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News > Latin America

Venezuelan Grassroots Rally for Strength After Election Loss

  • Members of the Las Torres community council discuss how to move forward from the electoral loss.

    Members of the Las Torres community council discuss how to move forward from the electoral loss. | Photo: telesSUR / Isobel Finbow

Published 8 December 2015
Opinion

Communities will be holding discussions in the coming weeks after President Nicolas Maduro called for a time of “debate, consultation and action.”

Las Torres community council has called an extraordinary meeting. High up on a hill overlooking Caracas, it meets every fortnight to assess residents’ needs. Today it’s going to discuss the Venezuelan government’s loss in Sunday's National Assembly elections.

Communities like this will be holding discussions in the coming weeks, as President Nicolas Maduro has called for a time of “debate, consultation and action” after the opposition gained a two-thirds majority.

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He called for the rebuilding of strength of the revolution, because, “the Venezuelan right wing has just one program: to destroy the Bolivarian revolution.”

Community council spokesperson, Henry Rodriguez, said that now is a time to be constructive, “The fight continues. We are not going to stop. This does not mean that we have lost everything in the country, only that we continue advancing and we continue organizing the people. We are getting together in the communities to try to resolve problems.”

Grassroots organizations have responded to the results with dignity, accepting the loss as an opportunity to regroup. They say that with reflection, conversation and greater understanding, they can improve the revolution in spite of the loss of the assembly

“We lost the battle but not the war. We have to have our boots on and ready and continue forward,” said community council member Aida Palacios.

In 2006, Hugo Chavez passed a law to empower local citizens to form neighborhood-based elected councils, which make the decisions to help the community. Local people’s organizations such as these form one of the cornerstones of Venezuela’s Bolivarian revolution, entrusting people to run their own communities and catering decisions to their own needs.

In Las Torres, one of 11 community councils in the Mamera area, the community has benefited from the Barrio Nuevo Barrio Tricolor mission, with the steep streets paved, water systems installed, and the safety and general infrastructure improved.

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“Look at how the neighborhood is. It’s lovely. Before there was no road, there was nothing. Thanks to the community council everything has worked out,” a resident said, who was also shopping at the mobile Mercal market selling food at regulated prices in this otherwise isolated community.

There was a high turnout in the neighborhood at Sunday’s election, and the PSUV candidate won a majority there. At the meeting, residents took it in turns to express their sadness over the result, but optimism for the future.

Community member, Bernadino Padilla, called on Venezuelans to stay faithful to the cause.

“I ask the people to have patience. And right now we must continue forward with the legacy of Hugo Chavez,” he said.
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