John Martin (Australian politician)

Transcription

The days of the old bosses and barons are over. That false, elite democracy is over in Venezuela. That was one of my English lessons in secondary school. I was born in a very poor home, a peasant home, so I experienced poverty. I was a poor child, barefoot. My father was a teacher at a rural school, and my mother too. I had a beautiful grandmother. She was Indian. She filled me with love. My grandmother taught me a lot, and I learned from her about solidarity with other people, about sharing the bread even when there's little to eat. Later, I went into the army, the military academy, and I became a soldier. And there I found out about Bolívar and started to realise what the truth was. I can give you a very specific example on the maps. All these hills and houses did not figure - they were shown as green spaces. That was before Chávez's government. Before Chávez, we did not feel a part of this society. We don't want the deeds just for their own sake. More important than the deeds themselves is that we own the property in order to develop our cities, and obtain the rights that have been denied us for so long. This is the most important thing. This is not a matter of getting the deeds and saying, "I'm sorted now, I can go," and stop coming to the parish assemblies, because after the deeds, there are better things to come, like the development of our barrios. Does it really mean something to you to see it there? Of course, because I didn't know we had rights like everyone else, but this one, article 23, tells us about national politics, and this makes us feel included. Democracy, as I said recently, before our people, as Lincoln said, has a simple definition - the difficulty is making it a reality. We are making it a reality - government of the people, by the people and for the people. A society where people are included and equal, where there is no exclusion, there is no poverty, where human values reign. The poor of Venezuela carry on being poor, yes. I always say that we don't want to be rich. Our aim is not material wealth. It is to live with dignity, of course to come out of poverty, and to come out of extreme poverty above all. And to live, to live with dignity, this is the objective. Not to become millionaires, the American way of life. No, that is stupid. I'm telling you this because the issue of poverty affects us deeply. It's most of our daily struggle. This means an enormous amount to us. The only thing I wish is that I was younger so that I could keep learning more. We never had a government that looked after the poor before, or taught us to read and write. There was none of that before. I think it's never too late to better yourself. Coming up, more dangers in the latest official decisions. Venezuela is moving towards a very similar regime to that which prevails in Cuba. For the government, what 21 st-century socialism means is simple - the total control of society by the state. Hugo is evolving from a fascist to a Nazi. What's the difference between a Nazi and a fascist? Basically, Nazis murder people. I assure you that we tried to avoid the clash with the empire, but it was inevitable. I went to the White House, I shook hands with Clinton. Even on the phone, "How are you, Mr Clinton?" "How are you Mr Chávez?" We were trying to do the impossible. To have a revolution without crashing against the empire - it's impossible. Do you think the president is mad? It's time for all of us to start discussing the transition without Chávez, needless to say. There has never been someone so ugly and bad as this. Hugo Satan Chávez is the Antichrist. Is the demon, the devil, the dragon, Lucifer. He should leave immediately. Out! Out! Chávez, the die has been cast. He announced that the march would be diverting towards the Miraflores Palace. He responded "I'm in charge here, so you can mind your own business." "This has already been planned and we are going to Miraflores." They kept shooting - aiming and unloading their automatic weapons. This will go down in history. Thank God there's this evidence. They're shooting at the people marching below. This is an unspeakable act of savagery. Is this what they call revolution? It was like a war zone that they had planned and were controlling. Venezuelans, the President of the Republic has betrayed the trust of his people. He is massacring innocent people with snipers. So far... six people have been killed and dozens wounded in Caracas. This is intolerable. We cannot accept a tyrant in the Republic of Venezuela. On the evening of the 10th, they phoned me and said... "The march will go towards Miraflores Palace. There will be deaths "and 20 high-ranking officers will appear speaking against the Chávez government, "and demanding the president's resignation." This proves that they were talking about deaths when there hadn't been a single death yet. It was all planned. It is finally clear this is a coup. The president has refused to resign. He is being taken prisoner, this is a coup. Let the world know. It's a coup. A coup against the people who love him. They were all celebrating. I watched the whole programme when they were on television. You can't imagine how much I cried - as if my children and my mother had died, and they are what I hold most sacred in the world. Just seeing how they said, "A new dawn has risen in Venezuela." We suspend the members of the National Assembly. We suspend the president and all the members of the supreme court. And also the Attorney General... ...and the head of the Central Bank... ...and the Ombudsman... ...and the members of the National Electoral Board. Democracy! Democracy! You can't possibly imagine what that decree did to us. It was such a terrible situation, because we saw the past, the repression coming back - the need to struggle for everything. My soul aches for my son and daughter and all the young ones who will be adrift, at the mercy of all these corrupt people who have thrown this country into total chaos. It's immoral. The hope of a people is gone. The constitution's gone. Democracy's gone. The hope of the children is gone. He told me, "Let a handwriting expert check that alleged signature - "if it exists, because I never signed." This is a dictatorship. Chávez is the rightful president. The people love him and they will defend him. 98% of this country's armed forces have re-sworn their pledge of allegiance to the constitution and the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela. The young men, the military police who were inside the palace, started to hoist the flag. That made us feel stronger as we realised that we were not alone. We stayed there until we saw a helicopter - it arrived in Miraflores at midnight. Then we all knew Chávez was on board. It was a glorious moment, seeing him arrive. I think the supreme test was the coup d'état of 2002. I was made a prisoner. They took me away and I thought I was going to die. Now, the Venezuelan people, the poor without weapons, went in. Hundreds and thousands went onto the street to ask for my life, asking for Chávez to return. And so, I have nothing left to do, especially after that, but dedicate all the life I have left to those people, and above all the most deprived, the poorest. They now know that the Cuban revolution knows how to fight and win battles. I saw the women clinging to each other, crying and screaming at them not to kill them. I fought for my children. I didn't want to let them go. I said I would die with them, but they wrenched them from my arms. We heard them killing the children. They killed them at night. You could hear their screams for their mothers and fathers. There are so many unemployed. There are thousands of unemployed. And those who work, their money isn't enough. So how can they pay for electricity? How can they pay for water? They have to buy gas - everything must be paid for. Every day a mother asks, "How am I going to feed the children?" How can I afford it? What's it like to live in these conditions? The cold at night is hardest for the baby. Do many people live like this in Chile? There are plenty, and worse off than we are. They don't get any help from anyone. Where will you go? Back to the streets. We've slept rough before. Abroad, in Europe and the USA, it's said that life in Chile is rich and comfortable - is that so? It's true for the well off, but not for us. The dictatorship was a great success in Chile in that it established the political, economic and social model that prevails to this day. Basically, the constitution imposed in 1980 has not been changed. We don't belong to a democracy because that word has been so badly used. It's not understood. Here there is a persecution against the poor, and not just in Chile, but this is happening all over Latin America. I think educated people realise that this is reaching a breaking point. I believe the people will wake up and say, "That's enough." This is Villa Ingenio. It's the cemetery of northern El Alto. There is a sorrowful bitterness here. Our brothers, our children, our grandparents are dead and buried here. There was one family that poisoned themselves, the whole family, because of lack of work and lack of money. First the husband poisoned his wife and children, and then he poisoned himself. We have seen cases like this. We wonder why. If I am Bolivian, born rich, why am I begging? We had the sea, silver and gold. We had everything. Why are we still suffering? I saw him as a fat man sitting on a golden chair. Arrogant. Perhaps he was arrogant because of the power he had, which was his wealth. We know we have gas and it's being sold abroad to the almighty US, yet still I use wood for cooking. This is why the war starts. We will block, strike and demonstrate until we get a response. There were calls to start blockades. Not even a fly would move. We stopped traffic and so on, but it gradually... What's the word? It gradually intensified. The tables were here. The bodies were here. They removed the bullets with nails even. It was sad to see this. The place was full, There were doctors everywhere. The smell of death was intense. All the orphans were crying and shouting, "Daddy! Daddy! Daddy! Suddenly we heard that Goni was about to resign. With one down, we felt inspired. It gave us strength. That was the aim. To make him resign. They killed us all, but we defend the Aymara people with the pututo horn, with our voice, with our fist, with the flag. We wave the Whipala against the United States. This is the United States flag. We are against this, because they have put us in the situation we are in. The fist is very important. That's how we are. That's us. We ask everyone to start working. The party is over. The honeymoon is over. And it's over forever, for a new Bolivia! There is no doubt that it is growing. It is propagating itself, over the whole continent of Latin America, of the Caribbean too, but mainly in South America. I go around Latin America from Buenos Aires to Brasília and to Montevideo, La Paz. There is a fervour sparking off everywhere. There is a fervour. The future is for my children, for our young people. This isn't just Chávez's struggle, it's our struggle. What Chávez has unleashed is a recognition of this struggle, and we are in it together and we'll carry on fighting. So the empire's struggle isn't with Chávez, it's with us. The great awakening has arrived. And I think Victor Hugo, let's end with him. I'm with him on this. Victor Hugo wrote this - "There is nothing so powerful as an idea whose time has come." The American empire has reached its end and the world must now be governed by the rule of law, of equality, justice and fraternity. Muchas gracias, John. I want to see you again. # I go to the movie # And I go downtown # Somebody keep telling me don't hang around # It's been a long # A long time coming # But I know a change gonna come # Oh, yes, it will # Then I go to my brother # And I say, "Brother, help me, please" # But he winds up # Knocking me # Back down on my knees # Ohhh # There been times that I thought I couldn't last for long # But now I think I'm able to carry on # It's been a long # A long time coming # But I know # A change gonna come # Oh, yes, it will #