UpdatedThe National Assembly decided in the now normal chavista fashion - in a Blitz-session, at night - to approve on the first round a law that had been slummering for years and that was previously rejected by the people (as opposed to The People) in a national referendum.
Aristóbulo Istúriz, Vice-president of the PSUV and one of the two heirs apparent to Hugo of Sabaneta, said at the Assembly two days earlier that chavismo has to dismantle the powers of governors and mayors (they hardly have any now) and that Venezuela has to go to the next step on the path to socialism (don't ask me what steps he has in mind, I am still trying to find out what manual he is using).
The National Assembly decided to obey as soon as possible and approved the Organic Law of Popular Participation and Power.
Among other things, this law states that:
The National Assembly decided to obey as soon as possible and approved the Organic Law of Popular Participation and Power.
Among other things, this law states that:
- the communes, community councils and communal cities will come into force (still very vague)
- the government of the people shall be carried out through communal councils under a model of socialist society (these blokes never heard of pluralism)
- the councils shall take part in the planning and management of the territory
- the government shall plan, manage and coordinate the comunes in order to keep "coherence" with the politicies of national character
- the state has the prerogative of managing the means of production to satisfy esencial human needs (they did not state what they are)
- the Commission of Central Planning shall be responsible for reaching the objectives of the National Plan for Economic and Social Development of the Nation
- the Council of Communal Planning shall be in charge of planning the geographic and population distribution of a commune and of the communal development. It shall be constituted by 7 persons (don't ask me why seven, seven is a prime, seven is the sacred number of the Bible), two of which will belong to the commune
The communist councils (i.e. soviets) salute!
Ignorance is bliss. Journalists have sometimes asked the chavista Nomenklatura what they intend to do differently from the Soviets. They repeat over and over again that they are going to give power to the councils. "Soviet" is the Russian word for council and that is not just of linguistic interest. Those Soviets or councils were just a simple way of getting the power to the Party. Anyone going against the Soviets (i.e. the guys leading them) was a traitor. Here we go again. No specifics about how they will avoid the same errors.
I will analyse in future posts how these councils will be used to impose the power of the few in the context of the Venezuelan mentality. Let me be clear: this is not so much about socialism evil bad or good but about banana republic chavismo using old communist tactics.
I had already written that a huge amount of gerrymandering is planned for the next elections. The government has already reduced the budget of elected regional powers (governors and mayors) and is giving money to regions only through presidential institutions or some other institution that is "with the process". But what we will have next are a series of important transformations, more power to Hugo and his Nomenklatura and more fear for people at the moment of saying things in those councils.
This law is also a complete violation of the will of the people, who rejected a similar proposal in the Referendum of 2007. Many polls have later shown Venezuelans do not want state socialism or socialism, for that matter. Most want a pluralistic state with social democracy (which is a pretty vague concept in general but more so in Venezuela), some prefer capitalism and some socialism. But this is chavista socialism 100%. This is not so much about communism as about more power to Hugo and his high ranking officials.
Ps 1: Some information on Wikipedia German over "Soviets". The information in English is rather incomplete.
Ps 2: This is not a joke, I wrote about this some time ago. This poster is found in an Aporrea site and that muscled man is supposed to be our Líder Supremo:
