Venezuela: Now to strengthen the Revolution

Bob Briton from The Guardian spoke with the Ambassador 
of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, Leonel Vivas, in 
Canberra last week about President Chavez's resounding victory in 
the recent recall referendum. The Ambassador spoke optimistically 
about a period of reconciliation that would allow the Revolution 
to pursue its goals and overcome poverty and bring peace and 
security to the people.

Guardian: Could you tell our readers what is the latest 
information with regard to the recall referendum?

Leonel Vivas: The latest information that I have is that 
recognition of the referendum result is growing around the world. 
Even the US Government has already recognised the victory of 
President Chavez and many other countries and heads of state have 
recognised it. All the international observers that were watching 
the process in Venezuela have already backed the result. The 
situation is very calm with no problems to speak of. So, 
overwhelmingly, the country is in tranquillity and has accepted 
the result.

Of course the opposition — as is always the case in my country, 
I don't know why, perhaps because they do not have a clear 
political alternative — some of their leadership are saying that 
the government of President Chavez has committed a fraud. That is 
stupid, really. They had been saying for many months before the 
referendum that they would back the result. All the leadership 
was saying that they would back the result if the Organisation of 
American States (OAS) and the Carter Foundation verified the 
result. Now, in a very clear way, the OAS through its Secretary 
General Mr Gaviria and President Carter on behalf of the Carter 
Foundation have said that the referendum was conducted in a very 
honest, transparent and democratic way.

I have just been reading on the internet that the OAS, the Carter 
Foundation, the Venezuelan Government and the National Elections 
Council have agreed to conduct an audit of 150 polling stations 
picked at random throughout the country. They are going to 
recount the votes and compare them with the result obtained by 
the computerised voting machines into which the people entered 
their "No" or "Yes" vote. At the time of voting, after having 
pushed the button to enter your vote, the machine gives you a 
statement (a "papeleta") saying that you have voted this way or 
that. You can check this and then you put it in the box at the 
polling station.

So there is to be a physical confirmation of the computerised 
result. The government has said to interested authorities that 
you will be allowed to audit any polling station you like because 
we know that the result that the National Elections Council 
released is valid. In two days time there will be this comparison 
of the results. President Carter has said that we are going to do 
that audit only to satisfy the demands of the opposition and that 
he expects that, after we have done it, that they will need to 
accept that there was not any fraud.

G: After the results of the audit are in, does the 
government expect more problems from the opposition?

LV: No, I don't think so. The government believes that 
there is only this stupid accusation of fraud outstanding. The 
government is prepared to confront any problem of public order. 
So no, the government is not expecting more problems in 
Venezuela.

The most important thing for the people and the government is to 
have a period of peace in order to carry out its programs. After 
this referendum, there should be a degree of tranquillity in the 
country with not too many worries to do more and more to overcome 
the difficulties facing the Venezuelan people.

All over the world, there will be a greater acceptance. Already, 
that I know of, many governments and heads of state have made 
clear their acceptance of the result and have congratulated 
President Chavez. The last one was the government of the US.

G: Now that President Chavez has been consolidated in his 
position, what new projects are planned, what new goals are being 
set for the revolution?

LV: There are two main goals. One is to deepen the 
Bolivarian Revolution, which means that the government will be 
striving every day to consolidate the revolution. In the months 
and years to come the main goal remains to overcome poverty. We 
have a high rate of poverty of around 75 per cent.

The second goal is to consolidate Venezuela's institutions — for 
instance in the justice system with the right to personal 
security — and to create more jobs. Unemployment in Venezuela is 
still very high. By the end of the year we want to have put an 
end to illiteracy.

Another important goal for the government is to penetrate, in the 
political sense, and to gain the support of the middle class. The 
government knows, President Chavez knows, everybody knows that 
the government needs far more support from the middle class than 
it receives now. The government is going to implement several 
programs in order to win their support and I believe, at the end 
of the day, the majority of the middle class will support 
President Chavez. For the time being, the majority of this sector 
of society is against the government. The government is conscious 
of this situation and will be acting to win this very important 
support.

Into the Neighbourhoods

In Venezuela we already have in progress many projects or 
"missions" to strengthen the revolution. For instance, the 
"Barrio Adentro" [Into the Neighbourhoods] Plan [which seeks to 
address the health, education and other needs of the country's 
poorest neighbourhoods], the Robinson Mission [aimed specifically 
at illiteracy] and the Mercal Mission that has been established 
to sell foodstuffs to the poor at half price. That mission is 
particularly important to our country.

The overriding mission to address poverty in the country and the 
most important strategic plan of the government is called 
"Vuelvan Caras" (Turning Faces Around). It is called this because 
previous governments had their back turned to the people and were 
facing and paying attention to the powerful sectors in society. 
We don't know when it will achieve its goal of overcoming poverty 
but the object is to do this as soon as possible.

G: What lessons do you think the people of the region 
(and, for that matter, the world) could draw from this recent 
experience of the Venezuelan people?

LV: In my personal opinion, the most important example of 
the Bolivarian Revolution that is taking place in Venezuela right 
now, in relation to the countries of Latin America or to any 
country in the world — but especially to the countries of the 
third world — is that it is possible to carry out a revolution 
in a peaceful and democratic way.

Until the Bolivarian Revolution, even the great thinkers thought 
that a social, political and economic revolution in any country 
in the world was only possible through means of violence. I don't 
use the term "violence" in any pejorative sense. I believe it can 
be justified if it means finding a way to revolution but the 
Bolivarian Revolution is a unique example of how to make a 
revolution in a peaceful, democratic and participatory way.

For me this is very important because in Latin America we always 
have the danger of intervention from the US. However, it is very 
difficult for the US when it says that democracy is the best way 
for any country to organise itself and that since the times of 
Ancient Greece and Aristotle that democracy is the best political 
system. Now the people of America and Latin America know that it 
is possible in a peaceful and constitutional way to make a 
revolution.

They know that political life is more open, more participatory 
and, in the broad sense, democratic than the United States. The 
President of the US is elected by a small minority of the 
American people. The President of Venezuela is elected by 
virtually all the Venezuelan citizens of voting age of 18 years 
or older.