Ramón Guillermo Aveledo, president of the Fermín Toro Institute of Parliamentary Studies, participated in the Puntofijo forum, historical and present value. In the activity, he asserted that the Puntofijo Pact, signed in October 1958, was an agreement to advance and guarantee progress, for which he said he was in favor of a new pact, “but you have to see what the present conditions are”
The president of the Institute of Parliamentary Studies Fermín ToroRamón Guillermo Aveledo, said that Venezuela, its society and its political forces have a lot to learn from the Puntofijo Pact, which in 2023 will celebrate its 65th anniversary.
Aveledo participated in the forum Fixed point, historical and present value, where he highlighted the significance of this commitment to unity for democracy. «It is possible and necessary today, but it has to be done again, we cannot trace it from the past; it is an example to set the common objectives», he said.
For Aveledo, one of the lessons that the pact left behind is the fact that stability and freedom have a cost. He stressed that democracy requires pluralism, both in its functioning dynamics in which there are alternatives and alternation, recognition of diversity of interests, and in its base, so that the political system resembles the social reality that is always diverse.
Aveledo referred to the background, failed attempts at democratization, which allowed the leaders of 1958 to reach the Pact. “We cannot devalue the strength, the wealth that a failure in politics or in life can have, and if we are capable of drawing important lessons from there.”
He cited two approaches, which after the death of Juan Vicente Gómez, in the first half of the 20th century, gained new strength. The first, the reformist attempt that he covered from 1936 to 1945, called «the social January 23rd». He explained that it was the trigger for President Eleazar López Contreras, Gómez’s successor, to dictate the February Program, a democratization project for the reinstitutionalization of the country.
«This gradual, cautious, top-down attempt, since it was led by the tutelary elites, the military and civilian elite from 1936 to 1945, and which was expanded by Isaías Medina Angarita, will collapse in October 1945, because it was less than the country expected. The attempt encouraged by the elite that had power fails after 10 years.
The second “no longer reformist or gradual” occurred on October 18, 1945 with the so-called October Revolution. Young soldiers participated together with an AD, a new political party founded in 1941 (September 13). This caused a revenge, the persecution of all those who had been in power and their surroundings, he said.
«The Pact was for a government, but its spirit was projected throughout 40 years of Venezuelan life. You have to learn from history and your own experience. I am in favor of a new pact, it is possible and necessary today, but it has to be done again, we cannot trace it from the past, and we have to see what the present conditions are. It is very important that people read the Pact and realize that this was not an agreement to share power, it was an agreement to move forward and guarantee progress.
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