I am constantly asked the following questions: Is Venezuela a democracy? How can Venezuela be a dictatorship if there are elections? Well, to answer that question you have to answer many other questions first, for example, What is democracy? question that I answered in this publication: Do we really live in democracy today?.....but in summary; no, we don't live in democracy today, what we know as western democracy is basically the idea of a State with a "checks and balances" (Legislative, Executive, Judiciary), where the officials who occupy the positions that represent these three powers must be chosen in universal and secret elections. That is what we call democracy today.
The supposed separation of powers is in charge, in theory, of preventing a small group of people from accumulating all the power of the State, which would leave the citizens without freedom. However, as I described in the publication I did about democracy, political parties use the principle of checks and balances to make their political strategies and prevent the status quo from being altered, however, at the time of carrying out their operations, the principle of separation of powers is broken by the same inertia of the political parties.
In short, the nations are led by factions of power, as I described in this other publication: Democracy or Corporatocracy?, and many of those factions dominate institutions of power that often are not even under the control of the state.
Until 1998, some of these institutions of power had been created in Venezuela, the first of which was the Armed Forces, by itself this is the most powerful institution, after all, power is strength, and the greatest force that has existed in a country has always been the army, who has control of the army has control of the nation, that is why there have been so many military dictatorships in the world history.
No one could doubt that, at the time of the disappearance of Gómez - dictator - the man who was legally at the head of the Armed Forces, in a country lacking any structure of political organization other than the government, would remain in the effective possession of the power.
Words of Arturo Uslar Pietri, referring to the transition of power that existed in Venezuela to the 1930s.
This text by Arturo Uslar Pietri perfectly expresses the idea of the high power of the Armed Forces, and although at present the centralization of that power is not as high as in the period he described, the truth is that the force will always be the greatest power that exists in a nation.
On the other hand, public institutions are next on the list of power, both the Presidency, the Parliament, the Supreme Court, as well as all other federal and state public offices, which have in their power the ability to dictate laws, prosecute people, arrest them, retain their stay in the country, block bank accounts, that is, they have all the legal and political power, as well as having the capacity to designate and control politically the companies that are property of the State, without mentioning the control of the Central Bank.
The next group of power is Fedecámaras, which is the main organization of business associations in Venezuela, counting on entrepreneurs from all economic sectors of the country, which translates as almost all the power and influence of large private companies, with all what this entails, a large number of employees with professional and work experience, which represent to a large extent the technical knowledge that the nation has, in addition to all the influence and capital that these entrepreneurs and the shareholders of the different companies could provide.
Next we can find the media, mainly those with an open signal, which have the capacity to reach all the Venezuelan public without any distinction, besides being the main source that Venezuelans have when they learn about the events that take place in the country. Therefore, the media has a great impact, not only for what they constantly show to the spectators, but also for what they fail to show, in short, they have the power to shape public opinion and to narrate the facts at the national level and international.
Last but not least is PDVSA, the state-owned oil company, which has a monopoly on oil and represents the most important economic activity at the national level, since it is in charge of the exploration, exploitation, distribution and commercialization of oil and all its derivatives, both nationally and internationally, which makes it possible to have in its hands the responsibility of keeping all the activities that are developed in the country in operation.
Its great expansion - that of PDVSA - had made it a State within the State and, as was demonstrated in 2002 with the oil strike, it tried to convert itself into the State, trying to impose its political will on the entire country.
During the debates of the "Oil Opening" in the National Congress, it was not the minister who was going to discuss with us the policies, but the representatives of PDVSA. The Seniat (National Integrated Service for the Administration of Customs Duties and Taxes, attached to the Ministry of Finance), was organized by PDVSA, and thus other dependencies. The reform of the State was being done by PDVSA cadres.
That is, PDVSA became not only the State within the State, but also wanted to be a State over the State and over the nation.
Words of Ali Rodríguez Araque, former president of PDVSA.
Well, we define then that in Venezuela there are the following institutions of power and influence: Armed Forces, State Institutions (Public Powers, Bureaucracy, Public Companies and Police), Fedecámaras (Private Companies), the Media, and of course, the jewel in the crown, PDVSA (Oil Industry).
In what we understand as western democracies, all those power groups would be, in theory, under the control of "different people", but there is a series of events that allowed Hugo Chávez to take control of all these institutions that I have described, or in his defect, diminish the power of those who could not control directly.
In 1998, Chávez won the presidential elections, and in doing so, he did not take long to carry out various political stratagems with the aim of doing what he had promised the electorate; establish the regime of a new Constitution. This new Constitution changed the structure of the State, expanding the public powers of the State from three to five, although the separation of powers vanish when Chávez managed to gain control of the five powers.
The new Constitution dissolved the Senate chamber, converting the parliament into a unicameral organ, in addition to allowing Chávez, as president of the republic, to have a lot of influence in the high command of the Armed Forces.
Later, in 2002, due to a series of conflicts that arose between the Chávez government and the business sector represented by Fedecámaras, the latter joined forces with unions, the media, and the military, and they tried to make a coup d'etat against the government. However, the coup fails, because despite capturing Chavez, the protests in the street prevent him from being killed, so the coup fails and Chávez regains power. Once this was done, Chávez was able to identify his enemies, which is usually very difficult in politics, so he was planning how to protect himself from them, in addition that he could justifiably replace the military high command, and place military leaders faithfully subordinated to him.
A year later, in 2003, when Chávez tried to place a subordinate of his at the head of the state oil company PDVSA, precisely because he wanted to exercise control over it, he suffered sabotage. All the company's largest payroll, that is, the highly specialized specialists and professionals that the company had, joined Fedecámaras and decided to make an indefinite strike, thus leaving the national industry almost totally paralyzed. Inflation increase, unemployment also, GDP fell, in conclusion, was generated much political instability, which was why there was a high capital flight, which devalued the currency against the dollar. It was then that Chavez called the strike a Lockout and decided to dismiss all of PDVSA's major payroll, taking advantage of the fact that in Venezuela there are many people who have experience in the oil industry in order to replace the dismissed workers.
The company would become inefficient and unproductive, but Chávez managed to gain control of the oil industry, so that the strike ended and the economy started again.
At this point Chávez had seized the army and the oil industry, which was when he decided to stop the capital flight creating an institution called CADIVI, or Commission for the Administration of Currency Exchange, with which the State of Venezuela would become the only claimant and bidder of foreign currency.
Starting in 2003, the price of an oil barrel begins to rise, which increases the State's income and allows Chávez to take a set of social measures that help reduce poverty, which greatly increased his popularity, as well as that could replace the production of the national industry by imported products, which greatly reduced the capacity of the private business sector to influence the nation politically and economically.
Due to the economic recovery that resulted from the rise in oil prices, Chávez became very popular, so he managed to achieve a very favorable result in the regional elections of 2004, where he managed to win 22 of the 24 governorates that exist in the region. the country, as well as 90% of the mayoralties, that is, almost absolute control of the executive power at the national level.
During that same year, Chávez managed to get the parliament, which had a majority subordinated to him, to approve the Law on Social Responsibility on Radio and Television, which among many other things forces all radio and television service providers to transmit Mandatory form messages and speeches that the National Executive considers necessary, in addition that forces them to transmit for free and mandatory public service messages selected by the National Executive. With this Chávez sought to intimidate the media that participated in the coup d'état against him, in order to diminish his influence.
In 2005 the opposition political parties decided not to participate in the parliamentary elections, as they denounced that there would be fraud, however, the elections took place and Chávez took absolute control of the parliament, so he could designate the taste to the judges of the Supreme Tribunal of Justice, such as the Attorney General, the Comptroller General, the Ombudsman, and the rectors of the National Electoral Council, in such a way that the division of powers was preserved in theory but disappeared in practice.
In 2007, Chávez decided not to renew the concession of RCTV, the most popular television channel in Venezuela, mainly because he participated in the coup d'etat against him. After the signal of the channel was extinguished, the government seized the broadcasting equipment of the station to pass, a few minutes later, the signal of a new public service channel.
With this last thrust Chávez had evaporated the power of private entrepreneurs and the media, in fact, had made these sectors his fort, thanks to public channels that broadcast propaganda 24 hours per day, and that he could import with oil money and control the purchase and sale of foreign currencies through CADIVI, he managed to increase corruption, which made his subordinates rich overnight, as long as they stayed loyal to the regime. In addition to that, he had control of the Armed Forces, the Parliament, the Supreme Tribunal of Justice, the National Electoral Council, the Attorney General, the Comptroller General, the Ombudsman, 90% of the mayorships and 22 of 24 governorates.
After having so much power, Chávez found no real opposition, he was able to expropriate the lands and companies at will, taking over strategic and influential fields such as the telecommunications sector, taking control of CANTV, and later with the acquisition of different Banks, mainly the Bank of Venezuela, the most important, or one of the most important financial institutions in the country.
In this way, the government system maintained the facade of "democracy", especially taking into account that this label is used very deliberately, both in the West, and worldwide.
What was the difference between the democracy of another Western country and Venezuela until then? If we are strictly strict we can say that many, however, at a general level, there was no difference, because although Chávez had reduced the power of all the other factions, the truth is that he had won by playing with the rules of democratic politics, with unethical and immoral stratagems, yes, but after all, are not politicians from all countries corrupt too?
So for more technical than practical issues, Venezuela was right on the line between what could be considered western democracy, and what not.
But in 2013, Chávez died, and most of his influence was taken to the grave, however, he left an heir; Nicolás Maduro, who would replace Chávez as president of the nation, and he would take control that he previously held Chávez
It is at this moment when the opposition coalition begins to gradually increase its influence, because in 2013, the price of oil barrel went into a tailspin, and because Chávez's highly statist economic model depended on the high price of oil, the economy sinks completely, forcing the State to reduce imports, which leaves a vacuum that the private sector can't fill due to the economic policies imposed by the government, such as the fixing of prices and wages, as well as control over the allocation of foreign currency.
All the power and control exercised by Chávez in the economic sector was turned against them, since while the crisis was increasing, many people belonging to the government used the positions of influence they had within the bureaucracy to take advantage of the situation even more, which makes the crisis even worse, and because Maduro did nothing but deepen Chávez's policy, the situation only worsened.
This is how in 2015 the parliamentary elections are held, where the opposition manages to obtain more than 75% of the votes in favor, which gave it a large enough majority in Parliament to completely dispense with the faction subordinated to the government, nevertheless, Maduro uses his influence in the National Electoral Council and the Supreme Court of Justice to annul 2 of the parliamentarians, with the objective that the opposition lost many of its powers.
Although the opposition gained control of the parliament, they had no power, since the rest of the public authorities acted to suspend, remove and alienate the powers of the parliament, converting it into an exclusively deliberative institution.
In fact, the parliament of Venezuela has more influence at the international level than at the national level, because international organizations do recognize their authority, which has allowed to slightly hindering some of the actions of the government.
It was then when the Supreme Tribunal of Justice decided to dissolve the parliament and attribute its functions, but it was not as the government planned, because the alarms of international organizations began to sound, and Venezuela was declared as a dictatorship, because it had clearly been broken the separation of powers. However, the government had to backtrack on its actions, as the Attorney General, who until then had been subordinated to the Chávez and Maduro government, annulled the actions of the Supreme Tribunal of Justice, leaving the separation of powers in question again.
That situation with the Supreme Tribunal and the Parliament was forgotten when Maduro decided to convene a National Constituent Assembly, that is, an instance superior to the legal system, and that because the opposition did not participate in the elections, since the convocation It was anti-constitutional, the government won all the seats and took control of the republic, not because the Constituent Assembly is legally legitimate, but because the power has made it legitimate.
So now the Maduro government has control of the illegitimate National Constituent Assembly for multiple reasons, but this is no more than a facade to hide the extra legal and absolute power that the government already had long before.
Venezuela is not a democracy, not even for the low western standards Venezuela could be a democracy, possibly in the eyes of Iran, Russia or China could be, but for the rest of the world, the government led by Maduro is nothing more than an oligarchy that dominates all institutions of power at the national level, and represses those that could represent a slight threat, such as the Parliament legitimately constituted by the votes of the electorate.
On May 20 of this year presidential elections will be held in Venezuela, the opposition coalition decided not to participate, however, some opposition leaders have decided to do so, including a former evangelical pastor who was linked in 2016 with the filtering of Panama Papers documents, and on the other side Henri Falcón, an ex-chavist of dubious conviction. However, and no matter what happens in these elections, the power will continue to hold the same oligarchy, because the true power of the nation does not reside in the presidency.
As I mentioned in previous publications:
We must know that an individual simply by occupying a position of "power", such as the presidency of the nation, does not necessarily indicate that he has the power, really his power is very limited, sometimes he can't even do things for which he is legally authorized.
The position or political title does not grant power, nevertheless, the power if it can grant a position or political title, proof of it was when the opposition could have the control of Parliament, this immediately lost power and could not legislate, however, the government could create a new, much more powerful Parliament that not only has the power to legislate, but can make and undo the entire legal system to their liking, and this is possible because they really have the power to do so.
If the opposition were to reach the presidency, it could do little or nothing, because in spite of the symbolism, this by itself lacks power, the power resides in the Armed Forces, in PDVSA, in the Media, in Fedecámaras and in the rest of the political institutions, and based on the fact that the government has the power of the Armed Forces, and that it is currently the military that runs PDVSA and the rest of the institutions, then it is easy to deduce that even if the opposition were to obtain the presidency, the will that would prevail would be that of the current government, which would use the power of the army, camouflaged under the facade of the legally omnipotent National Constituent Assembly, to impose its will.
Dictatorship is defined as a form of government in which power is concentrated around the figure of a single individual (dictator) or elite, usually through the consolidation of a de facto government, characterized by an absence of separation of powers, a propensity to exercise arbitrarily the command for the benefit of the minority that supports it, the independence of the government with respect to the presence or absence of consent by any of the governed, and the impossibility that through a procedure institutionalized the opposition comes to power.
The dictator usually comes to power after a coup d'état carried out by a civic-military coalition or by the armed forces, or he can inherit it from a previous dictator who obtained it that way. The most common form of dictatorship in the contemporary world is the military dictatorship.
Under this definition, we can say without fear of being wrong that the Venezuelan government is not under any democratic circumstance, but rather is a dictatorship.
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