The PSUV’s Hotline to Denounce Infiltrators Leads to Fascism… Let’s Stop this Madness

This article was written by independent leftists in response to actions taken by leaders of the governing socialist party, the PSUV. Earlier this month a “whistleblower” hotline and email address were established for party members to denounce their colleagues as “infiltrators.” This move comes at a time when the Trotskyist Marea Socialista (MS) party continues to grow both in membership and in audacity in its criticism of party policy. The MS party warns against the presence of corruption within the PSUV and upper echelons of government, and condemns the “conciliation” with business groups in economic planning. Last week, the PSUV expelled party members affiliated with the MS party on the eve of the internal elections, an action taken by many chavistas to be openly repressive.

Editor’s Note: This introduction was amended on November 26th, recategorizing the authors as they themselves identify; as independent activists rather than party members of Marea Socialista.

Text and translation by venezuelanalysis.com

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The fascist temptation is a danger that threatens all revolutionary intentions, and the line that separates the two can be tenuous. The revolution is an act of creating a new world, a profound manifestation of love for life, it operates with a “special ethic,” and other methods, other goals: humanity and life above all things. The revolutionary ethic is a rigorous duty, any infraction can twist the process toward fascism.

In the revolution we step upon shifting sands, the attack on the bourgeoisie is only justified if it is to construct a new world, a new man, and should be undertaken with the utmost respect for life and love. It is as [Cuban poet Jose] Martí would say, “the necessary war,” “the war without hate.” This condition, through paradoxical, is vital to stay on course without losing one’s bearings.

All revolutions that have failed have violated these ethical principles; they broke what we could call the “Revolutionary Rights of Life,” by executing, exiling and slandering dissidence, taking the easy way of repression and the crushing of ideas. They forgot that media foreshadows the end, that not all means lead to the revolutionary objective, that not all attacks on the bourgeoisie are revolutionary, and that the treatment of dissidence is what determines the quality of the revolution. Upon excavating the revolutionary ethic, they transformed themselves into a monster that perished in its own infamy.

Here, among us, a discussion boils of diverse expressions, it grows in response to government measures, sometimes in the void left by the lack of discussion. It is the expression of different ideologies and visions that populate the revolution. With this rich landscape of thought, with ideas that flourish in their own style, with the possibility of expression, the government appeals to repression, verbally for now, but already headed in the direction of worrying actions that have a clear fascist tint. They began with haphazard accusations of treason (old chavistas suffered this description), then blamed whatever occurred to them on dissidence, they closed programs, persecuted discordant voices…. no one said anything, every remained silent. When will they speak? When everything has been carried out, when fascism installs itself for good?

One alarming example of this is the creation of a telephone and email address to denounce and combat “infiltrators” and divisive forces. This is how it was presented and justified by authorities, “The enemy that does the most damage is the internal enemy, the infiltrators, the fifth column; he who dresses as a chavista and yet is not a chavista,” said the Carabobo state governor, Francisco Ameliach, during his public radio program on RNV. In this way, the internal ideological struggle, which enriches all political parties, is turning into an ideological witch hunt, in which it’s as simple as picking up a telephone and complaining about someone who appears to someone else as an internal enemy or infiltrator, so that the weight of the “general state of suspicion” and the condemnation of a hidden inquisitional trial falls on them.

Instead of opening up channels for internal discussion, promoting them and directing their flow, it awakens the depraved desires [among party members]. Let us think of where this road will take us, what cruelties await us in the future, what teaching will be justified by this monster that is only now in its stage of germination. How much longer for the “Committee of Public Salvation” to emerge?

What kind of mind conceives this as the solution for internal conflict, as if we were dealing with a family of mafia, or worse. What kind of party are we building that accepts without laughing at this absurdity, what class of cowardice is growing among us? Where are the grassroots organisms, the clear minds within national leaders, within regional leaders, that nobody is protesting? When will we begin? When fascism has converted us into fear, when writing an article like this means being condemned to who-knows-what ruin?

The leadership, the Bolivarian government, should stop this madness while there is still time. If not, we will all be guilty of the horrors we permit.