Actualidad de la política / Oswaldo Barreto

The Political Present

Never have political tasks been as fully present for all Venezuelans as they are today. We should understand: each citizen is presented on a daily basis with the peremptory necessity of analyzing, discussing, taking a position and acting on matters which are of evident public interest and which compromise our coexistence, safety and quality of life, not only for Venezuelans today but for immediate generations.

The urgency with which these calls to political action present themselves to us is the result of two types of things. On one side, we find ourselves facing absolutely new situations in our history and, on the other, the character and dimensions of the phenomena of public life that were familiar to us are new.

On the level of novelty and the unknown, what stands out are the energized and improvised campaigns which the president of the Republic has embarked on to alter and disturb within the country the diverse economic, social, cultural and political sectors which comprise it, and to likewise subvert Venezuela’s links with the rest of the countries of the region and the world.

By his will alone—and not as a decision taken after previous political discussions and debates—we have seen the distortion of, among other things, the system of land ownership and exploitation, the health and educational systems, the relations between the civilian and military world. By his will—and with no public consultation with any of the public powers and with an arrogant disdain for the nation’s opinions—Venezuela’s traditionally peaceful relations with the rest of the world have been gradually altered, particularly with those countries that, due to geopolitical, economic and cultural relations, have a decisive influence on our nation’s life. Arbitrary alliances with countries or regimes that have no relation whatsoever with our history and culture, or the rupture or extreme weakening of relations and exchanges with our closest allied associates, all these factors compromise our destiny on important levels, such as the opening toward the Pacific or relations with the developed world. And who doesn’t notice, on the internal plane, the inordinate dimensions that corruption, organized crime and the frightening deterioration of the job market have assumed?

What political party concerns itself with all this in the public arena? Who explains to the people the tragic course on which the tyrannical enterprise of Hugo Chávez is leading us? And, who calls us to combat and defeat him on these bases?

{ Oswaldo Barreto, TalCual, 17 May 2006 }