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<font size="1"><a href="https://venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/15055">https://venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/15055</a>
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<h1 class="gmail-reader-title">Standing by a Radical Chávez: A Conversation with Rafael Uzcátegui</h1>
<div class="gmail-credits gmail-reader-credits">By Cira Pascual Marquina – November 20, 2020</div></div>
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<div><p><em>Rafael Uzcátegui is a historical figure in Venezuela’s popular movement who was key to the forming of the <a href="https://venezuelanalysis.com/tag/apr">Popular Revolutionary Alternative</a>
[APR]. The APR is a leftist and Chavista electoral bloc that represents
an independent and plural option in the December 6 National Assembly
elections. Uzcátegui was the longstanding Secretary-General of <a href="https://venezuelanalysis.com/tag/ppt">Patria Para Todos</a> [PPT] before Venezuela’s Supreme Court [TSJ] <a href="https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/14976">intervened</a>
in the party, replacing its original leadership. In this interview,
Uzcátegui talks about the APR’s revolutionary project, while analyzing
the government’s “neoliberal” turn.</em></p>
<p><strong>What is the APR and why is this group of popular Chavista
parties and movements not joining forces with the PSUV (as they did
previously under the aegis of the Patriotic Pole) to flip the National
Assembly in favor of Chavismo?</strong></p>
<p>A regrouping of popular forces is underway within Chavismo, which
aims to build a revolutionary alternative. There are dozens of
organizations in the APR, from old and consolidated parties such as the <a href="https://venezuelanalysis.com/tag/pcv">Communist Party</a>
[PCV] and the majority of the PPT [a party that grew out of the working
class and popular struggles in the 70s and 80s] to communal and
regional organizations and social movements.</p>
<p>Some of them had grown apart from the PSUV and the government which –
through its liberal economic policies and its tendency to disregard
other voices from within – has alienated many. Others had critical
constructive positions from within the Patriotic Pole, and their voices
were not heard either.</p>
<p>In any case, and beyond any critical position that we may have on
particular policies and practices, what separates us from Nicolás
Maduro’s project is our political vision. We aim to reaffirm a left
revolutionary initiative rooted in Chávez’s radical project. The Maduro
government has turned away from that. Ours is a left Chavista project…
and when we identify with Chavismo, we are talking about a <a href="https://venezuelanalysis.com/tag/chavez-radical">radical Chávez</a>.</p>
<p><strong>Can you be more precise regarding the APR’s identification
with a “radical Chávez”? Are we talking about the Chávez of the commune,
about the Chávez that moved towards limiting capital’s logic, or about
the Chávez that nationalized means of production?</strong></p>
<p>We defend a Chávez that understood capitalism’s catastrophic
tendencies and actively opposed its logic both in his discourse and in
action. We stand by the Chávez that understood contradictions but had a
strategic objective: socialism. We are talking about the Chávez of the “<a href="https://venezuelanalysis.com/tag/strike-helm">Strike at the helm</a>” [2012 speech], about the man who called-out his cabinet and insisted on an urgent change of course toward the left.</p>
<p>This was the Chávez that understood popular power as the force that
is charged with building the revolution – by communes, workers’ and <em>campesino</em>
organizations… In other words, we identify with the Chávez committed to
the people that work and struggle, the Chávez that understood the
people’s needs and desires and projected a better future instead of the
grey-on-grey “pragmatic” politics that characterizes Maduro’s
government.</p>
<p><strong>Can you characterize Maduro’s government for us with more
precision, understanding also that Venezuela is under a harsh blockade?</strong></p>
<p>The sanctions are criminal, and they have a real impact on our
economy. However, when a country is under siege, the solution cannot be
to turn away from society and opt for a project of a few. What is
happening is that the sanctions have become a pretext to abandon the
socialist project and the perfect excuse to foster the creation of a
“revolutionary bourgeoisie,” as they like to identify their kin!</p>
<p>If you look at the government spokespeople’s discourse (and their
actions), you will see that for them the subject of change is no longer
workers, the poor men and women from the <em>barrio</em> and from the <em>campo</em>.
As they see it, the people who will build the future are the
bourgeoisie, in a process of rapid capitalist expansion fostered by laws
eliminating workers’ rights and privileging opaque privatizations and
investments.</p>
<p>A sector of Chavismo in government became rich. They are millionaires
locked here because of the sanctions, and they are not satisfied with
that. Now they want to be bourgeois, so they are looking for an openly
neoliberal solution.</p>
<p>To give you an example, yesterday I learned that casinos are
operating again [they were prohibited during Chávez’s government].
Obviously, casinos are places where money laundering is the goal. On top
of that, opaque privatizations are the order of the day. Add to that
the <a href="https://venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/14092">Orinoco Mining Arc</a>,
which is the opening of one-sixth of our territory to the most
predatory mining practices, and you get the picture. We have shifted
from a rentier economy based on oil extraction to a rentier economy
based on gold exploitation that liquidates nature to privilege a
dangerous speculative economy.</p>
<p>The composition of the political direction has changed. Its leaders
are no longer the young revolutionary soldiers that rose up against the
rule of the few in 1992 [a failed military insurrection led by Chávez].
Now they are millionaires that aspire to be bourgeois with the word
“revolutionary” as an epithet.</p>
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<h2><a href="https://venezuelanalysis.com/files/caronicuenca0png">caroni_cuenca_0.png</a></h2>
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<p><a href="https://venezuelanalysis.com/files/images/%5Bsite-date-yyyy%5D/%5Bsite-date-mm%5D/caroni_cuenca_0.png" title="Caroní River Basin in the Orinoco Mining Arch. (Observatorio de Ecología Política)"><img src="https://venezuelanalysis.com/files/styles/full_content/public/images/%5Bsite-date-yyyy%5D/%5Bsite-date-mm%5D/caroni_cuenca_0.png?itok=5_5wKoed" alt="Caroní River Basin in the Orinoco Mining Arch. (Observatorio de Ecología Política)" title="" style="margin-right: 0px;" width="452" height="247"></a></p><div>
<p>Caroní River Basin in the Orinoco Mining Arch. (Observatorio de Ecología Política)</p>
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<p><strong>Are you saying that it is the same people in power, but that their class condition has changed?</strong></p>
<p>There was a mutation in the leadership of the process, and it took us
a while to understand this. Its character has changed, and with this
change came a transformation in policies.</p>
<p>There is a blockade, yes. Trump (and any representative of imperial
interests) is against all expressions of popular sovereignty. However,
the sanctions became an excuse to open the path to a new logic, which is
expressed in the “revolutionary bourgeoisie.”</p>
<p>Mind you, the term [revolutionary bourgeoisie] was coined by
[Agriculture Minister Wilmar] Castro Soteldo – a retired officer of the
Armed Forces who participated in the November 27, 1992 uprising. There
was a broad popular rejection of Castro Soteldo’s words, but Nicolás
Maduro later said that whoever criticized his ministers was criticizing
the president himself.</p>
<p>The Bolivarian Process mutated… it took us a while to understand
this, but now, for the forces of the APR, this is clear. It took quite a
few years for the left to understand that the Soviet Union had mutated
into a non-socialist project, and in some people’s minds the Soviet
Union is still alive and well! Something similar happened with China,
which has become the first capitalist commercial power in the world, and
some take it as a positive example. Well, the same is happening here:
the project is changing!</p>
<p>This is a new situation, and as such, we have to organize politics in a new way.</p>
<p><strong>When you talk about this shift, it brings to mind something that you said in a <a href="http://ciudadccs.info/2020/05/14/el-drama-de-la-izquierda-es-el-drama-del-pais-su-dependencia/">Ciudad CCS interview</a>
a few months ago. You observed that we are going through the collapse
of the social pact based on the distribution of the oil rent. The end of
that social pact has brought about a social (and economic) crisis. Can
you talk to us about this shift?</strong></p>
<p>The global pandemic has brought about a new, tighter world order. In
Venezuela, a new order is emerging as well, and it is indeed the end of a
social contract that lasted two decades.</p>
<p>Of course, the collapse of the old order and the emergence of the new
one comes with a huge crisis. Every day there are dozens of protests
and mobilizations throughout Venezuela, and they are not promoted by the
right. They are workers demanding living wages, <em>barrio</em> dwellers demanding water, electricity and gas, <em>campesinos</em> demanding access to fuel, etc.</p>
<p>Interestingly, all this happens while the formal right is politically
cornered by its own catastrophic mistakes. It has no legitimacy among
the people. The popular masses demand their rights, while the government
demands that they make sacrifices. All the while, no government
representative is making sacrifices as happened, for instance, in Cuba
during the harshest years of the blockade.</p>
<p><strong>How is the APR campaign coming along?</strong></p>
<p>The APR is a left Chavista alternative that recognizes the mutation
of the process. That is why we decided to become an electoral
alternative. However, the electoral proposal is not the beginning or the
end. The union of diverse autonomous Chavista and left organizations
had been brewing for a while.</p>
<p>Today the campaign is in the territory, in the <em>barrios</em> and in the <em>campo</em>.
It is growing strong while it is silenced by both public and private
media. To give you an example, the official media gives voice to the
right-wing alternatives, but the APR is being ignored and hidden.</p>
<p>Nonetheless, we are convinced that on December 6, a new, strong force
will emerge. This is not too different from the months prior to <a href="https://venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/6001">Chavez’s 1992 military rebellion</a>.
The uprising was clandestine while our proposal is public (though
hidden by the media), but the elections – as did the military rebellion –
will likely change the course of things.</p>
<p>The APR’s revolutionary forces are alive and well. We have more than
500 candidates and they are working the streets to build a new majority.</p>
<p>On the other end of the spectrum, the PSUV’s campaign looks much like
a campaign of the old AD [Acción Democrática, the most important
Venezuelan political party during much of the 20th century].</p>
<p>Nicolás Maduro’s son’s campaign, a National Assembly candidate, has
become a permanent giveaway event. He is giving away TVs, bonuses
[economic incentives], construction materials, etc. Why? Because Nicolás
Maduro Guerra [President Maduro’s son] has no virtues of his own. He is
not the expression of any popular movement. He is a sort of prince with
a “destiny.”</p>
<p><strong>Some believe that in recent years there has been a process of curtailing popular democracy. Can you talk about this?</strong></p>
<p>We are going through a process of judicialization of politics. Most
parties have been intervened by the Supreme Court [TSJ]. In the case of
the PPT, the TSJ <a href="https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/14976">imposed</a>
an ad hoc direction that would toe the PSUV’s line. In other words,
they removed the elected direction and they imposed a junta that didn’t
represent the majority of the party.</p>
<p>Additionally, the National Electoral Power [CNE] is not allowing any left parties to register, while they <em>are</em> registering parties associated with the right.</p>
<p>The state is actively intervening in the political life of the
Venezuelan left. Not only do they prevent internal union elections –
keeping the proletarian forces from representing themselves – and have
put a hold on university elections, which is a right granted by law, but
now the state is intervening in political parties!</p>
<p>This is not Russia in 1919 when – in the midst of a civil war – Lenin
banned all parties but the Bolsheviks. Here we have a Constitution that
grants us the right to organize but the courts are liquidating this
prerogative. There is a tendency toward the judicialization of politics,
and we are concerned.</p>
<p>Nonetheless, the APR is an ample alliance with many Chavista and left
organizations within. It includes de PCV, which is the only party that,
due to its long history and international relations, is allowed to
freely exist. And so, since the official [i.e. intervened] PPT became an
appendix of the PSUV, the APR will have to be represented by the PCV in
the ballot.</p>
<p><strong>In addition to displacing the US-backed right that now
controls the National Assembly, what is the importance of the upcoming
parliament’s composition?</strong></p>
<p>The outgoing National Assembly, with a majority representation of the
right-wing, gave up its prerogatives by turning itself into a body with
the sole objective of overthrowing Venezuela’s democratically-elected
president. In so doing, they lost face with the people and missed their
opportunity to influence the direction of the country according to their
interests and ideology.</p>
<p>The next parliament will have to hold a public debate about the
national budget (which has been drafted in silence over the past four
years), oversee economic transactions and public policies, legislate,
etc. The new Assembly will also choose new Supreme Court members, the
Public Defender, the Attorney General, the General Comptroller, the
National Electoral Council, and the Venezuelan Central Bank board.</p>
<p>Additionally, the APR’s objective in the legislative body is to work
for the people by bringing the Constitution back to life. Issues such as
a living wage and the right to organize are guaranteed by the
Constitution, and we will work to reinstate them. Finally, we will also
“dust off” Chávez’s <a href="https://venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/7091">Homeland Plan</a> [2012] which gives strategic coordinates to bring the Venezuelan people out of the current crisis.</p>
<p><strong>Briefly, what is the APR’s program?</strong></p>
<p>It is time to overcome the personalist alliance between President
Maduro and the Armed Forces. The structure of the government needs a
counterweight from the people to ensure the continuity of the
revolution.</p>
<p>Our program is socialism, and to move in that direction we have the
Constitution as the cornerstone and Chávez’s Homeland Plan as a roadmap.
All this must be done, again, without messianism, collectively, with
the <em>pueblo</em>. The APR is going to be neither a destructive force
nor a “yes man” organization. Instead, we will work to turn the National
Assembly into a deliberative space for popular power.</p>
<p>We are calling the people to vote for the APR to bring legitimacy,
autonomy, and popular sovereignty back to the National Assembly.</p>
<p>However, we are not promising miracles. We don’t promise that the new
National Assembly will bring an end to all the need to make queues [as
the right did in the 2015 elections], and we won’t use the criminal
actions of the national and international right as a cover for all
political and economic ills. We will promote “house cleaning” so that
the limited resources can be channeled towards the people. All those who
use their power to become millionaires and use institutions to
consolidate their class condition must go.</p>
<p>We are going to the National Assembly not just for empty talk. We are
going there to turn it into a revolutionary instrument and to break the
imperialist yoke. That cannot be done by turning one’s back to the
people, as has happened under the excuse of the sanctions. Imperialism
can only be defeated with the <em>pueblo</em>.</p>
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