Homage to PRESDIENT HUGO CHAVEZ
(Words given at the
Cuban celebration of the 26th of July 2013, the Attack on the Moncada Barracks, which was dedicaded to President Hugo Chávez Frías, at the Steelworkers' Union, Toronto)
By María Páez Victor,
member of the Louis Riel Bolivarian Circle of Toronto
Hugo Chávez, President of Venezuela (1998-2013), beloved by millions
of his people whose lives he dramatically improved, political heir of Simón
Bolívar, is now an immortal hero of the Patria Grande, the homeland, Nuestra
América.
He has been vital to the transformation of Venezuela and the
region. His ideas and accomplishments have touched and inspired millions of
people. He was an inspiration even to humble people in far away lands who dream
of a better world.
He was highly respected by the leaders and peoples of Latin
America and the Caribbean whom he united in the path of integration by establishing
an infrastructure of mutual cooperation.
His funeral took 10 days because an overwhelming mass of his
compatriots wanted to pay their respects. It was attended by top
representatives of 54 nations, 34 of whom where heads of state. Fifteen
countries declared official days of mourning for him. News of his death was
world headlines, displacing even the Vatican Conclave.
Of Afro-indigenous mestizo background, born on the 28th
of July 1954 in the sleepy, rural town of Sabaneta, in the state of Barinas, a llanero – a grassland- state of
Venezuela, he spent his childhood with his grandmother in a humble abode with no
electricity or running water. She survived by planting her garden and by making
sweets, which young Hugo sold at school and on the streets. He learned the wisdom
of the campesinos at her side, a
strong work ethic and the knowledge of his own roots. His parents were local
teachers who passed onto him a life long love of learning. Many people do not
know that he was a brilliant student in primary school, high school, and later,
at the Military Academy. He had a scientific mindset, loved math and had a
prodigious memory. He graduated with a degree in Military Engineering, reached
the rank of Lieutenant Colonel and Commander, and as well, he taught Venezuelan
history at the Military Academy.
Hugo Chávez read avidly and widely, seeking answers to the
misery and oppression that Venezuelans lived under. The oil rich country was
seeped in corruption, human rights abuses and widespread poverty of 80%. Influenced
greatly by the ideas of Simón Bolivar, Simón Rodriguez, Ezequiel Zamora and
José Martí as well as Marx, Gramsci, Lenin, Fanon and Guevara, he formed a secret
group of young officers, that later became the MVR with which he launched his
political career.
After winning the Presidency in 1998 by a historic landslide,
his first great achievement was a new Constitution. It centered politics on
human rights, both civil and social, and participatory democracy, as well as
preserving the country’s sovereignty over its resources. It obligated the State
to provide social, economic, health and cultural security to its citizens, and
included for the first time in Venezuelan history, far reaching rights for
women, children, indigenous peoples and environmental rights. Venezuelans
became almost overnight activists for their own rights, and Communal Councils became
essential vehicles for their participation in key political decisions and
allocation of resources.
He was the most famous political leader of his time. He was
also the most maligned, demonized and slandered politician in the world, in
company only with Fidel Castro. Yet he
never declared war or invaded any country, nor tried to overthrow another
government, nor killed anyone. Venezuela has no secret police, no clandestine
prisons, no displaced populations, no death sentence, torture is forbidden. All
these occur in the USA, yet the USA and its allies and the supine international
media spewed vitriol and mockery on him.
He was considered Fidel’s political son, as they had a deep
and lasting friendship. Despite the fact
that his government won 16 (various) elections in a transparent electoral system,
deemed the best in the world by the Carter Centre, the elites and their media
called him a dictator. Undisputedly, he
was the catalyst for the appearance in Latin America of a new set of left-wing
leaders opposed to neo-liberal economic policies and to US interference in
Latin America.
He was vilified because Venezuela has the largest deposit of
oil in the world. And it is all about the oil! How dare Hugo Chávez want to
control it? He was attacked not just for making sure that the Venezuelan state controlled
its own petroleum, but also because he used its income to benefit his people under
a different model of development, a democratic participatory and socialist
model, that openly rejected corporate capitalism.
He increased royalties and taxes to foreign oil companies and
made all oil exploration a joint partnership with the state having a majority
share. During 60 years the oil companies paid only 1% royalties, now they have
to pay about 16% plus high taxes. Out of every dollar generated by the mixed
companies, 94% stays in Venezuela. President Chávez believed that the oil
belongs to the people, not the multinationals nor the elite of the country.
Venezuela thus became
the dangerous example that unmasked the hideous failure of corporate capitalism.
Its genuine development is geared to human happiness, through social investments,
participatory democracy, social enterprise and vigorously combating the many
facets of inequality.
He called it the Bolivarian Revolution, and to the chagrin of
Venezuelan and world elites, it worked: it gave the country a high ranking in
the UN Index of Human Development, slashing inequality and poverty, illiteracy,
infant and maternal mortality and morbidity, malnutrition, and providing
widespread education and jobs. Venezuelan people now rank at the top of
international happiness indexes. The UN
Economic Commission for Latin America and
the Caribbean states that Venezuela is now the least unequal country in the
region (GINI Coefficient) having reduced inequality by 54%. In just one decade
Venezuela advanced 7 places in the UN
Human Development Index.
In all these endeavor, Venezuela counted with the invaluable
contribution of Cuban physicians, educators, agriculturalists and teachers who
have loyally supported the Bolivarian Revolution and been at our side.
By means of establishing the new Constitution at the
beginning of his administration, President Chávez was able to transform the
basis of the political body and block the corrupt elite that ruled for 40 years
from controlling the immense riches of the country. By ushering in
participatory democracy Chavez may well have re-invented democracy.
His enemies accused him of “polarizing” the country, as if
the divide between the haves and
have-nots had been his doing. In fact, he politicized the country, citizens now
know their Constitutional and Human Rights and demand them and 30,000 communal councils
oversee social investments.
This was no divisive man. On the contrary, he brought people
together. The Latin American presidents who were his natural allies in the
region were devastated by his death, but those presidents to the political
right, were also filled with sorrow. Hugo Chávez has swept away the Monroe
Doctrine of US imperialism. He was the architect of the region’s integration
infrastructure: CELAC is displacing the OAS, UNASUR is for the region’s
defense, PETROSUR and PETROCARIBE is to ensure energy supply for the people of
the region not for the exorbitant
consumption of the North, TELESUR and RADIO DEL SUR for communication between
Latin countries without intermediaries, MERCOSUR AND ALBA help with development
and BANCO DEL SUR and BANCO DEL ALBA are alternatives to the usury of the IMF
and World Bank.
The oligarchy and the CIA were unable to derail his government
despite a coup, oil lockout, pouring millions of dollars to the opposition and
constant, draining de-stabilizing and relentless psychological warfare tactics.
He gave the new Venezuela two great
shields against these attacks: unrivaled popular support of the majority, and
secondly, strong ties with the countries of the region through a backbone of
integration.
His death was a great emotional blow, but he left a lasting
legacy. Fidel Castro said: “Not even Chávez
himself realized how great he was.” His charismatic personality was undeniable, he
was warm, open, with a picaresque sense of humour, a brilliant communicator, spiritual,
profoundly rooted in his own cultural and ethnic roots, and
yet highly educated, capable of bringing to their feet an entire auditorium of
scholars in the prestigious Central University of Mexico.
They say Hugo Chávez placed Venezuela on the world map. He did
more, he placed the common good of humble and marginalized people at the
forefront of politics, and he stood for the sovereignty of Latin American
nations against imperial designs. He
called for socialism when supposed socialists around the world were reluctant
to even say the word.
Venezuela is no longer
a backwater and Latin America is no longer a “backyard”. And the world now
knows that a better world is in its making – in Latin America. Thanks to our now Eternal Comandante,
President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela, whom Fidel has named, a Son of Cuba.
He will never be forgotten.
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