Respaldo al Gobierno Democráticamente Electo del Presidente Constitucional de la República Bolivariana de Venezuela, Hugo Chávez Frías

(Presentado por la Delegación de Venezuela)

EL CONSEJO PERMANENTE DE LA ORGANIZACIÓN DE LOS ESTADOS AMERICANOS.

Habiendo escuchado la presentación del Representante Permanente de Venezuela ante la OEA sobre un plan para desestabilizar la democracia venezolana y el gobierno constitucionalmente electo de la República Bolivariana de Venezuela;

CONSIDERANDO que la Carta de la Organización de los Estados Americanos reconoce que la democracia representativa es un elemento indispensable para la estabilidad, la paz y el desarrollo de la región;

CONSIDERANDO que el artículo 1 de la Carta Democratica Interamericana proclama que "los pueblos de América tienen derecho a la Democracia, y sus gobiernos la obligación de promoverla y defenderla"; y

RECORDANDO la resolución AG/RES.1 del 18 de abril de 2.002 "Apoyo a la Democracia en Venezuela" y la Declaración AG/CG/doc.16/02, del 04 de junio de 2.002 "Declaración sobre la Democracia en Venezuela", en las cuales se reitera la disposición de la Organización de los Estados Americanos de brindar el apoyo y la ayuda que el Gobierno de Venezuela requiera para la consolidación de su proceso democrático,

RESUELVE:

1. Respaldar en forma plena y absoluta al Gobierno Constitucionalmente Electo de la República Bolivariana de Venezuela, que preside Hugo Chávez Frías.

2. Proclamar en forma terminante que los Estados Miembros condenarán, como lo establece la Carta Democrática Interamericana, cualquier intento de alterar el orden constitucional y en consecuencia rechazarán cualquier opción de poder que nazca en contravención al estado de derecho y a la Constitución de la República Bolivariana de Venezuela.

3. Hacer un llamado a todos los sectores que tienen incidencia en la formación de la opción pública, para que contribuyan al fomento de la paz y de la tolerancia entre todos los venezolanos.

4. Reiterar el respaldo de la OEA para que los venezolanos superen sus diferencias mediante el diálogo y el entendimiento, respetando el estado de derecho y el orden constitucional que rige la República Bolivariana de Venezuela.

5. Reiterar el apoyo de los Estados Miembros de la OEA al trabajo de facilitación que está realizando su Secretario General, César Gaviria, de acuerdo a la resolución del Consejo Permanente CP/RES. 821 (1329/02)

6. Solicitar al Secretario General de la OEA que continúe informando regularmente al Consejo Permanente sobre sus gestiones de facilitación en la República Bolivariana de Venezuela.

7. De considerarlo necesario y en función de la urgencia del caso, convocar a la Reunión de Consulta de Ministros de Relaciones Exteriores, de conformidad con lo establecido en los artúculos 61º y 62º de la Carta de la OEA.

Los Directores de todas las filiales de PDVSA, conjuntamente con los equipos gerenciales de esta empresa, consideramos que los sucesos que han tenido lugar en los últimos días en la corporación, con base a decisiones que no compartimos tomadas por la Presidencia de PDVSA, amenazan con ocasionar daños considerables al patrimonio de la empresa, agravando la crisis del país. Es nuestro deber y responsabilidad dirigirnos por este medio a todo el país y, especialmente, a nuestros trabajadores, expresando nuestra posición como sigue:

A raíz de la crítica situación que vive el país, lo cual llevó a un sector apreciable de la población a convocar a un paro cívico nacional para buscar una pronta solución, los trabajadores de todas las nóminas de la industria, al igual que los de las empresas contratistas y otras conexas, se solidarizaron a una casi total paralización de las operaciones de la industria petrolera.

En un intento por reactivar las operaciones, el presidente de PDVSA, Alí Rodríguez Araque, apoyado por personal no calificado, ha procedido a realizar nombramientos y remociones de cargos en la alta gerencia operativa de las empresas filiales, sin acatar los requisitos establecidos en los Estatutos Sociales de las mismas, y en contra de los principios y valores de la meritocracia y gerencia participativa consagrados en la normativa interna de la corporación.

El Presidente de PDVSA y sus nuevos asesoras han solicitado y permitido la presencia de militares dentro de las instalaciones petroleras, poniendo en peligro la seguridad de los trabajadores, las instalaciones y las comunidades vecinas. Además, han permitido el acceso a personas extrañas a la corporación, carentes de capacidad y experiencia técnica, con el fin de intentar operar estas complejas instalaciones, lo cual aumenta gravemente los riesgos de seguridad y el acceso a la información comercial confidencial de la corporación, la cual pudiera ser usada con fines no éticos, resultando en un notable perjuicio para la empresa y la Nación.

Entre otras acciones, destacan las detenciones injustificadas de nuestro personal, el obligar bajo presión a operadores a realizar tareas en contra de su voluntad, la toma por efectivos de la Armada de algunos buques de PDV Marina, acciones que pudieran ocasionar daños importantes a las instalaciones que son patrimonio de todos los venezolanos. Ejemplo de ello son los cinco accidentes más relevantes ocurridos durante los últimos días y conocidos por la opinión pública.

Como consecuencia del llamado realizado por el Presidente de PDVSA, a través de los medios televisivos, a grupos de personas solicitando una supuesta "defensa" de nuestras instalaciones, se han presentado numerosos grupos violentos en muchas áreas operacionales y edificios administrativos, amenazando a los trabajadores y alterando la tranquilidad y seguridad de las operaciones.Queremos enfatizar que sin el concurso voluntario de todas las nóminas de PDVSA no podrá ser posible la normalización y mantenimiento de operaciones tan complejas como las inherentes a esta empresa petrolera.

Los Directores de las filiales cuyas operaciones han sido afectadas por las acciones referidas nos hemos dirigido al Sr. Alí Rodríguez Araque en diversas oportunidades, advirtiéndole los peligros de las acciones tomadas y exigiéndole respeto a la Gerencia de las mismas. Asimismo, se han intentado recursos de amparo en las áreas operacionales con ocasión de algunos de los hechos referidos, sin haber obtenido aún decisiones por parte de las autoridades competentes. Además, en un intento por preservar la gobernabilidad y la seguridad de las operaciones, hemos instruido a nuestros trabajadores a mantener sus líneas naturales de reporte.

Con base en todos los hechos referidos, hemos decidido:

RESPALDAR a los líderes naturales de los distintos negocios y áreas operacionales en sus funciones de preservar la seguridad de la gente y de las instalaciones, ratificando nuestra posición para ayudarles a canalizar y solucionar cualquier situación de riesgo a la cual se vean sometidos por la vía de amenazas o amedrentamientos.

EXPRESAR NUESTRO RESPETO Y RESPALDO a los trabajadores petroleros y petroquímicos, tanto de la nómina contractual como mayor y ejecutiva, así como al personal de la flota de la Marina Mercante, en su actitud y decisiones individuales frente al conflicto que vive el país.

RECHAZAR los despidos de nuestros colegas, todos ellos VENEZOLANOS de la más alta capacidad, integridad y mística corporativa, ya que ello, lejos de contribuir a la solución, profundiza la crisis.

HACER UN LLAMADO a la Fuerza Armada Nacional a mantener una actitud institucional para ayudar a preservar la seguridad de nuestros trabajadores y del patrimonio de la empresa.

HACER UN LLAMADO a las autoridades regionales de las gobernaciones y alcaldías para que garanticen el marco legal que preserve la seguridad de las aledañas a las áreas operacionales.

HACER UN LLAMADO a los jueces de la República para que sean diligentes en el manejo y pronta decisión de los recursos y acciones sometidos a su consideración.

HACER UN LLAMADO a nuestros clientes nacionales e internacionales, así como a nuestros suplidores, para que se aseguren del cumplimiento de las normas y procedimientos de la corporación en sus relaciones comerciales con PDVSA y sus filiales.

RECHAZAR los señalamientos descalificadores expresados por Alí Rodríguez Araque, por considerarlos ofensivos y desconsiderados hacia la más alta dirección de la Corporación y sus trabajadores.

HACEMOS UN LLAMADO A TODOS LOS TRABAJADORES A MANTENER LA UNIDAD Y SENTIDO DE PROPOSITO QUE SIEMPRE NOS HA CARACTERIZADO, YA QUE ELLO PERMITIRÁ PRESERVAR LA INSTITUCIÓN EN BENEFICIO DE NUESTRO PAIS.

LA SOLUCIÓN A LA GRAVE SITUACIÓN QUE ENFRENTAMOS, ESTA EN MANOS DEL EJECUTIVO NACIONAL Y DE LOS DISTINTOS FACTORES DE LA SOCIEDAD CIVIL.

EN CONSECUENCIA, HACEMOS UN LLAMADO URGENTE A TODAS LAS INSTITUCIONES INVOLUCRADAS PARA LOGRAR UN ACUERDO MEDIANTE

Good afternoon, following we wish to transmit to the Venezuelan nation an institutional message from the Directors of all the operating affiliates of Petroleos de Venezuela, leaders of business units and representative majority of the top and general management of the Corporation. Joining me in the podium the members of the Board of directors of PDVSA Petroleo: Jose Rafael Paz, Vice-president; Nelson Nava, Director; Luis Vielma; Executive director of Exploration and Production; Raul Aleman, Executive Director of Refining, Supply and Trading; Fernando Puig, President of PDVSA Gas, Luis Leonardi, Vice-president of Pequiven and Maria Lizardo, President of Bariven. Also, the directors and corporate managers of the main businesses are present. Petroleos de Venezuela is a highly complex and technified Corporation by nature of its operations and the magnitude of its importance in the nationaland international context. This Company counts on 40 thousand own employees and 20 thousands contracted, who add a valuable and incalculable capital of knowledge and experience in the development of inherent activities to the oil business.

PDVSA develop activities in all the value chain of of the oil industry in Venezuela and countries of the world: product and and storage, transport, refining, production, crude exploration and hydrocarbons trade, as well as gas businesses, petrochemicals, Orimulsion and coal. The productive and safe development of all these businesses in Venezuela, like in any other part of the world, requires knowledge and specific expertise from highly specialized professionals and technicians. This industry does not accept improvisations that put further on risk, energy supply to the society, safety of its workers, their communities and their facilities. The Venezuelan oil industry has invested numerous numbers in infrastructure and state of the art technology, today vital patrimony of all Venezuelans. The Directors of all affiliates of PDVSA, jointly with the managerial team of this company, consider that the events which have taken place in the last days in the corporation, based in decisions that we did not share with the Presidency of PDVSA, seizures threatening and causing considerable damages to the patrimony of the company, aggravating the crisis in the country. It is our duty and responsibility to address the country by this means specially, our workers, expressing our position as follows:

1. In light of the critical situation in the country, which lead a considerable sector of the population, workers in the industry, contractorsand other companies to participate in a civic and national stoppage, which has lead to an almost total paralyzation of the operations of the oil industry.

2. In an attempt to reactivate the operations, the president of PDVSA, Ali Rodriguez Araque, supported by unqualified personnel, has made positions assigments and removals in top operative management level of affiliated companies, without complying to requirements as established in these compamies Statutes, and against the consecrated principles and values of merit and participative management as established in the internal policies and procedures of the corporation.

3. The President of PDVSA and his new advisers have requested and allowed the presence of the Armny within oil facilities, putting in danger the safety of the workers, the neighboring facilities and communities. Furthermore, he has granted access to people strange to the corporation, lacking technical capacity and experience, with the purpose of attempting tooperate those complex facilities, thus increasing serious safety risks and unauhtorized access to confidential commercial information of the corporation, which could be used with non-ethical aims, causing a remarkable damage for the company and the Nation.

4. Among other actions, it is worth noting the unjustified arrests of our personnel, forcing operators under pressure to make tasks against their will, the take over by the Navy of some ships of PDV Marina, actions that could cause important damages to the facilities that are patrimony of all the Venezuelans. Examples of this are the five most relevant accidents in the last days and known to the public by the media.

5. As a result of the call made by the President of PDVSA, thru televized media, asking groups of people for a supposed “defense” of our facilities,numerous violent groups in many operational areas and administrative buildings have appeared, threatening the workers and altering to the tranquillity and security of the operations. We want to emphasize that without the voluntary aid of all the payrolls of PDVSA, the normalization and maintenance of such complex operations as the inherent ones to this oil company, cannot to be possible.

6. The Directors of the affiliates whose operations have been affected by the referred actions have pointed it out to Mr. Ali Rodriguez Araque in diverse opportunities, warning him of the dangers of the actions taken and demanding respect from him to their Management. All these warnings have been totally ignored. Also, legal recourse has been taken where referred facts have occured in operational areas, without even obtaining decisions from competent authorities. More over, in an attempt to preserve the governability and safety of the operations, we have instructed our workers to maintain its natural lines of report. Based in all the above facts, we have decided:

1, TO SUPPORT the natural leaders of the different businesses and operational areas in their functions of preserving the safety of people andthe facilities, ratifying our position to help channel and solve any situation in which they are put under risk by way of threats or fear.

2. TO EXPRESS OUR RESPECT and SUPPORT to the oil and petrochemicalworkers,as well as staff and executive employees, all Merchant marine fleet personnel, in their individual attitude and decision in the conflict facing the country.

3. TO REJECT the dismissals of our colleagues, all of them VENEZUELANS of high capacity, integrity and corporative culture, which far from contributing to a solution, it actually deepens the crisis.

4. TO MAKE a CALL to the National Armed Forces to maintain an institutionalattitude to help preserve the safety of our workers and the patrimony of the company.

5. TO MAKE a CALL to the regional State, City and Local authorities, so that they guarantee the legal framework and preserve the safety of the communities bordering the operational areas.

6. TO MAKE a CALL to the judges of the Republic so that they are diligenthandling and quick deciding in all legal claims and actions submitted in their courts .

7. TO MAKE a CALL to our national and international clients, as well as our suppliers, so that they make sure they adhere and fullfill all norms and procedures of the corporation in their commercial relations with PDVSA and their affiliates.

8. TO REJECT the disqualifying statements expressed by Ali Rodriguez Araque, towards top management of the Corporation and its workers for considering them offensive and thoughtless.

WE MAKE A CALL TO ALL WORKERS TO MAINTAIN THE UNITY AND SENSE OF PURPOSE THAT HAVE ALWAYS CHARACTERIZED US, SINCE IT WILL ALLOW TO PRESERVE The INSTITUTION IN BENEFIT OF OUR COUNTRY. THE SOLUTION TO THE SERIOUS SITUATIONTHAT WE FACE, IS IN THE HANDS OF THE NATIONAL EXECUTIVE AND DIFFERENT FACTORS OF CIVIL SOCIETY. CONSEQUENTLY, WE MAKE AN URGENT CALL TO ALL INVOLVED INSTITUTIONS TO REACH AN AGREEMENT BY MEANS OF A CONSENTUAL ELECTORAL EXIT.

Thank you very much. Jorge Kamkoff

The New Bolivar: Hugo Chavez and the Rise of Pan-American Nationalism As the US escalates the "drug war" in Colombia and the struggle begins to take on a regional character, an unlikely figure arises to challenge the American hegemon: Hugo Chavez Frias, the charismatic President of Venezuela who evokes the specter of Simon Bolivar, Latin America's great "Liberator," and speaks of a pan-American unity south of the Rio Grande. At a recent conference of the Andean Pact nations, Chavez declared: "The 20th century was a bipolar century, but the 21st is not going to be unipolar. The 21st century should be multipolar, and we all ought to push for the development of such a world. So, long live a united Asia, a united Africa, a united Europe." NO PIPSQUEAK If this were some South American pipsqueak of a general – the ruler of, say, Ecuador, or some Central American banana republic – we might perhaps write this off as a typical manifestation of Latin grandiosity, which often mistakes the lyrical for the logical. But Venezuela is the fourth-largest supplier of oil to the US, and, besides that, has served as a model of relative stability in a tumultuous region: for 40 years, Venezuelan politics had been dominated by two major parties, in a system much like our own, with power regularly switching back and forth between the vaguely left-leaning Democratic Action party, and the more conservative Social Christian party (COPEI). But things were heading for a fall. THE CRISIS The system, although increasingly corrupt, muddled along up until the bottom dropped out of the oil market in the 1980s: the downturn plunged into a precipitous decline, culminating in a political and social crisis. Per capita income dropped, inflation took off, and, by the time Chavez came on the scene, capital was fleeing abroad at the rate of some $500 million every month. The government, the most free-spending in South America, was overwhelmed by a public foreign debt of $29 billion: today, the interest on this debt devours about 40 percent of Venezuela's income. The unemployment rate shot up, along with the crime rate: Caracas, never much of a tourist attraction, acquired a new seediness. Strikes paralyzed much of what remained of the economy, and basic services often came to a halt on account of frequent strikes. MIDAS IN REVERSE The Venezuelan exceptionalism that exempted the nation from banana republicanism for some 40 years – largely the creation of oil wealth – looked about to unravel. At that juncture the country might have followed neighboring Colombia down the path of national dissolution. Like Colombia, which contains within its borders natural resources that ought to make it a wealthy nation, Venezuela has long suffered from what Moises Naim, editor of Foreign Policy magazine, calls the "reverse Midas syndrome." Everything the corruption-ridden governments of the region touch turns into the very opposite of gold – the vast oil wealth, and the natural talents and industry of the people, are somehow transmuted into growing poverty. In pre-Chavez Venezuela, the social democratic principles of the ruling elite had been translated into a spending program that might have been drafted by Hillary Clinton, Jesse Jackson, and the Democratic Socialists of America: As Naim points out: "For more than 30 years Venezuela spent 10 to 14 percent of its total GDP on so-called social programs." In the public health sector, for example, Venezuela spent three times more per capita in 1985 than Chile, Jamaica, or Panama. But in 1988, Venezuela's infant mortality was 200 percent higher than Jamaica's, 80 percent higher than Chile's, and 30 percent higher than Panama's." A FAMILIAR STORY Naim also points out that Venezuela in the 1980s was the top spender on education in all of Latin America, but near the bottom in terms of illiteracy rates, dropout rates, and enrollment percentages. As the quality of life in Venezuela declined, so too the political system descended into gridlock – and degenerated into self-perpetuating claques of legislators steadfastly denying the growing crisis and concerned solely with the task of enriching themselves and their friends at the expense of ordinary people. Sound familiar? LIKE GRANDFATHER, LIKE GRANDSON Chavez, who by this time had spent a decade as an officer quietly spreading his own brand of nationalism – "Bolvarianism" – in the ranks of the military, had had enough, On February 4, 1992, he and his fellow Bolivarians struck: President Carlos Andres Perez, who was later impeached for various improprieties, barely escaped with his life, and 10,000 soldiers answered the call to rise up against the regime. After a bloody fight, the coup was quelled, and Chavez was arrested – but unbowed. The revolt failed, he publicly declared, because "the people weren't sufficiently prepared to be able to back us up." Chavez was carrying on a family tradition: his great-grandfather, the famous "Maisanta," led an uprising that put one El Presidente six feet under, and fought in another in which a tyrannical governor was put up against a wall and shot. Maisanta was eventually jailed in 1922, and spent the last 7 years of his life in prison, but his grandson managed to avoid this fate – and go on to become the democratically-elected President of Venezuela. THINGS FALL APART Venezuela, the South American showplace of Western-style bourgeois democracy, was coming apart at the seams and looking for a savior, and perhaps no man could have fit the bill quite as well as Chavez. After serving only two years, he came out of the clinker a national hero. Tall, handsome, and charismatic, the young army officer just out of jail was the subject of a popular film, Amanecer de golpe, the collaboration of left-activist Venezuelan director Carlos Azpúrua and the late screenwriter José Ignacio Cabrujas, famous for his soap-operatic touch. Chavez entered the 1998 elections and was ahead in all the polls from the very beginning. His promise to cleanse the nation of a corrupted and co-opted elite, his pledge to resist the depredations of globalization while keeping foreign investment on Venezuela's terms, his vision of a Venezuela where public officials could be instantly recalled by referendum and popular bodies could be empowered to repeal any legislation – the voters found all this irresistible, and as the candidate of his own Fifth Republic party Chavez swept into power with 56 percent of the vote. The two formerly "major" parties, openly supported by the Americans, polled 9 percent of the vote. Washington was stunned: they had bet on the wrong horse. BEYOND LEFT AND RIGHT Chavez moved quickly to restructure the country according to the principles of "Bolivarianism" – which critics sneer is a "confused" and "jumbled" concoction of populist conceptions, generally vague and perhaps "anti-democratic." In reality, Chavez, contrary to his public image as an ordinary Indian from the hills with a healthy disdain for urban technocrats, is a man of ideas who seems to have thought long and hard about his political ideology. That Chavez doesn't fit into any of the formerly useful categories of "right" and "left" is the source of whatever confusion there is about what he believes, but this is due to the myopia of his critics, for the most part, and not – as we shall see – any fuzziness in his own thinking.. SAY THAT IN SPANISH Those Republicans in Congress who believe that Clinton-Gore's "Plan Colombia" did not go far enough, and are chiefly interested in selling a lot of helicopters for their favorite military contractors, are now agitating for Chavez's scalp, and, in alliance with the editorial page of the New York Times, are raising the question of whether he might be another Fidel Castro, or perhaps the Saddam of South America. In an editorial on August 31, the Times denounced as "Jacobin" Chavez's efforts to reform the notoriously corrupt judiciary and rein in rampaging legislators. The Times wailed that the new constitution was "concentrating power in the presidency" and the State Department chimed in (or is it the other way around?), warning Venezuela to maintain "the separation of powers between the diverse branches of government." This from a nation where the President can deploy troops without consulting the legislative branch, and issue executive orders to carry out his will in virtually any matter! Oh, lecture us about the "separation of powers," Uncle Sam! Aren't you the country where the Supreme Court of a single rather cheesy state can hold the rest of the nation hostage? How do you say "give me a break" in Spanish? PUTTING VENEZUELA FIRST The Republican policy wonks who believe that Chavez is a Fidelista retread, a mad leftist who would spread socialist subversion throughout the region and revive the Third International ignore the essentially rightist thrust of his politics. The New York Times, in its "new" reporting, has all but accused Chavez of being a fascist sympathetic to anti-Semitism, a latinized version of Austria's Haider. Both Left and Right miss the reality due to the distorting prism of their respective ideologies, which have long since ceased to have any real relevance in the age of globalization. Steve Ellner, author of three books on Venezuelan politics and history, and a professor of economic history at the Universidad de Oriente in Venezuela since 1977, puts it this way: "Chávez embraces a homegrown style of nationalism underpinned by Venezuelan heroes. His discourse resembles Sandinismo which also developed a national doctrine while breaking with imported models of Marxism-Leninism. Chávez berates historians for practically writing off the nation?s history between the death of Simón Bolívar in 1830 and the modern era, dismissing a whole century of political leaders as ?caudillos," or strong-men. In a book of interviews with Chávez entitled The Commander Speaks, he states: ?Caudillos may have been necessary for the incorporation of our people in historical struggles. I believe we have been sold an imported bourgeois democratic model – that of the elimination of our leaders." HUGO CHAVEZ SPEAKS Chavez earned the wrath of the US by being the first head of state to visit Iraq since the Gulf war, and his visits to Cuba, where he and the old Stalinist warhorse got along famously, did not endear him to Republicans. But the idea that Chavez is sitting at Fidel's feet, imbibing Marxist-Leninist doctrine is the wish-fulfillment fantasy of hallucinating cold warriors who simply cannot believe in the death of their old adversary, Communism: they see its ghost everywhere, like the after-image of a lingering nightmare. What Chavez represents is something altogether new, at least in that part of the world, an ideology that is neither left nor right but firmly rooted in the concept of national sovereignty: a post-democratic nationalism, arisen largely in reaction to US economic and military domination of the region. But let Chavez speak for himself: there is not the space here to reproduce the entirety of the 1996 interview conducted in El Salvador, so I suggest you follow this link – and see if the following sounds like Fidelismo or even conventional caudillismo: "The Bolivarian Movement was born in the barracks some 15 years ago when a group of soldiers came to the conclusion that the enemy was not communism, but imperialism. For many years we worked carefully and gradually to develop a nationalist, patriotic movement with one hand in the barracks and another on the street. We developed a Bolivarian conception of revolution, which understands that we face a different empire to that confronted by [the leader of the movement for independence from Spain, General Símon] Bolívar. Bolívar, however, did foresee that North America was destined to plague us in the name of liberty. ". . . We pose the questions of independence and sovereignty by calling for a new continent-wide independence movement. The current political model is mortally wounded and no viable alternative can exist without breaking the bourgeois, neoliberal system that has operated in Venezuela since 1945. In our model of democracy, the people, civil society, are protagonists who participate in making political, even military, decisions. There are no half-measures on questions of sovereignty. There has to be direct democracy, people's government with popular assemblies and congresses where the people retain the right to remove, nominate, sanction, and recall their elected delegates and representatives." BOOMERANG While he mentions Cuba admiringly as an example of "a people in arms," this formulation is ambiguous and, given Chavez's well-known ability to adapt to the expectations of his audience, doubtless thrown in for the delectation of enthralled left-wing journalists. For, aside from what they might view as an attractive appeal to egalitarianism, Chavez goes on to describe a vision very different from the usual left-socialist workers paradise, what he calls "a new continental alliance of defense and security and independence." This is what really puts a scare into the US State Department, whose bankrupt South American policy is coming back to haunt them: "We know many currents within the defense forces of the continent, who, while not necessarily revolutionary, are at least nationalist. There is one question which unites military professionals from Mexico to Argentina, as reactionary as they may be. Every military graduate who loves their profession opposes the further reduction, let alone elimination of their national army. The United States would like to see all of our armies reduced to instruments solely to combat drug trafficking or, as has happened in Panama, converted into a mere police force." HE'S NO COMMIE This is no Commie: that is a patriot talking. Not only a patriot, but a military man who bitterly resented the prospective decline of his nation's army into a narcotics squad for their imperial overlords in Washington. When he assumed power, Chavez defied the US and refused to allow the US government to conduct their phony "war on drugs" on Venezuelan territory, and more: Chavez has militarized the border with Colombia precisely because of his neighbor's inability to control drug trafficking and guerrilla incursions into Venezuela. THE PERILS OF SELF-HELP When floods led to widespread devastation in his country, Chavez demurred when offered 1,000 American troops to "help out." One would have thought that this development – a refusal of foreign aid – would have been welcomed in budget-conscious Washington, where Republicans are always complaining about the burden of bailing out Third World countries. But instead Chavez was derided in Washington as arrogant and self-defeating: how dare those Venezuelans refuse our largess! In today's Spotlight, Scott B. MacDonald of the Center for Strategic and International Studies sneers: "We see evidence of the great U.S. conspiracy behind almost every event. Even the US offer to provide help during the 1999 mudslides and flooding is taken as something to which the great revolutionary helmsman must respond." Yet this gesture played well at home, where a people newly awakened to the meaning of national sovereignty were proud of the fact that they could make it on their own. A SOLDIER'S SOLDIER A specter is haunting South and Central America, and it isn't Communism – it's Bolivarianism. Let the Americans and their satraps listen, and tremble: "It will be a challenge to create this continental military alliance and to start interchanges of technology and experiences at different levels of the military hierarchy. In Panama, for example, we know young army personnel, especially those who are now police officers, who are inspired by General Omar Torrijos. [Torrijos negotiated the treaty which binds the United States to return the Panama Canal.] They still consider themselves soldiers and are willing to fight for the reinstallation of Panama's own defense force. Recently, some retired colonels met with us and questioned the purpose of the anti-guerrilla war, which they had fought some 30 years ago in Venezuela. 'Who had been right?", they asked, "those who fought for the so-called democratic governments or the guerrillas who went to the mountains and raised the banner of communism?'" IN THE SHADOW OF THE LIBERATOR The Bolivarian answer: neither. Both were caught in the cold war trap of looking for models abroad, either in the US or the Soviet bloc. Chavez is not nationalizing industry: he is privatizing, albeit without handing the country over to a board of directors located in New York or somewhere in Europe. Not a single member of the opposition has been jailed or harassed, and hanging chads do not seem to be a part of the Venezuelan electoral process, which has been deemed perfectly transparent and fair by international observers. The recent elections to the National Assembly returned followers of Chavez by a resounding 90 percent-plus. Chavez isn't dreaming about the dictatorship of the proletariat, in spite of the ultra-left sympathies of some of his followers: instead, he dreams of "a confederation of Latin American states for the new century," one "joining the Caribbean basin though railways and linking them with the great rivers such as the Orinoco, the Amazon and the Plata," which he calls "the arteries of our continent." Like Bolivar, he dreams of a sovereign, independent, and prosperous South America: to the US State Department, this is a crime. To the people of Venezuela, and beyond, it is an ambition that may be worth fighting for. NOBODY MENTIONS GEORGE WASHINGTON Chavez says that Castro told him, "There you call the struggle Bolvarianism, here we call it socialism." Chavez also reports Castro saying "something, which I never thought that I would hear from his lips, 'If you called your movement Christianity I would even be in agreement.'" Note that Castro is agreeing with Chavez, and not the other way around: this is the whole point, of course. Communism, which never really took root in South America, in spite of Che Guevara's best efforts, is dead in any event. But Bolivarianism? Venezuela has shown that it is very much alive, and the vitality of this new movement is summed up by what Chavez has to say to the decadent elites of North America and Europe: "Our movement is gaining strength and very soon the world will know about the Venezuelan people. In Washington nobody mentions George Washington, in France no one talks of Napoleon, but in Venezuela the image of Bolívar is painted on the walls and his image is worn on the T-shirts on the chests of young people." MAKING ENEMIES Nationalism – the great enemy of the cosmopolitan elite that stands, or thinks it stands, at the "end of history" – is on the march in every region of the world. The blowback from the policy of US hegemonism, with it's triumphalist proclamation of a "New World Order," is gathering momentum, from South America to East Asia, from the Middle East to the Balkans. In addition to Russia, China, and a growing pan-Slavic sentiment in Eastern Europe, opposition to US hegemonism is rising in the most unlikely places and coalescing in the most unexpected forms: the Arab resistance to American dominance is now linking up with the Bolivarians in South America via OPEC, which is these days headed up by a Venezuelan. Clinton was reportedly on the phone to Chavez recently, begging for a break on oil prices – to no avail. DOUBLE STANDARD It is yet another negative aspect of the Clinton foreign policy legacy that we have so alienated Chavez with "Plan Colombia" that Venezuela, once the major weak link in the OPEC cartel, is now the strongest advocate of keeping prices high. Before Venezuela's 1998 presidential election, the US State Department denied Chavez a visa to visit the United States on the grounds – according to Albright – that he had once been the leader of a coup, and therefore a criminal unworthy of entry. What Albright neglected to mention, as Steve Ellner points out, was that Chavez's chief rival, Francisco Arias Cárdenas, the number two man in the coup and now estranged from Chavez, was granted a visa: " In one respect," writes Ellner, "US flexibility paid off as the more tractable Arias broke with Chávez and was his main rival in special elections held on July 30. During the campaign, Arias criticized Chávez's defiant attitude toward the US and his kind words for Cuba. The rejection of Chávez's visa request boomeranged. Just after the request was denied, Chávez's popularity soared." THE UNFORGIVEN When our own secretary of state preaches to American blacks that they must pull themselves up by their bootstraps, and praises the military as a character-building institution, this is hailed by everyone as the wisdom of the ages: but when a South American chief executive says the same thing, in the same tone – gee, they even look alike! – somehow this doesn't go over very well. The New York Times liberals discover that he is an incipient "fascist" and probably an anti-Semite; the conservatives uncover his Communist credentials. The reason for the confusion, and the angry denunciations, is because Chavez puts Venezuela first – not the "global community," or the transnational corporations, or the "New World Order," but the people and welfare of his own people. And that is a sin our ruling elite can neither understand nor forgive.

OEA/Ser.G CP/RES.833 (1348/02) 16 diciembre 2002 Original:  español

RESPALDO A LA INSTITUCIONALIDAD DEMOCRÁTICA EN VENEZUELA Y A LA GESTIÓN DE FACILITACIÓN DEL SECRETARIO GENERAL DE LA OEA

EL CONSEJO PERMANENTE DE LA ORGANIZACIÓN DE LOS ESTADOS AMERICANOS,

HABIENDO ESCUCHADO la presentación del Representante Permanente de Venezuela ante la Organización de los Estados Americanos sobre los incidentes que pudieran desestabilizar el orden constitucional democrático en Venezuela;

HABIENDO ESCUCHADO el informe oral del Secretario General sobre su papel en el proceso de facilitación con relación a la situación en Venezuela;

TENIENDO EN CUENTA la grave situación política por la que atraviesa la República Bolivariana de Venezuela, y deplorando los hechos de violencia que han tenido lugar en ese país;

CONSIDERANDO que la Carta de la Organización de los Estados Americanos reconoce que la democracia representativa es un elemento indispensable para la estabilidad, la paz y el desarrollo de la región;

CONSIDERANDO que el artículo 1 de la Carta Democrática Interamericana proclama que “los pueblos de América tienen derecho a la democracia, y sus gobiernos la obligación de promoverla y defenderla” y,  teniendo en cuenta lo dispuesto en los artículos 2, 3, 4 y 7 de la Carta Democrática Interamericana;

RECORDANDO la resolución CP/RES. 811 (1315/02) de 13 de abril de 2002, “Situación en Venezuela”, la resolución AG/RES.1 (XXIX-E/02) de 18 de abril de 2002 “Apoyo a la democracia en Venezuela”; la declaración AG/DEC. 28 (XXXII-O/02) “Declaración sobre la Democracia en Venezuela”, de 4 de junio de 2002; la resolución CP/RES. 821(1329/02) de 14 de agosto de 2002 “Apoyo al proceso de diálogo en Venezuela”; y el Comunicado del Presidente del Consejo Permanente de la OEA, de 9 de diciembre de 2002, en los cuales se reitera la disposición de la Organización de los Estados Americanos de brindar el apoyo y la ayuda que el Gobierno de Venezuela requiera para la consolidación de su proceso democrático;

CONVENCIDOS de que la Mesa de Negociación y Acuerdos y la facilitación del Secretario General de la OEA constituyen esfuerzos urgentes, importantes y constructivos para la búsqueda de una solución pacífica, democrática, constitucional y electoral en Venezuela; y

TENIENDO EN CUENTA la iniciativa del Gobierno de Venezuela de impulsar y realizar un proceso de diálogo, sin exclusiones, y las gestiones de facilitación de la Organización de los Estados Americanos, el Programa de las Naciones Unidas para el Desarrollo y el Centro Carter para encontrar una solución constitucional, democrática, pacífica y electoral,

RESUELVE:

1. Respaldar plenamente la institucionalidad democrática y constitucional de la República Bolivariana de Venezuela, cuyo gobierno preside Hugo Chávez Frías, y rechazar categóricamente cualquier intento de golpe de estado o alteración del orden constitucional venezolano que afecte gravemente el orden democrático.

2. Respaldar enérgicamente y de manera inequívoca al Secretario General de la Organización de los Estados Americanos en sus gestiones de facilitación del diálogo, que cuentan con la cooperación del Centro Carter y el PNUD, en aras de encontrar a la brevedad una solución pacífica a la crisis, respetando el orden constitucional y en el marco de la Carta Democrática Interamericana.

3. Urgir al Gobierno de Venezuela y a la Coordinadora Democrática para que en negociaciones de buena fe alcancen una solución constitucional, democrática, pacífica y electoral en el marco de la Mesa de Negociación y Acuerdos que cuenta con la facilitación del Secretario General de la OEA.

4. Respaldar el derecho del pueblo venezolano de elegir a sus gobernantes de acuerdo con las normas constitucionales y expresar en forma terminante que cualquier situación que contravenga el estado de derecho y la institucionalidad democrática de Venezuela es incompatible con el sistema interamericano y, particularmente con la Carta Democrática Interamericana.

5. Instar al Gobierno de Venezuela a velar por el respeto, y a todos los sectores de la sociedad a preservar, el libre ejercicio de los elementos esenciales de la democracia para favorecer una salida constitucional, democrática, pacífica y electoral.

6. Hacer un llamado a todos los sectores de Venezuela a que respeten los principios consagrados en la Carta Democrática Interamericana, incluidos, entre otros, el respeto a los derechos humanos, el estado de derecho, la transparencia y la buena gestión de los asuntos públicos.

7. Instar al Gobierno de Venezuela a que vele por el pleno disfrute de la libertad de expresión y de prensa y hacer un llamado a todos los sectores de la sociedad venezolana para que contribuyan al fomento de la paz y de la tolerancia entre todos los venezolanos y a todos los actores sociales a que se abstengan de estimular la confrontación política y la violencia.

8. Reiterar la determinación de los Estados Miembros de seguir aplicando con estricto apego a la letra y el espíritu, y sin distinción, los mecanismos previstos por la Carta Democrática Interamericana para la preservación y defensa de la democracia representativa y el rechazo al uso de la violencia para reemplazar cualquier gobierno democrático en el Hemisferio.

9. Solicitar al Secretario General de la OEA que continúe informando al Consejo Permanente sobre sus gestiones de facilitación con relación a la situación en la República Bolivariana de Venezuela y teniendo en cuenta la existencia de otros mecanismos en el sistema interamericano, como la Reunión de Consulta de Ministros de Relaciones Exteriores.