republics and the path taken by other peoples who adapted the steps taken by the Bolivarian Revolution to their own national realities.
This happened after Evo Morales and MAS came to the government of Bolivia in January 2006 and a year later with the coming to power of the Ecuadorian Rafael Correa and his newly founded Alianza PAÍS movement.
The changes began to be tested in Venezuela and unleashed political and media aggression from the right and the United States from the beginning of 1999 with the promulgation of the first Law-Decree in accordance with the so-called Law of Powers, through which they were established, among other more than 40 measures, new legislation on hydrocarbons, land and fisheries.
Under them, the benefits that the country would receive from the income derived from the exploitation of its oil were expanded, the majority participation of the state in mixed societies was established, the distribution of free land in favor of the peasantry was proclaimed, among other decisions endowed with the same nationalist character.
It was a demonstrative action that the revolution was indeed peaceful, but not defenseless. From here began the changes and, of course, the attacks to remove him from power.
Chavez saw the importance of access to culture and sports for wide social strata Photo: El Correo del Orinoco.
Shortly thereafter, the entry into force of the new Constitution, approved by the citizens in a referendum in December of that year, completed the strengthening of the foundations of the new political and economic structure, which Chavez already saw the need for when he first came to Cuba in December 1994, in five years before the presidency, and the occasion when his first and decisive meeting with Fidel took place.
By that time, the Venezuelan leader also clearly understood where the enemy of our Latin American and Caribbean peoples was: “Today, the elimination of any remnants of nationalism or homeland in our societies continues to be the historical goal of imperialism …”, he would comment in one of them. He spoke several times during his brief stay in the Cuban capital, including a revealing keynote speech he delivered at the Aula Magna of the University of Havana, an institution that honored him and where he was accompanied by a commander at the head.
Together, later, as heads of state and colleagues, they will take hitherto unthinkable steps towards integration and solidarity, such as the creation of ALBA and the implementation of two initiatives that have demonstrated the possibilities for well-being that open sincere cooperation. can offer the peoples of Latin America and the Caribbean: Operation Miracle and the educational mission Yo, sí puedo.
Many of us in Cuba thought that Fidel had finally found a fighting partner of his stature.
Sharing a portion of Venezuela’s vast natural wealth for the benefit of the poor rather than the multinational corporations, Chávez will undertake other projects that still exist today, such as the founding of Petrocaribe, while promoting regional integration with an attempt to reformulate Mercosur and the Andean Community, the founding of Unasur and the birth of Celac created by with the support of other leaders.
There may be better times and worse, and the winds will blow for or against, but his legacy will remain intact and will continue to guide progressivism in Latin America, just as Bolívar’s teachings must never be forgotten.
Yes, Chavez plowed fertile ground, and you can still see the new fruits of his crops.
The current generation of Chavista leaders is in dialogue with the supreme referent of the Bolivarian Revolution. Photo: EFE.
Source: Juventud Rebelde
