THE ERRORS OF THE OPPOSITION - VENEZUELA

The ringleaders of the regime, with the help of their foreign advisors, have proven to be very clever. In 2016, when they were cornered by the imminent call for a recall referendum that had 80% popular support, not only did they not back down a bit, but managed to reduce the opposition to a limbo, and even split it. The ruse they used on that occasion was the so-called "Dialogue Table", whose objective was to save time to stop the overwhelming advance shown by the opposition at that time. Unfortunately this was not able to notice the trap; and to demonstrate his acquiescence to the dialogue he withdrew his demand for the recall referendum and decided to paralyze the multitudinous marches that at that moment harassed the regime. However, some still today believe that it was impossible to refuse a dialogue that even the Vatican endorsed ... But with that radical change of strategy the opposition wasted an unrepeatable historical opportunity to overthrow Maduro ... Posterity will be implacable when it judges the leaders responsible for that error.

Hence, the opposition, the people and even Pope Francis "fell for innocents"; since after two months of the supposed dialogue, the regime has not fulfilled in the least the promises that it made in that opportunity, since it has not changed in anything its catastrophic economic policy, has not released to the majority of the political prisoners, on the contrary, the number of those imprisoned for political reasons has increased. Neither has it recognized the AN, even threatening to dissolve it. Moreover, it has not even allowed the humanitarian aid offered by various international organizations to reach Venezuela to alleviate the consequences of the growing shortage of food and medicines.

But this lack of the most elemental political malice and combative courage of the opposition has not been the only cause of their failures. We must also attribute the lack of a single leader, that is, of a man or woman who by virtue of their special strength of character and of credibility, could unify in a single political movement the dissimilar groups that integrate it. Individuals who at some time gave the impression of playing that role, today keep a deplorable silence, either because they did not want or could not continue the fight from prison, or because they were exiled and did not want or could continue the fight from exile, or for any other reason. Perhaps the exception may be María Corina Machado, who has courageously continued the struggle in the streets; and that despite the constant reprisals of the regime, and even the serious physical injuries that the paramilitary groups of the regime have recently given him in a cowardly and unpunished manner.

Another of his errors, intimately associated with what we have pointed out, is his lack of a clear country project. The opposition is obsessed with the simple desire to leave Maduro, without having explained to the country what it would do once that goal was achieved. In front of the defined country project of Chavismo to implement the Socialism of the XXI Century, the opposition has barely even babbled a Country Project that would simply consist in "putting into practice the 1999 Constitution" (sic). I dare to say that the majority presence in all surveys of the so-called group of "Nini" has much to do with this lack of teleology of the opposition speech.

Finally, the absence of an effective propaganda strategy, capable of countering the well-mounted media lies of the regime, is the other serious error of the opposition. The leaders of the opposition seem to believe that the so-called "social networks" are the best means of spreading their truths, when reality shows that the vast majority of the Venezuelan people do not have the most elementary, let alone "smart" computers and telephones "Required to receive tweets, etc. As for radio, it is mostly self-censored. It would be better for the opposition to use traditional and clandestine methods of propaganda, such as pints, graffiti and fliers.