The Big Brother

The answer of the people was NO. According to our Constitution, that same question could not be submitted again during the same period. Yet, by resorting to sophistry, the President got the National Assembly to pose the same proposition, adding this time, in a single and lengthy question the issue of unlimited nomination of all other elected public offices.

The deceptive argumentation I referred to was that of resorting this time to modification via amendment instead of reform. Playing one and all, like Fuenteovejuna, the other public branches of power supported the presidential line of approach, although it goes without saying that the amendment route is not an option to undertake a modification so important that it remakes one of the fundamental tenets of our Constitution, namely, the principle of alternate succession established in article 6. Shamelessly, it became apparent that one of the basic principles of democracy, that of the balance of powers, no longer has validity in Venezuela. Montesquieu's famous sentence "...le pouvoir arrette le pouvoir" - ...power stop power" is nonexistent in our country.

Now all the powers servilely support the wishes of one power alone, the legitimacy of the wielder of that power thus vanishing.

But the ploy does not end there. In what is perhaps one of the most opportunistic leads in the history of Venezuela, the President, without showing any sign of discomposure, used all the resources of the State to put them at the service of his intention to perpetuate himself in power. We all witnessed his numerous broadcasts on government-compelled national television, some lasting up to eight hours, to promote the SI campaign. We all witnessed the neglect of functions by many a public official, who were publicly ordered that their only obligation was to further the crusade of officialdom. We all witnessed the wide-ranging intimidation of public functionaries who went to the polls convinced that if they did not vote for the presidential option, they would be risking their jobs. All in all, we all witnessed how brazenly the CNE acted on behalf of the interests of only one bloc. Furthermore, rumor has it that when she was asked to stop the president's tv broadcasts and other like abuses, rector Lucena's answer was that it was not convenient to do so because, as the President would not comply, the only result would be the loss of authority of the electoral council and a diminished reliance on that institution.

Well, under those circumstances it is not surprising that the SI campaign came out the winner. But the future has caught up with the President. At the end of the day, what matters is for the president now to make good on his promise that Venezuela is armored against the impending crisis that will befall us as a result of plummeting oil prices and the absurd lack of foresight on the part of the Government in the face of an event that was in the cards.

The truth is that Chávez is not willing to abide by the people's mandate unless it is in his favor. In other words, as Orwell said in his novel "1984," that since Big Brother controls the present, he is willing to obliterate the past - the outcome of the recall vote of 2 December 2007 - so that he may grab the future.

Let us see what Orwell said to that effect: "...If all others accepted the lie which the Party imposed - if all records told the same tale - then the lie passed into history and became truth. He who controls the past... also controls the future. He who controls the present, controls the past."

Photo: Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez holds up a folder with referendum results during an event with the National Assembly in Caracas February 19, 2009. Chavez's referendum win puts him closer to his goal of ruling for another decade or more, but he has to tackle economic woes and violent crime before speeding up his socialist revolution.REUTERS/Jorge Silva (VENEZUELA)