The Network of Intellectuals, Artists, and Social Movements In Defense of Humanity (REDH) reports on the parliamentary elections in Venezuela that took place December 6th, 2020. The REDH states its support while it stands against the attempts to discredit the process.
The REDH constitutes a movement of thought and action against all forms of domination and exclusion. It emerged in 2003 at the initiative of prominent Mexican and Cuban intellectuals, and it was consolidated in 2004, in Venezuela during an event that brought together more than 400 representatives from 52 countries, in the meeting it was agreed “on the need to build a barrier of resistance against the world domination that is being imposed”.
The Network of Intellectuals, Artists and Social Movements in Defense of Humanity, Venezuela Chapter, regarding the elections for deputies to the National Legislative Assembly held on December 6, 2020:
– WELCOMES the conduct of the Venezuelan people, who went massively and peacefully to the electoral centers to cast their vote in elections in which government parties and their allies, as well as opponents, freely attended to elect their legislators.
– CONGRATULATES the National Electoral Council for its performance in registering the popular will in a prompt, effective and direct way through unobjectionable automated systems, subject to constant auditing, in the presence of more than a thousand and a half national and foreign companions, and for having informed of the results with an irreversible trend in the first hours of the day after the vote.
– REJECTS the interventionist declarations of the Permanent Directorate of the Organization of American States, which from Washington ignores the sovereign manifestation of the will of the Venezuelan people without providing any proof or valid argument on the matter, and in open violation of article 1 of the Charter of said Organization, the second paragraph of which states that “The Organization of American States has no more powers than those expressly conferred by this Charter, none of whose provisions authorizes it to intervene in matters of the internal jurisdiction of the member states.”
– REMINDS that a previous unfounded and interfering statement by the OAS served as a pretext for a bloody coup in Bolivia, which ignored the 2019 presidential elections, broke the constitutional order, established the dictatorship of the self-proclaimed Jeannine Añez, unleashed atrocious repression against the Bolivian people with loss of life and property, and was finally refuted by the new elections held in 2020, which widely ratified and confirmed the results of the previous year’s elections.
– REJECTS also the statements of the High Representative for Foreign Policy of the European Union, Joseph Borrell, in which he ignores the sovereign will of the Venezuelan people manifested in the parliamentary elections, in open violation of the provisions of paragraph 7 of article 2 of the Charter of the United Nations, which guides: “7. Nothing in this Charter shall authorize the United Nations to intervene in matters that are essentially within the internal jurisdiction of the States, nor shall it oblige the Members to submit such matters to settlement procedures pursuant to this Charter; but this principle does not oppose the application of the coercive measures prescribed in Chapter VII”. It should be added that the European Union lacks competencies or powers to intervene in countries that are not part of that organization.
– REJECTS the statements of the Secretary of State of the United States, Mike Pompeo in respect to his statement that the parliamentary elections in Venezuela have been “fraudulent” and “manipulated”, for this being an interventionist declaration, lacking evidence or arguments, and because they lack ethical, moral, technical or legal authority to judge elections in other nations, [the United States] being a country where the presidential elections are of second degree, where the candidate with the fewest votes is elected, and where the result of the November 3 election is not yet known with certainty, on which the President himself declares that there has been fraud in jurisdictions where the number of votes exceeds the number of registered voters.
– REITERATES that the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela is a sovereign, autonomous and independent country that decides matters related to its internal affairs in accordance with its Constitution and laws, without consulting or submitting to foreign powers, States or entities. It does not interfere or intervene in the affairs of other countries, and in this regard, it expects reciprocity, peace, friendship and respect from them.
FROM THE REDH WE CELEBRATE, ONCE AGAIN, DEMOCRACY AND PEACE IN VENEZUELA
From the Network in Defense of Humanity (REDH), we celebrate a new demonstration of democracy by the Venezuelan people who, this Sunday, December 6, went in a civic and peaceful manner to the voting centers to elect the deputies of the National Assembly for the period 2021-2025.
Adhering to its Constitution, despite the criminal aggressions to which it has been subject to by US imperialism, despite an economic war and a criminal blockade, despite the difficulties arising from the pandemic, despite unconstitutional pressures exercised by interfering governments calling for the suspension of the electoral process, and despite the undemocratic call for abstention by the political factors of the extreme right, the people of Bolívar went out to vote and exercised their right to vote, complying with the constitutional mandate to renew every five years the Parliament, which according to its Magna Carta must be carried out before January 5, the date on which the elected deputies must take office.
The members of the Network in Defense of Humanity applaud the political plurality that characterized the electoral process in Venezuela, with the participation of 14,400 candidates for 277 seats in Parliament, of which 13,000 belong to political parties that oppose the national government and the Bolivarian revolution. From the Network we congratulate all the candidates who were elected.
We highlight the transparency that characterized the elections of this December 6, which had an automated electoral system, audited before, during and after the electoral day by all the political factors that participated in the contest, who were accompanied by more than 1,500 observers who attended from different latitudes. An electoral system, that in less than 24 hours offered Venezuelans and the world the final results of the elections.
Faced with the joy that overwhelms Our America for the example of democracy that the Venezuelan people have once again set, we must also reject the interventionist attitude of the governments of the United States, Europe and the OAS that once again, violating international law, they seek to ignore the elections in Venezuela and intend to interfere in matters that only concern Venezuelans, being a sovereign and independent nation.
Congratulations to the Venezuelan men and women for this elevated display of civility. We embrace them and celebrate with them true democracy and Peace.
Luis Britto Garcia
CHALLENGES OF POSTNEOLIBERAL LATIN AMERICA
The first results of the National Electoral Council in the 2020 parliamentary elections reveal that with 82.35% of the votes counted, the Great Simón Bolívar Patriotic Pole (GPPSB) obtained 3,558,320 votes, 67.6% of the total, and the Alternative Popular Revolutionary (PCV) 143,917, 2.73%.
Nearly 31% of the electoral roll voted, since in parliamentary elections the turnout is historically lower than in presidential elections. These non-reversible results add up to at least 70.33% of the vote for the progressive forces.
Thus concludes a five-year period of anxiety during which the opposition majority of the National Legislative Assembly refused to pass budget bills, supported terrorist waves and attacks by the United States and its accomplices; It supplanted the Constitution with manuals for the destabilization of governments by Eugene Sharp and the head of the Southern Command Kurt Tidd, presented its internal president as President of the Republic, voted by no one and validated his theft of Venezuela’s assets abroad as an agent of States United and their complicit governments.
The significance of this triumph can only be appreciated by considering the perspective of Latin America and the Caribbean. Electoral victories and strong social movements reveal the expiration, not only economic and social, but also political, of the neoliberal order.
The socialist governments of Cuba and Nicaragua continue their course, surviving all the aggressions. In Bolivia, the socialist government of the MAS returns, after a concerted coup between the OAS, the Minister of Defense and the self-elected dictator Jeannine Añez.
In Mexico and Argentina, progressive governments correct decades of mistakes. In Chile waves of protest force the call for a Constituent Assembly that will bury Pinochetism. In Peru, devastating demonstrations or investigations into corruption depose three IMF sponsored Presidents in rapid succession. In Ecuador, Brazil and Colombia massive protests shock the neoliberal regimes of Lenin Moreno, Bolsonaro and Duque.
No neoliberal government imposed by coup d’etat, judicial coup, deception or simple betrayal has satisfied the needs of the masses or consolidated consensus that allows it to perpetuate itself. The system that has succeeded in accumulating more than half of the world’s wealth in 1% of the population has also succeeded in depriving the rest of humanity of education, livelihoods and medical care.
Things are not going well in the countries that until recently exercised hegemony.
The United States lost its status as the world’s leading power five years ago; demonstrated obvious inability to attend a health emergency; faces the worst economic and social crisis since 1928; is home of racist and xenophobic movements; and its authorities themselves are at odds and divided over the results of the November 3, 2020 elections and the policies to address the emergency.
France is also sunk in economic depression and the social and economic protest of the yellow vests. Spain is witnessing another boom in social protests. India faces the largest and longest general strike in history, in which 200 million peasants and farmers protest extreme poverty.
The system that has succeeded in accumulating more than half of the world’s wealth in 1% of the population has also succeeded in depriving it of acceptable education, livelihoods and medical care.
Majorities once again favor socialist proposals. As Rafael Correa states: “Winds of hope are blowing.”
However, in this panorama of almost spontaneous social insurrections, the apparent absence of the leadership of radical organizations that should direct the mobilized forces towards revolutionary objectives and avoid their dispersion and disarticulation is striking.
Progressives must discard the temptation of lack of radicalism that encourages them to stagnate, neglect the demands of the masses that supported them, smuggle neoliberal recipes with pseudo-revolutionary labels and resign themselves to losing power until some eventuality allows them to regain power to repeat the cycle.
The challenge of a post-neoliberal Latin America is posed.
This implies, ecologically, rationalizing the use of natural resources and preserving biodiversity and the planetary ecological balance. Stop the privatization of water and the destruction of the world’s plant lungs. Control or veto the genetic manipulation of living organisms and stop global warming and pollution.
In the social sphere, its important to eliminate all barriers of social, ethnic, cultural, gender or any other kind of discrimination. Guarantee access to all levels of education. Transform automation into a reduction in working hours and not unemployment. Apply economic surpluses to the elimination of hunger and poverty and not to private accumulation.
Economically: Place the main means of production under social control, and planning the economy based on social needs. Claim the right to protect national economies. Comprehensively restructure tax systems, with effective application of the principles of territoriality, progressivity and the proscription of tax havens. Restructure the monetary systems based on the effective support of the respective currencies. Impose wages that guarantee the satisfaction of basic needs. Regulate or outlaw financial speculation that produces fictitious dividends. Refer back the unpayable public debt that devours a large part of the production.
Politically: Restructure electoral models so that they allow the effective and transparent expression of the will of the majorities. Constitute governments that respond to the demands and needs of the people and not those of big capital. Punish officials and representatives who fail to comply with their electoral programs and promises. Implement prior, concomitant and subsequent computerized control in real time of public and private financial activities.
Strategically: Reduce arms spending. Institute progressive cooperation between armies in peaceful activities of collective interest. Outlaw the use of mercenaries, paramilitaries, and targeted assassinations. Dissolve military alliances such as the Inter-American Treaty of Reciprocal Assistance and expel bases of foreign powers to the region that function as instruments of interference and occupation armies.
Internationally: Revitalize regional organizations such as Alba, Celac and Unasur, and create others that are not instruments of imperial unipolarity. Integrate alliances of countries historically attacked and exploited by empires. Outlaw blockades and sanctions. Complete decolonization.
Culturally: Guarantee the universal right to education. Preserve the legacy of indigenous cultures. Apply the media apparatus of the cultural industries to education and the dissemination of scientific and aesthetic content. Invest resources saved on the reduction of arms and the ban on speculation, in scientific research, education and cultural creation.
Let’s make Our America our Great Homeland.
