If Thoreau were here today!
<a href=www.vheadline.com>Venezuela's Electronic News Posted: Sunday, April 20, 2003 By: Gustavo Coronel
"But even supposing blood should flow. Is there not a sort of bloodshed when the conscience is wounded? ... I see this blood flowing now" Henry Thoreau, "On the Duty of Civil Disobedience," 1849.
VHeadline.com commentarist Gustavo Coronel writes: If Thoreau was here today he would see the blood flowing out of our wounded consciences. He could clearly see how a President breaks promises. He would join with us in suspecting the motives of this government and in distrusting their actions and their words.
Our consciences are bleeding with good reason. Although this government promised to fight corruption, poverty and crime, all of these social afflictions are now worse than ever.
Street children are more numerous, in spite of the Presidential promise to "resign if he had not ended this problem in six months."
La Carlota is still an airport, not the park he promised 2 years ago.
Miraflores is still the Presidential Palace, not the "popular university" that he promised 2 years ago.
Although he promised 4 years ago that he would sell all government airplanes since having them was "immoral" he flies around in a $65 million new Airbus.
Although he promised never to dress in military uniform again, he does it regularly although a new size is now required.
Our consciences are bleeding because the actions of the government have placed the country in a disastrous situation. Chavez has started a "revolutionary offensive" patterned after the one started by Castro in Cuba in early 1970.
It is an offensive designed to annihilate the middle class and the private sector. As the Cuban offensive converted Cuba into the Albania of Latin America, this offensive is converting Venezuela into a Latin Zimbabwe.
The offensive includes exchange and price controls, the destruction of private companies, the dismantling of PDVSA, the promotion of invasions of private and productive lands and the establishment of a regime of terror to encourage the emigration of dissenters. This offensive would allow the government to control whatever is left of the country.
We have to remember that the main motive of Chavez is not social progress but political control. To him, a sound economy is not important while social unrest could well be an ally of his authoritarian agenda since it would justify repression.
Our consciences are bleeding because we do not have a government but a regime, because we do not see programs but empty rhetoric, because we see no plans but new restrictions and obstacles to the exercise of citizenship.
Hugo Chavez has violated his social contract with the nation. His mandate had to do with democratic change, not with a "revolution" which is only a throwback to the 19th century.
We are, therefore, at a critical moment in Venezuela.
The country urgently needs to vote on whether this man goes or stays.
This is urgent because every day that goes by the Nation deteriorates significantly, corruption gains ground, violence increases, hate becomes deeply entrenched, criminals rejoice, the poor starve.
We have to vote without further delay, without any more "tricks," like Carter said.
If this urgent and civilized option is somehow stolen from us ... then we will march with the spirit of Henry Thoreau in total civic disobedience ... and blood will flow.
Gustavo Coronel is the founder and president of Agrupacion Pro Calidad de Vida (The Pro-Quality of Life Alliance), a Caracas-based organization devoted to fighting corruption and the promotion of civic education in Latin America, primarily Venezuela. A member of the first board of directors (1975-1979) of Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA), following nationalization of Venezuela's oil industry, Coronel has worked in the oil industry for 28 years in the United States, Holland, Indonesia, Algiers and in Venezuela. He is a Distinguished alumnus of the University of Tulsa (USA) where he was a Trustee from 1987 to 1999. Coronel led the Hydrocarbons Division of the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB) in Washington DC for 5 years. The author of three books and many articles on Venezuela ("Curbing Corruption in Venezuela." Journal of Democracy, Vol. 7, No. 3, July, 1996, pp. 157-163), he is a fellow of Harvard University and a member of the Harvard faculty from 1981 to 1983. In 1998, he was presidential election campaign manager for Henrique Salas Romer and now lives in retirement on the Caribbean island of Margarita where he runs a leading Hotel-Resort. You may contact Gustavo Coronel at email gustavo@vheadline.com
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