By Luis Manuel Aguana
After reading the recognitions granted to the extension of the mandate as President-in-Charge to Juan Guaidó and the National Assembly elected in December 2015 through the modification of a pinned Statute, granted by the USA (see The United States Continues To Recognize Interim President Guaidó and the Last Democratically Elected National Assembly in Venezuela, in https://www.state.gov/the-united-states-continues-to-recognize-interim-president-guaido-and-the-last-democratically-elected-national-assembly-in-venezuela/), the European Union (see Venezuela: Declaration by the High Representative on behalf of the European Union, in https://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/press/press-releases/2021/01/06/venezuela-declaration-by-the-high-representative-on-behalf-of-the-european-union-on-the-situation/) and the Lima Group (see in Spanish Grupo de Lima reconoció legitimidad de la Comisión Delegada presidida por Guaido, in https://www.lapatilla.com/2021/01/05/grupo-lima-asamblea-maduro/), I have nothing left but to be amazed again by a situation that only exists in Venezuela: outside we are recognized more than we recognize ourselves.
The situation of Juan Guaido and even less the extension of the mandate of the National Assembly elected in 2015 through a dubious modification of the Statute for the Transition (in my opinion unconstitutional) does not please me more than the rest of the Venezuelans who have seen 2 years thrown in the dustbin of history, with the usual increase in the suffering of our people. But the decision of the world is not legal, it is POLITICAL. And that decision in the opinion of all countries constitutes a lesser evil than recognizing the criminals who have power in Venezuela. They prefer to keep waiting and see how things evolve in the country with an opposition political leadership that they consider -and with much reason- very mediocre.
However, there are still political leaders of the Venezuelan opposition who question this political reality of the recognition of Guaidó and its Assembly, which runs over their faces, and they continue to work actively against their execution to make the path of the Government in Charge and the current National Assembly of 2015 more difficult as the legitimate powers of the country, which benefits the permanence of the regime.
In fact, they don’t recognize them and refuse to work with them. While I could agree that they are not without reason, it is urgent and indispensable not to seek «unity» with that opposition, but to at least agree on what I have called a «Common Route» that would allow us to walk on separate tracks but in the same direction. We did something of this from civil society when in ANCO we proposed to the government in charge the realization of a Popular Consultation, although they did not fully understand the meaning of «separate tracks”camente. But we Venezuelans have a hard time getting that kind of recognition. And that’s why people from outside don’t understand. It’s time to start changing that if we want to get out of this nightmare soon.
This Common Route must pass through the establishment of agreements of coexistence and coordinated work that allow, not a unity, but a common work that are two different things. Unity means to merge with another, in a strategy only conducted on a hierarchically coherent group. In the current circumstances this is not possible in Venezuela. What is proposed here is something completely different, and I can give an example to make the idea clear: when a building is burning, many may try to put out the fire. Some can use equipment with hoses, others smaller ones with buckets of water, others with foam equipment, others use helicopters with water from the air, and others with explosives to put out the fire. All these groups have a solution that may or may not be valid, but if they act alone what they will do is make the building burn faster.
If each one operates independently in their own way and according to their capabilities, no one even has to see each other, it is only necessary to know where the other one will be so as not to hinder him or step on his hose -take the example of the fire-, each one working in his own place but in coordination. That way everyone works for the same purpose, to put out the fire in the building according to their own capacity. That’s what I’m talking about. Many people could be integrated without having to agree with each other’s strategy. What should exist is a unique place of coordination where the heads of each group evaluate where the teams are placed according to their competence for the benefit of reaching the common goal sooner. This is what I call the Common Route. I don’t have to agree with what the one next to me does, or the one in front of me, or the one above me, or the one below me. If what you do goes in the direction of achieving the common goal of all, your participation is valid.
In July 2012, I published a note entitled «Technical unity» (see in Spanish https://ticsddhh.blogspot.com/2012/07/unidad-tecnica.html) which was transformed into a formal proposal to the technical teams of the MUD to face the technical acceptance of the electoral conditions of the regime for the Capriles-Chavez elections of October 2012 (see in Spanish ESDATA-VOTOLIMPIO: Urgente e impostergable: La Unidad en lo técnico”, en http://bitakoraeva.blogspot.com/2012/07/urgente-e-impostergable-la-unidad-en-lo.html). There he proposed the «unity» of the MUD technical teams and those of us who opposed the way the conditions of the regime were accepted so that the opposition could participate. I thought it was easier for us technicians to agree on the engineering, which is completely objective, than for the politicians in relation to the electoral conditions. It was in vain. Again, the Venezuelan mania of not working together for a common goal. But the MUD politicians had, in my opinion, a cat in the bag with the regime that they did not want us to know about. Hence, the MUD technicians did not consider our proposal, ending up accepting the most abject conditions for those elections. It was not in vain that Capriles sent us to dance salsa and play casseroles so as not to get paid…
An interesting step of a first approach to this Common Route could be to accept the «accountability» that María Corina Machado, Diego Arria and Antonio Ledezma are demanding (see in Spanish Maduradas in, https://maduradas.com/sepa-maria-corina-machado-diego-arria-antonio-ledezma-exigen-guaido-rendir-cuentas-tras-escandalo-corrupcion-desvelado-washington-post/). If Guaidó is willing to solicit the collaboration of other opposition sectors, indicating that «it is time to unite» because it is «the last call of the nation (see in Spanish Guaidó llamó a la unidad a líderes opositores (ver https://elmercurioweb.com/noticias/2021/1/5/guaid-llam-a-la-unidad-a-lderes-opositores-es-el-momento-de-unirnos), should then be in a position to negotiate an opposition agreement on the best terms without stepping on the hoses to make a restart of the opposition in 2021 on a Common Route that takes them all in the same direction, where each one puts out the fire from his own perspective. That would be the sensible thing to do. The other would be to continue the old Venezuelan custom of not recognizing what the entire planet recognizes, which is nothing but the safest formula for the regime to last 100 years.
But the most important thing about this whole exhibition is that this Common Route has to include us as the civil society represented by more than 6.4 million Venezuelans who were present at a Popular Consultation, who all in that opposition were determined not to express themselves and now are trying to hide the success of that call like someone trying to hide the sun with a finger. That is the key to the success or failure of that new Route. Those citizens not invested with authority are the only ones capable of legitimizing it. If they still insist on ignoring those of us who can legitimize it, the road will be longer, but in the end the owner of the Popular Sovereignty will impose itself over those who still do not understand what they understood outside: either they do it together, or we do it directly with the owners…
Caracas, January 8, 2021
Blog: http://ticsddhh.blogspot.com/
Email: luismanuel.aguana@gmail.com
Twitter:@laguana
TICs & Derechos Humanos 