India in the Caribbean or the Caribbean in India?
By: Luis Beltrán Guerra G. - 17/09/2024
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The existential cycle flows full of chapters of various kinds, some pleasant and others less so. But also surprising, those that, perhaps, attract attention, both to those who experience them firsthand, and to third parties.
This is how the conference begins with the academic Atal Boequer, chosen by "It Will Down and We Will See" created in Latin America for its problems of governability. In the presidium, Cándida Morales, Bolivian, Francisco Vera, from Ecuador, Julio Restrepo, Colombian, Ricardo Moro, from Brazil, Armida Bello, Chilean and Genarina Castillo, from Caracas, President and the remaining members of the board. Boequer was born in New York, to a father from India (New Delhi), where he resides after completing his studies at Oxford. His mother is from New York. He is an expert in "political sciences and strategies", for which reason he is entrusted with enlightening Latin Americans about progress in democracy. He was asked that the conference not be based, as usual, on the fact that genetically we were not born for civility, so we should be governed by straying from the rules under which democratic countries are run. Atal warns that the dilemmas of humanity disturb him, and the Bolivian Morales claims that he should be disturbed, in particular, by South Americans, because he accuses us of limiting ourselves to writing constitutions, but that we will ignore the channels for the people to select the governors in free elections, to properly manage public property, to advance policies in the interest of equality, to prevent the rich from exploiting the middle class and the poor, to prevent limitations on legitimate claims, to prevent discrimination, and a long etcetera, the numbering of which at this time has almost exhausted the ink to print the laws. This is how we are described, Professor Boequer, in the nations that have achieved, as you must know, stable democratic regimes.
The professor wants to continue, but is interrupted by Genarina Castillo, who asks him to comment on the crisis in Venezuela, where presidential elections have just been held with a favorable result for the opposition candidate and that this has been ignored. Allow me to ask you if this event does not alter your spirit as an expert in political issues. I feel responsible, since I was the one who nominated you as a lecturer. A majority of the population is risking their lives in the streets, demanding that the Magna Carta must be observed. The academic cannot help but feel sorry for this comment.
He continues, however, given his extensive experience, exhibiting the book “El Sari Rojo” by Javier Moro. I must tell you, says the academic standing at the “ambon” from where he speaks, that he has read and reread this excellent work, whose pages have led me to title our dissertation “India in the Caribbean or the Caribbean in India?” And with the healthy desire that we delve into what is related to its nature, as an unknown, and “the ratio” of the comparison of the scenarios. The audience is perceived with an unconcealed interest in Boequer’s speech. But, much more, when the latter does not rule out that we conclude instead of “India in the Caribbean” with “The Caribbean in India”. A possibility that corroborates the appropriateness of the title of the conference.
Javier Moro's prose, in effect, the speaker points out, takes us by the hand to what is known as “the sixth part of the universe”. Let me read to you that “in 1965, Sonia Maino, an Italian student in Cambridge, meets Rajiv Gandhi. She is the daughter of a humble family, from the most powerful lineage in India. For love, the Italian woman abandons her world to merge with the prodigious India, which worships 20 million divinities, speaks 800 languages and votes for 500 political parties. Her dedication will end up turning her into “a goddess” in the eyes of a sixth of humanity”. Please read the 557 pages of the book carefully. That is the way to understand the determining utility of “the inconstancy or alternative of prosperous and adverse events in politics”. If we were to embrace sincerity, which, by the way, is difficult in the face of “the selfish benefit of power,” whose manifestations I would not wish to envelop you. An ironic expression is expressed by the Ecuadorian Francisco Vera. Please do not limit yourselves, Boequer adds, only to our dissertation. You must meditate thoroughly and without waste on “The Red Sari,” whose central idea is condensed in the sentence “When life is the price of power,” which is undoubtedly chilling. It is the most sincere favor you can do for your countries and for yourselves. This phrase draws the challenge you must carry in your souls and put them at the disposal of your suffering homelands.
Those of us who are dedicated to teaching use the “pill”, a mixture of a medicine with an appropriate excipient so that both the teacher and the student swallow it as a sick patient, turning it into help for both. So the historic phrase must be your “cheat sheet” that you must deposit in your brains. But you must also take into account that Javier Moro takes us by the hand to the family saga of the Nehru-Gandhi, men and women trapped in the wars of power, prisoners of a destiny they have not chosen, the same one that will lead Sonia to embody the hopes of 1.2 billion people in the country of Mahatma Gandhi, for whom “Non-violence and truth are inseparable”, as well as “I oppose violence because when it seems to cause good, this is only temporary. The evil it brings is permanent. This is, dear friends, a second pill! The philosopher left, without a doubt, a legacy to the leadership that “Sonia Maino” lived. The Italian, as she is contemptuously called in the political world, despite the opposition of her children Rahul and Priyanka, some time after having refused, joins politics by militating, like her mother-in-law and husband, in the “Indian National Congress” party, which achieves an immense vote, never seen before, a status that legitimizes her to aspire to the position of “Prime Minister”, the same one held by Indira Gandhi and Rajiv. Atal Boequer feels pleased with the progress of his conference.
Sonia Maino, however, the speaker continues, does not agree, despite her decisive electoral victory, to the offer that the Party makes to her, as she had done previously, arguing that she had decided not to know more about politics. Nevertheless, 6 years later she joined the CNI, going on to preside over it for almost two decades, a time that she took advantage of to define with greater tenacity the principles of the “center left,” the ideology of the Party. Despite this, Atal warns, that Sonia seems to have learned that “politics mutates between certainty and the opposite,” which I cannot help but warn you about, since I have been able to confirm that all of you have been bitten, like her, by what they ironically call “the political bug.” Atal laughs when she realizes that the 6 members of “Amanecerá y veremos” cannot hide their statement. Boequer is not surprised that Cándida Morales, from Bolivia, has placed a poster in front of her seat with a photo of Evo Morales upside down. The speaker senses that Cándida is facing a distressing situation, with respect to which the possibilities of improvement seem too remote to lift the spirit and remember that we should never think that all is lost. On the right side of the poster, “The Bolivian Flag”, with its red, yellow and green stripes. And on the left “The Coat of Arms”, emblem and national symbol of this Republic since 1825. Francisco Vera, from Ecuador, demands from the academic objective considerations with respect to “the person who uses deceit and even violence for the sake of his own interest and those who accompany him in the detestable skirmish.” The Chilean Armida Bello adds to this assessment, asking the speaker if this is the cause of the critical conditions of the political regimes. Atal senses that he must take his task even more seriously, which is confirmed when he hears Brazilian Ricardo Moro, in perfect Spanish, argue that his considerations are eagerly awaited regarding whether this anomaly has been present in politics in Latin America and whether or not it has been a determining cause for our failure to achieve efficient democracies. But also, whether the same has occurred in Sonia Gandhi's second homeland. Several of the attendees applaud Moro.
Boequer's reaction is to criticize what happened in Venezuela, saying that he is in favor of comparing Sonia Maino with María Corina Machado, given the courage of both and their vocation to establish a serious, efficient and democratic political regime. But I must reaffirm that countries, faced with events such as that in Caracas, demand to continue the internal struggle and not delegate possible alternatives to other nations, called upon to deal with their own difficulties, which are numerous. And with regard to the international community, interventions in the name of democracy have been limited to the flourishing literature that adorns treaties, conventions and conferences, sources of the so-called "international law." In many cases, people oppressed by dictatorships end up yearning for “military actions” such as that of the United States in Panama (1989), which had declared war on the giant to the North, under the presidency of George H. Bush, called “Just Cause” in order to arrest Noriega, condemned by American judges, as well as Europeans, to death in a French prison. In a few countries, as history shows, it has been their own armed forces that have come to the rescue of democratic civility. In others, sadly, to govern themselves.
The professor adds that it is also necessary to keep in mind the duality between obligations in the strict sense, established by the laws of the countries themselves, and those of a moral nature. An existing diatribe regarding the legal force of international precepts, on the one hand, courts in certain countries place them below constitutional norms, others, as intermediate between the constitution and the laws and in Spain, for example, treaties are subject to control by the Constitutional Court in order to determine the criteria pertinent to their observance. “The international approach is difficult” is heard in perfect English from Professor Boequer. Therefore, the fight must be only within Venezuela, argues Genarina Castillo with impetus. Atal responds simply “both”, but emphasizing that the first will always be decisive.
I must finish, the academic sounds relatively tired. But first let me explain the meaning of having titled this dissertation: India in the Caribbean or vice versa? But he is interrupted by the Colombian Julio Restrepo, who says that it is not enough to be very intelligent to understand it. Sonia Gandhi overwhelmingly wins the elections in India, but does not accept being Prime Minister, even proposing the person who is to assume the position. In Venezuela, the chosen one, on the contrary, is denied access to the Presidency of the Republic, which he has legitimately obtained. A “constitutional antinomy”, a situation that the sources define as “a situation in which certain precepts (in the Venezuelan case, those related to presidential elections) are applied by force to situations that have not happened.”
So, will dawn come and we'll see?, says Chilean Armida Bello. Boequer simply says goodbye.
The attendees seemed disappointed, but so did the promoters of the talk.
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