Just think how former general and defence minister of Venezuela, Raul Baduel, in his recent speech in Panama now seems to take another tack from what was previously his own view.
What is wrong with Bolivarian Revolution? Absolutely nothing, because it promotes the rights of all Venezuelans, not just a few of the upper class.
In any democracy or progressive state all people must be counted and must have a say in government. Did the former general speak out against the indigenous Native people of Venezuela being shoved to the sidelines? No he did not because he was not belonging to that community.
- If it's democracy that Raul Baduel speaks about, where was he all these years, when a huge segment of the Venezuelan people could neither vote or take part in government.
Now, it is up to Chavez to come down hard on these saboteurs and Quislings and expel them from the government and the ranks of the new Venezuelan Socialist Party. Let there be no stone unturned in the search for those who hide in the ranks of every governments body, and work to destroy the revolution from the inside.
... but, the struggle of dedicated patriots is being impeded by those who will not allow anyone to reach the office of Chavez, and thus he is not in the know.
It would seem to me that Raul Baduel is now speaking from both sides of his mouth, and the thought occurs to me, could Raul Baduel have been reached by some U.S. sympathizers?
The democracy that Baduel promotes strikes one as being very similar that being practiced in the U.S. ... but that is not what the Bolivarian Revolution promotes or practices, because in essence it is anti-democratic, based on an oligarchic system, where only the rich speak, and the masses have no say whatsoever.
Kenneth T. Tellis
kenttellis@rogers.com
Again with the so called "quislings".
ReplyDeleteMan, take a trip down here and you'll see it's not all it's cracked up to be - they've become corrupt, because, unfortunately, that's the essence of many Venezuelans who get into power. It's that simple - it starts from little schoolgirls (7 or 8 years old) who skip the metro bar just to get a free ride (despite that it only costs 0,50 Bs or less for students), all the way to these people up top. How hard is it to believe? Corruption has taken a hold of the revolution, and it's not because of some quislings... they have become it, and they don't take any criticism.
You know, it makes me so pissed all these Westerners praising the revolution and not living in it day in and day out, not having to endure the crime or the inefficiency, and even if you do come, you always know you have a developed country to go back to.
We don't want to be poor and underdeveloped, we don't want to be westernized and colonized either, we just want to become modern and developed, so our people will stop going to the US, Spain or other countries, and we can be finally rewarded for our hard work by having a decent place, a great nation to live in.
The revolution had the chance for serious economic development (even if cutting away some freedoms) with oil prices and by expanding trade (as they did, but it all ended up in just memos of agreement and nothing else, because, as usual, someone took all the cash or something like that - we don't even have the damn Iranian cars!)We could've been on the way to being like Czech Republic or one of the Asian tigers, but they blew it.
Their time is seriously up, it's not that the opposition will come back, because they're even worse, but in my view, the revolution has ceased to charm the regular folk, and we'll see it come regional elections time.
So keep on blaming "quislings" and seeing the boogeyman in the outside and be naïve. The enemy is within them, the people who forgot their purpose, weren't really ideologically committed anyway and once again turned into typical 4th republic Venezuelans, grabbing all the money they could get. The US ain't paying them, they just take the money without permission from our people.
Peace!
P.S: Now, people like me are stuck in private universities that try to ideologize us with right-wing blather, we get singled out and discriminated for having an independent thought (this actually happens to me *every* day in class), and if we were to go to the "chavista" forums, we'd also get singled out, for pointing out the flaws and suggesting other ways to fix things.
I just hope more people will open their eyes to the fact we need economic development and not just to keep sucking from a government oil teat... but then again that would be having to deal with poltically mature people, and who knows when that will come to this country.
I thought Vanessa's comment was spot-on, and I'm glad she made it: we mustn't just critique the "quisling" other: we must criticise ourselves as well if our critique is to be on a sound basis.
ReplyDeleteI know that we internationalist supporters aren't doing enough in support of Bolivarian Socialism: a lot of us are under a lot of strain, but certainly no greater than are the Venezuelan people!
After almost a full Presidential term, Hugo Chavez finally figured out that socialism was the only way forward for his people: he and his people must now define what that means.
Of the various facets of the progress that the Venezuelan people seek against a criminal, corrupt past, one stands out, in my view: the Consejos...Councils, or, in Russian, Soviets.
Just as the Venezuelan people have reproduced the Soviets, they have likewise reproduced the contradictions which sidelined them in Russia: corruption, bureaucratism, etc. which cumulated in the rise of Stalinist fascism, hence the negation of socialism.
The Venezuelan people dare not let this result reproduce itself: they are at the crossroads as never before. Either they find their way forward via the Consejos, or they'll be dragged backward into fascism, as Russia was all those years ago.
Vanessa: the good news is that your Revolution is gaining friends daily. Look at the opportunities, for example, presented by the recent elections in Paraguay: let's hope it soon joins Bolivia, Cuba, Nicaragua, and, increasingly, Ecuador as partners in the Bolivarian Socialist project.
The bad news you know all too well, and up-close: the culture of corruption is deep-seated, and will require clear-eyed, deeply-felt self criticism, such as yours, to be rooted out and replaced by a socialist culture.
Thank you, Vanessa, for your outstanding contribution: from one of your many foreign friends, hasta pronto, y a la victoria, siempre, Mateo Owen.