Ver artículo en RET Revista de Estudios Transdisciplinarios Vol. 2. N° 1. Caracas, enero-abril 2010:
From the Venezuelan State to the Venezuelan para-State: Considerations on a Silent Intervention
Miguel Ángel Pérez Pirela
Today, Venezuela is the scene not only of paramilitary activity but also of very specific actions aimed at building a silent “para-state” in Venezuela to the image and likeness of Colombian para-states. The strategy of building parallel states to the traditional figure of the state, characterized by: defined borders, united armed forces and a unique, common and recognizable head, is part of the mechanisms of U.S. inherency in Latin America in order to deconstruct nation-states and strengthen its position in the world. The players in this intervention system are mainly the DAS-CIA and the paramilitary and Colombian oligarchy financed through drug trafficking. So far, crimes such as hired killers, express kidnapping, a variety of blackmail systems (the so-called vaccines), neighborhood delinquents (“azotes de barrio”) and massacres with a heightened level of violence have been the first demonstrations of such para-state, since it is through them that it seeks to destabilize society. But there are two links that are far more alarming, because they deal not only with the structural point of view but also with a situational point of view of the life of Venezuelans: to overthrow the government and deconstruct the Venezuelan state. In this context we can say that the existence of the Venezuelan state is not only at stake, but also its existence based on the model of participatory democracy.
Keywords
Para-state, para-nation, paramilitary, intervention, participatory democracy.