Anti-Chavism has become the ideology of the ultra-right in the region because Chavismo, from its inception, changed regional geopolitics, changed the political world of Latin America and the Caribbean and impacted many other regions of the world. Chavismo is the new Bolivarianism of the 21st century.

The revolutionary forces that emerged from the leadership of Comandante Chavez succeeded in articulating the progressive, advanced and revolutionary forces of the entire continent to become a worldwide reference for the possible changes that Latin America and all of humanity needed.

Such are some of the concepts raised by Nicolas Maduro, the President of Venezuela, in his replies to an interview conducted in Caracas by the celebrated Venezuelan journalist and political scientist José Vicente Rangel.

The Latin American right, so widely-publicized and subordinated to US imperialism, long ago adopted as its central banner the defeat of the Bolivarian revolution.

Anti-Chavez, anti-Bolivarian and anti-Venezuelan campaigns became the axis of the discourse of this right-wing, which, by the way, has arrived at government with a rather meager vote. In Argentina, it barely achieved a thirty-one percent vote to choose the president of that nation; Or, as in the case of Brazil, avoided electoral confrontation and opted, instead, for a covert coup in which the OAS and the corporate media served, in silence, as accomplices.

That right has reached political power in some key Latin American countries, fueled by anti-Bolivarian, anti-Chavez doctrine ... and much fear, almost terror, due to the force of ideas and the example emanating from the Bolivarian revolution.

"I hope that the National Constituent Assembly (ANC), with its great power, will give me special support for the fight against corruption, which is a pending bill that we have.

"We will need it, not only from the punitive point of view, also in the educational, cultural and moral aspects. We will continue to insist on building a society with values of respect, honesty and transparent practice in the management of public affairs.

"It is a great battle, we cannot guarantee that we will win it in months or years, it is a battle that will take us a long time, but Venezuela has in me a President committed to the end in the fight against corruption and those who are corrupt.”

Maduro showed that Venezuelans today have been lucky enough to live the total bankruptcy of the model of oil dependence, and are protected by the socialist Chavez social model.

He recalled that many experts predicted that the oil model would begin to decline in 2030, 2040 or 2050. But it took place suddenly and from one day to the next the country went from receiving 120 dollars a barrel to 20 dollars, and yet thanks to the "miracle" of the revolution, "here nobody lacked school, work, income or food with the problems that had to be faced. We have not stopped building housing, we have not stopped building fundamental public works; we bit the bullet and I believe that we made a social miracle of salvation of the country. That must be recognized, we made a social miracle of salvation of the country. In the midst of bankruptcy." Maduro stressed that after having overcome the three demons (the bankruptcy of the oil dependency system, the international financial and commercial war and induced inflation) the people will be protected by a social system that will support economic recovery.

"We must be clear that we have a correct strategy and policy. The strategic engines of our Bolivarian Economic Agenda (the industrial engine, agro-food, petrochemical, tourism, socialist communal economy, heavy industry, etc.) are the correct strategy for economic independence and development of the potentialities to get rid of oil, which is the most important thing we are doing.

"The Constituent Assembly arrived and peace was made. And I have a great faith in the full exercise of our national sovereignty, without accepting blackmail or pressure from anyone in the world, and less from US imperialism. The Constituent Assembly will put order in justice, in the institutions, in the state and in the economy," said Maduro. He predicted that Venezuela will end the year 2017 with a fair level of general recovery of society, the country, politics and peace, said the President reflecting the optimism with which Venezuelans keep going, proud of their history and confident that they will still need to wage many battles for independence, because that is the cost of the privilege of having a country with so many resources that excite imperialist greed.

August 23, 2017.

Manuel E. Yepe

Translated and edited by Walter Lippmann.