Venezuela’s Constituent Assembly Will be a Shield to Protect the Country against Fascism

By Carlos Aznares on July 11, 2017

The intellectual author of numerous crimes against Venezuelan citizens is now back in his home. He was granted a gift that in many countries of the continent is reserved only to those over 70 years of age or suffering from a serious illness. However, Leopoldo López fits neither of those categories; he’s around 46 years old and as soon as he arrived in his home he nimbly climbed up a flight of stairs, gestured to his followers and promised to keep fighting “for the unity of Venezuela”. At this point he seems to have forgotten the promise he made when he was arrested. “I will leave prison when there’s no other political prisoner in jail”.

His release has undoubtedly shaken people on both sides of the political spectrum. His followers are glad one of their gurus has returned. They are nostalgic about his speeches filled with histrionics, melodramatic speeches and violent attacks against the legitimate government. His defying  gangster-like behavior during the mobilizations of the opposition, which later spiraled into violent scenarios, complete with bombs, wires crossing the road to decapitate motorbikers, lynchings and the burning alive of a suspected Chavistas.  López continued to encourage them from the Ramo Verde prison to destroy everything in their way in each of the cities where they “intervened”.

Logically after so much death and pain had been dealt by those who follow Washington’s order to take over Venezuela, the fact that Leopoldo López is back in his home is pretty hard to process for many of us—especially since, for the first time ever, not only were the perpetrators of the terrorist acts sent to jail but López had been tried and convicted for being the intellectual author.

Despite all of this, the reasons behind this semi-freedom are understandable. It is an attempt to decompress the spiraling craze of fascist behavior that’s being encouraged by those who are trying to turn Caracas into Aleppo. It’s also understandable that after the pressure exerted by the “special envoys for peace” sent by several countries, the Supreme Court Justices decided to lighten up the prison sentence of the genocidal López to try to shut down the criticism of his fascist defenders. It may have seemed necessary to disarm some of the excuses that are being used internationally to encourage revolts, drawing attention to the fact that there are imprisoned politicians—which is not the same as political prisoners.

On the other hand it is undoubtable that President Nicolás Maduro, as well as organizations of victims of the atrocities committed by the opposition, needed to exert great amounts of their patience along with their legitimate desire for peace to come to respecting the court’s decision. The same goes for the members of the National Guard and the National Bolivarian Armed Forces who were the target of the opposition’s snipers. There must be many sectors of the Venezuelan people who risk their lives to defend the achievements of the Revolution who now have mixed feelings about the decision, but didn’t hesitate in supporting the government. This should not be interpreted to mean they are blindly optimistic regarding this decision, since they now know what they have to deal with enemies of this size.

López’s return to the ring, and some declarations made by his wife, are being viewed by the most radical sectors of the opposition as an “open betrayal”. It has generated an exchange of opinions amongst them including a series of separate calls to continue with the acts of violence. The right now has to regroup because behind bars López was a slogan to fight for, but now he has become an obstacle to some. There’s conflict now between leaderships and again there’s  López’s aggressively putschist discourse, which some tried to pass off as the “moderate side” of fascism. The result has been more guarimbas, prolonged roadblocks with fewer people, but still just as horrific. Recent examples of this violence have been the murder of a candidate to the Constituent Assembly and the remote control bomb strategically planted to cause the maximum amount of damage to the most possible amount of members of a motorized unit of the National Guard—seven of whom were injured by the explosion. There were also recommendations to interfere in Venezuela’s internal affairs by Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy and the Colombian neighbor, making more and more demands to the so called “dictatorship”. Nobel Peace Prize Juan Manuel Santos’s meddling even went so far as to even demand that Maduro cancel the call to the Constituent Assembly.

In this scenario the best sons and daughters of the brave Venezuelan people are not hesitating and are getting ready to show the world that the Constituent Assembly is a done deal, no matter what. That it is the compass we must pursue at this time in order to strengthen the Venezuelan Revolution, which is second only to the Cuban Revolution in terms of conquest of the rights of the poorest of the people.

The Constituent Assembly is the shield but also is a weapon for the offensive against so much disregard for human life and so much complicity between the local bourgeoisie and imperialism. Therefore, to honor the principles of Bolívar and Hugo Chávez, for Guaicaipuro and Manuelita Sáenz and also for our Latin America which is threatened by neoliberalism, on July 30, we must all go to vote. To do so will lead to a great collective victory against López, Capriles, Almagro, Trump, and all of their kind.

http://www.thedawn-news.org/2017/07/13/venezuelas-constituent-assembly-will-be-a-shield-to-protect-the-country-against-fascism/

Source: Resumen Latinoamericano