How to achieve that they don’t mess with your kids 
By: Alejandro Peña Esclusa (plv@internet.ve)  



Caracas, March of 2005. - After months of lethargy, the civil society wakes up again, motivated by one of the matters that affects them the most: the education of their children. However, in order not to make the same mistakes, it is important to learn from the experience of the year 2001, when the Venezuelans went out to the streets against the Ordinance 1.011, with the slogan “Don’t mess with my kids.” 

    The lessons are the following ones: 



1.-To get rid of Chávez, so in this way we can solve our personal problems. While Chavez remains in power, we will be able to obtain partial victories, but at the end the Regime will end up winning by using the old communist strategy: two steps forward, one step backwards. We will even be able to achieve that the Régime goes back to its educational strategy, like it happened in the year 2001, but after weakening us with other mechanisms, the regime will return to impose its will. The only way to face the particular problems (education, invasions, dismantlement of the private sector, kidnapping of the Public Powers, persecution of the dissidence, poverty, insecurity, unemployment, etc.) it is achieving the exit of the Régime.     
2.-Another leadership is looked for. To get rid of Chávez, the civil society should deposit its trust in leaders that demonstrate its true commitment with the Homeland, and not in those that look only to satisfy its own interests. It is not acceptable to give, to tolerate or to negotiate with the Régime, either for fear or for interest, like it was made in the past.    
3.-Yes there is constitutional exit, but it is not electoral. The frustrating experiences of August 15 and October 1st of 2001, demonstrated that-with the CNE and the rest of the Powers controlled by the oficialism- it is not possible to have an electoral exit to the crisis. However, other constitutional and democratic mechanisms exist to achieve governmental changes, based on the Articles 333 and 350 of the Magna Carter.  
4.-To get out on the street, but not to be slaughtered. The marches of the years 2002 and 2003 demonstrated that to concentrate thousands of demonstrators on one place, without any protection, facilitates the capacities of repression of the Régime. It is preferable to generalize the protest in thousands of different places.   
5.-Organizational outline. The widespread application of the Articles 333 and 350 requires of a hierarchical and pyramidal organization, very different to the horizontal outline that is used in the electoral confrontations. Also, it should be kept in mind that the laws that criminalize and pursue the dissidence, should also be organized in an astute and intelligent way. 

These positions are very similar to those that proposed in the year 2001, when I argued that a dictator would never abandon the power for the electoral road. However, that was considered four years ago "radical", and even "violent." 
    After the learned lessons, I am convinced that-now -the civil society has opened their eyes and they will know how to be organized in an intelligent way to conquer definitively the totalitarianism, the only way to achieve that, so that they won’t mess with our kids.   

  Translated By: Juan José Herrera from the original in Spanish