In an interview for the alliance Provea-TalCual, the director of the portal micondominio.com, Elías Santana, explained what could be the reason to push forward the national census and encouraged the population to not participate in the counting that was rushed two years for unknown reasons that could be designed to benefit the government in electoral circuits.
The announcement of the 15th national census for this year made by the Minister for planning of the de facto government, Ricardo Menéndez, has captured the attention of a large portion of Venezuelans. Doubts prevail due to the early scheduling of the population counting and the first question that emerges is: What is the true motive to push forward this census?
Elías Santana, director of the webpage micondominio.com, addressed a letter to the minister to clarify the doubts in regards to the calling of the census that, for the first time, won’t be carried out by qualified personnel of the National Institute of Statistics (NIS), but rather by militants, members of the political party “We are Venezuela” and members of the popular power; however, he hasn’t received an official response.
Is there a known reason that made the government push forward the census two years before it was expected?
In our letter to minister Ricardo Menéndez we also asked what is the reason for the rush of the census. We asked him why not in 2021, why the NIS and all of its national structure was not being called and, thirdly, we asked why it was being announced that militants, members of the popular power and the activists of the party “We are Venezuela” were the census takers. This is the content of our letter.
In the year 2011 there was a census and in the communities there was a certain level of resistance and, specifically, it was micondominio.com who wrote and talked in the media affirming that the NIS was carrying out the census, selected officials, who, if they didn’t want to be welcomed in the apartments, they could be hosted in the bottom part of the buildings to receive the information. It happened like that.
In that moment, we cooperated in what we could because it is of great importance. Form the census emerge the decisions in public policy, in health, in education among others.
What purpose does the census serve?
From that data, the constitutional allotment is calculated, those are the amounts of national public funds that go to the states and municipalities. Secondly, with the census data, the experts make the districts and electoral circuits and, in that way, determine the amount of parliament members and council members for each state. All of that depends on the census.
Would the parliamentary elections happening in 2020 be the reason to carry out the census this year?
There is a high probability that the rush has to do that next year is a parliamentary election year; regardless of the dialogue in Barbados or the dialogue table, because this is foreseen in the juridical order. Therefore, who defines the circuits can determinedly influence the results of the electoral process, that is even studied in political science. Once it is determined that, in a certain place, there is a majority of the determined colour, it is possible to slice that circuit in two and then that majority becomes two losing minorities, for example.
Who designs circuits, can greatly influence the electoral results. It could be that making a rushed census, only with officials that come from political partialities, with census takers that are politically partialized, who receive instructions from vertical structures has to do with the elaboration of circuits in next year’s election.
“It is very likely that the census results are being elaborated in an office, watching out for which ones are the ones that have to be so that they influence the creation of circuits. The announcement of minister Menéndez is something that the Venezuelan political world must watch with great worry. This could infringe the electoral will of the Venezuelan population if the electoral circuits are adulterated.
What is the call to action to the population in regards to this census?
In this case, the census is not being carried out when it corresponds. This could lead us to assume that the objective is not the census but that there is a political underpinning that will undermine the data. Second, it is not being carried out by the NIS. The mechanisms that are usually used are not being used and they require a preparation that can take years: transparent and professional selection of the census takers and a year long process of training for those that will execute those functions. Nothing like that is being made. Third, those who have announced that they will carry out the census taking are not legally qualified, nor do they have the capacity to do so.
Neither are there reasons to trust the way that data is going to be handled. That is why, in accordance to article 61 of the constitution, which outlines the objection of conscience, it is possible to dismiss a specific official order. That is done without violence and inside of the legal framework because the authority of that person to request for information is not recognized; I don’t recognize their condition to be accepted in my community and even less so that they pretend to enter into my home to request confidential information and I am not required to give it to a third party unless it was an official of the INE.
Thirdly, it needs to be recognized that 5 million Venezuelans are outside of the country, of all social classes, and it is known that there is a large amount of empty rooms and houses. This affects the middle class and the popular sectors, because in Petare there are also empty houses that are being taken care of by neighbors or relatives and this is a threat against the human rights of property, a good that is obtained through work.
What is the call to action to Venezuelans abroad that are afraid that, with the census, they can have their properties taken away?
To those Venezuelans I say that they have to support the organization of their community. I can assure you than 9 out of 10 cases of Venezuelans abroad have behaved well because, those who are here, we pay quotas in bolivars or small quotas in dollars, but when a large quota in dollars come, the diaspora has had a very supportive behavior because they understand that we are talking about their property, they don’t want that money to go to waste and are supporting their homeowners’ association, which is what guarantees that nobody comes to squander.
The first recommendation to them is to keep calm, to know how to discern when they receive audios and photos from unknown origins. For any questions they can write to info@micondominio.com so that we can confirm any information and we can provide them with protocols: having a list of means of communications that can deal with the situation, know the human rights entities, police entities, have the numbers of the district attorney’s office and the ombudsman so that they can be activated in case that there is an emergency in regards to the census
Minister Menéndez said that the census would begin with a pilot experience in the Libertador municipality of Caracas which, to my understanding, has not been carried out, and a pilot experience in the state of Lara, where minister Menéndez appears with governor Carmen Meléndez in the training process of 120 militants into census takers and, parallelly, some high ranking officials have talked about the missing “Find your house”, which implies trying to occupy an empty residence.
Fortunately, we have trustworthy information of isolated cases or small groups of public officers that have tried to take advantage of this situation of vulnerability.
What would be the national and international instances to denounce this case and stop this census?
If the minister does not reply, the first instance would be the National Assembly, to them we would address a letter so that they can carry out an investigation in regards to the behavior of the Executive branch.
Then there is the Ombudsman. Some would say it is rather naive of me to refer to the Ombudsman because they have taken very little action, very grey, almost silent, in regards to the oversteps of the national Executive, but we would go to this instance to present all documents because, in normal conditions, in democracy, it should mobilize with the possibility of armed militants knocking doors requesting official information from me. If there was a resolution, we would take it to the Supreme Tribunal of Justice.
The census can be seen as a form of intimidation to say: “We got you. We know you have empty rooms. We know your soon left and his little house is empty. Be careful, don’t slip. We have a QR Code and any of us can know that confidential information.
What would happen with Venezuelan society if the census is carried out with illegitimate data, if the majority of people do not offer their data?
This census would be delegitimized by a majority of the population and by international institutions. Obviously, any maddened public official can insist that it is the data and can try to create electoral circuits, but they will have to face the consequences. What matters of this measured action of citizen organizations is that everything is registered. In other conditions in the country, minister Menéndez would have already issued an invitation to the representatives of mi condominio.com and we would have been received by officials. In this case, this has not been so, but we will give the benefit of the doubt that in any moment an invitation like that from minister Menéndez could arrive. If not, I assume that the legislative power should subpoena him.
What does it mean that those who do not participate in the census will be left out of the information system and process simplification?
The minister insisted that the emphasis is on real estate and that calls the attention because it has to do with the 5 million Venezuelans abroad and their goods and properties that might be unoccupied. He (Ricardo Menéndez) claimed that instead of using the famous sticker that said “censed”, there would be a tag with a QR code, but here that is a reason for concern because it can be a tool for political coercion, of surveillance because we are in very particular conditions and the minister said that, thanks to this real state identification card, the residents of the house could find government processes to be simplified. But that is not something that worries any Venezuelan: what would worry me is to give my private information of my family, my income or my goods to a militant, to members of We Are Venezuela or of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela rather than having a quick access to government processes.
Elías Santana is the director of the NGO micondominio.com, who gives legal consulting and stimulates residential governance through workshops. Furthermore, he is the director of the School of Citizens, a non-profit, service center of education, information, consulting, articulation and initiatives between neighbors and homeowners associations.
Santana assured that he would publish, in the coming days, a guide in the webpage of micondominio.com to inform all Venezuelans on how to act in regards to the census.
