18 August 2004
editorial
Lusaka — Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez's adversaries made it very clear that they would not accept the referendum result if he wins. It's only them who should win.
Chavez has won, and it's no surprise that they are 'firmly and categorically rejecting the result'.
But there's a lot we Zambians can learn from what is happening in Venezuela.
The events in Venezuela are deplorable, but they show the crisis that will be caused by the policy of social confrontation being imposed by the United States and the International Monetary Fund.
Venezuela is the richest Latin American country. Venezuela has oil, for which it receives billions of dollars every year. Venezuela is a country with enormous energy resources - hydroelectricity as well as oil. It has enormous mineral resources: iron and bauxite. Nature has endowed it richly. What explanation can the social upheavals in Venezuela have if they are not proof of what we have been saying about the consequences of these policies?
If the richest country in that region, the country with the highest per capita income in hard currency in the region, has problems because of a pitiless economic policy imposed from outside, what hope do the rest of us have?
Venezuela has had plenty of dreams and hopes in its history.
It has seen popular governments emerge with new dreams and hopes. It has also seen these dreams and hopes reduced to ashes, and on those ashes, again, new hopes and dreams have been built.
Throughout history, people have had hopes and dreams, a right that will exist forever. The great miracle is that the hopes and dreams of this noble and heroic people may come true.
Although we are far away from Venezuela, we also harbour dreams that come from extraordinary events that have occurred in Venezuela at the end of the last four decades. Venezuelans who fought against each other in the past have become revolutionary allies, guerrillas have become outstanding politicians, and soldiers have turned into daring leaders who are raising the banners that once filled Venezuela with glory.
It is not for us to pass judgment on those who moved from the left to the right, or on those who began as honest conservatives only to end up plundering and deceiving the people. It is neither our purpose, nor can we assume our right, to play judge of the personalities involved in the dramatic experiences Venezuelans have endured. All people are ephemeral and often erratic, even those who act in good faith.
But we have the right to feel an enormous admiration for Venezuela and for its greatest dreamer and statesman - Simon Bolivar. He was never in favour of colonialism. Half of South America was freed by his sword.
The United States of America was then just a group of recently liberated British colonies enmeshed in an expansionist process. Still, the great Venezuelan leader guessed, at that very early stage, 'they seem destined by Providence to spread calamities in the Americas in the name of freedom.'
We understand perfectly the diversity of interests and points of view that inevitably exist in Venezuela today. It has been said that before the battle of the pyramids, during his campaign in Egypt, Napoleon Bonaparte addressed his troops: 'Soldiers, from the top of these pyramids, 40 centuries are looking upon you.'
We look upon the Venezuelans in admiration and share the strenuous battle that they are fighting today, with the inspiration of Bolivar.
The much-touted argument has been that Chavez is trying to introduce Cuba's revolutionary model in Venezuela. There are profound differences between Venezuela's Bolivarian Revolution and the Cuban Revolution. The only similarity between them is that both intend to provide a better life for their peoples; they wish for radical changes; they long for justice; their mutual aspiration is to attain a closer unity among the peoples of the Americas. Both countries are steadily fighting for the preservation of their sovereignty, their independence and their cultural identities.
The Cuban Revolution is essentially based on social ownership of the means of production and the planning of development; on the active, organized and massive participation of all the people in the political activities and the construction of a new society.
Venezuela's Bolivarian Revolution rests on a market economy scheme where private property is extensively guaranteed. The multiparty system is also set forth as its basic element.
The common purpose of both countries in the international political arena is eloquently expressed in their rejection of neo-liberal policies and their willingness to strive for economic development and social justice.
Those so fiercely bent on lying, slandering and conspiring against Chavez should explain why, in a country with huge economic resources - the world's fifth largest oil exporter - and an industrious and intelligent people, poverty engulfs an incredible 80 per cent of the population. This is the calamity inherited by Chavez's Bolivarian Revolution.
If Venezuela had an efficient and honest administration over the last 45 years, it could have achieved economic development similar to that of Sweden.
Actually, those that were leading that country and their backers in Washington created the conditions for the unavoidable emergence of the current revolutionary process.
If the new generation of leaders in Venezuela today pool their forces, close ranks and do everything within their capabilities, those who are longing for a return to the lost years will never again win the people's trust. The immense political and moral authority emanating from what the Bolivarian Revolution can do for the people would politically crush the reactionary forces.
The revolutionary and patriotic values and culture that it would create among the Venezuelan people would render it impossible to return to the past.
Being absolutely objective, we believe that in Venezuela today, there's only one person who can lead such a complex process, and that is Hugo Chavez. His death, either intentional or accidental, would terminate that possibility and bring about chaos. We have no doubts that his adversaries, both external and domestic, will always try to have him physically removed.
It is not a secret that there has been a generous flow of funds from the United States for the electoral campaign against President Chavez. But this has been defeated by the people's vote.
Cuba is continually being used as an element in Venezuela's domestic politics; they keep trying to use Cuba to topple Chavez, an indisputable and outstanding leader and follower of Bolivar's ideas, whose actions and prestige exceed the boundaries of his homeland.
We admire Chavez's courage, his honesty and his clear understanding of the problems in today's world and the extraordinary role that Venezuela has to play in the struggles of Third World countries.
There's need to respect those who represent their people with great dignity and courage.
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