Fascism a New Element on Venezuela’s Political Chessboard
HAVANA TIMES – A law against fascism, neofascism and similar expressions is being promoted by the government of Nicolas Maduro. As drafted, the law would tighten the fence around social criticism and opposition politics. The bill is being finalized in the Venezuelan Congress at the same moment that the country’s presidency is in play, with elections planned for July 28th.
“There’s no tendency of a fascist stripe [in Venezuela], not even as characterized in the law, which seems to be aimed against nearly any current opposed to the Bolivarian movement currently in power,” political scientist Guillermo Tell Aveledo told the IPS news service.
The law “is being presented within a context that’s not neutral, but one in which political spaces for any tendency contrary to the one in government are being closed off,” expressed Aveledo, who serves as dean of the private Metropolitana University’s Department of Legal and Political Studies in Caracas.
The text that was approved by Venezuela’s National Assembly after an initial reading on April 2, proclaims as its objective: “preventing and eradicating all forms of hate and discrimination based on race, ethnic, social or national origin.” In addition, it purports to “protect Venezuelan society from the possible rise of any expression of a fascist, neofascist or similar nature.”
It defines fascism as an “ideological posture or expression based on presumptions of racial superiority, or superiority as a result of ethnic, social or national origin; and that predicates violence as a means of political action, espouses the culture of death, and denigrates democracy.”
“Racism, chauvinism, classism, moral conservatism, neoliberalism, and misogyny are traits common to this posture,” the text continues. It defines neofascism and similar trends as: “any ideological posture or expression that reproduces,” totally or partially, the profile that characterizes fascism.
Colette Capriles, head of the Political Science Department at Caracas’ public “Simon Bolivar” University, stated: “The law doesn’t even merit a legal analysis, because its content violates so many Constitutional guarantees, that [recounting them] would be never ending.”
“What’s notable, in effect, is the political maneuver that intends to use this to get ahead,” Capriles told IPS. “Essentially, it’s a matter of having a legal instrument to characterize as a crime against the nation any opinion that – according to the umpire in power – could be classified as fascist,” she explained.
“The law has a purpose at the current juncture – to convert opposition leader Maria Corina Machado (who was denied the right to register as a political candidate) and, in general, the most organized sector of the opposition, into a threatening figure that’s coming to feed on the poor and on socialism.”
Capriles pointed out that for years accusing opponents of being fascists has been a constant refrain of the official leadership. In presenting the bill to Congress, Vice President Delcy Rodriguez declared: “stopping fascism in the world is a task that mustn’t be put off, for the good of humanity.”
“Not only is it manifested in expressions of hate, violence and death,” the Venezuelan vice president continued, “but also in forms of economic fascism, such as the criminal blockade imposed on Venezuela,” in reference to the US sanctions on Venezuela.She added that the text of the law complements the Political Parties Law and the 2017 Law Against Hate. The latter has been used to jail several people for their messages and jokes on social media sites such as X and WhatsApp.
Arrest and punish
The law creates a “high commission against fascism,” with members appointed by the President. The Commission would be charged with identifying the expressions and organizations it considers fascist or neofascist; it also provides for closures or criminal sanctions to be levied by the organs of public power.
A few days after the introduction of the bill – which will need a second reading and parliamentary discussion before it can become law – journalist Orlando Yajure was taken off the bus in which he was traveling through the plains of central-western Venezuela. The soldier who removed him used the anti-fascist law as a justification. The uniformed officers searched the reporter’s laptop, found old notes from his work, and accused him of being a fascist, “because the law says so.” They asked him for money to let him resume his travels, but the journalist flatly refused, leaving the bus to continue its march along the desolate road, without him.
The above incident exemplifies one of the fears regarding the proposed law: that it will lead to an increase in abuses and a reduction in the civic spaces and freedoms, as experts from the United Nations Human Rights Council have denounced. The law would also broaden the already growing discretion allotted to the government powers in Venezuela, especially the Executive.
According to the text of the law, any person who promotes the principles, facts and methods of fascism, neo-fascism and similar expressions will be punished with six to ten years in prison and political disqualification for the duration of the sentence. Organizations and media outlets that engage in expressions or demonstrations considered fascist will be punished with closures and fines.
NGO’s on the Dock
The law “restricts the exercise of free speech,” by imposing on all the media the duty to guarantee that their airwaves are free from “fascist” or related content, “which facilitates arbitrary actions and the imposition of disproportionate sanctions,” warned Espacio Publico (“Public Space”) a non-governmental organization focused on communication.
In the same way, “it severely limits the right to association, by awarding the State broad discretion to prohibit the constitution of social and political organizations, under the accusation that they supposedly promote or are apologists for fascism,” the NGO stated.
Rafael Uzcategui from the organization Laboratorio de Paz noted: “criminalizing subjective elements such as moral conservatism; or the criminalization of an ideology such as neoliberalism contradicts the government of social justice and law established in the 1999 Constitution,” which is still in effect.
Also, according to Ali Daniels of the group Acceso a la Justicia: “’Fascism’ becomes the new excuse to repress, since – for example – ‘conservatism’ is a term so subjective that anyone could be made an object of persecution. The organizations that define themselves as Liberal would run the risk of being declared fascists and criminals.”
Uzcategui believes: “if the law is approved, it will definitively legalize persecution for ideological reasons and eliminate political plurality in the country.”
Advancing authoritarianism
In his talk on “eternal fascism,” Umberto Eco, Italian philosopher and semiologist, noted among its traits: an opposition toliberalism; a rejection of critical thinking, since disagreement is betrayal; a permanent war against the enemy; an obsession with conspiracy; and a strong leader to counterpoint the weakness of the masses.
(The lecture “Eternal Fascism: Fourteen Ways of Looking at a Blackshirt,” was published in The New York Review of Books, June 22, 1995).
In turn, Italian political scientists Norberto Bobbio, Nicola Matteucci and Gianfranco Pasquino, in their Dictionary of Politics (1990), describe fascism as a system of authoritarian domination where a single organized party monopolizes all political representation.
It is likewise characterized by an ideology based on the cult of the leader, the neutralization of opposition, a propaganda apparatus based on the control of information and the media, and a growing state control over an economy that continues to be fundamentally private.
Paradoxically, some of the features that, according to these theorists, can be attributed to fascism, are more present in the conduct of the official powers than in the opposite camp.
The language of Venezuelan officials includes frequent use of military terms and frequent discrediting of their opponents. Further, they frequently stage activities with military units that in other countries are restricted to the political and civil arena.
Along those lines, Aveledo points out, bills like the Antifascist Law highlight Venezuela’s participation in the overall regression that the democratic currents in Latin America and other regions of the world are experiencing, with a slide towards more authoritarian tendencies and governments.
In the middle of the last century, Venezuela “was a pioneer in establishing itself as a liberal and competitive democracy in the region. However, at the beginning of this century, [it was] the first to decay into a system that differed from democracy,” Aveledo stated, alluding to the government of Hugo Chavez (1999-2013), and now, his successor Nicolas Maduro.
All of the experts consulted pointed out that it’s possible this “anti-fascist law” may never be approved, as has happened with other proposed bills.” However, in the meantime, it fulfills the task of weakening opposition organizations and influencing the voting intentions of the majority who – according to surveys- are eagerly seeking political change.