The struggle for Venezuela

Leonel Vivas is the Ambassador to Australia of the Bolivarian 
Republic of Venezuela. He visited Sydney recently to address the 
inaugural meeting of the Bolivarian Circle, an organisation set 
up to rally support in Australia for the revolutionary changes 
taking place in Venezuela today. Before the meeting, Mr Vivas 
spoke to Bob Briton of The Guardian about recent 
developments in his country.

Bob Briton: What is meant by the term "Bolivarian" used in 
connection with the revolution taking place in Venezuela?

Leonel Vivas: The term "Bolivarian" means that the 
ideology and the political point of view of the revolution is 
inspired by Simon Bolmvar, the national hero of Venezuela, 
because he was the leader of the fight for the country to gain 
its independence from the kingdom of Spain. That is the reason 
why Bolmvar is our national hero and President Chavez and the 
other leaders of the Bolivarian revolution developing right now 
in Venezuela adopted the thought and ideas of Bolmvar. That is 
the meaning of the term "Bolivarian revolution".

BB: What benefits have flowed to the people of Venezuela 
from the changes taking place in the country?

LV: There have been many, many benefits. There have been 
benefits in the economic sphere but especially in the social and 
political arena. The Bolivarian revolution has as its main aim 
that the people should participate in the decision-making 
process. The most important goals of the revolution and the most 
important benefits of the revolution for our people are the 
direct participation in the process of change, in all the 
measures that the government is taking to improve the way of life 
of our people. It is a participative democracy.

Before this revolutionary process the people of Venezuela 
participated only as electors, going to the polls to elect the 
President or the Prime Minister but nothing else. The 
participation was only in the polls, to give a vote to somebody. 
Afterwards, the people did not participate in the decisions made 
by government. Now the most important thing is the direct 
participation of the people in the big governmental decisions.

In the social arena the revolution has meant a leap forward. 
There have been many changes in our country — the project for 
literacy, for instance. Venezuela is a poor country. We have 80 
per cent of our people living in poverty and among the poor the 
rate of illiteracy is very high. About 12 per cent of our 
population was illiterate two or three years ago. Today, after 
the completion of the Robinson Project, about 95 per cent of our 
people are literate. In a six-month period this program involved 
1.2 million people. [The literacy program was named in honour of 
Bolivar's most well known teacher, a Venezuelan whose nickname 
was taken from Defoe's tale, Robinson Crusoe.]

Health has also been a priority of the Bolivarian revolution. We 
have a very popular program giving health care to poor people. 
The revolution is being carried out mainly in the interests of 
poor people in order to overcome their difficulties and health is 
one of the major problems in my country. In this health program 
the Cuban Government has helped a lot. In this and other matters, 
the achievements of the revolution have been obvious and 
genuinely appreciated.

In the economic arena, as well, we have seen a lot of 
improvement, again especially for the poor. The main goal of the 
economic program of the Bolivarian revolution is to find another 
way to improve the economy of the country because neo-liberalism, 
the latest attempt by capitalism, has been unsuccessful for the 
people. So we are trying to find another economic model that 
matches the reality of our country and not to import a model from 
developed countries that has nothing to do with the Venezuelan 
reality.

BB: What are the latest developments in the attempt by 
opposition forces to destabilise the country?

LV: My government and President Chavez are pushing ahead a 
revolutionary process of change and transformation to overcome 
our centuries-old problems. To be successful in this we must 
change structures and even habits. As history teaches us, any 
process of change has supporters and opponents. In the case of 
the Bolivarian revolution, the opponents are those who for many 
years have had control over the economy, the army and political 
life. These people do not want to hand over this power to those 
who have been excluded for many years.

Of course, those who have been excluded want to participate and 
to have a share of the wealth of the country. They are the 
supporters of the Bolivarian revolution. That is why there is a 
struggle between the Venezuelan people, who have been excluded 
for many years, and those who have held the power in Venezuela. 
It is a fight for dignity, a fight for sovereignty, a fight for a 
better way of life.

The people that traditionally have had the power in Venezuela 
have been trying to overthrow Chavez as President of the country 
by any means, including two attempted coups d'itat. However, 
these efforts were kept in check. Other means have already 
included a national strike, terrorist acts and so on.

These people that have been trying to destabilise the country 
have the support of external governments and there is no doubt 
that the main support for the overthrowing the government by a 
coup d'itat or by other means is the Bush Administration. The 
latest attempt by the opposition to gather support has been the 
petition for a referendum — a petition not made in a 
constitutional way but by fraud.

Fortunately this has not been possible and if a referendum is to 
take place it will be in a democratic and very transparent way 
and within the constitutional framework. If a national referendum 
to recall President Chavez happened in a legal way, there is no 
doubt President Chavez would win, that is very clear. We don't 
have any doubt that he would win any other national election.

BB: How have the people been involved in defending their 
revolution?

LV: We have many ways to defend ourselves from external 
aggression. The main arm is, put simply, the opposition of the 
people. Chavez was overthrown on April 11, 2002 — just two years 
ago — for 48 hours and it was the people in conjunction with the 
army that returned the Presidential position to Chavez. So the 
main means we have to defend our country from aggression is the 
union of the people and the army. In the Venezuelan army right 
now there is 98 per cent support for President Chavez.

We have other ways to defend the country from aggression. Don't 
forget that Venezuela is an oil-producing country and that we are 
the fifth largest producer of oil in the world. We supply the 
United States with almost 2,000,000 barrels a day. This is an 
economic army and also a political army. We can take measures to 
defend ourselves that take into account this situation in which 
we are a very important oil-producing country.

However, the main guarantee against any external and internal 
aggression and to ensure that our government and President remain 
in power is the will of the people and the army.

BB: Is Venezuela receiving much support from countries in 
the region?

LV: Fortunately Venezuela has been receiving very strong 
support from many countries in Latin America and the Caribbean. 
This is because our government and our President have been 
elected in a very democratic way. President Chavez was elected 
twice: once in 1998 with 53 per cent of the popular vote and one 
and a half years later he was re-elected with 58 per cent of the 
vote.

The election of the President in Venezuela is by direct and 
universal vote. Every citizen e18 years old or over has the right 
to vote. So he was elected in a very democratic and direct way by 
58 per cent of the popular vote. This is an important reason why 
the Venezuelan Government has strong support from countries in 
the region and also in many other countries around the world. 
This has been demonstrated in the Organisation of American 
States, in the United Nations and other multilateral, 
multinational organisations.

The support for the government and President Chavez has been 
really strong but most important of all has been the support of 
the people of those countries, especially in Latin America and 
the Caribbean. There is no doubt that there is widespread support 
for the Bolivarian revolution.

BB: What is the attitude of the government of Venezuela to 
the proposal for a Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA)?

LV: You know that the US, with support from some 
conservative Latin American countries, has proposed the creation 
of a free trade agreement between Latin America, the United 
States and Canada. We call it ALCA in Spanish while you call it 
the FTAA.

This is an initiative of the US in order to have more power over 
the economy of the region. My government, especially President 
Chavez, does not agree with this proposal because it will mean 
more poverty for our country. We think that, because it is an 
agreement with the biggest economic power in the world, it will 
give the US control — even more control than right now — over 
our economies.

This will be another means by which to invade, to control not 
only our economy but also our political and social decision-
making processes. If this agreement is concluded, there is a 
strong possibility that our countries will become colonies of the 
superpower. These are the reasons why we don't agree with this 
proposal of the United States.