14/05/2014
Alejandro Arratia is a political analyst
The attitude of the Catholic Church before public protests and government repression generates admiration and wonder in those sectors unaware of the key criticisms of the Venezuelan Episcopal Conference to the regime's projects and fail to recall memorable episodes of the struggle against the former dictatorship.
The reasons for this. The pastoral exhortation of January 2014 emphasises the existence of two large segments of the population with equal rights and legitimate demands. A fragmentation confirmed by the election results of 2013. Ignoring this reality, the so-called "Plan de la Patria" approved by the spurious majority of the National Assembly with the undisguised purpose of imposing it to social institutions and citizens, designates 'a political and socioeconomic system of government that is statist, totalitarian, radical and exclusionary, of Marxist-communist convictions, and which rules out any other socio-political or ideological alternative and imposes a unique party system and way of thinking.'
Let us talk about a historical event that will help to understand that there is nothing casual or short-term about the prelates' position, who demand a meeting and dialogue, without abandoning the condemnation of barbarism and the toll of the dead, injured, imprisoned and tortured. To refresh memories I will note some quick facts and comments of the Second message of Bishop Arias Blanco to workers, Pastoral published on 1 May 1957 to be read from the pulpits of all churches.
The Archbishop of Caracas exposed the radical transformation of the economy and social inadequacies with the support of the United Nations statistics and his own research. In 20 years (1936-1956) the nation had moved from being rural to being industrial and mining, with the rural exodus that this entails. 'The Church', the Bishop said, 'has the solemn obligation to make its voice heard.'
And he did so. The country was becoming wealthy, production per capita exceeded U.S. $540, which placed it first in Latin America, and ahead of Germany, Holland, Australia and Italy. This wealth was not reaching all Venezuelans. A huge number of our people were living in subhuman conditions. This harsh criticism continued by showing the problems and proposals. Extraordinary, courageous speech. A military junta had taken over Venezuela in 1948, the dictatorship of General Marcos Pérez Jiménez imposed the strictest of censorships and since 1952 an almost complete silence had taken over the whole of the population.
Persecuted parties, small disciplined and bold clandestine machinery took the message of Bishop Arias to the streets, to factories, to study centres, to the barracks where the military distanced themselves from the military-bureaucratic ruling elite. The Patriotic Junta was created in June, a meeting place for the four political parties of the time. In November, the regime announced the plebiscite. Student strikes, harangues in businesses and street protests intensified. In January 1958 the dictatorship collapsed.
The Pastoral had an immense importance in the events that ended the dictatorial decade. The Archbishop of Caracas published two more messages (1958 and 1959), explaining the foundations of the social doctrine of the church, defending the rights of the workers and fighting the strategies of communism. Representative democracy with the support of the armed forces, the productive sectors and the clergy stabilised for four decades; the cycle was closed with the suicide of the elites in 1999. In the 21st century, the bishops again anathematise the dictatorship.