The president who is still alive?

By: Luis Beltran Guerra G. - 01/12/2022

It is a duty to praise the initiative of the Inter-American Institute for Democracy, for the presentation of the book The President who died twice!, by Antonio Ledezma, knowledgeable even in every detail of Carlos Andrés Pérez, the "Walker who shows his face and goes head on". First Magistrate twice by the vote of Venezuelans in clean elections. A democracy already battered for the second five years. Not so stable when he was elected to his first presidency and from where he advanced a recognized work of government.

The author"s coincidences with the Head of State pass for being a member of Acción Democrática, “the people"s party”, as Rómulo Betancourt described it, “founding chief of other chiefs”. The one with the white card, the one with the historic anthem, Forward Let"s fight militiamen to the voice of the revolution. Free and our homeland in the hands of its people, by force and reason! That of the "Magna Carta" of 1961, that of the democratic decades in the Venezuela that became prosperous.

The President"s affection for Ledezma was so solid, that in moments of tension from his pupil, he came to tell him, justifying the warning, Keep in mind that he is like a son to me! But, also, given the confidence, Be attentive, well, I need you as the political minister. Perhaps, the Chief Magistrate already instituted that a mixture of attention, alacrity and courage was demanded, since the management of government touched on historically established political and economic interests. Suddenly a combination of the performances of "Macchiavelo and Fouché". Some time later, the military uprising of Hugo Chávez took place. The dark geniuses were, rather, those who described themselves as "remarkable", amoral judges and a broken parliament.

Carlos Andrés Pérez used to express that the parties were destroyed, justifying the absence of sincere support for his second government. Ledezma, a good student, founded Alianza Al Bravo Pueblo! to continue the fight. He wins the Metropolitan Mayor"s Office defeating Chavismo. Faced with rumors of a possible marriage, the President tells him "Then you get married!", as if reminding him of a serious commitment. And that this would limit him in the decisive cooperation that he offered him. It was a Pérez who was already announcing “I"ve put on my boxing gloves and I"m not going to take them off! He had decided to run for the second presidency.

The President sensed a questionable and challenged democracy. He had ceased to be "the system of beliefs, values, attitudes, practices and habits of coexistence in a society." He perceived the vocation to a democratic culture as cracked, not only to establish the system, but, much more, to sustain it. Democracy, in his opinion, had to be efficient, otherwise it would become a "debtor to the people." Source of the claim to who directs them and with nuances of being universal. Pérez, aware that correcting the deviations was urgent.

It is not unreasonable to express that twice, regardless of place and time, the President must have been anguished by the reasons why we have paid, as in recent years, for Petro in Colombia, Lula in Brazil, Boric in Chile, Fernández in Argentina, Evo in Bolivia and Castillo, the one with the hat, in Peru. And why not say it for Chávez and Maduro in Venezuela. Not considering it would be living in an imaginary world.

It is difficult not to imagine the President"s consent to Antonio"s slogan "Street, street and more street", as a stimulus to the kind of "popular rebellion" of February / March 2014, led by María Corina Machado, Leopoldo López and Ledezma, which shook the atypical Caracas regime. However, the last one continued and continues.

Today, almost a decade later, the claim to what the Constituent of 99 left by statute persists: "A democratic society, freedom, independence, peace, solidarity, the common good, territorial integrity, coexistence, the empire of the Law, the right to life, work, culture, education, social justice and equality, peaceful cooperation among nations, non-intervention and self-determination of peoples, human rights, the ecological balance” and stop counting. The demand to materialize so many desires, if democracy were to return, is titanic and requires a joint effort internally and efficient work internationally, particularly in the United States for the community of interests, obviously, with Latin America. Traditionalism, more than useful, would be harmful.

In the Revolution of the Shipwrecked, Professor Mirta Rivero transcribes a paragraph from President Pérez"s speech in Congress that had agreed to his separation from the Presidency: I recognize this reality with immense pain and not only because I am the target of the greatest anger , to whom war is declared and they want to lead him to the gallows, but because this is a symptom and a sign of extreme gravity, of something that will not disappear from the political scene. For the academic, the dismissal of Pérez, indeed, marked the beginning of the end! We all shipwrecked!

Antonio Ledezma undoubtedly writes a sincere biography of Carlos Andrés Pérez, that strong personality and lover of Venezuela.

However, the title "The President who died twice" leads him to a third book "The President who lived twice", because Carlos Andrés Pérez lives. Evidence, among others, the recognition, by other massive, of just days on the occasion of the centenary of his birth.

But, in addition, we must be sure that he continues preaching, over there from where we have to imagine that he is:

"Let"s do it".

Comments welcome.

@LuisBGuerra

«The opinions published herein are the sole responsibility of its author».