CARACAS,
Venezuela — THE recent protests in Venezuela have made international headlines.
Much of the foreign media coverage has distorted the reality of my country and
the facts surrounding the events.
Venezuelans
are proud of our democracy. We have built a participatory democratic movement
from the grass roots that has ensured that both power and resources are
equitably distributed among our people.
According
to the United
Nations, Venezuela has consistently reduced
inequality: It now has the lowest income inequality in the region. We have reduced
poverty enormously — to 25.4
percent in 2012, on the World Bank’s data, from 49 percent
in 1998; in the same period, according to government statistics, extreme
poverty diminished to 6 percent from 21 percent.
We have
created flagship universal health care and education programs, free to
our citizens nationwide. We have achieved these feats in large part by using
revenue from Venezuelan oil.
While
our social policies have improved citizens’ lives over all, the government has
also confronted serious economic challenges in the past 16 months, including
inflation and shortages of basic goods. We continue to find solutions through
measures like our new market-based foreign
exchange system, which is designed to reduce the black market exchange
rate. And we are monitoring businesses to ensure they are not gouging consumers
or hoarding products. Venezuela has also struggled with a high crime rate. We
are addressing this by building a new national police
force, strengthening community-police cooperation and revamping our prison
system.
Since
1998, the movement founded by Hugo Chávez has won more than a dozen
presidential, parliamentary and local elections through an electoral process
that former American President Jimmy Carter has
called “the best in the
world.” Recently, the United Socialist Party received an overwhelming mandate
in mayoral elections in December 2013, winning 255 out of 337 municipalities.
Popular
participation in politics in Venezuela has increased dramatically over the past
decade. As a former union organizer, I believe profoundly in the right to
association and in the civic duty to ensure that justice prevails by voicing
legitimate concerns through peaceful assembly and protest.
The
claims that Venezuela has a deficient democracy and that current protests
represent mainstream sentiment are belied by the facts. The antigovernment protests
are being carried out by people in thewealthier
segments of society who seek
to reverse the gains of the democratic process that have benefited the vast
majority of the people.
Antigovernment
protesters have physically attacked and damaged health care clinics, burned
down a university in Táchira State and thrown Molotov cocktails and rocks at
buses. They have also targeted other public institutions by throwing rocks and
torches at the offices of the Supreme Court, the public telephone company CANTV
and the attorney general’s office. These violent
actions have caused many
millions of dollars’ worth of damage. This is why the protests have received no
support in poor and working-class neighborhoods.
The
protesters have a single goal: the unconstitutional ouster of the
democratically elected government. Antigovernment leaders made this clear when
they started the campaign in January, vowing to create chaos in the streets.
Those with legitimate criticisms of economic conditions or the crime rate are being
exploited by protest leaders with a violent, antidemocratic agenda.
In two
months, a reported 36 people have been killed. The protesters are, we believe, directly
responsible for about half of
the fatalities. Six members of the National Guard have been shot and killed;
other citizens have been murdered while attempting to remove obstacles placed by
protesters to block transit.
A very
small number of security forces personnel have also been accused of engaging in
violence, as a result of which several people have died. These are highly
regrettable events, and the Venezuelan government has responded by arresting
those suspected. We have created a Human Rights Council to investigate all
incidents related to these protests. Each victim deserves justice, and every
perpetrator — whether a supporter or an opponent of the government — will be
held accountable for his or her actions.
In the
United States, the protesters have been described as “peaceful,” while the
Venezuelan government is said to be violently repressing them.
According
to this narrative, the American government is siding with the people of
Venezuela; in reality, it is on the side of the 1 percent who wish to drag our
country back to when the 99 percent were shut out of political life and only
the few — including American companies — benefited from Venezuela’s oil.
Let’s
not forget that some of those who supported ousting Venezuela’s democratically
elected government in 2002 are leading the protests today. Those involved in
the 2002 coup immediately disbanded the Supreme Court and the legislature, and
scrapped the Constitution. Those who incite violence and attempt similar
unconstitutional actions today must face the justice system.
The
American government supported the 2002 coup and recognized the coup government despite its
anti-democratic behavior. Today, the Obama administration spends at least $5 million annually to support opposition
movements in Venezuela. A bill calling for an additional $15 million for these
anti-government organizations is
now in Congress. Congress is
also deciding whether to impose sanctions on Venezuela. I hope that the
American people, knowing the truth, will decide that Venezuela and its people
do not deserve such punishment, and will call upon their representatives not to
enact sanctions.
Now is a
time for dialogue and diplomacy. Within Venezuela, we have extended a hand to
the opposition. And we have accepted the Union of South American Nations’
recommendations to engage in mediated talks with the opposition. My government
has also reached out to President Obama, expressing our desire to again
exchange ambassadors. We hope his administration will respond in kind.
Venezuela
needs peace and dialogue to move forward. We welcome anyone who sincerely wants
to help us reach these goals.
Nicolás Maduro is the
president of Venezuela.
A
version of this op-ed appears in print on April 2, 2014, on page A27 of the New York edition with the headline: Venezuela: A Call
for Peace.
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