Checked! Popular Power and Unity Strengthen the Bolivarian Revolution and, therefore, the People Itself

Published at: 22/05/2026 06:11 PM

Once again, despite the multiple attacks to which Venezuela is being subjected, the president in charge Delcy Rodríguez called for mass participation in the National Popular Consultation for the approval of community projects; which represents the most direct exercise of sovereignty and organization in order to move forward in the face of difficulties current.

The importance of participation in the Popular Consultation, convened for July 12 throughout the national territory, provides the necessary legitimacy to strengthen Popular Power as the fundamental basis for the construction of socialism, in a country that, through the Bolivarian Revolution, promotes the role of the People in decision-making.

In 2013, the Venezuelan psychologist Maritza Montero wrote a research called “ Community leadership and its importance in social intervention”, published in the journal Psychology for Latin America, in which she explained that “ direct voting in assemblies or electoral centers validates decisions against to external entities, preventing projects that are alien to the real priorities of each territory from being imposed, in addition, it allows the public budget to be directly administered by the Communes and Community Councils, weakening corrupt or clientelar chains of intermediation”.

Montero mentioned the importance of popular participation when he explained that “calling elections mobilizes collective consciousness, demonstrating that neighborhood organization can solve concrete problems, where macrostructures fail; and by democratically choosing which project to finance, the community exercises a natural social controller, this minimizes the diversion of funds and strengthens internal trust.”

The exercise of Popular Power allows the confluence of wills in the local space and works as a counterweight to vertical or centralizing power dynamics, this strengthens communal spaces as a trench of revolutionary struggle and defense.

The detection of communal problems and unity in the face of their resolution, around tangible material objectives such as, for example, repairing a school or reactivating a water well, unifies all residents of different political positions under a common identity: the well-being of the habitat.

The Popular Consultation allows the organization and realization of territorial self-government, since community elections reinforce the autonomous management model where decision-making does not depend on the will of an official, but on the direct mandate of the citizen assembly.

Popular Power and Unity as a Tool Against Oppression:

Oppression, seen from the capitalist system, is manifested through autocratic structures, socioeconomic asymmetries and totalitarian control mechanisms, and has historically sought to fracture the social fabric to neutralize any hint of resistance. Faced with this scenario, popular power and collective unity do not emerge merely as theoretical concepts, but as the most effective strategic tools for socio-political emancipation.

The Organic Law of People's Power states in its first article: “The purpose of this Act is to develop and consolidate Popular Power , creating objective conditions through the various means of participation and organization established in the Constitution of the Republic, in the law and those that arise from popular initiative, so that citizens exercise the full right to sovereignty, participatory, leading and co-responsible democracy, as well as to the constitution of community and communal forms of self-government, for the direct exercise of power”.

According to this Law, reaffirming the exercise of Popular Power does not lie in the replication of symmetric violence, but in its capacity for self-organization, horizontal articulation and identity unity. However, mass mobilization is short-lived if it lacks a solid foundation: local leadership. This article analyzes how Popular Power and unity operate as antidotes to oppression and examines the specific methodologies needed to form community leaders capable of sustaining processes of social transformation.

Popular Power can be defined as the democratic, direct and leading exercise of organized communities in decision-making that affect their territory and their political destiny.

Historically, the capitalist system, underpinned by democratic processes, maintains oppressive tools that base their permanence on citizen fragmentation and the imposition of fear. This is why the Bolivarian Revolution breaks individual isolation and integrates collective networks, so that the qualitative change in the correlation of forces within power structures is maintained.

Popular Power and unity constitute the most robust and organic response against systems of oppression, and for this form of government to be strong, it is important to ensure that that power remains democratized at the base. This is why strengthening local leadership is not just a strategy of resistance; it is the configuration of a new, free, self-managed and profoundly democratic society.

AMELYREN BASABE/Mazo News Team