After
weeks of imperialist threats and opposition violence, the elections
for the Constituent Assembly (ANC) in Venezuela took place on July
30th. The result was a massive turnout of over 8 million voters,
around 41% of the electorate, which gave chavismo a much-needed shot
in the arm. The western media reacted by trying to dispute the number
and sticking even closer to the narrative being pushed by the
opposition and the US State Department. With the opposition
scrambling and US authorities bringing more sanctions and threats, it
is now chavismo that has the political initiative. The Constituent
Assembly will not solve everything by itself, but it is a tremendous
opportunity to push the Bolivarian Revolution forward.
Part
3 - “The world is ending tomorrow. If not, then next week”
After
winning the legislative elections in December 2015, the Venezuelan
opposition announced that it would get rid of the government in six
months. Following protests in September 2016, again we were told that
the end was near.
The same
doomsday announcements were found in the recent wave of protests and
violence. In response to the call for a Constituent Assembly,
opposition leaders boldly announced that it would not take place! And
finally, the opposition announced that their July 16th marked the
“zero hour” of a new phase, in which they would nominate a
“national unity” government. This was later downgraded to an
“governability accord” which some factions refused to sign. Their
demand that the Constituent Assembly elections be cancelled was also
a failure.
Last week’s
events capture this phenomenon in a nutshell. After a two-day “civic
strike”, which amounted to little more than closed shops in wealthy
areas and bosses locking out their workers, they announced the
“takeover of Caracas” for Friday. This then became a “takeover
of Venezuela”, and finally another “trancazo”, in which
opposition groups simply lock down their own areas. Then they wanted
to march to voting centres on Saturday and physically impede the
elections from taking place, but this too was to become another
“trancazo”…
There is
very little credibility left to this opposition that behaves like a
doomsday cult, predicting the end of the world on a given day and
later re-scheduling. For their own sake, one hopes that they have a
“no refund” policy, otherwise funders like the National Endowment
for Democracy or USAID might want their money back.
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