We Demand Recognition for the Chavista & Communard Peoples’ Right to Political Participation
Dozens of Venezuelan intellectuals and social movement activists demand that electoral authorities and the National Constituent Assembly recognize commune leader Angel Prado as Mayor of Simon Planas municipality.

“Sovereignty resides within in the people & is untransferable, whom may exercise it directly in the way foreseen in this Constitution and the law, and indirectly, by means of suffrage, through the state organs of Popular Power. The organs of the state emanate from popular sovereignty and are subject to it.” – (CRBV, Article 5)
“The commune must be the birthplace of socialism. Socialism should emerge from the grassroots, it cannot be decreed; You must create it. It is a popular creation […] The commune is the space where we are going to conceive and give birth to socialism, from the small-scale. A mountain is built grain by grain, stone by stone” – (Hugo Chávez, Aló Presidente Teórico Nº 1, 11.06.09)
“Nicolás, I entrust this to you as I would entrust my life to you: the communes, the social state of law and justice […] Self-criticism is to rectify, not to keep [criticizing] in a vacuum, or to launch it out into space. It is to make us act now, gentlemen ministers, lady ministers, the communes, go look at the Law of the Communes, read it, study it” – (Hugo Chávez, Golpe de Timón, 20.10.12)
We as collectives and individuals on the left, committed to the Bolivarian Revolution and socialist democracy, faced with the violation of the human right to political participation of the Chavista and communal people of the municipality of Simón Planas (Lara State, Venezuela), make the following complaints and demands:
1. The accumulation of territorial popular power through expanding communal councils and productive communes is one of the extraordinary ways for the Bolivarian political project to move forward in the transition to socialism. The communal movement of the municipality of Simón Planas, which Chávez encouraged and accompanied directly, is a beautiful expression of that territorial accumulation. Communes cover almost the entirety of this territory. Through its democratizing advance, this movement often clashed with state institutions that, although governed by militants of PSUV, defended bureaucratic and personal interests and, on some occasions, were working for the interests of local capital. For this reason, they decided to also take their democratizing vision to the Mayor’s Office, launching a candidate from their communal project: Angel Prado, who had already been elected as a delegate to the National Constituent Assembly a few months before.
2. The community members had to overcome many obstacles imposed upon them by the very people who are supposed to be their main allies in driving forward the Chavista project of territorial socialism:
A) Initially, the local branch of the National Electoral Council (CNE) denied their nomination of [of Angel Prado’s] candidacy put forward of their own initiative [without the support of a political party] and that was registered in the CNE with the signatures of 8,500 people (32% of the electoral registry of the municipality).
B) Subsequently, after four parties belonging to the Patriotic Great Pole (PCV, MEP, Tupamaros and ORA) managed to register Angel Prado as their candidate and one of them (the PPT) managed to substitute their initial candidate (the PSUV candidate) for Ángel Prado, the local CNE informed them verbally that they could not accept his candidacy because the presidency of the ANC had mandated that any candidates holding positions as ANC delegates could not be registered without their backing. It is important to point out that there is no law in Venezuela that prevents a citizen from running for office if they are a constituent assembly delegate. Nor can it be assumed that the presidency of the ANC embodies the power of the full ANC assembly [of delegates], where that decision was never discussed. There is also no formal ANC decision (from the assembly or its presidency) over the permission to participate in this electoral process, which Angel and 1000 communards from the state of Lara solicited in person. Other ANC delegates, including delegates from Lara state, participated as candidates in the same municipal elections, without any problem. In this ambiguous situation, (information expressed verbally, decisions made by the ANC which were not endorsed by the assembly, the absence of laws which justify the CNE’s actions, the precedent of other ANC delegates standing), the communard candidacy [of Angel Prado] remained alive. The PPT’s ticket, whose candidate was Ángel Prado, appeared on the electoral card (although the other four parties were eliminated) and the community members of Simón Planas decided to vote for that ticket.
C) One the day of elections, (10/12/2017), while the people of the community mobilized to vote, there were shameful incidents: three grassroots leaders were detained by the military counterintelligence, claiming that they were appealing for votes (one of them was detained for 24 hours); many comrades were seized and threatened by the National Guard (GNB); and the car in which Ángel was being transported was followed, during the afternoon, by a patrol of a tactical group of the GNB (the anti-kidnapping & anti-extortion military command, CONAS). None of this, however, could stop the people of Simón Planas from expressing their will.
3. 57.45% of the population of the Simón Planas municipality that participated in the December 10 elections voted for the Chavista and communal candidate, Ángel Prado, on the PPT ticket, beating the closest candidate (Jean Ortiz, supported by the PSUV) by more than 21 points. Those results demonstrate the success of the proposal for democratic, socialist radicalization in that territory. This result was possible because the people mobilized, conscious of their class and their rights, with political and mutually-supportive productive organization and experiences that give them autonomy in the face of capital and the bureaucracy. In Simón Planas, the people have taken the slogan “We are all Chávez” seriously, and it is very evident that Chávez lives on in those communal people, because territorial socialism is advancing through the grassroots there.
4. Despite the results, the National Electoral Council (CNE) decided to award Ángel’s votes to the candidate of PSUV (who had received only 34.07% of the votes), in spite of the PPT having met all the requirements to substitute their candidate (See Resolution Code 136124 of the CNE).
5. This conflict between the constituent power of the communal people of Simón Planas and the bureaucracy, clearly expresses a revolutionary disjuncture. If the state (the CNE and the ANC presidency) and a part of the ruling elite continue to deepen the decisions they have been making, they will be moving away from democratic legality and their commitment to socialism. In the emancipatory socialist experiences of the 20th century, the substitution of popular power for state power, the party and the ruling elite, marked its authoritarian drift and its emancipatory closure. Chávez was always very clear on this and warned against this possibility (See the theoretical Aló President N ° 1 and his last speech of 08/12/12). Let’s not allow that to happen. Fraternally, and as protagonists or allies of the Bolivarian political process, we demand:
A) That the assembly of the ANC respect and recognize the popular will of the Chavista people of the municipality of Simón Planas, declaring null any previous order given to the CNE which could be interpreted as non-recognition of the communal candidacy of Angel Prado.
B) That the CNE respect the popular will and the rights of the Chavista people of Simón Planas, and assign the votes of the PPT party to the candidate Ángel Prado, declaring him formally mayor of the municipality.
Signed by:
Reinaldo Iturriza. C.I. 11.820.025
Surgentes. Colectivo de DDHH
Soraya El Achkar. C.I. 8.505.722
Red de Colectivos La Araña Feminista
Javier Biardeau. C.I. 7.089.113
Movimiento de Inquilinos
Alba Carosio. C.I. 11.858.059
Trabajadoras Residenciales Unidas de Venezuela
Miguel Ángel Contreras Natera. C.I. 6.876.757
ALBA Movimientos
Gerardo Rojas. C.I. 13.083.076
Colectivo Voces Urgentes
Ana Graciela Barrios. C.I. 5.451.122
Colectivo Códigos Libres
Martha Lía Grajales Pineda. C.I. 29.565.914
Frente Cultural de Izquierda
Antonio González Plessmann. 10.866.332
Colectivo Cimarrón
Leonardo Bracamonte. CI. 6.721.296
Chavismo Bravío
Amaylin Riveros. CI. 10.349.643
Barrio TV
Maryluz Guillén Rodríguez. C.I. 11.577.841
Colectivo Avanzada Popular
Vicmar Morillo Gil. C.I. 7.958.276
Ejército Emancipador de Liberación
Marvelys Sifontes. C.I. 13123818
Colectivo Revolucionario Los Caribes
Iván González. C.I. 7.379.876
Ociel López. C.I. 7.948.665
Efraín Ruiz. CI 14.215.695
María Paula Herrero. CI 14.444.733
Helga Malavé. C.I. 6.117.565
Bárbara Tineo. C.I. 14.531.267
Maureen Riveros. CI: 6.280.434
Yoel Amaya. C.I. 8.741.151
Gioconda Mota Gutiérrez. C.I. 11.917.394
Rosa Difalco. C.I. 6.891.760
Alejandra Morales Hackett. C.I. 10.310.372
Indhira Libertad Rodríguez. C.I. 12.470.016
María Centeno. C.I. 3.740.492
Marieva Caguaripano. C.I. 10.378.016
José Manuel Iglesias. C.I. 7.144.500
Roger Fuentes Saavedra. C.I. 11.411.234
Claudia Poblete Viloria. C.I. 13.648.903
Migneddy Maldonado. C.I. 11.921.677
Jael Irene Palacios Villanueva. C.I. 13.716.123
Joel Alfonzo. C.I 10.532.851
Kristel Velazquez. C.I. 19.586.468
Samuel Petit Villanueva. C.I. 17.561.487
Indira Carpío. C.I. 16.356.484
Ernesto Navarro. C.I. 11.254.332
José Negrón Valera. C.I. 15.709.748
Aimee Benitez. C.I. 4.563.851
Maria Antonieta Izaguirre. CI. 2.934.033
Luigino Bracci Roa
Ángel Custodio Velásquez. C.I. 4.189.634
Angely Nuñez. C.I. 15.438.746
Rander Rodríguez. C.I. 13.612.018
Janette Rodríguez Hererra. C.I. 6.125.388
Oscar Sotillo. C.I. 9.486.083
José Sánchez. C.I. 17.980.721
Isaloren Quintero. C.I. 10.895.621
Joel Linares. C.I. 11.601.596
Orlando Acosta. C.I. 4.582.126
Eduardo Samán. C.I. 6.431.696
Elba Niño. C.I. 20.015.452
Carla Guerrero. C.I. 15.232.278
Luisa Calzada. C.I. 13.225.885
Miguel Suarez. C.I. 16.656.857
Hindu Anderi. C.I. 7.108.084
Andrea Quiñones. C.I. 81.162.859
Keudy López. C.I. 11.675.845
Ana María Reyes. C.I. 16.887.361
Frenzel Hernández. C.I. 6.480.903
Pablo Sepúlveda Allende. C.I. 84.549.856
Luis Salas C.I. 12.880.219
Fernando Pintos C.I. 11.863.458
Douglas Aponte C.I. 6.348.106