From Caracas, Venezuela – Renowned diplomat and Chavista leader Jorge Arreaza declared that the Venezuelan presidential elections set for July 28 constitute another “phase of the battle” against US imperialism in which the Venezuelan people choose between being patria (homeland) or a colony. He also pointed out that in Venezuela there will be a transparent election and that the opposition has all the tools to compete and participate.
Arreaza is currently serving as the executive secretary of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America – Trade Agreement for the People (ALBA – TCP) which co-organized the World Gathering for a Social Alternative in Caracas, Venezuela from April 18 to 20. The gathering had the objective to consolidate points of unity that can become collective solutions to the real problems of the people and to build a new model of civilization.
During an interview with a group of media outlets on the sidelines of the gathering, Arreaza spoke about the upcoming electoral process and how the US-imposed blockade has impacted the speed of the revolutionary process, and how the people are overcoming it.
Peoples Dispatch: What is at stake in the July 28 elections?
Jorge Arreaza: Since 1998 we have been risking the existence of the country itself, of the republic. Venezuela was on an almost unstoppable trend towards being a neocolony. At the end of the 20th century, we were governed by the IMF and the World Bank. Chávez then came to his own [conclusion] through reflection, an ideological evolution: the only way to overcome capitalism is socialism, our democratic socialism, with popular power. Without that path, without that project, we will not have a homeland.
We would return to the hands of the Monetary Fund, they would take away our oil again, we would be in the geopolitical game of NATO incorporated as allies. So we really risk the future as a country, even as an identity.
But, they could not [defeat us] imposing a parallel government of Yankee puppets on us with that story of Mr. Guaidó. They could not do it, by trying to kill the president with drones. They could not, by destabilizing the currency with an internal economic war, and with 930 sanctions of all kinds imposed on us. They could not do it, by trying to destroy the Venezuelan oil company. They could not do it with mercenaries. They could not do it with threats of invasion. So we have to guarantee victory in this phase through electoral means. Only then, on the night of July 28, will we be able to tell the Yankees that we won this part of this phase of the war.
PD: There is criticism from the opposition and from Venezuelans who emigrate. How does the ruling party address these criticisms of the form of government?
JA: Here they have complete freedom to criticize what they want. It is impossible for them not to criticize us. Commander Chávez said: the day the gringos and the bourgeoisie applaud us, we are lost. So rather I applaud that there is more and more criticism. In fact, there should be more criticism. What happened is that the circumstances of the world, of oil, of sanctions, of the blockade slowed down the march of the Bolivarian Revolution.
We have had to make concessions in some sectors, we have had to accept the dollar as the currency that circulates for commerce. The State was the great importer of everything strategic and today it is the private sector and we are grateful that the private sector has collaborated. But there are important contradictions there.
When we see phenomena such as corruption, which have been seen here, very important people within the Bolivarian Revolution have gone to prison, all that is because in the midst of the blockade, the persecution, not being able to sell even oil, so in order for them to take Venezuelan oil, they have to come almost like outlaw ships without satellite connection so that the gringos do not know that they are in Venezuelan ports.
I was executive vice president for some years. In 2014, I remember clearly, there was a national income of USD 56 billion in one year. But by 2019, the income was USD 700 million. A brutal thing. And yet these people have resisted, they have been present and the opposition is there. I sincerely believe that the Venezuelan political opposition has sinned first in underestimating President Maduro and the Bolivarian Revolution. They have never recognized Chavismo as a historical process that is underway.
PD: Do you think the discourse of the opposition has traction among the social base?
JA: Always, of course, they have a lot of power. They control social networks. You start to see when they make a decision or something happens in national politics, they immediately become a trend, they have videos produced with excellent quality, they have an unusual strength, I would say, unusual. But, the thing is that the Venezuelan people are highly educated.
PD: Why can’t María Corina Machado run for office?
JA: Let’s take any penal code of any of our countries and ask a judge if it is normal for a person who asked for a military force to be organized, who even began to train a military force in Argentina to invade their own country, to bomb its refineries and that for several days tried to organize coups d’état and the assassination of a President. In Venezuela there has been an excess and flexibility of extreme justice with that lady. However, she is doing politics, moving freely, meeting with people.
PD: In the World Gathering for a Social Alternative you mentioned the proposal to create the Council of Social Movements within the ALBA-TCP structure for 2030. Could you tell us a little more about that?
JA: It is a body that is at the same level as the Political Council, which is the foreign ministers, the Social Council, and the Economic Complementation Council. We have not activated it, fundamentally because we have not found the method. At some point, it was said that we wanted ALBA Movimientos or other platforms to stop having their identity in order to transform [into this council]. On the contrary, let’s use that institutional instance to enhance, to strengthen ALBA Movimientos or any platform that is incorporated.
We have a tool there that will allow us to have some resources, that allow us to meet, that allows us to give inputs to our governments on any topic. I believe that it is an opportunity for social movements to have a tool and to strengthen ALBA-TCP as a tool that transcends the countries that comprise it and just the institutional apparatus that exists to this day.
Collaborative interview by ARG Medios, Barricada TV, Brasil de Fato, El Grito del Sur, Tiempo Argentino, Agencia Prensa Rural, Peoples Dispatch, Diálogos do Sul and Comunica Sul.
