The logic of Venezuelan republican institutions has been broken for a long time. The government did not pay much attention to this informal, unofficial referendum, which had no legal basis. It promised that it would continue the controversial plan in spite of overwhelming public discontent.
To keep up the pressure, opposition leaders are calling for a 24-hour strike.
The July 16 vote, as well as the general strike, are both attempts to establish rules for grassroots democracy. This is a sign that Venezuelans still remember this system of government despite the growing incivility, which has resulted in more than a hundred deaths in less than three months of daily protests.
Perverseness is not limited to the daily turmoil of scarcity of resources, shortage of medicine, or spiraling criminality. The social contract in Venezuela has been officially shredded.
Venezuelans are drifting from a nightmare to an unreal universe as if living in the magical realist world of Jorge Luis Borges, where everything is possible.
Chronology of absurdity
Even the political conflicts in Venezuela are postmodern. The result is close to chaos on the streets.
Fighting factions may or may not, each day, act spontaneously, without a clear leader, and block streets in Venezuelan cities. They may also invade university campuses, crush their opponents, and violate the most basic social standards.
Demonstrators masked with masks clashed anonymously against state forces, destroying urban infrastructure from streetlights and sewers to public transport.
Human Rights Watch estimates that there are now about 400 political prisoners in Venezuela. Human Rights Watch says there are currently about 400 political detainees in Venezuela.
Venezuela is a country in which little is certain, except that it is currently experiencing a low-grade conflict.
What else would you call a nation where barricades and military personnel are on the streets every day, where people routinely consume tear gas, or in which citizens are regularly exposed to tear gas?
The conflict is a shared responsibility. The protests were neither as peaceful as the opposition claimed nor as violent as the government said. The tensions in the last few weeks have been so high that nobody knows what caused certain events or what direction they will take.
Unruly groups, on June 27, National Journalists’ Day, surrounded the National Assembly, trapping members of Congress and the press and bombarding them with insults, threats, and abuse.
It was a major event. However, it was only a dress rehearsal. On July 5, just over a week after the first attack, the National Assembly was stormed at a ceremony celebrating the signature of Venezuela’s Declaration of Independence in 1812.
A shouting horde rushed into the chamber on this important civic date. They yelled, threatened, struck, and bled some members of the opposition party. For hours, journalists, congressional staffers, and diplomats were taken hostage.
This harrowing event was a graphic representation of the kidnapping and savagery of Venezuela’s spirit.
Civilisation versus barbarism
Anyone familiar with Latin American literature will remember the region’s obsession with the theme of civilization versus barbarism in the postcolonial era.
These same forces are now resurfacing in Venezuela. The anarchical barbarism forces have swept Venezuela, and its citizens are alternating between resentment, hatred, and incomprehension.
Venezuela has lost its modern trappings.
No one is blameless. The citizens placed bets on populism in error, and the country is now apathetic, waiting for its next great leader.
The Maduro regime is mired in corruption and inefficiency. It’s more concerned with its survival rather than leading a spineless, weak-willed country to salvation.
Since April, protests have been held in Venezuelan cities every day. Hugo Londono / flickr, CC BY
The opposition has also failed to offer any viable alternatives for the future.
Venezuela is tearing itself apart because of deep-seated differences. The entire country has developed a structural inability to dialogue and negotiate solutions.
What will happen to this country?
Fairytale ending
Many Venezuelans want a quick fix, Disney style. They don’t want to do the hard work that dialogue and debate require. The real world is not a Disney-style fairytale. Good guys do not always win.
Instead, the opposition has worked up poorly thought-out possibilities, creating weak, one-off instances of parallel governance that have nothing to do with Venezuela’s institutional reality and no chance at institutionalization.
One such event was the grassroots poll on July 6. The non-binding vote asked Venezuelans to answer a question about the government’s plans to make significant (but mostly undefined) changes in the country’s political and social organization.