Caracas, July 26, 2023 (Press Mincomunas) – This Wednesday, the People’s Power Ministry for Communes and Social Movements, on behalf of Vice-Minister Fernando Rodriguez, participated in the forum “Regional Integration: the task of the Peoples,” promoted by Ecuadorian social organizations in the context of the reactivation of the Union of South American Nations (Unasur).
During his videoconference presentation, the Vice-Minister of Social Movements explained chronologically the origin of the democratic and protagonist organization of the Venezuelan people in Communal Councils and Communes. Their evolution and legal support until they became part of the government structure and made decisions in the territory.
He indicated that speaking of popular or citizen participation in Venezuela goes back to Commander Hugo Chavez’s arrival to power, who called the people to a constituent process to reform the State and promote a new social contract in 1999, that today is the current Constitution.
Rodriguez pointed out that this revolutionary State transformation (from a representative democracy to a participative and protagonist democracy) generated a destabilization agenda promoted by the international and national bourgeoisie and foreign imperialist factors, which even perpetrated a coup d’état in 2002.
The communal office authority specified that amid all that conspiracy and destabilization agenda, they enacted the Communal Councils Law in 2006, and until 2010 other instruments that constitute the compendium of People’s Power laws, which gives the legal basis for this Communal Councils initiative.
“Today, our Communal Councils and Communes can govern and make decisions in the territory. They are a fundamental part of the structure of the revolutionary government. Today our People’s Power is permanently organized and legitimized through citizens’ assemblies, which nurture that democratic process-oriented by our Commander Chavez, and today our President Nicolas Maduro permanently calls for that legitimization or that permanent democratic process in the territory,” he expressed.
Coercive measures against the people
Deputy Minister Rodriguez highlighted the rise of these territorial government figures caused the destabilizing factors to declare Venezuela in 2015 as an unusual and extraordinary threat by the Government of the United States. “After our people adopted this transforming project and refused to align themselves to foreign interests, to the interests of the international bourgeoisie, of international imperialism, our people have been victims of more than 930 unilateral coercive measures that only seek to inflict pain on the people of Venezuela,” he emphasized.
He added that Commander Chavez also urged social movements to organize themselves as a form of insurgency against this international agenda against the people, “promoting what we know today as the People’s Diplomacy and today this forum is a clear example of that seed planted by our Commander Chavez and great leaders such as Commander Fidel Castro, who called upon the peoples to organize themselves throughout the region to confront all these power structures that seek to maintain their status quo and perpetuate inequality in the entire South American region.”
