[The following article by Stuart Munckton for Green Left Weekly summarises some of the points made by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez in a recent interview with the Venezuelan newspaper Diario Panorama. In the interview Chavez spoke about some of the challenges facing the Bolivarian revolution, as the process of social transformation his government is leading is called. Click here to read excerpts from the original interview in Spanish. --Ed]
VENEZUELA: Chavez speaks on the revolution’s challenges
By Stuart Munckton - Green Left Weekly
September 27, 2006.
In an exclusive interview with the September 10 Spanish-language daily Diario Panorama, Venezuela’s socialist President Hugo Chavez spoke about the challenges facing the Bolivarian revolution — as the process of social transformation his government is leading is called.
Many of the gains of the revolution are well-known, with a growing number of social missions redistributing the nation’s oil wealth and resulting in significant drops in poverty. Revolutionaries inside Venezuela are pointing to the dangers of a strongly entrenched state bureaucracy that remains largely unchanged from before Chavez was elected that works to sabotage the process of change — in particular the transfer of power to the poor, a key stated aim of the revolution.
A number of this layer have joined the pro-Chavez camp for opportunist reasons. A number of self-proclaimed Chavistas in positions of power, referred to as “counter-revolutionaries in red berets”, are criticised by the popular movements for continuing the same bureaucratic and often corrupt practices as before the revolution. Chavez has been at the forefront of calling for moves to give more power to the poor, and has sacked a number of high-ranking public officials and ministers for failure to adequately tackle corruption.
Asked by Diario Panorama about the risks facing the revolution, Chavez stated: “The biggest threat is inside; there is a permanent, bureaucratic counterrevolution. I spend my time with a whip because all around me is the enemy of an old and new bureaucracy that is resisting change.” Chavez said that it was important to make sure policies are carried out and not “derailed or minimised by this bureaucratic counterrevolution that is inside the state”.
“The state has been transformed at a macro level”, Chavez explained, “but the micro levels remain intact. It is necessary to think about right now a new package of laws [to facilitate] the transformation of the political and judicial framework right down to the most micro levels of the state to overcome this resistance.
“The counterrevolution of corruption is the sister of the bureaucratic counterrevolution. This is another terrible threat, because it appears where you least expect it ... it is like a demon that has to be exorcised.” Chavez explained this is why, among the key strategic goals for the revolution to be fulfilled if Chavez, as is widely expected, is re-elected in December, is the development of a “socialist ethic”.
Chavez explained that the “other threat is external” to the revolution. “It continues to be assassination”, he said. Venezuela has repeatedly claimed to have evidence of US involvement in plots to kill Chavez. “I am obliged to look after my life, not only for me but for the stability of the country.”
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