PODEMOS leader Ismael Garcia: President Chavez must take pause to re-consider the direction in which he is taking Venezuela

VHeadline Venezuela News reports: According to PODEMOS ("We Can") leader and National Assembly deputy Ismael Garcia , ten years of government by President Hugo Chavez Frias have reached "the most important political achievements in the last fifty years," because the creation of the 1999 Constitution by a Constituent Assembly was the beginning of a very important project in which he believed...

"It's project that is inclusive and participative for the country. We left representative democracy and have advanced into a political project that was approved by a clear majority of Venezuelan citizens in a country that has established a Constitution with absolute principles, based on a innovative model that poses profound changes within democracy. We should be leading all democracies ... not only in Latin America, but all around the world, if only that fundamental project were respected."

Garcia says that he used to support President Chavez in the development of a country that was "contextualized" in the 1999 Constitution!

"Our support and subsequent withdrawal from supporting Chavez was NOT due to the fact that he didn't give us a local government, a ministry or a seat on his Cabinet, but because we defended the Constitution ... even during the events of April 11, 12 and 13 of 2002. We have always been in support of the Constitution ... we will never support going outside of that Constitutional framework ... the national project that was born in 1999 but the new (modifications to the) Constitution are not the same project that the President originally had in mind."

That is why there are contradictions," Garcia says in an interview with regional newspaper reporters. "The struggle is about a democratic vision that is right there in the Constitution ... it is NOT about the autocracy and dictatorship that the President is building up for himself."
Garcia claims that the original concept was that the (Venezuelan) people should have been the political force behind Chavez' revolutionary project but "they are disenfranchised ... the Venezuelan people are not the main protagonists any more ... they are now playing the role of extras in Chavez' own movie production!"

He claims that "President Chavez has changed his political message since he is
an individual who has lived many years encapsulated within the Armed Forces ...
Chavez has a socialist model in mind that failed in the Soviet Union, failed in
Cuba ... but beyond that, he has never expressed anything that is how own
political thought!"

The Podemos leader says "the political/economic model that Chavez is proposing to Venezuelans ... and to everyone who is close to him ... has nothing to do with a dictatorship of the working class, or Marxism, nor Leninism, but with profound changes ... we supported his hope for change but it was not realized as such ... the government's social projects are of greater benefit of the mechanism of the Bolivarian Revolution and in this respect they have lost their true sense."

"President Chavez must take pause to re-consider the direction in which he is taking Venezuela, to improve what he is doing and re-launch the revolution with due consideration over time. Ten years ago, President Chavez and I discussed the national project we all wanted when he achieved the presidency ... that national project was founded in the 1999 Constitution and covered all sectors of Venezuelan life ... what Chavez has in mind now is a socialist model that has failed."

Garcia believes that the first time that when President Hugo Chavez proposed a Constitutional Reform, in which his re-election was included and was subsequently denied in a referendum vote in December 2007, it was already a violation of the Constitution.

"It was a violation of the Constitution because fundamental principles were violated that could only be changed in a Constitutional process ... today, two years later, President Chavez is proposing a Constitutional amendment that will allow unlimited re-election to all public offices ... and this must be approved or rejected by Venezuelan citizens at the ballot box on February 15.

The fact remains that Chavez had to run his amendment plan as soon as possible because his time is running out. "He has to do this quickly because Venezuela is having to face an unfortunate economic situation."

On the other hand, Garcia believes that solving problems related to safety and security must be the government's priority "since there are two violent deaths every 75 minutes ... THAT is today's main problem in Venezuelan society." He says the government is NOT showing any great interest in facing issues and he's certain that the violence nowadays is being fueled by the government itself!"

Garcia is certain that there are "certain subversive organizations within the police itself ... groups that have gathered in front of the Caracas Metropolitan Mayor's Office and who have harassed (former Defense Minister) General Raul Baduel. This is NO part of the original humble grassroots traditional Chavismo, but these groups are supported by the government. They are irregular, clandestine, groups, who are demonstrably on the government's payroll."

VHeadline Venezuela News
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