During the Time of the People, always Onward Comandante Chavez

The oligarchy, which until 1998 had converted Venezuela into a dependency of North American imperialism, the one which hasn’t stopped harassing the revolutionary process since the start, gets excited thinking that it has finally found a crack to pass its destabilising discourse through. For that it counts on the complicity of the national and world media rabble which launches slogans tending to demand the immediate replacement of the Bolivarian leader. To show his misery, it was enough for the “gringa” [U.S] television chain CNN to point out that “Cuban regime”, as they like to call the glorious revolution lead by Fidel and Raul, had used a double at the recent announcement made by Chavez about his illness. They’re capable of this and a lot more.

However, the comandante made them nervous again. From Havana, the best site for receiving medical attention, being the president or an anonymous member of the population, Chavez already gave clear signs that he’ll meet with his people very soon to then continue advancing along a path that has no return. This means that he’ll continue constructing the Socialist motherland where capitalism had swept away the aspirations of the most humble people, as continues occurring in other countries of the third world where emancipating winds didn’t and don’t blow.

Now more than ever it’s necessary to refresh our memory:  with the revolutionary leadership of Hugo Chavez the people conquered full literacy, all sorts of missions were launched which, apart from breaking with bureaucratic ties, converted health and education into a reachable objective for those who form the start of the revolution had never had access to them. Extreme poverty and infant mortality was reduced to half of that under the Fourth Republic, initiatives like communal banks, and the Women’s Bank were began, and measures were taken to increase internal production, importation and distribution of food at low costs thanks to numerous social property plants. Millions of neighbours are organising today in communal councils, an indispensible tool for developing grassroots power. Further, official support for alternative means of communication was promoted in order to defeat, little by little, the only discourse used by the empire. And what can you say about what this revolution means at the Latin American continent level and that of the third world, generating initiatives daily in order to break with dependence, generate a new discourse to confront Washington’s insolence and bring liberating proposals forward such as ALBA, Petrocaribe, the Bank of the South, and the upcoming formation of CELAC. All this and much more in Bolivarian Venezuela lead by Hugo Chavez. And for that, in these difficult times, all solidarity of the world has to unite to protect a revolution that is also ours, for having given us dignity and a thousand proposals for recovering the continent’s self esteem. Today we join Venezuelan people in their struggle slogan: Pa’lante Comandante! [Literally: Onward Commander!] which is like saying “don’t try it”, because we are many who will defend the continuity of the revolution. We say it within the freedom of opinion that we always defend in this liberating process, but also from the responsibility of critical thought that has brought us to fraternally outline some differences we have with his interpretation of state policies.

Venezuela wouldn’t be what it is today without its revolutionary people, an example for the struggles of all continents. But this people who embrace the leadership of Hugo Chavez Frias with love and confidence, – it’s he who calls for unity and the commitment to carry out another slogan that has come out of a solidarious criterion: “Love is paid with love”. In this sense, and in many others, you will be able to count on millions of voices and actions, Comandante. At this time of the people, we need you to continue advancing, for the revolution, and for socialism – in order to reach a second and irreversible Latin American independence, just like Che wanted it.

*Carlos Anzarez is director of Resumen Latinoamericano

Translation by Tamara Pearson for Venezuelanalysis.com