26 years ago the people said “yes” to the first Consultative Referendum in Venezuelan history

26 years ago, on February 2, 1999, the undefeated president of the Bolivarian Revolution, Hugo Chávez, convened a National Constituent Assembly and on April 25, the first Consultative Referendum in the history of Venezuela was held, to which with 3 million 630 thousand 998 votes (87.75%) the People said Yes.

This became the second triumph of the Bolivarian Government, after the popular victory in which Commander Chávez exclaimed: “I swear before God, I swear before the Fatherland, I swear before my people that on this dying Constitution I will promote the democratic transformations necessary for the new Republic to have a Magna Carta suitable for the new times. I swear,” he said at the inauguration on February 2, 1999, after winning the elections on December 6, 1998.

In this sense, after holding elections to appoint the members of the National Constituent Assembly and draft the new Magna Carta, which was debated for 6 months and which would later approve the change of the country's name to the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela and, in addition, representative democracy became participatory and leading, Moral or Citizen Power became the fifth autonomous power, together with the Executive, Legislative, Judicial and Electoral, indigenous and Afro-descendant peoples were recognized and made visible, and full sovereignty of the nation's natural resources, including oil, was established.

This debate included the participation of the different social sectors and was submitted to popular consultation on December 15, 1999 to approve the National Constitution of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, where the Yes obtained 3 million 301 thousand 475 (71.78%) and the No one million 298 thousand 105 (28.22%).

With the enactment of this Constitution, the basis was laid for the approval of a new legal system through 49 enabling laws in 2002 (which promoted the construction of a model that guarantees the greatest possible amount of happiness to all people), including the Land and Agrarian Development Act, which contemplates the war against large estates and the promotion of agricultural production, and the Hydrocarbons Act, which guaranteed the rescue of the oil industry and the full and sovereign management of oil.

Mazo News Team