miércoles, 26 de abril de 2017
Upside down
One hundred
and thirty years ago, after visiting Wonderland, Alice stepped into a mirror to
discover the world in reverse. If Alicia was to reborn in our days [and in
Venezuela], she would not need to go through any mirrors; It would suffice to
look out the window.
Eduardo Galeano
1. Venezuela is one of the few, if not the
only, countries with a dictatorial regime whose dictator exercises tyranny
after leaving office. But in addition, being a dictator, there is a self-coup:
in January 2017, the National Assembly, with the vote of the majority
opposition representation to the National Government, decided that President
Nicolás Maduro had left the post a month later, the same Representatives of
parliamentarians, incorporated in their speech that we were before the presence
of a dictatorship headed by the president of the Republic (the same one that
left the office a month before). A month later, already being dictator, and
according to the same representatives, this president gave a coup d'etat
2. Between 1958 and 1998, in 40 years, 24
electoral processes were carried out, an average of 1 election every 2 years.
After 1999, in 18 years, there have been 25 elections, including recall and
constitutional referendums, on average almost two annual elections. There have
been 3 elections the last 4 years, since 2013. According to the factors that
currently oppose the national government, since 1999, Venezuelans have been
subjected to a dictatorial regime, increasingly tyrannical, especially after
2013.
3. Of the more than 1,000 radio and
television stations to which the government has granted them licenses to
operate on the electromagnetic spectrum, 67% are private, 28% are in the hands
of communities and 5% are state-owned . Of the 108 newspapers that exist, 97
are private and 11 public. 67% of the Venezuelan population has access to the
internet. According to the political factors that oppose the national
government, there is no freedom of expression in Venezuela.
4. The President of the Republic, in the
exercise of his functions, during the 6-year presidential term, in the face of
acts of violence by local factors, which seek economic, social and political
destabilization, has called for a dialogue For peace to the sectors of the
opposition. The opposition does not attend the call, prefer to promote acts of
violence in the streets. The president is a tyrant and dictator, the Democrats
are those of the opposition.
5. All political organizations (parties)
are in a process of renewal. Convocation made by one of the five public powers,
the National Electoral Council. All have come to the call of renewal. Regional
and municipal elections are at the door. Meanwhile, leaders and followers of
local opposition factors, they shout: We are in a dictatorship!
6. In Venezuela, all human rights are
violated, and the Inter-American Democratic Charter must be applied. This is
what was affirmed in Washington, Luis Almagro, Secretary General of the
Organization of American States. Simultaneously, in Geneva, the United Nations
Organization, overwhelmingly approved the Universal Periodic Review submitted
by Venezuela. Examination to monitor the human rights situation in each of the
193 member countries of this organization.
7. The ultra-right, which opposes the
national government, finances and promotes acts of violence and terrorism: it
blocks streets, avenues and main arterial roads; Against schools and + Health
establishments; In a fascist, terrorist and insane act they use mercenaries to
siege and set fire to the "Hugo Chávez Frías" Maternal and Child
Hospital in El Valle, where 58 neonates and parturients were suffocated by the
smoke. According to these opposition political factors, it is the responsibility
of the national government to control the situation, disperse the mercenaries
and evacuate the children and women.
8. There is a shortage of certain foods,
medicines and hygiene products. The companies in charge of their production,
importation and distribution, the large transnational companies, have received,
on the part of the national government, the currencies at preferential rate;
Have received the raw material at a subsidized price; They have increased the
price of products by almost 4,000% in less than a year (2016); The Venezuelan
people make long lines to acquire these products. Goods still do not appear on
the shelves. In Venezuela this is not inefficiency of private enterprise, it is
a failure of the socialist model.
9. Although it increased its price by
3,700% (from 19.00 bolivars in March 2016 to 700.00 bolivars in December), a
figure well above the annual inflation, hundreds of customers make long lines
to acquire the flour of Precooked corn for the arepa (Bread of the
Venezuelans). The owners of the companies, seeing all their clients queuing to
acquire their brand, responded by reducing the production of flour by 80%.
10. It is heard in the opinion programs of the
radios, especially those with an editorial line manifestly contrary to the
national government: "We are in the worst economic crisis, we require
humanitarian aid, we are dying of hunger, there is no food, we demand that Open
the humanitarian channel ". Then we hear: "And now publicity ... we
invite you to visit the Restaurant" X ", there you can taste
varieties in meat and fish, exquisite desserts, located in such street, take
your whole family this weekend" ... "Dear Friend, dear friend, is
going on holiday this Easter ?, do not stop going through the supermarket
"Y", there you will find everything you are looking for, variety and
freshness at good prices to enjoy an excellent holiday and rest as you
Deserves. " End of the advertisement: "We returned with our guest
today, an expert in economics, and we continue talking about the urgent need to
open the humanitarian channel in Venezuela due to lack of food."
11. The last 4 years the peasants have
supplied fruits, vegetables and vegetables to the Venezuelan people. They are
small producers of the field, without much financial capacity to withstand
difficult economic and financial situations. The large national and
transnational agribusiness companies, large monopolies and oligopolies with the
capacity to cartelize, and undoubtedly with great financial muscle, have not
supplied the people despite receiving subsidized raw materials and foreign
exchange at a preferential rate.
12. Between 1980 and 1998, within the
framework of the neoliberal capitalist system, poverty increased along with
economic growth. In 1999, with the popular approval of a new Constitution, it
changed the economic and social model to one of social justice, since that year
the increases in production imply a decrease in poverty. For some Venezuelans,
the socialist model failed, which was approved in 1999.
13. The main Venezuelan state company,
Petróleos de Venezuela, supplies 95% of the country's foreign exchange, the
other 4% corresponds to other state enterprises. Private companies generate the
remaining 1%. In Venezuela, private companies are efficient and successful,
those of the state are inefficient.
14. In Venezuela, the value of the currency in
the illegal market is the marker of domestic prices of the economy. When they
are manipulated intentionally and disproportionately those values in illegal
markets induce inflation. The government, in the face of induced inflation, to
protect the purchasing power of the working class, decrees salary increases.
The head of inflation is the government for having increased wages and not the
terrorists of the economy who have manipulated 38.732% the illegal exchange
rate from 2013 to date.
15. Domestic production per capita in
Venezuela in the last 4 years is, on average, 9% higher than in the last 30
years. The unemployment rate, historically the lowest in 30 years, 6.6%.
Venezuela is in the worst crisis and economic chaos.
16. The main industries in the pharmaceutical
sector, which import, produce and distribute more than 90% of the medicines and
medical surgical material in Venezuela, received from the national government
and at a preferential rate US $ 1,660 million in 2008 to import the goods . In
2015 they received US $ 1,789 million (more than in 2008). In 2008 there was no
shortage of medicines, in 2015 yes. The government is responsible for the lack
of medicines.
17. The Republic canceled more than US $ 60
billion in foreign debt commitments during the last 4 years. He did it
completely and punctually. Venezuela is rated as the country with the highest
financial risk index in the world.
18. Citibank abruptly decided to close the
national government bank accounts through which payments and transfers were
made to comply with financial and commercial commitments abroad. The reason was
that the Venezuelan state is very risky. Citibank did not close the accounts of
private individuals. Perhaps the Venezuelan state is very risky because it has
the main oil reserve in the world, the second of gas, the freshwater, coltan,
diamonds, gold, and other resources. Such a condition must involve a lot of
risk for Citibank.
19. In the Ayacucho Hall of the Miraflores
Palace, seat of the Executive Power, on April 12, 2002, Pedro Carmona Estanga
was proclaimed President of the Republic, after giving a coup to President Hugo
Chavez. In the self-proclamation event, the following decree was read:
"The principal deputies and deputies are suspended from the National
Assembly, the president and other judges of the Supreme Court of Justice, as
well as the attorney general Of the Republic, to the general comptroller of the
Republic, to the ombudsman, and to the members of the National Electoral
Council. " Those present at the act in which all public powers were
dissolved by a decree that constituted the greatest offense to the National
Constitution, shouted excitedly: "freedom and democracy!".
20. Those who shouted "freedom and
democracy!" On April 12, 2002 in the Ayacucho Hall, today approved the
supposed abandonment of the office of the President of the Republic. They are
the ones who today shout "down the dictator!", Referring to the
constitutionally elected president with the majority of the votes of the
Venezuelan people. In the eyes of some, they are the Democrats.
21. Some Venezuelans are heard, perhaps
confused or misinformed: "Hopefully, the United States Southern Command
finished making the decision to invade us, thus ending this failed model, and
the country would prosper." Iraq, Libya and Syria, to mention some
countries bombed and invaded by the United States, are at war, have not
prospered, are destroyed. Will you have an example of a country invaded by the
United States that has prospered?
22. Venezuela is an extraordinary and unusual
threat to the interests of the United States. That decree Barack Obama,
president of the empire and the great world military power, responsible for
invasions and wars.
Venezuelan patriots, people of peace, insist that it is the other way around.
By Pascualina Curcio
This
article was translated from Spanish into English thanks to Google Translate
