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dir="ltr"> <font size="-2"><a class="domain reader-domain"
href="https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/13975">https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/13975</a></font>
<h1 class="reader-title">Venezuela’s Marching Campesinos Meet
Maduro, Denounce Corruption & Revolutionary 'Reversals'</h1>
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<p>Merida, August 2, 2018 (<a
href="http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/">venezuelanalysis.com</a>)
– Venezuela’s campesino marchers achieved their
immediate <a
href="https://venezuelanalysis.com/image">objective
</a>Thursday, holding a public meeting with President
Nicolas Maduro in Caracas, where they presented
proposals for far-reaching reforms to state agrarian
policies and institutions.</p>
<p>Scenes of tears and cries of joy dominated the live
televised meeting held in Miraflores presidential
palace, in which the multitude of small farmers, who
had<a href="https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/13966">
marched 435 kilometres from Guanare</a>, Portuguesa
state, were given the opportunity to address the
nation and draw the president’s attention to a series
of popular grievances, including land evictions,
corruption in state bureaucracy, and paramilitary
violence.</p>
<p>The meeting with Maduro was cast into doubt Wednesday
night when the march arrived in Caracas only to be met
by a heavy National Guard picket line just blocks from
Miraflores.</p>
<p>The weary marchers, who were accompanied by a
significant number of Caracas-based social movements,
decided to occupy the street in the rain, before
meeting a commission from the National Constituent
Assembly (ANC) headed by the body’s president,
Diosdado Cabello.</p>
<p>The following day, they received the news that the
president – who had<a
href="https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/13969">
received pressure</a> from within his own cabinet to
attend the marchers personally – was to meet them.</p>
<p>During the encounter, three campesino leaders voiced
the marchers’ demands to the president and the nation
in unequivocal terms.</p>
<p>Arbonio Ortega, from Portuguesa state, explained that
the anti-imperialist march was “a product of a
necessity,” due to what he termed the “reverses” of
the Bolivarian Revolution in the countryside. He also
stressed that the march demonstrated the power of
mobilisation and resistance in the sector.</p>
<p>Amongst the grievances which he outlined was
corruption in local state entities, asking, “Why did
we receive no support from the [United Socialist
Party] government of Portuguesa state (...) why was it
so hard for us to get to this point?”</p>
<p>He also underlined the problems of corruption and
inefficiency in the wider agrarian sector, claiming,
“We have plenty of proof.”</p>
<p>Equally, Nieves Rios, from Zulia state, denounced the
violent land evictions currently occuring there,
especially in the Catatumbo region. Amid cries of
“justice, justice” she also made allegations before
the president of corruption in the armed forces which,
she claimed, protect “certain interests” and who are
“mistreating” the people of the region.</p>
<p>Finally, farmer Jesus Osorio presented the
campesinos’ official document of proposals which he
handed over to Maduro.</p>
<p>The proposals include the declaration of an agrarian
emergency, the intervention and restructuring of the
Ministry of Agriculture and all of its sub-bodies –
including the National Land Institute and the
state-run agricultural corporation Agropatria – an
audit into the ministry’s functionaries, and a review
of the agrarian courts in order to halt the
criminalisation of the land struggle.</p>
<p>“We must applaud those who have done things well, but
punish those who have do them badly,” he appealed in
reference to local officials and politicians.</p>
<p>In response, Maduro assured the marchers that he was
“well informed” of their activities, and applauded the
farmers for “waking up the national consciousness of
what is going on in the countryside,” describing the
initiative as “miraculous.”</p>
<p>“If the government doesn't reach the depths of the
people, then the depths of the people must reach the
government,” exhorted the former bus driver.</p>
<p>Responding to the marchers’ grievances, Maduro called
a campesino congress to be held at the end of
September.</p>
<p>He also ordered a review of all denunciations made
over land which has previously been taken from private
large landowners and handed over to communities,
campesinos, or public or state bodies.</p>
<p>Likewise, he scheduled a high-level meeting for the
following day to address the problems of land
evictions, the legal agrarian system – including the
appointment and conduct of local agrarian judges – all
cases of alleged violence against campesinos, as well
as the cases of corruption which the grouping bought
to Caracas. He ordered the president of the Supreme
Court, the president of the National Constituent
Assembly, the attorney general, and his executive vice
president to attend the meeting.</p>
<p>At the recent PSUV congress, Maduro took the
unprecedented step of publically assuming
responsibility for recent economic failings,
recognising that “the productive models which we have
tried have, so far, failed and the responsibility is
mine, is ours.” He made no specific reference to the
problems experienced in the countryside.</p>
<p>The marchers began walking July 11 numbering
approximately forty. They have, though, grown in
number along the route as delegations from other rural
sectors and communities they have passed through
joined their efforts. They now have representation
from at least ten states.</p>
<p>“This march has been painted as being opposition-led,
financed by powerful people. No, this march isn’t
right-wing, its 100% chavista, supporting Maduro,
Bolivarian, and the only thing it seeks is for
Venezuela to move forward,”<a
href="https://www.aporrea.org/desalambrar/n329109.html">
declared</a> Elvis Camacaro, a disabled marcher from
Portuguesa state who has made the journey on his
bicycle.</p>
<p>The marchers have received wide-reaching support,
especially from the Communist and Tumpamaro parties
and alternative media outlets, as well as elements
within the governing United Socialist Party (PSUV).</p>
<p>Analysts have claimed that the march may galvanize a
host of popular revolutionary movements which look to
pressure the government from a leftist position. This
month has also seen protests from pro-government
sectors such as the<a
href="https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/13964">
electrical workers' union</a> and<a
href="https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/13930">
public sector nurses</a>.</p>
<p>The ANC’s Escalona<a
href="https://venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/13972">
claims</a> that the march “has begun to make
history… [and] could mark the beginning of people
going back to the streets.”</p>
<p>Equally, the Communist Party, which has supported the
march since its beginning, has described it as
“heroic” and “an important impulse” to “build a new
correlation of revolutionary forces.”</p>
<p>Explaining how the march was financed, Camacaro
clarified that “campesinos came out with sacks of
beans, lentils, rice, and people on the way have
helped up with food and accommodation.”</p>
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