President Hugo Chavez raising his hand with a clenched fist and in the background a photo of Che. Photo: File photo.
By Carlos Aznárez – Mar 5, 2023
Ten years have already passed without Comandante Hugo Chávez and his overwhelming drive to explain to the people what the Revolution to be built is all about. Yes, the Revolution with capital letters, which is not the same as appealing to the reformist or social-democratic shortcuts to which some try to accustom us. Because if there is something that Chávez became clear, it is that for any society to grow seriously, develop, and generate a dignified life for its people, attitudes or possibilities are not enough: it is necessary to turn everything upside down and generate a deep transformation, whatever the cost.
If we think about the comings and goings of the continent since he left departed into eternity, we would be surprised that all this has happened in such a short time. The neoliberalism that the Supreme Commander confronted with weapons in hand when he tried to overthrow it through two civil-military uprisings in 1992 is still installed in some countries more than in others in our America. This has caused setbacks in economic, political, social, cultural, and foreign relations matters after the emergence of new dictatorships, such as those of Abdó Benítez, Dina Boluarte, Bukele, Giammatei, or Lasso, that wield progressive speeches but end up grovelling before the IMF or the plundering multinationals. Among the encouraging new developments, it is worth mentioning the return of Lula, the governance of Lucho Arce and Choquehuanca in Bolivia, Gustavo Petro in Colombia, Xiomara Castro in Honduras, and López Obrador, who in recent times has been saying to the empire what Chávez used to say with more passion. These last experiences are of a positive nature, in spite of the continued commitment to capitalism, as they managed to remove highly destructive and devastating governments.
In the face of this political landscape, it is good for the memory and collective health to evoke Chávez who, like his mentor Fidel, was a gust of passion and energy, a militant of ethics, and possessed the audacious courage of those who want to change everything and put their entire bodies into every initiative they face.
Chávez was forceful when it came to making decisions, especially those that had to do with the interests of his beloved Venezuela. He was affectionate and enthusiastic in the defense of the most humble, to whom he dedicated each and every day of his mandate. He was a proponent of unity against the Empire, something he demonstrated not only in domestic politics but also in the doctrine he established at the level of Latin America and the world. Chávez was Cerebral and with his feet on the ground when it came to opening the doors to debate—even with his fiercest enemies—and when it came to formulating ideas.
Forger of the most powerful weapons to face the onslaught of Bush and Obama (not to mention what he would be saying to Trump or Biden), weapons that were not loaded with bullets, but with the development of a solid and vital conscience, gathered from the history of the struggle of our peoples. Chávez had the lucidity to realize that the time had come to lead the continent towards the Second Independence that we have been denied, and that is still pending. He rescued our heroes and heroic deeds, whom he extracted from marble or bronze, and turned them into actors of unusual relevance. Bolívar, San Martin, Sucre, Manuelita Saenz, Juana Ramirez, Apacuana, O’Higgins, Guacaipuro, Tupac Amaru, Micaela Bastidas, Símon Rodriguez, Sandino, Evita Peron, and of course, Che Guevara. With their words and deeds in his quiver, he called for the rescue of the Patria Grande from the clawed hands of the brutal North. He denounced the sulfur spilled by Bush on the UN stage and gave him a sovereign kick in the ass, in those glorious days when the FTAA was demolished by a group of presidents who supported him.
Thinking of the children, of the elderly, of the damned of the earth (this feminist and anti-patriarchal Commander introduced the language of gender in politics, as no one had done before), he gave strength to the Missions and made them indispensable in the development of his administration. He avoided ministerial bureaucracies and, as if he were a rabbit that a magician pulls out of the hat, he provided his people the possibility to become fully literate, to obtain free medical attention with Barrio Adentro and Mission Milagro (for free eye surgery), hand in hand with Cuban solidarity. For the first time in decades (or in centuries), this made it possible for the poorest to have access to universities. The Missions became the rushing river and the banner of engagement of the great majorities: housing for all, the food Mercal to break the chains of intermediation, the Music Mission, the Women’s Bank, sports practice in the neighborhoods, the Science Mission, the Che Guevara Mission (of socialist formation), the Negra Hipolita Mission, or that of the Mothers of the Neighborhoods. The days of the year would not be enough to enumerate them all, and on all of them, the Comandante imprinted the stamp of his personality, his wisdom, and his sleepless hours, so that they would become a reality. We remember Chávez Frías, Maisanta’s grandson, a guerrilla fighter, in these short and insufficient lines.
Standard bearer of the Venezuelan workers who during the neoliberal governments had suffered the repeated denial of their salary demands by the governments of the Fourth Republic, which were based on compromises with the business sectors. From the beginning of his mandate, Chávez aimed at generating a Bolivarian trade union center that would circumvent the bureaucratic management of the old union structure, which was bureaucratic and intimately related to the bosses of Fedecámaras [chambers of commerce].
A proclaimed son of Fidel, together with him, they shaped a hurricane that swept the continent spreading ideas, strength, wisdom, and that particular way of recreating politics without speculations of any kind. To the sound of such a duo, ALBA was born, providing Latin America and the Caribbean with an effective tool to permeate solidarity, back to back. But not only that, Chávez also knew how to show the world that gringos could be spoken to as equals, without hesitation or submission, as had been the case until the Afro-Indo-American nations recovered their self-esteem and got going. That was his first feat, but then he went for more, and helped (with invaluable patience) to build CELAC and UNASUR, bringing everyone together—from right to left—but without the North American’s writing the script. Chávez did it, and his footprint was followed by others like him, born from the struggles in Bolivia, Nicaragua, Ecuador, and so many other places.
Chávez was impeccable as he spoke to the people with the truth, cursing Yankee imperialism or shrugging off the Zionist diplomats, aggressors of occupied Palestine. With didactic language, he explained to his own people that it was necessary to remain alert against the coup plotters from inside and outside. He did so, recalling his own experience in that fateful 2002 massacre of Puente Llaguno, his kidnapping in La Orchila, the rescue by those who came down from the hills to show him their love and loyalty, the oil coup and his own decision to radicalize himself to the maximum in order not to turn the other cheek to his enemies. In true popular assemblies of almost two million souls, he knew how to provide the precise indications so that the militias would begin to occupy a necessary space, but he also valued the meritorious role that the Armed Forces have been playing in the revolutionary process, which under his command, rested together with ordinary Bolivarians. Hugo Chávez has been the fundamental engine of such feats.
Now that his legacy has been picked up by millions around the world, and that his partner in so many struggles, Nicolás Maduro, presides over the country with courage and unquestionable loyalty, it is time to redouble our homage to the one who undoubtedly fell fighting, in a “victory or death” patriotism. What else were those days of fighting tooth and nail with that cancer that burned his body but did not make him retreat in his ideological and discursive strength? Who does not remember, without getting goosebumps, that Caracas afternoon of October 4, 2012, when, under a veritable deluge, the Commander in Chief climbed on the stage and, before a massive, surging crowd, shouted “long live the Revolution” and called on Venezuelans to make the final effort to obtain triumph in the upcoming elections. The hammers of rain falling on his legendary figure could not deter him, nor could the brutality of the pain caused by the cursed disease that took him away from us only months later. Drawing strength from his love for that red tide that listened to him ecstatically, waving flags and chanting slogans, Chavez spoke for posterity and proclaimed the triumph against the oligarchy and the Empire. That was his style and practice. And for that reason, let us have no doubt, the empire decided to assassinate him.
Today, as we remember the 10th anniversary of his passing, the figure of the eternal Commander Hugo Chávez and the example he was able to give us reinforces the need to redouble our solidarity with Bolivarian Venezuela, besieged by the economic war and in a climate of a latent coup by a receding opposition that continues to count on external support and, above all, on constant US interference. We cannot remain silent as enemies like that Trojan horse conspire and carry out evil from within and without.
Let us always return to Chávez and his ideas, let us not slacken in the struggle, let us place ourselves in the rebelliousness of the peoples, such as those of Peru, Ecuador, Haiti, the Syria of Bashar al-Assad, the anti-imperialist Iran, Lebanon of Hezbollah, and, always, absolutely always, the insurgent Palestine against the criminal Zionism. Let us not mistake the path, and let us support the denazification and anti-NATO campaign waged by the Russian Federation. Let us not abandon the streets in the face of the siren songs of reformism, let us reinvigorate the need to bring battle to the empire and patriarchal capitalism wherever it tries to infiltrate its ideas of death, let us generate self-organization for self-determination, and self-management as a formula for self-defense. Let us embrace the communes that the Comandante promoted so much.
In this way, we will continue fulfilling Chávez’s legacy, which asks us for not only words but actions as well.
(Resumen Latinoamericano – English)
Additional translation by Orinoco Tribune
Carlos Aznarez
Periodista. Director de @ResumenLatino periódico, radio y TV.
