Contra la intención totalitaria / Demetrio Boersner

Against Totalitarian Intention

As we pointed out in a previous article, president Hugo Chávez's regime carries in its core the contradiction between an ideologically radical nucleus, which would like to drag us into an authoritarian collectivism inspired by Cuban communism, and a new bourgeoisie made wealthy under the protection of power, that wants to enjoy its recently acquired privileges and maintain the capitalist system. Numerically, the second of these groups is growing faster than the first and its influence tends to increase in many fields of political and economic power. It has begun to make connnections with sectors of the traditional upper and middle classes in common business deals and professional projects. But the group of authoritarian and radical revolutionaries is alert and prepares its offensive.

Peronismo went through similar experiences during the first post-war decade. In order to counteract internal deviations, the Argentine caudillo disposed of the invaluable help of his charismatic wife, who was the true captain and idol of the "descamisados." Along with "Evita," Perón could mobilize the popular masses, in order to keep dissidents in line from below. But after the death of Eva Perón, which coincided with a growing economic and fiscal crisis, the internal contradictions became unsustainable and caused the end of the regime.

Hugo Chávez is intent on fighting so that something similar doesn't happen in Venezuela. Unlike Perón, who lacked a coherent ideology, Chávez has begun a well-coordinated effort of indoctrination and militia training for Venezuelans, as a means of defeating wealth and opportunism in the ranks of his movement.

For that purpose, he enjoys the advice and active collaboration of Cuban political experts.

As the theoreticians of "XXI Century Socialism" announce and as it was ratified by the European communist leaders who recently visited Caracas, Marxism-Leninism will be ably combined with a Latin Americanist nationalism of Bolivarian roots. The noblest and most generous impulses of youth will be appealed to in order to turn them into an official tool for mortally wounding the "enemies of the people" and the "lackeys of empire."

Thus, they will try to neutralize the new Chavista bourgeoisie with its tendencies toward a right-leaning hedonism.

In order to avoid Venezuela sinking into the shadows of a long tyranny, the democratic opposition must overcome its divisions from the center-right and the center-left, and transcend the electoral theme, turning their attention toward the construction of a great anti-totalitarian alliance, with a basic program for the defense of democracy and the search for integral development with liberty and equity. Its strategy should point beyond December of this year, and it should contemplate the most diverse situations and possible contingencies.




{ Demetrio Boersner, TalCual, 21 July 2006 }