Venezuelan Social Movements March in Support of “Patriotic Pole”, Draft Proposals
A multitude of Venezuelan social movements marched in Caracas yesterday in support of the Great Patriotic Pole, a grassroots coalition of forces that support the re-election of Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez and the continued advance of the Bolivarian Revolution.
The movements also offered proposals toward how the Great Patriotic Pole (GPP) could be best organised to achieve its strategic goals and “revolutionary unity”.
Orlando Zambrano, representative of the Ezequiel Zamora National Campesino Front, stated that the national mobilisation was “to support president Hugo Chavez, the Bolivarian Revolution...and the construction of the Great Patriotic Pole.”
He continued by explaining that the Pole is a mechanism “to construct a platform of struggle, that allows us [to] continue advancing in the fundamental tasks of our Bolivarian Revolution and popular participation, generating...the transformation of Venezuelan society”.
Juan Carlos Rodriguez of the Inhabitants Movement—a group that organizes around housing issues—added that the coalition “is being constructed from below, from the base, from the street.”
Registrations for the GPP began last week on 7th October, exactly one year before the 2012 presidential elections. Over 4,000 social movements registered in the first phase, comprising a plethora of social, worker, religious, and human rights organisations.
Political parties, including Chavez’s United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) and the Communist Party of Venezuela (PCV), are also members of the coalition.
At the launch of registrations, President Chávez described the Pole as “the force of popular power...a great network of networks,” in which “we have to respect the identity [and] utmost freedom for all those movements and organisations”.
The gathered movements in Caracas also co-signed a document yesterday with proposals for how the GPP can construct “revolutionary unity”. These included a suggestion that the Promoter Group (organising committee) of the Pole, which brings together 153 representatives from participating movements, be deployed in a manner which covers the entire country.
Zambrano further explained that grassroots movements will organise popular assemblies in public spaces around the country to debate the organisation of the GPP.
The opposition-oriented paper El Nacional described the day’s events as a “rejection” of the “bureaucracy” of the Pole.
A Great Strategic “Hurricane”
Meanwhile, Chávez met with the Promoter Group of the GPP, and thanked the representatives of social and political organisations for their proposals and participation.
“There are neither hierarchies nor commands here... We are complementing each other from every point of view,” he stated. As a result, the GPP should be “as a hurricane, with a grand strategic vision”.
Chávez also highlighted the importance of driving forward the socialist and revolutionary process, declaring that “capitalism is inhumane, contrary to life...and nature”, and that “we’re going to finish the year advancing the social programs and recognising the rights of the people, of the workers”.
The Patriotic Pole was the electoral coalition that Hugo Chávez headed when he was first elected to power in December 1998, and was instrumental in developing the 1999 Constitution of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela. In October 2010 Chávez called to re-launch the Pole, a move that was widely supported.
With presidential elections to be held on 7th October 2012, the Great Patriotic Pole will be the primary political vehicle in the campaign for Chávez’s re-election and the continuation of the social and political changes underway the country.
On 15th September this year Chávez launched the “7th October Mission”, which aims to mobilise 10 million voters in order to achieve a sweeping victory in next year’s election. The president currently enjoys a 61% approval rating and if there was an election tomorrow he would win 58% of the votes, according to a recent poll by the Venezuelan GIS XXI research group.
Registrations for the GPP will continue around the country in stages until the first week of November this year.
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Victory for a Dissident
By Tatsuo, Miyachi at Oct 22, 2011 08:18 AM
The Inter-American Court on Human Rights ruled on Friday that Venezuela must allow Leopoldo López, a prominent opposition leader, to run for public office. The decision could shake up a presidential election scheduled for October 2012, opening the way for a strong opponent to run against President Hugo Chávez. Mr. López, a former mayor of Chacao, a municipality in Caracas, was disqualified by Mr. Chávez’s government from running because of legal claims against him from his time as mayor. Mr. López argued that the disqualification, a method used by Venezuela’s government against other opposition figures, amounted to political discrimination. In a statement, the Foreign Ministry called the ruling “politically partial.” Venezuela is believed to be required to respect the decision by the court, a judicial entity of the Organization of American States.
For instance, one article this week on the Web site of Radio Nacional de Venezuela, the state-controlled radio network, called him a “right-wing extremist,” and claimed he was “constantly committing outrages against the stability of the Bolivarian revolution.”
The article went further, asserting that Mr. López was “helped by the empire” — the fashionable catchall phrase for the United States used in Venezuela — and calling him a “manipulating character.” Then, reflecting the doublespeak honed here in recent years, the article used the phrasing of Carlos Escarrá, Mr. Chávez’s attorney general, who had called Mr. López’s disqualification “administrative and not political.”
MR. LÓPEZ, a product of Venezuela’s Americanized elite, graduated from Kenyon College in Ohio and earned a master’s degree in public policy from Harvard University. Married to Lilian Tintori, a former television host and kite-surfing champion, his privileged background stands in sharp contrast with that of Mr. Chávez, a former army officer who rose from poverty to forge a political movement chafing at American influence in Latin America.
But Mr. López also seems to have picked up some strategies from Mr. Chávez, who cobbled together a grass-roots political movement in the 1990s after he oversaw a failed 1992 coup. Mr. López has traveled far and wide outside the capital, Caracas, assembling a national movement called Voluntad Popular, or Popular Will, which has congealed into a centrist political party.
Mr. López, who rarely advertises his family ties to Bolívar, gained national prominence during his eight years as the mayor of Chacao, a relatively prosperous municipality in Caracas; he was re-elected to a second term in 2004 with 80 percent of the vote, after he focused on reforming Chacao’s schools and its public transportation system.
During a chaotic coup in 2002, which briefly removed Mr. Chávez from office, Mr. López drew the ire of Chávez supporters by taking part in the arrest of Ramón Rodríguez Chacín, who was then the interior minister. Later, in 2006, gunmen shot dead one of Mr. López’s bodyguards while he sat in Mr. López’s car, an episode that he said was meant to send a chilling message of intimidation.
The government’s attempts to disqualify Mr. López from running for office stem from his time as mayor of Chacao, when the authorities accused him of improperly moving money in 2003 from one part of the municipality’s budget to another.
Mr. López said he was “completely innocent,” contending that the legal claim involved meeting salary obligations to teachers that had been promoted by Mr. Chávez himself. While officials have also disqualified dozens of other people from running for office, Mr. López has pointed out that no Venezuelan court had convicted him of any wrongdoing.
After the Inter-American Court’s ruling, an umbrella organization of Venezuela’s opposition parties welcomed Mr. López’s plan to run in a primary planned for February. In recent polls, he has vied with Henrique Capriles Radonski, the governor of Miranda State, as the leading opposition candidate.
Whoever wins the primary is expected to find himself in an election unlike any in Venezuela’s recent history. While Mr. Chávez has dominated the political scene for more than 12 years and his supporters control the National Assembly, Supreme Court and the national oil company, his struggle with cancer has exposed a vulnerability.
STILL, it remains unclear how Mr. Chávez’s illness will influence the race. His approval ratings have actually climbed in the months since he revealed his condition, and no other candidate controls the oil-financed resources or the state propaganda apparatus that he has at his command. The president said this week that he had beaten his cancer, the specifics of which have not been disclosed, and renewed taunts of his opponents.
Meanwhile, Mr. López’s uncertain candidacy will depend in part on institutions controlled by Mr. Chávez’s supporters. A senior government prosecutor said this week that officials would “opportunely” disclose the results of criminal inquiries against Mr. López. After the Supreme Court disregarded the Inter-American Court’s binding decision, Human Rights Watch called the rebuff a “blow to the rule of law.”
Nonetheless, Mr. López’s multiyear effort to have his name removed from the government’s electoral blacklist may be gaining traction. The National Electoral Council, which is also controlled by Chávez supporters, agreed on Thursday to allow Mr. López to run for office.
“It’s not an easy fight,” Mr. López said. “But like David against Goliath, we have perseverance, faith and we know where to aim.”
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Patriotic Pole?
By Tatsuo, Miyachi at Oct 21, 2011 11:45 AM
Crime soars, jobless, no housing. Such state march?What march?
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