The NGO Transparency International denounced by means of a follow-up that the Carnet de la Patria, identity document devised by the government of Nicolás Maduro, is a tool of social control that seeks, among other purposes, loyalty to the ruling party.

The Carnet de la Patria was presented at the beginning as an instrument of food rationing to fight an "economic war". However, since its launch in early 2017, such contradictions have been found in statements by officials who have fueled the controversy surrounding this tool.

Transparency International thus entitled its work in the Carnet de la Patria as "Revolutionary apartheid".

The NGO quoted some Chavismo leaders in early 2017 when the project that would unify the missions, the social plans created by former President Hugo Chávez, was presented through a Personal Card equipped with an electronic QR code. President Nicolás Maduro said at that time that "(...) with the Homeland Card a new Social Government will be established, because without the missions we are nothing".

On the other hand, the minister of Communes, Aristobulo Istúriz, said that the card "will serve to detect the needs of the population"; for Jorge Rodríguez, Mayor of Caracas, "the Carnet will allow the transformation of the Government in technological matters ... and a powerful tool to understand scientifically, truthfully and precisely each of the achievements and achievements of the Bolivarian Revolution".

According to Article 21 of the Venezuelan Constitution, "all persons are equal before the law and no type of discrimination will be allowed." Under that fundamental precept is "the imposition of presenting that card to access goods and services that the State is obliged to offer without distinction," reports Transparency International.

In recent months, as the humanitarian crisis progresses in the country where at least one child dies per day due to malnutrition and, according to Consultores 21, at least 4 million Venezuelans have emigrated and thousands are in refugee status, the Use of the Homeland Card has become more flexible; so that it can be used to collect pensions, access the public health system, obtain some food or to obtain the various bonds announced by President Maduro. In which it tries to benefit young people, the elderly and pregnant women who give money devalued in the middle of a hyperinflation that is in more than 6,500%.

These rewards awarded in the form of bonuses on the eve of an election year to those who carry the card are not in vain. Each user is registered in a single system that depends on the national executive, which in turn controls the civil identification agencies and social missions or programs that empower community councils backed by government party officials. This apparatus is sensitive, since when arriving at the electoral scenes, the beneficiaries are forced to vote under the supervision of some official authority and the right to free and secret vote is violated, highlighted in the Constitution of Venezuela.

According to Nicolás Maduro, it is an element that aims to elevate the organization "of popular social power". However, under the secrecy in the management of the resources invested in this electronic card and in the programs that precede it, Transparencia Venezuela considers that it is a device that is already used to "bend the citizens, lacking respect for their rights more elementals ".

FUENTE