2009-02-22 23:49:39 - President Chavez organized a military parade to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the Federal War. Chavez proclaims that Federal War was a revolution of the poor who raised the flag of Simon Bolívar and for the first time in Venezuela the flag of Socialism. Recording the leadership of rebel leader, Ezequiel Zamora, Chavez insists that the memory of Zamora remains alive in Venezuela as an important political, peasant and revolutionary forebear.

VHeadline News Editor Patrick J. O'Donoghue reports:

The slogan put forward by the President for today's National Armed Force in unison with the aims of the Federal rebels is "people and soldiers united forever impulsing this revolution." The parade took place in Falcon State capitol, Coro and was transmitted on national television. The parade was held in Coro because on February 20, 1859 the movement to create a Federal government led by Ezequiel Zamora and Juan Crisostomo Falcon started lasting till 1863. The Federal revolution dated from the creation of a new Republic in Venezuela in 1830 and was a reaction against the oligarchic system of government based on privileges granted to land owners who received land belonging to the bish

colonialists.

During his speech at the parade, marking 150 years of the Federal revolution, President Chavez has hit out once more against the opposition, especially for insults calling him an orangutan. Those who lost the referendum election, the President fumes, are now asking for mercy or as he put it in plain Venezuelan idiom, "they're asking for cocoa." Cocoa was once Venezuela's main export before oil and now the term means a second chance or asking for mercy. Chavez says there is no mercy or second chance for the Venezuelan oligarchy because everything belongs to the people and not to them and that is "why they hate us." The President has called on the Navy, the Army, the Air Force and the National Guard to be more inseparable from the Bolivarian revolution and Socialism because that is Venezuela's destiny. The President has recognized finally that the current economic panorama will be hard and difficult because of a drastic fall in oil prices. which has reduced almost to half the income needed to cover 2009. Chavez has promised that he will not cut social expenditure budget plans for this year.

The opposition has criticized President Chavez for holding a military parade to commemorate the 150 years of the Federal revolution. Accion Democratica (AD) leader, Henry Ramos Allup retorts that nobody is asking Chavez for cocoa or mercy. As political parties, Ramos Allup contends, the opposition has been very critical towards Chavez and his government during the 10 years he has been in power. Ramos Allup says he doesn't understand President Chavez' declaration that bridges must be built to diverse sectors in the country, while at the same time hitting them all on the head.

It is incredible, the AD leader states, that the government is celebrating events such as the Federation War. "It was one of the darkest and sad chapters of our country's history in the second half of the 19th century .. it was a horrible war of assaults and violations like all civil wars and only a major irresponsible personality such as our President of the Republic would think of celebrating the success or failure of one or other sides in the Civil War.

The Federal War is an important historical event for President Chavez as can be shown by his efforts to clear the name of Ezequiel Zamora who led the forces fighting for agrarian reform in Venezuela in 1859 and to establish its connection with the political thought of Liberator Simon Bolivar. Zamora's agrarian struggle is seen as a forerunner of what the the Bolivarian revolution seeks to emulate and complete. The same can be said for the Communist insurrections of the 60s against the pro-American governments. Under the Fourth Republic, Zamora, as well as the 60s guerrillas movements, were considered one-offs and efforts by hotheads to subvert the established order, whereas for the Bolivarian movement they are stages in a continual struggle for a second independence and Socialism The parade should be viewed, therefore, as part of a Bolivarian policy to recognize the validity of Zamora's struggle and to connect the Armed Force to a new military doctrine based on a long line of past popular struggles.

Patrick J. O'Donoghue
patrick@vheadline.com