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01/21/2023

Democracy, dictatorship and coups d’état

Democracy, dictatorship and coups d’état

Those who believe the tale of representative democracy and the “free world” will have had time to reconsider after the latest events in Peru and Brazil. These have shown in all their splendor the falsity of such concepts. Finally, force continues to be imposed as an instrument of the powerful to enforce the criteria that allow them to dominate the world.

For many years, in a sarcastic tone, the question was raised why there were no coups d’état in the United States. The invariable answer was: “… It happens that there is no United States embassy in Washington.” This story can no longer be told. In January 2021, in the largest imperial center in the world, there was also an attempted coup.

Now, history has repeated itself in Brazil with amazing similarities. It even almost coincides in day and date. Perhaps the only difference is that in the United States, Trump had not handed over the administration and in the more recent case, Bolsonaro was already part of history.

In recent years, the resurgence of fascist ultra-right positions and organizations, which is finally the pure and hard right, has been causing great consternation. This eagerness of some to distance themselves from certain positions when the situation warrants it, has given rise to the center right, the right, the ultra right, the extreme right and in Israel even the “orthodox right.” In the same way, on the other side have emerged the democratic left, the center left, the radical left, the ultra-left, the social democracy and other denominations that only serve to hide the true positions and deceive the voters.

Separating line is politics for the people – participatory democracy

In reality, the dividing line goes through doing politics in favor of the people or against them. And for this, as stipulated in the Political Constitution of Venezuela, democracy must also be participatory and the best way to make participation effective is to give the people the weapons to defend themselves. There is no better expression of democracy than a people strongly imbricated with its armed forces to guarantee national sovereignty.

In the height of effrontery, the United States has now added to its theoretical arsenal a new concept for deception: coups are valid only when they are promoted, organized, and financed by Washington. In this regard and in relation to the fascist attempt in Brazil, Secretary of State Anthony Blinken released this little pearl: “Using violence to attack democratic institutions is always unacceptable.” Could it be that he forgot Chile 1973, Bolivia 1979, Peru 1991, Venezuela 2002, Haiti 2004, Honduras 2009, Ecuador 2010, Paraguay 2012, Nicaragua 2018, Bolivia 2019 and Peru 2022 – just to name a few where the hand of the United States was present to “attack democratic institutions through violence”.

Not to mention the “color revolutions”, a euphemism to refer to coups that in the case of Ukraine in 2014 started a war of extermination of the Russian people and other minorities that inhabit that country. In this case, the Undersecretary of State Victoria Nuland herself was on the ground, unabashedly organizing the necessary violence that would lead to the overthrow of the government.

They only get scared when the processes get out of hand and fascist sectors take the wheel in their hands to act outside the institutions of power, “disordering” the control they have established to sustain exploitation and domination. The example is that Pinochetism in Chile is now called the UDI, the followers of Videla and Massera are called PRO in Argentina and the Fujimoristas Fuerza Popular in Peru and the Banzeristas are called Civic Committee of Santa Cruz. They are the same fascists in disguise, who even claim to teach democracy under a system that allows them to do so because, in the end, it serves the interests of the same class.

Hitler and Mussolini came also by elections to power

Finally, it must be remembered that both Hitler and Mussolini, like Trump and Bolsonaro, came to power through elections. Nor should we forget that just as Trump had his January 6 and Bolsonaro his January 8, Hitler on February 27, 1933 ordered the burning of the Reichstag (German parliament) to blame the communists, accusing a young worker without evidence. The 24-year-old Dutchman was sentenced to death a few months later. The fact allowed Hitler to justify the establishment of the Third Reich all in a “legal” way. Today they could not orchestrate even that in Ukraine. Hence the 2014 coup.

Times have changed but the clothing is the same because the intentions do not change and as long as the left does not understand that its main alliance is with the people, not with businessmen or the right, it will continue to lurk, governing alone as in the United States, in alliance with the “liberals” when it suits them as in the case of Chile, Germany or Spain and when none of that works, the door to the coup will always be open. And yes, this must have the permission of Washington.

Sergio Rodríguez Gelfenstein
Sergio Rodríguez Gelfenstein
A Venezuelan international relations expert, Gelfenstein was previously Director of the International Relations of the Presidency of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, his country’s ambassador to Nicaragua and an advisor for international politics for TELESUR. He has written numerous books, among them “China in the XXI Century – the awakening of a giant”, published in several Latin American countries. You can follow him on Twitter: @sergioro0701

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