- 25 Years in Revolution: A Historic Shift to Sovereignty and Social Justice
The Bolivarian Revolution set Venezuela on a path of independence, social resurgence and equity. The nation has stayed on that path, overcoming all kinds of enemies and obstacles. Today it continues to represent the hope not only of the homeland of Bolívar and Chávez, but of all the peoples of the world who struggle to eradicate injustice and coexist in peace and brotherhood.
The historical and political project of the Bolivarian Revolution has reached 25 years since it came to power. After the unquestionable triumph of Commander Hugo Chávez in the elections of December 6, 1998, on February 2, 1999, a stage of transformation began for Venezuela with the aim of achieving social equality, inclusion and the vindication of the fundamental rights of the Venezuelan people.
Chávez was the protagonist and main promoter of these transformations, a task to which he devoted himself since February 4, 1992, when he burst into the prevailing state of affairs in the country, which was plunged into moral bankruptcy after 40 years of the so-called representative democracy, whose leadership turned its back on the people and mortgaged the sovereignty of the homeland to the interests of transnational capital.
Chavez’s conviction penetrated firmly and deeply into the soul of Venezuela. Beyond party adherence, the people identified in him a genuine leader, capable of promoting and leading the urgent process of changes that would rescue the ideals of freedom, justice and union inherited from Bolívar and also represented by other central figures in our history.
Protagonist village
The rescue of popular protagonism in the full and authentic exercise of democracy was from the beginning a priority objective of the Bolivarian project. From the moment he assumed the presidency, Chávez promoted the draft Constitution of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, which was approved by the people in the referendum of December 15, 1999.
With that mandate, the President activated the original constituent power and provided the nation with a constitutional text adapted to the new times, in which popular power and the recovery of independence and sovereignty laid the foundations for a historical, social and political transformation of global resonance, due to its revolutionary content of humanity and justice.
Under Chávez’s leadership, the Bolivarian Revolution achieved unquestionable achievements in a few years in areas such as education, health, social benefits for workers, in addition to restoring self-determination and national independence, with concrete expressions such as the sovereign management of its wealth and the determined impulse to Latin American unity, in fulfillment of the Bolivarian dream of the Great Homeland.
These principles continue to guide the evolution of the Bolivarian process, now under the leadership of President Nicolás Maduro. Thus, the Bolivarian Revolution has managed to maintain its course despite the harassment, animosity and blackmail perpetrated by its enemies and detractors, both internal and foreign.
The full exercise of popular sovereignty is evidenced by the addition of 28 electoral and referendum processes in these 25 years in which the will of the people has been imposed.
Social and economic achievements
The recovery of sovereignty in the management of the country’s resources has made it possible to carry out plans and projects aimed at achieving the objectives of justice and social inclusion, which characterize the Bolivarian Revolution. The emphasis on policies aimed at benefiting the population is evidenced by the fact that since 1999, nearly three thirds of the national budget has been allocated directly or indirectly to social investment.
Thanks to this vision, the Bolivarian Missions have been developed, free social programs to address fundamental areas such as health. The preventive medicine plans carried out mainly within the framework of the Barrio Adentro Mission have saved millions of lives in these five decades.
Educational missions began in 2003 with the Robinson Mission, which succeeded in teaching 100% literacy to the population using the “Yes I Can” method, with which more than three million people learned to read and write.
The Ribas Mission, focused on secondary education, has awarded the baccalaureate degree to more than one million students, while the Sucre Mission, corresponding to higher education, has graduated more than 600,000 new professionals.
The policy developed for basic education has made it possible to double school enrolment at this level, which today stands at around 95 per cent, with about 86 per cent of students attending public institutions.
The Bolivarian process recognizes housing as a human right. In less than two decades, the Bolivarian Revolution has tripled the number of homes built during the 40 years of so-called representative democracy. Since the beginning of the Housing Mission in 2011, the construction of homes for the people has not stopped, despite the limitations imposed by the economic war against the country. Last December, the figure of 4,800,000 homes was delivered and the goal is to reach the milestone of 5,000,000 in the short term.
With the Revolution, more than five million people have been pensioned, which means that 100% of women over 55 years of age and men over 60 years of age are recognized as having this fundamental right. This contrasts with the Fourth Republic (1958-1998), when the number of pensioners did not exceed 380,000 people.
The same principles that drove the social programs created by Chávez mark the initiatives to add new missions and improve existing ones. Thus, President Maduro has strengthened the assistance programs that have ensured the supply of food to the Venezuelan people in the face of the impact of the so-called “sanctions” imposed by the United States. Today, the CLAP program delivers bags of food to more than 7.5 million families across the country each month.
As a result of this firm vocation to serve all sectors of the population – including indigenous peoples – the Bolivarian Revolution today presents to the world an example of resistance and willingness to overcome.
Venezuela in global geopolitics
Prioritized among the strategic objectives in the 2013-2018 and 2019-2024 Homeland Plans, Venezuela’s role on the world stage took a significant turn, moving from subordination to hegemonic centers of power to playing a driving and leading role in the development of a new international geopolitics.
The Bolivarian Revolution postulates the necessary construction of a multicentric and pluripolar world, with a balance that guarantees harmonious development and peace among nations. With this premise, the Venezuela of Chávez and Maduro has been one of the main driving forces of initiatives that have allowed the emergence and evolution of an infrastructure to achieve a truly sovereign Latin American and global south community.
Examples of this new type of political and economic integration, based on the well-being of the peoples, are the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR), the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC), the Bolivarian Alternative for the Peoples of Our America-Peoples’ Trade Treaty (ALBA-TCP), the Bank of the South, Petrocaribe, TeleSur, among others.
That Bolivarian vocation was set out by President Nicolás Maduro in March 2023, at the 52nd Session of the UN Human Rights Council: “With our Bolivarian Diplomacy of Peace, we take firm steps to build the new world of equals, respect, solidarity and cooperation. It is time to give a strong impetus to the unity of the peoples and nations of the world. That’s the way!”
Resistance in the face of multiform warfare
Since 2014, the popular resistance to overcome the serious effects of the multiform war against Venezuela has been heroic. The economic and financial asphyxiation has been confronted with the decision of the government and the people not to surrender to the imperial onslaughts, implemented through the illegal Unilateral Coercive Measures (MCU) imposed on the country.
Without ignoring the terrible economic damage inflicted by the sanctions, which reduced the nation’s income by 99%, Bolivarian Venezuela has moved forward with its own muscle, which is reflected in key economic indicators such as food supply, control of inflation, gradual recovery of oil production, among others.
Thus, despite the MCUs, Venezuela led Latin America’s economic growth in 2023 (4.5%) and is projected to lead the regional economic-productive expansion in 2024, with an index above 5%, according to data and projections from the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC).
Challenges
Aware that it is vital to sustain the progress towards economic recovery, in national unity, President Maduro proposed, in his Annual Message to the nation, to promote seven essential transformations for the well-being of the nation.
These transformations are:
Economy, through a complete transformation of the economic-productive model.
Full independence, with the updating and dissemination of the Bolivarian doctrine in its political, scientific, cultural, educational and technological dimensions.
3. Peace and citizen security, based on the improvement of the model of citizen coexistence, the enjoyment of human rights and the guarantee of the defense of our rights over the Essequibo territory.
Social protection, recovery of the welfare state, its missions and major missions.
Repoliticization, an impulse to consolidate democracy and politics, understood as a public service to the collective.
Ecology, preservation of the planet and mitigation of the climate crisis.
Geopolitics, through the insertion and leadership of Venezuela in the process of world reconfiguration.
With the will and determination to face these challenges, the Venezuelan revolutionary process continues the course begun on February 2, 1999, aimed at consolidating definitive independence, protagonist democracy, the development of the productive forces, true peace and the full exercise of sovereignty.
This is the historical mandate taken up by Commander Chavez to fulfill the maxim of the Liberator Simón Bolívar: “The most perfect system of government is the one that produces the greatest possible amount of happiness, the greatest amount of social security, and the greatest amount of political stability.”
