Resumen

GONZALEZ DELUCA, María Elena. History: Uses, Myths, Demons and Revolutionary Magic. Revista Venezolana de Economía y Ciencias Sociales [online]. 2005, vol.11, n.2, pp.159-186. ISSN 20030507.

The use and abuse of history and of symbols of the past in politics has a strong universal tradition and Venezuela is no exception. There are many examples of this in the 200 years of national history. But the current polarization of Venezuelan politics and the government’s revolutionary posture clearly aggravate the problem. This article examines various examples of the use of history, mainly in political speeches. The conclusion is that those who oppose the government tend to use history in the traditional way. But the government’s political ideology imposes a radical revisionism of the past which effectively leads to its denial, with the exception of the heroes of the Independence and a few nineteenth-century "caudillos". This perspective, in turn, leads to the disappearance of history as a scientific discipline and as the memory of the Nation.

Palabras clave : Political Polarization; Venezuela; History, Political Discourse.