Opposition plan for an eventual post-Chavez transition...

<a href=www.vheadline.com>Venezuela's Electronic News Posted: Tuesday, June 17, 2003 By: Gustavo Coronel

VHeadline.com commentarist Gustavo Coronel writes: About 15 political and social organizations have been working for months on a plan to guide Venezuela during an eventual post-Chavez transition ... the period 2004-2007 ... provided that the Referendum is held, and that the decision of the legal majority is to revoke the Presidential mandate.

The task of putting a single document together has been in the hands of a small group led by Diego Bautista Urbaneja, one of our brightest lawyers and political scientists, and the third family member of this name, after Diego Bautista Urbaneja (1782-1856), a distinguished fighter for independence and provisional President of the Republic, and after Diego Bautista Urbaneja( 1817-1892), lawyer and seven times in charge of the Presidency during the years of Guzman Blanco. This Diego is also the author of one of the most lucid phrases I have ever heard: "Education and Health are our only basic industries"...

The plan aims at putting the brakes on the economic chaos, on the lack of governance, the process of institutional destruction and the increasing social instability resulting from a breakdown of standards and values that prevails in the country.

There are some eleven major points forming the conceptual backbone of the document:

1. The starting point must be the rapid creation of a climate of national reconciliation. Dialogue will be required if we want political and social agreement to emerge. We need stronger political parties, labor unions, professional associations and other groups of civil society. Only strong organizations can come up with valid and permanent agreements. The plan calls for the creation of a widespread mood of optimism, after some years of despair and distrust.

2. Citizens need to make sure that their rights will be protected, that laws will be equally applied to all, that investigations will be duly carried out and punishment applied to the guilty. This will require the elimination of those laws or components of existing laws which provide the Executive branch with excessive discretionary power, since this leads inevitably to abuse of power.

3. The current holders of the offices of National General Comptroller, Attorney General and Ombudsman will be removed and new officers selected ... this time in accordance with the Constitution. The new officers will have both the required credentials and total autonomy from the Executive branch.

4. The plan aims at rapidly lowering the rate of criminality in the country, by decentralizing police action and the empowerment of the professional police to do their job. Prison establishments will be progressively privatized.

5. Promoting the recovery of the economy will need clear rules of the game and legal security. Private investment will be intensely promoted, protected and given the proper incentives to create new employment. Immediate attention will be given to the construction and tourism sectors. Artisans and skilled workers should be formed in preference to traditional professions.

6. Education will be integral, emphasis made on civic education and training for useful work. Universities will have to become progressively self sufficient financially, as the State can no longer afford total gratuity in a higher education system of quality.

7. Decentralization will, again, receive first priority and regions will receive the required financial help without political maneuvering.

8. The Armed Force will be institutionalized and, again, converted into a professional body, loyal to the nation and not to one man or group. The military will return to being subordinate to civilian authority.

9. Petroleum activities will be oriented towards obtaining optimum benefits for the nation. This can only be possible if PDVSA is a company professionally-managed and totally free from political contamination.

10. Diplomatic relations with our neighbors and natural allies will be reinforced, international agreements and commitments will be honored and the nation will reject associations with international terrorism, drug trafficking and illegal armed groups.

11. The government will not offend ... will not divide ... will promote national respect and solidarity.

12. The government will attack the great national problems of unemployment, extreme poverty and child neglect with total decision. No words but action. No promises but deeds.

This summary outlines some of the basic components of the plan. The group is working continuously to refine and improve the guidelines, so that no matter who comes after, will be able to have the support of a "road map."

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.   You may contact Gustavo Coronel at email gustavo@vheadline.com