Hands Off Venezuela

Caracas, May 23, 2008 (venezuelanalysis.com) – The United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) is set to organize a 300,000 strong network of “permanent mobilization” to carry out political activity “including the defense of Venezuelan sovereignty,” according to Darío Vivas, head of the PSUV’s Events and Mobilization Commission, which will be responsible for coordinating the network.

“We will be ready to mobilize in the face of any circumstance,” Vivas declared Thursday in a statement to the press. The first mission of the network will be to campaign for the regional elections set for November 23. But the group will also serve as a “rapid response” network in the face of importance incidents such as possible secession movements in Zulia, Vivas said.

Dario Vivas, Chair of the PSUV's Events and Mobilization Commission (Aporrea)

Following the internal elections of candidates on June 1, the party will carry out “mobilization drills” throughout the whole country, with a focus on the states and municipalities in the border region he said.

On Tuesday, PSUV members in Caracas warned that it would be a big challenge to combat abstention both within the PSUV internal elections and in the upcoming regional elections.

For many poor Venezuelans the decision of whether to participate in elections or not often comes down to whether they have access to transport to and from the polling booths.

However, Vivas assured, “on the day of the internal elections, a plan of organized mobilization” would be implemented to facilitate transport of PSUV members to vote. The transport would be “egalitarian” so as not to favor any one pre-candidate in particular he stressed, although in contrast he said he did not see any problem if pre-candidates themselves wanted to organize transportation for people.

Vivas also ruled out the use of fingerprint machines, which are commonly used in Venezuelan elections to prevent multiple voting, for the party’s internal elections.

“There’s no reason to use them, we are among revolutionaries that trust each other…the pre-candidates have sworn to respect the established rules,” he argued.

The PSUV national executive has also withdrawn a ban on campaigning in the media during the party’s internal elections. Although political advertising remains prohibited, pre-candidates are allowed to participate in talk shows and publish opinion pieces. Candidates are also prohibited from using the image of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez in their campaigns and from attacking each other publicly throughout the campaign.

However, controversy erupted on Wednesday evening when state owned television station’s current affairs program, Contra Golpe, hosted by journalist Vanessa Davies, was set to interview the six pre-candidates for governor of Lara: Henri Falcón, Julio Chávez, Linda Amaro, Pedro Alastre, Luis Contreras and Iván Lugo.

As the pre-candidates began to arrive, reports surfaced that Henri Falcón would not attend and that Julio Chávez, (the immensely popular mayor of Pedro Leon Torres Municipality in the state of Lara, who has headed a process democratize the entire governance system of his municipality), was being pressured to stand down by some members of the PSUV national leadership in favor of Falcón.

As Mayor Chávez arrived, he was met with cheers and applause and chants of, “If the people don’t stand firm, the Right will screw it up.”

Chaos ensued and Alastre, Contreras, and Lugo, the regional electoral coordinator of the PSUV, left without explanation forcing the program to be suspended.

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