Caracas, April 20, 2024.- The Executive Secretary of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America – People’s Trade Treaty (ALBA-TCP), Jorge Arreaza, participated this Saturday in a presentation on the National Popular Vote 2024 to be held tomorrow Sunday in Venezuela, this activity was addressed to the international participants of the Gathering for a World Social Alternative who will participate as watchers of the election day.

The People’s Power Minister for Communes and Social Movements, Guy Vernáez; Representative Blanca Eeckhout, president of the Commission for the Development of Communes of the National Assembly (AN) and spokesmen and spokeswomen of the communal electoral commission responsible for organizing the poll called by President Nicolás Maduro also took part in the explanation, held in Caracas.

Arreaza, who before his appointment to ALBA-TCP was Minister for Communes in Venezuela, said that this is the first National Popular Vote, in which Venezuelan men and women over 15 years of age “are called to vote in the nearest electoral center to be able to choose among the projects that the community in its assemblies where the most immediate sovereign power resides, identified and prioritized”.

The diplomat referred to the Concrete Action Agenda (ACA in Spanish) of the Communal Councils, which describes the critical issues or needs identified by the communities, with a proposed solution or project that takes into account the potential of the territory.

Minister Guy Vernáez highlighted that the national vote constitutes a “possibility to give the world a different view of what people outside see” about Venezuela. He said that tomorrow’s event is not only an election, “it is much more, it is a milestone that breaks all previous processes, it goes beyond that path”.

He affirmed that the organization process has been very simple, due to the training that Chávez transmitted to the communal organizations, while he assigned to watchers the task of understanding, through their participation in the elections, the meaning of the People’s Power and the communal leadership.

Representative Blanca Eeckhout recalled that Chávez said that every need must become a movement, every movement must become an organization and this must become a power to change reality. She also addressed the Tree of the Three Roots (Simón Bolívar, Simón Rodríguez and Ezequiel Zamora), which Chávez turned into a political, pedagogical action, of permanent consciousness transformation.

“Tomorrow we will see the systematization of a permanent work of resistance (…) it is not only choosing the project, this has been the work of years of men and women who have not given up despite adversity,” he stressed.

People’s Power

Carolina Arellano, representative of the Social Controllership of “El Piñal” Communal Council and “Carlos Escarrá” Commune, “Mario Briceño Iragorry” municipality, Aragua state, emphasized that an unprecedented process will be held, with the participation of the 49,000 Communal Councils of the country, over 1,300,000 spokespersons ready for this battle, to say “what we want and how we want it in our communities”.

Ofelia García, representative of Communal Economy of the “Simón Rodríguez” Bombona Communal Council, “5 Raíces” Commune, Naguanagua municipality, Carabobo state, defined the poll as a “re-politicization of the Communal Councils”, which are responsible for the organization, accompanied by the National Electoral Council.