A Conversation with President Hugo

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... Or the pressure of the economically powerful? These popular currents benefit from being the real political majority. Mao Tse Tung used to say that the final outcome from any battle is determined by the moral convictions of its combatants. When you compare the convictions moving the international creditor community and IMF on one side, with the convictions of the popular movements and some of their governments on the other, it is self-evident that we can claim to be on the side of right and morality.

M: Just a bit about the foreign exchange controls here. Now in the international press and the national press too, they say that these controls are being used for political reasons. But what I hear, since I have been here is that they're being used to hold up money for companies that don't pay their taxes. Is that true?

H: I should confess to you that the exchange controls ARE a political measure. One must reflect on why I made that decision. I think that I even made the decision too late! Do you have any idea how much capital flight we've suffered since I came to power? We're not even talking about public or private debt payments, imports, trips abroad, all perfectly justified. We're talking $32 billion without any sort of economic justification! This is a part of the coup-mongering, destabilizing political game of the oligarchy of this country. So those that accuse me of using the exchange controls as a political measure are often willfully obscuring the fact that they themselves are using capital flight as a destabilizing political measure. [The capital flight] is an immoral political measure, and our response has been to counter it with a state policy of the government, but a policy based fundamentally on a strong ethical code, based on the constitution and the national law.

M: Another topic: it is hard not to notice the difference between the color of the people on the two sides here. The opposition crowds are noticeably lighter and more European looking than those who support the government. Do you think there is a racial dimension to this struggle?

H: Yes, there is racism here -- it used to be more hidden and now it is more open. But it is not the main factor. And this is part of the picture in other countries, too -- look who supported Lula, or Evo Morales [in Bolivia].

M: Now about the present political situation. It would seem that an agreement has been reached with the opposition. Is that right?

H: Yes.

This interview originally appeared online at NACLA.org. Reprinted by permission of the author.

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