Venezuela: Revolution in progress

President Hugo Chavez has invited the people of Venezuela to 
use the opposition-called Referendum challenging his presidency 
to ratify and consolidate the Revolution. The US is determined to 
bring down the Chavez Government by whatever means it can. The 
following speech by Leonel Vivas, Ambassador of the Bolivarian 
Republic of Venezuela to Australia was given on the night of 
Solidarity with Venezuela in Brisbane on Saturday August 7. It 
shows why the US administration is so threatened by Chavez and 
why it is having so much difficulty in defeating such a popular 
government:

On behalf of the Venezuelan people, my government, President 
Chavez and myself, I would like to express to the organisers of 
this meeting and of course, to all of you, my deepest recognition 
of gratitude. In fact I understand and appreciate this meeting 
not only as an act of solidarity and friendship with the 
Bolivarian Revolution but also as an act of solidarity and 
friendship with the struggles of the peoples of Latin America in 
search of dignity, justice and sovereignty.

By South American standards Venezuela is a medium size country. 
In its territory of about one million square kilometres live some 
26 million people. No doubt Venezuela is a rich country. 
Venezuela produces and exports iron ore, bauxite, coal, gold, 
diamonds and many others minerals. Venezuela as, you know, is a 
very rich oil producing country — one of the largest in the 
world. Every day we produce nearly 3.3 million barrels of crude 
oil and export more than 2.3 million, mainly to United States to 
which we are the third largest supplier of crude oil.

Nevertheless, one could say that Venezuela is in fact a rich 
country, but a poor Nation because we have a high rate of 
poverty. This situation means a great contradiction as a result 
of the high levels of corruption and mismanagement of the 
political parties and their leadership that ruled Venezuela 
during the last 50 years. Of course, I also have to say that the 
policies of the neo-liberal model applied to Venezuela in the 
last three decades or so are coresponsible for the collapse of 
the country reflected in the high levels of poverty that we have 
and which President Chavez is fighting against with all his 
resolve.

When Chavez was running as a candidate for President in 1998, the 
situation of the country was really grim: high poverty, despite 
the richness of the country; amazing levels of corruption in all 
levels of the government; a collapsed system of health and 
education; a 20 per cent jobless rate and a 12 per cent or higher 
rate of illiteracy; high levels of insecurity; a corrupted system 
of justice; very high levels of dissatisfaction among the 
population; an external debt of about US$35 billion and US$40 
billion deposited in foreign banks. Only a few Venezuelans were 
the owners of those funds and they, of course, had stolen that 
money. We also had an inflation rate of more than 50 per cent and 
only the equivalent of US$10 billion in foreign currencies in 
international reserve.

In short, Chavez ran in 1998 as a candidate for President in a 
collapsed and broken country.

Clear mandate from the people

When Chavez was campaigning he clearly promised to the Venezuelan 
people to combat and change that grim situation. Well, as you 
remember, at the end of 1998 he was democratically elected 
President by a large majority of the popular vote. One and half 
years later he was re-legitimised by an even larger and more 
overwhelming majority of nearly 60 per cent of the popular vote. 
In both cases he beat the traditional political parties that 
governed Venezuela for more than 40 years. At that time nobody 
doubted the clear mandate the Venezuelan people had given him.

Chavez proposed to carry out a new and revolutionary national 
project to overcome the traditional difficulties of our people, 
especially of the poor people. He proposed a national project 
based in justice; in participatory democracy; in a far better 
distribution of the country's wealth on the basis of an 
aggressive fight against poverty and in respect for sovereignty 
of the country.

Without any doubt, today we have in Venezuela a revolution in 
progress. Venezuelan society has undergone a radical 
transformation, one that is only possible in a revolution. For 
instance, before the Chavez's Government, the political 
consciousness of citizens was very low. Nowadays, the great 
majority of Venezuelans have a political consciousness that is 
much higher. It's true we had a bad form of democracy for four 
decades, a representative democratic system that every five years 
called the Venezuelan people to cast their votes to elect the 
President, but nothing else. It was without any other 
participation, either in the small or in the big decisions of the 
government of the day. Today we say, "What was left behind is, in 
fact, representative democracy, in order to construct 
participatory democracy within the framework of a social state 
with justice".

This challenge is only possible in a revolutionary process. As 
well as questioning globalisation and neoliberalism and 
condemning the state terrorism perpetrated by the United States, 
we are leading with concrete proposals for regional integration. 
All of this is only been possible within a revolution.

The condemnation of the FTAA (Free Trade Area of the Americas), 
the strong rejection of the invasions of Iraq and of Afghanistan, 
the efforts to construct a multipolar world, have all come about 
by virtue of the revolution. In the case of Venezuela it has been 
by virtue of the Bolivarian Revolution.

Massive participation of the people

At the same time and along the same line of thought, how else can 
one explain that in less than a year we have achieved the 
astounding goal of reducing illiteracy by more than one and half 
million people — thereby almost eliminating illiteracy in 
Venezuela?

Only in the framework of revolution was it possible to approve a 
new national constitution with such a high degree of 
participation and popular consultation as has been the case in 
Venezuela. How else can one explain the amazing defeat of the 
coup d'itat, supported by the US and Spain among others, and 
having rescued democracy in less than 48 hours without resorting 
to violence?

How does one explain, the success of missions such as "Inside the 
Barrio", which has been able to provide free medical attention 
and medicines in more than 15 million cases in less than a year? 
These and many other missions are in progress with the massive 
participation of the people, especially the poor people. This is 
a direct reflection of the revolution in progress in Venezuela.

I also have to stress that the Bolivarian Revolution is a new and 
an atypical process without precedents, not only in Latin America 
but in the entire world. In fact, this revolution has been 
pushing ahead in a peaceful and very democratic way. In fact, 
Venezuela is a pluralist country. Our National Constitution 
guarantees respect for all dissidence. Every Venezuelan, whatever 
his or her political, religious or cultural beliefs may be, has 
the right to express his points of view and the government of 
President Chavez has always shown respect for the opposition.

Unfortunately, the Venezuelan opposition has been influenced and 
sometimes dominated by anti-democratic and fascist sectors. For 
this reason it has attempted to overthrow the Chavez Government 
several times by every possible means. It was the case of the 
failed coup d'itat of April 2002 and the sabotage of our oil 
industry that cost to the country more than US$10 billion in 
three months.

Definitely, the neo-liberal model — based in egotism and 
irrationality — has failed in Latin America. Thus, our societies 
urgently require deep changes, deep transformations in order to 
replace the savage neo-liberalism that so many and painful 
difficulties have created in our Latin American homelands. Nobody 
having good will could deny the present situation of the region, 
as President Chavez stated sometime ago: "When you walk along the 
streets of Latin America, you can very clearly sense a reality 
that no one can deny — the peoples of this continent, oppressed 
and dominated for centuries, are rising up again, and this time 
nothing and no one can silence them.

"They are seeking out ways to redemption, roads to justice, ways 
to dignity ... and there is no other way to reach it but by 
revolution. There is no longer any kind of dilemma for us. I am 
convinced (says President Chavez) that the only way to put an end 
to poverty is by giving power to the poor, not by giving handouts 
to the poor, but by giving them the power to make decisions and 
find their own solutions, participatory democracy and a new 
economic model for democracy and for a fair distribution of the 
wealth."

It is very well known; we have in Venezuela many social and 
economic difficulties, and also a political confrontation, which 
at times has been very strong. Nevertheless, as you are aware, 
this is quite normal and even inevitable, when a social, economic 
and political reality is dying and other one is striving to be 
born. That is the case of my country nowadays.

Be sure, dear friends, the political confrontation happening 
today in Venezuela is nothing other than the result of the 
struggle between supporters of the process of change and 
transformation taking place in my country and the opponents of 
this revolutionary process. Nevertheless, the revolutionary 
process and President Chavez have the support of the people and 
the army. The people and army are fighting right now, and will 
fight with total resolve and decisiveness in order to preserve 
dignity, justice, hopes and dreams of my people.