The Bolivarian Revolution: Past, Present, and Future

by Blanca Eekhout

Blanca Eekhout is a Deputy of the National Assembly of Venezuela and the President of the Simón Bolívar Institute.

The Bolivarian Revolution is the result of a historical process and a historical project. Bolívar’s struggle is the synthesis of the Indigenous resistance. It is also the struggle of the Afro-descendant people who, in this land, become marooned people. It is the struggle for independence and the unity of all in the War of Independence, then in the Federal War, and the entire process of resistance and confrontation with the new, brutal, and savage model of colonization by North American imperialism against the entire region.

The Bolivarian Revolution is also the synthesis of the peoples’ struggle for Latin American unity. So yes, it is an extraordinary and complex historical process.

Perhaps we can speak of a crucial moment. On February 27 and 28, 1989, the uprising of the people in the Caracazo. While the world proclaimed the end of history, it was the zenith of cap- italism, the declaration of neoliberalism as the final stage of human development. They said it was the end of utopias. There was nothing more to fight for, and this terrible model of maximum exploitation of our peoples advanced brutally in the world.

In Venezuela, Carlos Andrés Pérez came to power within the framework of the Puntofijo Pact,[a political alliance signed in1958 between the Democratic Action party, Copei (the Social Christian party), and Democratic Republican Union party (URD), in order to guarantee political stability following a series of military coup governments and dictatorships] which had been in effect for forty years, and based on the pact made with the United States and with the parties Acción Democrática and Copei. At that time, after his victory, he declared that all the demands of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank would be fulfilled in Venezuela, and the package of economic measures from the IMF’s deadly recipe would be applied.

At that moment, there was a response from the people, an overwhelming response, without orga- nization, without clear objectives, but nevertheless a gigantic national mobilization that ended in looting and culminated in a criminal and genocidal act, with reported casualties of up to 3,600 deaths over those two days, February 27 and 28. There are figures that claim that 10,000 people were killed. Among them were men, women, children, many in their homes, as gunfire was directed at residential buildings using military-grade weapons. It was as if an occupying army had arrived in the country; it was a brutal, disproportionate action.

But it marks a milestone because, until that moment, Venezuela had been considered interna- tionally—according to the media campaigns of the time—as an example of bourgeois democracy, of representative democracy. But it was an example of democracy where every five years the people were only partially invited, not all the people, limiting electoral participation greatly such that the exercise was often effectively prevented or the people’s vote was defrauded. But above all, they were processes wherein all campaigns and commitments were absolutely unfulfilled, and sovereignty was limited to that one event where they could participate: the electoral event.

February 27 and 28 marked a milestone because they exposed that entire model and the criminal actions that persisted throughout the years of Puntofijo, the years of the Fourth Republic, and after the death of Father Bolívar. But particularly, it exposed that brutal period of the Puntofijo Pact, with its tutelage under the United States and the School of the Americas, with its brutal repression of the youth—the disappearance of much of that youth who rebelled against the handing over of the country—the handing over of its resources, the handing over of our territory.

And that was a global scandal. Perhaps it was one of the strongest uprisings against the recipe of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, and it was the most brutal repression that was committed, truly a genocidal criminal act against a defenseless people. National media outlets applauded the repression, fully siding with the genocidal government, which broke the spell, shattering the lie.

The media bubble was exposed as one of the fundamental elements supporting that criminal fascist regime. This immediately sparked an important reaction in popular organization, which later transformed into an unstoppable movement when Hugo Chávez appeared on the horizon.

THE EMERGENCE OF THE BOLIVARIAN MOVEMENT

In 1992, there was an uprising by the young military officers, a rebellion with limited civilian partici- pation, mostly from university students and some leftist organizations, but primarily from the young officers of the National Armed Forces at that time. This rebellion, when it first appeared, did not have full popular support, as the people had been brutally repressed by those same forces. It was when Commander Hugo Chávez took the stage that the people were able to link these two actions: the 1989 uprising and the 1992 civic-military rebellion. When Chávez spoke, he introduced us to this Bolivarian movement and gave it all its historical depth.

At that time, there was also a cultural movement that began in the 1980s, and in 1983, it was the bicentennial of Father Bolívar’s birth. This cultural movement of singers, called the Bolivarian Song, was led by Alí Primera, the people’s singer, a man who unified the struggles of our people through his songs and actions. So, it was this cultural movement that was latent throughout the territory, which then experienced a moment of rupture with the false democracy in 1989.

At the moment Hugo Chávez appeared, he had a project, a possibility of a path forward, and it was at that moment, when he took the stage, to tell us about this Bolivarian movement. This movement is not an isolated act; it is a movement that proposed a way forward. At that moment, he had the capacity, even in a moment of surrender, when he was detained, to tell us that we had not yet achieved what he described, but that the country would head toward a different destiny and he assumed responsibility. This also carries significant weight because the political actions of that entire period—a brutal bureaucratic handover of the country to North American interests—were marked by a political practice where no one took responsibility for anything. Everything was deceit, lies, theft, and plundering of the people, their dreams, and their territory. So, indeed, this brave and courageous act, wherein he also assumes responsibility, made it clear that times would change, but that it came with Bolívar and was a movement.

This was decisive and unstoppable, and it marked the destiny of the Bolivarian Revolution. It was a long road from 1992, with imprisonment and persecution, until the great victory of 1998 and then the inauguration, which was also a significant political milestone. When Commander Chávez took office in February 1999, he did so with an oath, “I swear before this moribund Constitution,” signaling the death of the old model and calling on the people. This is also important because, honoring his campaign, Bolívar was almost always present. Bolívar in his speech before the Congress of Venezuela in Angostura on February 15, 1819, proclaimed: “Happy is the citizen who, with the shield of arms under his command, calls upon the people to exercise their absolute will, their sovereignty.”

And that is exactly what Commander Chávez did when he assumed the presidency of the National Government. When he swore before this moribund Constitution, he called us to draft the new legal framework of the Republic. He said, “We are going to re-found the Republic,” and called for a constituent process, a consultation to hold a constituent assembly where, from that moment on, the peoples who for five hundred years had been long neglected—our Indigenous peoples, our Afro-descendant people, our workers, and peasants—who had reached an extraordinary pinnacle with the struggle and victory of the War of Independence but were immediately betrayed, would participate.

So, that centuries-long struggle reached a moment of fruition. It was precisely when Commander Chávez called on all the people of resistance, struggle, dreams, and life to build the legal framework of the Republic. It was an extraordinary process that we must always mention because, for the first time, a Constitution captured the dreams, aspirations, struggles, searches, and paths of our people.

And that Constitution, in Article Five, states: “Sovereignty resides intransferably in the people, who exercise it directly in the manner provided by this Constitution and the law, and indirectly through voting, by the bodies that exercise Public Power.”

Thus, this marks our vision of the model of participatory and protagonistic democracy, of revolutionary democracy, of popular democracy. And this is the great battle we have fought over these years and continue to fight, not only for Venezuela. We believe it is indeed a necessity for humanity.

BUILDING THE REVOLUTION

The Bolivarian Revolution, as soon as Commander Chávez took office, faced a very complex situation. The country was in debt, mortgaged by the International Monetary Fund, and the price of oil was $7 a barrel. Venezuela, like all economies under that brutal form of neocolonialism dependent on North American imperialism, had become a monoproductive economy. This caused enormous damage when Commander Chávez arrived.

Poverty in Venezuela was a serious problem. Extreme poverty was at 40 percent. General poverty was over 60 percent. There was no way to pay the workers—the public administration employees—and there was enormous precariousness added to the historical debts of education, health, housing for our people, and the levels of marginality.

All services were being set up for privatization according to the neoliberal scheme: electricity, water, and services like education and health. So, the state was engaging in almost suicidal actions to carry out the entire privatization process.

And, as was said, the vast majority of the population living in neighborhoods, in popular communities, were condemned to be on the margins of these services, in communities that had never had access to drinking water or electricity. It was a truly complex and difficult situation. So, what was the role at that moment? Commander Chávez had called us, first of all, amidst so many needs, to rise up and reach a higher level of consciousness.

What we were experiencing was a product of a society built upon colonization and dependency, an exclusionary model and an undemocratic model. Bourgeois democracy is not democracy; it is a farce that kidnaps the sovereignty of the people. So, the first thing Commander Chávez proposed amidst such adversity was to refound the Republic. But with the law and the Constitution already in place, how do you address the historical debts?

One of the crucial elements in the exercise of government, amidst so many difficulties, was that each need had to be turned into an organization and each organization into a movement.

So what to do? Given the precariousness, what could be the immediate governmental action to put the state at the service of the people?

Commander Chávez created an initial mission, Plan Bolívar 2000, and deployed all the National Armed Forces, the only organized structure in the territory, to attend to the people. The military was tasked with implementing education programs, ensuring the distribution of identity cards, providing dental evaluations, and delivering food to the most remote communities. The goal was to demonstrate that the state could serve the people, in contrast to the past when the Armed Forces served the oligarchies to repress and murder the people.

This immediately changed the purpose of the state. It was now to serve the people. But Commander Chávez also emphasized that it was the people who needed to seize power, and for that reason, he said that every need had to become an organization.

The people had no ownership of the land they inhabited, so they could be dispossessed at any moment. They couldn’t build homes or farms because they owned nothing. Thus, one of the forms of organization in the territory was the Land Committees, starting with urban lands where large, densely populated areas considered marginal—the so-called misery belts—were actually where the majority of the city’s population lived.

In these areas, land committees were established so people could rebuild their lives, asking themselves where they came from. Many were from rural exoduses who had abandoned their land and ended up in the only spaces that offered any possibility of life. Therefore, our rural population ended up in these belts surrounding the large cities, which once experienced the oil bonanza.

The organization of the Urban Land Committee (UTC) began to reconstruct their origins, their identity, and, most importantly, the life they wanted. Ownership was established by mapping out their neighborhoods, creating a historical record, and drafting a founding charter for the neighborhood. The committee then became the organization and, from there, a means to achieve goals.

Now, there was collective and family ownership, and the focus shifted to what the Health Committees would do, since access to health services was lacking. For the first time, doctors arrived in our neighborhoods, fields, and Indigenous communities. During this initial phase, Cuban doctors came with us, but the Health Committee was organized by the community.

Each committee—whether for health, education, housing, or water—transformed into an organization. The Water Technical Tables, Health Committees, and various forms of organization became crucial forces for transforming reality.

Commander Chávez told us that all these forms of organization needed the potential to become territorial governance. Thus, communal councils were created, grouping together the Land Committee, Water Committee, Health Committee, Education Committee, and Housing Committee into a powerful popular organization that then became a governing body—the communal council—and ultimately evolved into communes.

These communal councils often shared facilities like schools or health centers. Thus, there was a need to consolidate into a higher instance, in this case, the communes, where a fundamental element for the development of this power was linked to productive activity. We needed to organize to produce in the territory and to develop all its potential.

This is within the framework of those three roots: Bolívar’s, which affirms that sovereignty resides in the people; Simón Rodríguez’s, which tells us that the power of the people lies in their place. We either invent or err, because repeating old models imposed upon us is where the mistake lies. Only through heroic creation, through the invention of the people according to their needs, their searches, and their reality, will we find success.

Moreover, we must also look at that other deep root, the Zamorano root, from Ezequiel Zamora, who, in the midst of the Federal War, told us, “We did not come to this war to choose who will rule the people, but for the people to rule, for the people to govern.” Thus, the challenge was how to organize ourselves in the territory to build popular government, people’s power, not just as a decree or a law in the Constitution, but as a permanent exercise of development. We began to walk on our own feet and build with our own hands, to think about ourselves according to our reality, not just from a place of need, but from a plan that would allow us to live a dignified life, our dream built collectively. This is crucial because it was done in parallel.

To boost and develop these people’s struggles, it was necessary to generate income. In a country shattered by the neoliberal model, it was essential to recover oil prices. Through the Constituent Assembly, we managed to pass laws that ensured oil revenues would be directed to the nation, not to foreign interests. The enabling laws and hydrocarbon laws allowed us to regain control over the oil company and allocate its profits to the people. However, resources were needed for the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) so that oil prices, which at the time were so low, could reach a fair level that ensured justice—a fair price that guaranteed the development of oil-producing countries, which were then being hit hard, especially countries like us, in that category of dependence and imperialist control as brutal as what was imposed on us.

So, while the internal forces of Popular Power were developing, organizing, mobilizing, and building a new model of democracy—participatory and protagonist—Commander Chávez was fighting to reunify OPEC. Commander Chávez achieved something that seemed unprecedented after the Gulf Wars, as he managed to bring together Iran, Iraq, and the rest of the oil-producing countries, including Kuwait. The Commander crossed deserts in an Iraq that was under siege, meeting with Saddam Hussein, and they reestablished that important mechanism within OPEC which allowed many countries around the world, including some not part of the organization, to recover the price of raw materials.

In Russia’s case, for example, without the Bolivarian Revolution and Commander Chávez’s titanic efforts to restore fair oil prices, Russia’s own recovery would have been nearly impossible. Thus, what Venezuela did at that time was crucial. Meanwhile, it was already reestablishing connections for the greater goal of the Bolivarian Revolution, which is Latin American unity.

THE GREAT HOMELAND

There, the seeds were planted for what would later become Petrocaribe, ALBA (Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America), CELAC (Community of Latin American and Caribbean States), and UNASUR (Union of South American Nations), as we found a way out of the pit and helped other nations, which is exactly what was done. As soon as Venezuela achieved stability, it managed to free Argentina from the horrific debt that condemned it to war, dependence, and barbarism. It was Venezuela that secured stability by purchasing Argentina’s debt. In other words, as soon as our oil resources became sovereign and under our control, they were enhanced and used to develop national productive forces, while also providing immediate aid to the Caribbean, which was in a very difficult situation, and to the southern regions that needed support. At times, that same oil was sent to the United States, to the poor in the Bronx or to those who were devastated by Hurricane Katrina.

In this way, Venezuela developed its strength for solidarity and for the unity of the peoples. Venezuela opened spaces for dialogue with the entire world, always showing great respect for the unique realities of different countries. Particularly under Commander Chávez and later under President Maduro, Venezuela has always extended its arms for dialogue and engagement with the peoples of the world, including the United States, on a permanent basis. Perhaps one of the key points of President Nicolás Maduro’s government has been the ongoing call for dialogue, dialogue above all else.

However, it is important to emphasize that the attacks on Venezuela have not been due to that diplomacy, which I mentioned, as it has been marked by dialogue. It is a Bolivarian diplomacy, one that understands the need for deep bonds among humanity and that the great threats facing humanity can only be overcome if we unite, together, as a people.

Within the framework of Bolivarian diplomacy, which is based on the solidarity of the peoples, it aims to change the paradigm of diplomacy, moving away from one based solely on the particular interests of a few groups, and instead embracing a diplomacy grounded in the belief that we inhabit a common Earth and that the destiny of each is the destiny of all. Only in that harmony, in that balance of the universe where peace prevails, can humanity, as Bolívar said, truly uncover the mysterious enigma of the human being in freedom. Achieving true freedom is the freedom of peace, of encounter, of equality, and of solidarity, where we are brothers and sisters, where we love one another, as Christ’s commandment asks of us, to love one another.

For the Bolivarian Revolution, this is a quest, a task, and it is the fundamental reason why we march forward. First and foremost, we believe in Latin American unity and in the balance of the universe. That’s why we believe in a multipolar world, in a multicentric world. We understand the need to recognize each people, their history, their struggles, their vision for the future. And what will allow us to advance together is precisely breaking the mechanisms of domination, violence, and war, and avoiding the oppression of one people over another. The possibility of marching together in a world of equals is necessary, it is imperative, and it is the only way we have to preserve life on this planet.

A REVOLUTION UNDER SIEGE

We have enemies because, although Venezuela does not produce weapons of mass destruction and has never throughout its history invaded another country, when it did cross its borders two hundred years ago, it was to bring freedom without taking an inch of land from anyone. On the contrary, much of our land was, at some point, taken from us, as the British imperialists, in that horrendous alliance with the United States and ExxonMobil, now seek to do, using Guyana to claim the Essequibo. It is the oil companies that seek to seize this territory, intending to establish a military base and a focus of war in the region, not only for the exploitation of this vital territory, which is essential for life due to its delta, but also to exploit the oil of our Atlantic coast, the Venezuelan coast, and to occupy the entire region. Therefore, the defense of the Essequibo is crucial for regional peace, it is essential for life in the region, and it is fundamental to fully defending our sovereignty.

So yes, we have many enemies, but most importantly, as I mentioned, we do not possess weapons of mass destruction, but we have something that is very dangerous.

I suppose this is what inspired the infamous decree by Mr. Obama, which was later ratified by Mr. Trump and Mr. Biden, stating that Venezuela was an unusual and extraordinary threat. I believe they were referring to the model of true democracy, participatory and protagonist, the revolutionary democracy that allows the people to be protagonists and to govern.

We have terrible, brutal, and constant enemies who have kept us under siege, through criminal campaigns of demonization, persistent attempts at occupation, efforts to instigate civil war, and making life nearly impossible for our people. This has been systematic, permanent, since the attempted coup d’état. Before that, there were many actions aimed at sabotaging our economy during the first coup attempt, followed by the promotion of terrorist activities, occupations, the Operation Daktari in 2004, and the guarimbas (violent protests) involving Colombian paramilitary forces who were going to be disguised in the uniforms of the Bolivarian National Armed Forces to assassinate the president and create the conditions for a civil war.

This was the case throughout Commander President Hugo Chávez’s administration, where he faced the most brutal international campaigns, including the disease that ultimately took his life—a plan by the enemies of this homeland who believed it would be the end of the Bolivarian Revolution. Commander Chávez not only defeated them despite his illness but also ensured unity by declaring from his heart, like a full moon: Nicolás Maduro. Nicolás, indeed a worker, but also a statesman, accompanied him in the construction of a multipolar and multicentric world, in the construction of Latin American unity and bridges to the rest of the world through ALBA, Petrocaribe, and UNASUR. This worker, trained in the labor movement and in the left, has had the courage, bravery, and wisdom to defend peace, the homeland, and to maintain the course of the Bolivarian Revolution during the most difficult times—times of renewed attempts at civil war, occupation, and mercenary invasions.

President Nicolás has managed to defend sovereignty in the face of those attempts through the creation of terrorist actions, known here as guarimba, which are criminal fascist actions. President Nicolás convened a Constituent process, just as Chávez did, following Bolívar’s legacy of calling upon the people: “I trust the wisdom of the people more than the counsel of the wise,” Bolívar said. We achieved peace and have resisted the entire multifactorial war strategy: economic war, cognitive war, and cultural war.

In that first phase of the economic war, intending for our country to fall into civil war due to famine, President Nicolás, following Commander Chávez’s model, once again returned to the people. It is there, with the people, that the great solutions are found. He created the Local Supply and Production Committees (CLAP). When there was little to distribute, that distribution could not be done by the capitalist market, nor could the State do it above the people—it had to be done by the people themselves. These committees were essential in confronting the difficulties.

Similarly, during the pandemic that caused devastation worldwide, with predictions from the United States and The New York Times that we would become the epicenter of the pandemic, they had, with the blockade, prevented medicines from reaching our country. They had waged a systematic war to dismantle our healthcare system, and with the state weakened by the blockade, they created the conditions for Venezuela to suffer brutally during the pandemic.

But they failed, and they failed because President Nicolás, with the wisdom of the people and trust in the people, addressed the pandemic not through conventional means but through popular organization, optimizing resources and ensuring that in this country, where there is a social mapping of the people, everyone knows the territory they inhabit. But not only that, they know every inhabitant—each person is not a statistic but a human being, knowing that there is a pregnant woman, an elderly person, someone with a disability, someone with four children, or a person with hypertension. This real knowledge, because we are all protagonists of our lives, allowed us to develop a health policy tailored to each territory. It made us one of the countries with the lowest infection rates and mortality rates, in contrast, unfortunately, to the United States of America.

We managed to defeat the blockade with the diplomacy of the people. Solidarity prevailed, which is our vision. Vaccines came to us from Cuba, that Cuba which resists and works miracles. Vaccines came from China, vaccines came from Russia. And despite being robbed even of the money we paid to the World Health Organization for vaccines, solidarity prevailed.

It is the people who can work the miracle of life, the miracle of peace, and the miracle of true and real democracy, which should not only exist within each country but across the entire world. Every people has the right to decide their own destiny. Every people has the right to live in peace, to restore bonds of solidarity rather than subjugation and domination.

So, why are there so many enemies against a people who have only sought peace? Why this massive campaign? Why the blockade? Because the more than nine hundred unilateral coercive measures, which they call sanctions, are acts of war. Why are they waging this war against us?

I believe it is because of the example we set. If participatory and protagonist democracy, direct democracy, triumphs—if it brings happiness, life, and development—then it becomes a bad example, because the criminal plutocracy that governs the United States feels threatened.

If the North American people were to truly realize the possibility of building a true democracy, one that is not determined by lobbyists, not controlled by the super wealthy, but by the right of every person to exercise power in the territory of the people’s power, in the place where they decide to live with dignity and regain the right to be the protagonist of their own history and destiny—then that is what I believe Obama, Trump, and Biden considered in their infamous decrees. “An unusual and extraordinary threat.” But we are convinced that this is the only path to sustaining life on this planet. The right of the people to decide, for dialogue and coexistence to prevail, and for this model of true democracy to triumph—the people’s democracy, not the elites’ democracy. Direct democracy, not representative democracy. A democracy that is exercised daily, not postponed every five years. That is what makes us an unusual and extraordinary threat.

We must build a different world where solidarity prevails. To live in communion, in community. And that requires weaving bonds of brotherhood. It is love that must prevail, and the force that will allow us to save life on this planet is love, and we must fight for it. Love is woven in peace, not in war. We must preserve peace and build these bonds, these ties of love between peoples—the destiny of one is the destiny of all. Humanity will not survive unless it lives on a living planet where life has value. And this is an essential task. We must defend the practice of true democracy—direct, revolutionary democracy. We must defeat deceit and lies, and we must restore communication between human beings, beyond the dictatorship of the media or the dictatorship of social networks, which only lead us to hatred, war, and destruction.