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Is the reconciliation of Venezuela feasible?

By Aleksander Boyd

London 13 Jun. 04 – Eduardo Daza was to give an account on the Bolivarian Revolution in Frankfurt last Friday. Since we were in town we decided to pay a visit to the venue in order to listen to what he had to say and contribute with our views to the understanding of Venezuela’s crisis. Our sole intention was to converse with Mr Daza and additionally, film the event as part of Mohamad Merhi’s agenda in Germany. The conference was organized by the Deutsche Kommunistische Partei (DKP) whose officials adopted a most disrespectful and aggressive stance towards us once inside the conference room. They did not want us to film anything and only after thoroughly checking the press credentials of the journalist accompanying us did they permit him to continue with his task.

Mr Daza was obviously upset although very respectful. I introduce myself to him and sat by his side whilst Mr Merhi was doing the same. He immediately recognized Mr Merhi, who was assuring him that the goal of our visit was none other than to contribute to the experience by giving a detailed account of the human rights situation in the country. Allegedly some opposition lady in Munich tried to slap Mr Daza and for that reason he refused to allow the cameraman to film him expressing “the modus operandi is the same. A bunch of opposition members approached me there in Munich and when I tried to defend myself from the lady’s attack her colleagues beat me and that I will not tolerate. I do not speak any German and will not tolerate any personal attacks for I am not part of the government nor am I in an official tour; I advocate for social justice in Venezuela since long before Chavez’ arrival to the presidency.” I repeatedly asked him to give us a description of the lady to denounce the issue properly but he commented he could not. The journalist prompted him to comment upon the attack for it was very grave and worth denouncing to the appropriate authorities, again he declined.

The two communist comrades in charge wanted to have a word with him outside the venue and returned five minutes later on their own to address the audience. Stress needs be made about the characteristics of said audience; a group of 8 people composed mainly by youngsters with the typical revolutionary outlook, i.e. unkempt and fanatical about their moral righteousness. One of the ladies in charge declared that owing to the presence of the cameraman Mr Daza felt indisposed and would not give the conference. However special mention about DKP’s intention was made; she said that they were extremely worried about the situation in Venezuela and all efforts would be made by them to help the establishment’s endeavours in its fight against the oligarchy. Purportedly one of Mr Daza’s arguments in Munich was that all the victims from the April 11 massacre were chavistas. Quite difficult to defend such a line of reasoning in the presence of Mr Merhi, whose son was assassinated that day. Another communist character demanded in rather disrespectful fashion for us to leave the premises, which we did. Conversely once the president departs from our politics his followers will remain and this lot do not appear to be interested in reconciliation or dialogue. I placed high expectations on my encounter with Mr Daza alas he did not feel quite the same. The sudden cancellation of his conference can hardly be defined as a victory but rather as an immensely preoccupying factor for it shows that the other side does not want to talk. If such is to be the rule, Hugo Chavez has won.

The take away message

The discourse of Chavez is innocuous, its appeal lost for good. Despite geographic locations, people who are still infatuated with the Venezuelan pariah are indistinctively ideological retrogrades who still believe in the Marxist crap (specie in extinction). To reinforce that thought I provide the following anecdote; I was walking around an architecturally beautiful neighbourhood of Frankfurt with a young lady from Cameroon and a German friend. He was relating to us on how the place used to be home of industrialists and the bourgeoisie in former times whose activities contributed greatly with the German economic miracle. Nowadays governmental ventures and commercial enterprises occupy the pompous houses and the area is very much deprived. The lady from Cameroon beat me to it and asked “what happened?” “Socialism” replied our German friend; the response, although brief, says it all. Due to paternalistic policies implemented many years ago, Germany seems to be lagging behind other countries who have embraced reform. Germans, for the most part, agree upon the drastic measures that need to be made in order to spare the country from losing its international clout. Venezuela on the other hand, that has no political influence in the international scene whatsoever, is headed by a man that utilises the socialist spiel to masquerade his autocratic plans. Only those who still believe in utopic socialist ideals find attractive Chavez’ discourse but even then, residents of advanced socialist societies, such as Europe’s, have come to realise that without a thriving economy the magnanimous role of the state is unsustainable. That is the core of the issue for there is one thing that no chavista, sane or otherwise, can deny, i.e. the sheer destruction that Chavez has brought to Venezuela’s economy. As such his project is unviable.

The collective guilt

There is in Germany a word that thou shall not use, Hitler that is. This word creates an avalanche of sentiments that invariably lead people to feel a collective guilt. What took place during the Second World War serves today as the most lethal weapon that any country, society, ethnic group or individual has against Deutschland. Foreigners purportedly use the term on every occasion where they feel mistreated and the State goes to extreme lengths in making it up to those offended. The extermination of x number of Jews and other groups during the war made Hitler and Nazism cause celébre for all the wrong reasons and now the whole country bears the weight of the disgraced actions of a minority of individuals, who were crazed enough to set free their inner demons -nourished by inferiority complexes and apprehensions- and took it with those who embodied that that was envied. As such a malnourished miserable man known as Hitler embarked in his demoniac grand adventure to conquer the world and physically eradicate the embodiment of his envies.

The past of Hugo Chavez demonstrates that he also comes from a deprived environment. I always imagine the expeditions of a young and hungry Hugo running out of his family’s ‘rancho’ half naked and barefoot to normal neighbourhoods. The climax of his accelerated mental masturbation would be the projection of him in time to the conceived idyllic place at the helm of the country to castigate exemplarily those who “rob him of his dreams.” Today we have that famelic boy running the show and he is convinced, just as Hitler was, that he has; a rendez vous with history; a liberating mission to accomplish; a place in the hall of fame. We Venezuelans are yet to see how far is he prepared to go, however the worrying signs are there.

Article 7 (paragraph h) of the Rome Statute cites:

“crimes against humanity” means any of the following acts when committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack directed against any civilian population, with knowledge of the attack:

(h) Persecution against any identifiable group or collectivity on political, racial, national, ethnic, cultural, religious, gender as defined in paragraph 3, or other grounds that are universally recognized as impermissible under international law, in connection with any act referred to in this paragraph or any crime within the jurisdiction of the Court.

I am absolutely convinced that we will not witnessed a Venezuelan Holocaust, nonetheless the crimes nowadays are classified in great detail and what Chavez is doing violates the precepts established by the Rome Statute -applicable to Venezuela as signatory of the Statute- for at least 3.4 million Venezuelans are subject of constant abuses. We do not want to feel the collective guilt due to the wretched megalomaniac dreams of a disturbed individual.



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