Upholding Chavismo

The Venezuelan Opposition needs to support democracy and help in drafting a new Constitution

June 13, 2017 12:02 am | Updated December 04, 2021 10:45 pm IST

Democracy is said to stand consolidated when no one challenges the legitimacy of the process to access power. In Venezuela, the Opposition wants a restoration of the old order, one in which power and privilege came as inheritance. Political actors of different hues, who were united in their common distaste for late President Hugo Chávez, have been determined to strip President Nicolás Maduro of the presidency ever since the Opposition gained a majority in the national legislative elections held in December 2015.

The National Assembly was particularly incensed by t he Supreme Court order of March 29, 2017 which upheld the power of the President to make energy deals with international oil firms. Crude exports bring in 95% of the country’s foreign exchange, and, with prices remaining low for three years, it is never easy to find joint venture partners for the heavy and extra-heavy crude production. The National Assembly has obstructed every joint venture between the state-owned oil company and foreign oil firms. With its no-holds-barred politics, it has opposed even steps such as establishment of ‘fair price’ shops to sell essential food items at fixed rates. Major bills and other presidential initiatives have remained stalled. Further, the legislature has rather brazenly sought to encroach upon the powers of judiciary and the President through measures such as ordering the release of political detainees.

A way out

With all offers of dialogue, including through papal mediation, having been rebuffed, Mr. Maduro has finally taken recourse to the Constitution to restore peace and overcome the politics of hatred and intolerance. Article 347 of the 1999 Constitution allows “the people of Venezuela” to convene a Constituent Assembly with the aim of “transforming the state” through a new legal framework. The National Electoral Council (CNE) has validated the election to a 540-member National Constituent Assembly (NCA) to be held on territorial and sectoral basis before the end of July. To write the new Constitution, 364 members would be elected by the municipalities; the remaining 176 will represent the diversity of the nation, which includes local communities like those of the workers, the peasants and fishermen and the indigenous communities. It will be a participatory body — representative and multicultural in its composition. A registered voter, above 18 years in age, can contest for the NCA, which will be a non-partisan body. The NCA will be bound by the ‘guidelines’ enshrined in the Constitution. It will lay down the necessary statute for its working by remaining within the ambit of the principles that define the Republic and the framework of the 1999 Constitution.

The new Constitution, like the present one, will also, most likely, be put to referendum. Until then, all existing constitutional bodies, including the National Assembly, will remain in office. The stipulation under Article 349 that existing constitutional authorities “shall not be permitted to obstruct the Constituent Assembly in any way” does not mean the NCA assuming the legislative powers. Tibisay Lucena, president of the National Election Council, has assured the people that all regional and presidential elections will be conducted as scheduled for 2017 and 2018.

Ushering in change

When Hugo Chavez won the presidency in 1999, 50% of the Venezuelans were poor and another 20% indigent. When he died in 2013, only 24% of the population was poor, to quote the UN. He built one million homes for the poor; and gave land title to millions of squatters in and around Caracas. The country has the highest percentage of university enrolment in Latin America; likewise, the ratio of doctors remains higher than elsewhere in the region. Several hundred thousand emigrated from southern European and Latin America countries to take advantage of the improved health and housing conditions offered by the Bolivarian regime; besides, Venezuela sheltered some 2,00,000 refugees who fled the conflict in Colombia.

In essence, Chavismo changed the social equilibrium; it has left no scope for the conservative, predominantly white oil patriarchy to return to power.

The expected ‘Caracas spring’ has not arrived. Protests are confined to the posh areas of Caracas and the other big cities. Slingshots and steel bullets, and not the much-hyped ‘medicines-in-shortage’, have become the most smuggled items. The streets of Caracas are witness to politics of cynicism aimed at precipitating conditions for a military coup.

Democracy stands consolidated when the given set of institutions become the only game in town. The Opposition in Venezuela must know this; it should support democracy even if it is opposed to the regime, and participate. The new Constitution will seek to make democracy the only game in town.

Abdul Nafey is professor, Latin American studies, at the Jawaharlal Nehru University

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