Are they NGOs or political parties? (1)

Published at: 23/02/2024 05:00 PM

We have observed, when reviewing the media, that in our country there are certain Non-Governmental Organizations ( NGOs) with a clear interest in participating in domestic political dynamics, behaving as actors that generate matrices of opinion with the purpose of discrediting the actions of the National Government.

As part of the research we carried out, we were able to find enough coincidences between some NGOs and the Democratic Coordinator (CD) first, and the Bureau of Democratic Unity (MUD) later, based on the proposals carried out during the junctures of the oil paro-sabotage and the 2002 coup d'etat: First, the document presented by the CD called “Bases for a Democratic Agreement ” characterized the political situation in 2002 as one of emergency national and based on this they called for a national agreement to leave the Constitutional Government of Hugo Chávez Frías.

From the media outlet Globovision, at a press conference held on December 2, 2002, Carlos Ortega, representing the union of workers and Carlos Fernández, as director of Petrleos de Venezuela (PDVSA), united in the spokesperson of the CD, declared that “there was a pattern of ungovernability in the country and the Government's incapacity to achieve an understanding with the business sector and labor through their union representatives, we call on organized civil society and political parties to undertake together initiatives to unite the country, rescue institutions, re-establish social dialogue and adopt appropriate measures to progress in peace and democracy”.

Faced with this statement, the support of the NGOs for this approach was immediate: They responded to this call by FEDECÁMARAS and the Confederation of Workers of Venezuela (CTV) to the national strike , then, during the coup d'etat, the NGOs Ciudadanía Activa and CEDICE, along with others such as People of Petroleum, Transparency International , CONVIVE, Instituto Prensa y Sociedad, We Want to Choose, endorsed the document presented and signed the Carmona Decree, which abolished the Constitution of 1999 and required the dismissal of the authorities who were at the head of all powers.

Later, in second place and according to the research carried out by sociologist Gladys Rojas, called “Metamorphosis of NGOs: The socio-political role of NGOs in the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela during the period 1999-2014” at the School of Social Management of the Ministry of Power Popular Planning analyzed that “as a matter of pure chance, the Guidelines of the Government Program of the Bureau of Democratic Unity (MUD) in 2008 fully coincided with the fields and lines of work of the opposition NGOs created during the 14 years of President Hugo Chávez's administration Cold.”

Among the NGOs registered in the database built within the framework of the research of the sociologist Rojas, a number of these organizations have participated in different discrediting campaigns against the Bolivarian Government in the various conjunctures of political destabilization generated in the country between 1999 and 2024.

To demonstrate this, researcher Rojas characterized the main similarities that NGOs that act as political subjects have:

• · A group of them has a presence in all entities of the country, allowing them to act as a movement of opinion and political action at the national level.
• · They have strengthened their organization as political subjects using the concept of alliances, networks and coalitions under a complex framework of organizational structures and relationships that fit the interests of national and imperial NGOs.
• · Its spokespersons make pronouncements, public complaints and sign documents that are sent to bodies of the country's different public authorities and organizations of the international human rights system.
• · In addition, they organize and carry out mobilizations of complaints and protests against the management of public bodies in areas of public policies such as: human rights, health, social labor rights, inflation, freedom of the press, freedom of expression, right to information, prison issues, among others.

That is why, when reviewing the recent past, we see their active participation in different political conjunctures, such as the strike, oil sabotage and coup d'etat 2002—2003; the Revocation Referendum against President Hugo Chávez in 2004; the campaign against the Constitutional Reform in 2007, in which they established a position on their own account or by signing documents from other organizations in favor of the political coalitions of the sectors opposed to the Bolivarian Government.

In fact, if we make a chronology of the destabilizing actions and the participating NGOs, we have the following:

• · Oil Strike 2000 (Active Citizenship and Petroleum People)
• · Coup d'Etat in 2002 (Convive, Transparency International, Press and Society Institute, We Want to Choose, Active Citizenship and Cedice).
• · Recall Referendum against President Hugo Chávez in 2004 (Active Citizenship, Membership and Citizen Control).
• · Campaign for Constitutional Reform in 2007 (Active Citizenship and Join)
• · Destabilizing actions or guarimbas during the years 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2023 (Venezuelan Criminal Forum, PROVEA and Citizen Control).

In summarizing what has been said, from the analysis of the coincidences between the arguments of the NGOs and the postulates of the MUD, we highlight the following aspects:

• The first thing to note is the leading participation of a significant part of direct representatives of these organizations in the drafting team of the “Guidelines of the Government of National Unity Program.”
• And the second thing is that the participation of these NGO representatives is not as guests or service providers, but as active members and supporters of the MUD, who, within the framework of this new consensus of the right, intend to be rewarded with the appointment of positions in public institutions in the social area and a large portion of the public budget.

In short, there is no doubt that there is an urgent need to legislate on this type of organization, as is done in the rest of the world, in order to address and resume the objectives they set out in their cover letters.

AMELYREN BASABE/ DECK WRITING