Cuba…zuela!

Benito Anzola in his slum of Petare. ©Jarin Blaschke

On December 3rd 2006, Hugo Chavez was reelected as president of Venezuela with more than 62% of the vote.
He promised to deepen his revolution based on the “Cuban model”, and to transform his country by 2021.
Journey into the slums of Caracas, where Chavez is experimenting his new model of society.

Caracas. From the hole in the wall he uses as a window, he can almost see all of Caracas. A strange picture, in which the misery of the slums and the opulence of the Venezuelan capital are intertwined. Benito Anzola, 46, carries his past as a former local boxing champion on his broad shoulders. He lives with his wife and three children in Petare, a huge and violent barrio overlooking Caracas. Every night around 11.00 pm, he walks down the hill, using the steep and dark path that winds its way through the shackle houses, to take up his job as a security guard in one of the posh neighborhoods of downtown Caracas.
Benito is not afraid of the dark. He has been living in Petare for the last ten years and he knows the rules imposed by the gangs. He is used to the frequent gunshots, that trouble the heavy night weighing on his slum. The round scar on his right forearm tells the story of this omnipresent violence. Benito was attacked once. But the fist he is clenching while talking about it, beat the knife of the thug.

In this slum abandoned by opportunities, Benito decided to change things. Every weekday morning, when he comes back from his job, he starts working for the revolution of Hugo Chavez, the Venezuelan president. For $150 a month, he has been teaching for the past year poor kids to read and write in one of the missions set up by the government.

This parallel education made possible by volunteers like Benito, is one of the cornerstones of the political agenda of Hugo Chavez. The latter was reelected on December 3rd 2006 with more than 62% of the votes and promised to deepen his revolution in the next six years of his second term as a president of Venezuela. During the campaign, Chavez talked about the broad lines of his populist “socialism of the 21st century”. He said he wants to give a moral dimension to his policies and to further promote participative democracy, a system, in which citizens play a central role.

Alberto Garrido, the author of many books on Hugo Chavez and a well-respected political analyst in Caracas, sees in the president’s victory the end of a “period of transition”: “Chavez wants to radically change the structure of power, he said in an interview. He thinks that one needs 20 years to implement a revolution. As he was elected in 1998 and then reelected in 2000, he now wants to achieve his revolutionary goals by 2021”. “Chavez is convinced that you need to concentrate all power in the hands of a unique leader, Garrido added. His goal over the next few years is to have his leadership rubber-stamped by the people and to create a unique party”. Chavez took a step in this direction in right after his victory when he announced the dissolution of the MVP, his own party, and called for the creation of a unique leftist party.

To remain in power until 2021, the former paratrooper aims for a change of the constitution. At the present, a president can only be reelected once like in the United States. But Chavez seems to be able to change that. In 2005, the opposition parties decided not to take part in the parliamentary elections to protest against an alleged electoral fraud. It allowed Chavez, who already survived a coup and a referendum calling for his destitution, to take control of the entire parliament. He now seems able to reach the two-third majority needed to enact constitutional changes and wants to submit a revised constitution to a popular vote by 2010.

Hugo Chavez, 52, also wants to create 25 new universities. This plan divides Venezuelans: Chavez, whom his supporters call “el commandante”, says he wants to give thousands of indigent people access to higher education but the opposition accuses him to try to control the universities, a sector he has been unable to mold to his likings. Chavez also wishes to deepen his collectivist economic policy and develop agricultural cooperatives. The opposition is worried about this project. “The president will keep the country’s institutions and guarantee some kind of freedom of the press, Trino Marquez, a sociology professor at the University of Venezuela, said. He needs his revolution to keep a democratic image. And he knows that he needs to strike alliances with business sectors to finance his policies. But I think we will witness attacks on private property and on capitalism”.

Back in Petare. “Everyone here is red, very red (the color of Hugo Chavez)”, Benito said proudly while pointing at the numerous posters of the president, which have been placed on the windows by the people living in the shantytown. These last few years, the Chavez government has been using oil money to implement a network of missions for poor people. State spending has exploded, from $8 billion in 2000 to $50 billion in 2006.

According to government statistics, the mission Robinson, for which Benito Anzola works, has taught 1,5 million people to read and write. Ivonez Martinez is in charge of one of the “casa comedor” (house of alimentation) of Petare. For $90 a month and free food for her family, this large woman cooks 150 free meals a day for the poorest people of the slum. At the bottom the hill, on the outskirts of the slum, a “Mission Mercal”, a subsidized supermarket, offers discounted food products. In Petare, one can also find a couple of two-story brick buildings with deep blue trims. These are the health centers of Mission Barrio Adentro. This program launched in March 2003, relies on Cuban doctors, who live and work in the slums and poor areas. According to government statistics, Mission Barrio Adentro provided 18 million Venezuelans with free healthcare.

Thanks to these initiatives and others, Chavez enjoys passionate support among the poor in Venezuela. In his revolutionary laboratory based on the Cuban model, Eglis Fuentes, a petite thirty-two year-old woman, plays an important role. The divorced mother of two, is one of the revolution leaders, whose mission is to organize the network of social workers in the Venezuelan capital. Eglis studied for four months in a Cuban institute, that welcomes each year 2000 Venezuelans. There, she learnt the management of the revolution. In October 2000, the Chavez government signed a deal with its Cuban counterpart. According to the terms of this deal, Venezuela exports oil to Cuba below market price. And in exchange La Havana agreed to educate the “leaders of the revolution” and to provide doctors and schoolbooks to Venezuela.

In the streets of Caracas, Chavez supporters say they agree with the Cuban model but claim they want it to be adapted to the democratic reality of Venezuela. “I like the social programs of Fidel Castro”, Lucas Graterol, 27 year-old computer engineer, said. “But I do not want to live in a dictatorship like Cuba”, he added. Elvia Gomez, a reporter for El Universal, one of the leading opposition daily papers in Venezuela, is more pessimistic about the risk of a slide of her country toward autocracy: “Venezuelan people like to be free but they are not democratic, she said. If they were, they would never have voted for Chavez”.

In Venezuela, 60% of the people are poor. According to recent statistic published by the UN Development Program (UNDP), more than 2 millions of the 26 millions Venezuelans live with a dollar per day. The number of murders rose 67% since 1999. With its 9,962 violent deaths in 2005, Venezuela is the most dangerous country in South America. The country is also deeply divided between pro- and anti-Chavez. Luisa Anzola lives next to her brother Benito. But she supports the opposition to the president. “I have signed the referendum asking for his destitution, she said. With him, the situation is worse. In the slums, there is a feeling of impunity for the gangs”.

Luisa claims that the government still uses the “Tascon list” to deny people from the opposition help and jobs. Luis Tascon, a pro-Chavez parliamentarian, published in 2004 the list of people, who signed the referendum. His goal was to prevent any them working for the federal government. “It is wrong”. Eglis Fuentes denies such a list is currently used. She admits that inequalities are blatant in the streets of Caracas but ads: “Revolution is like the wind. You cannot see it. You feel it. Thanks to our president, poor people are not excluded any more”.

In the brand new red train he is riding on the way back to Caracas one night in December, Benito agrees. That day, he went to see his two daughters, 7 and 13 years old, who live in the mountains, two hours away from Caracas. Benito says he hasn’t personally gained anything with the revolution. He explains he was to work two or three jobs in order to pay for his children’s education. “But I support Chavez for the and for my country”, he ads. Sitting on the bright red seats, Benito has taken his shoes off. A couple of minutes later, he fell asleep.

Jean-Cosme Delaloye / Caracas

The oil diplomacy of Hugo Chavez

When talking about his domestic agenda, Hugo Chavez always mentions his foreign policy as well. According to Alberto Garrido, a political analyst in Caracas, “the Venezuelan president cannot imagine a revolution without a change of the world order. Chavez is promoting a strong oil diplomacy. His goal is to build a counterweight to US dominance in the world and especially in South America. He wants to build a Caracas-Brasilia-Buenos Aires front to counter Washington in the region”.

Three days after his reelection, Chavez indeed went to Brazil and Argentina to discuss energetic cooperation. The Venezuelan president would like to build a natural gas pipeline that would link his country to Brazil and Argentina. But the $20 billion price tag is a major hurdle. Chavez is also trying to gain influence in South America. He has built a strong alliance with his Evo Morales, his Bolivian counterpart and recently reached out to Rafael Correa, the new Ecuadorian president.

“Rather sooner than later, Hugo Chavez aims to break the trade interdependence with the US”, Alberto Garrido added. Despite the US-Venezuelan war of words, 60% of the Venezuelan oil production makes its way to the US. But in 2006, Chavez moved closer to Russia, China, India and Iran. He signed a $3 billion arms deal with Moscow and made an energy deal with Peking. The oil diplomacy of the former paratrooper showed its limitations last fall, when his fight to win a seat in the UN Security council failed.
J-C De

A revolution dependent on oil

Venezuela has the largest crude reserve of the Americas. Hugo Chavez has been able to finance his social policies thanks to high oil prices. PDVSA, the state oil company, is said to have put $8 billion in the mission of the government last year.

Last year, Venezuela economy grew 10.3%, a record in South America. Chavez’ supporters claim that his hybrid system of state capitalism is the reason for such numbers. But the opposition claims the Venezuelan economy is too dependent on the fluctuation of oil prices: “Telecommunications and construction are the only sectors that really grew last year, Trino Marquez, a professor of sociology at the University of Venezuela, said. Agriculture production did not grow”. Marquez also underscored the lack of private investments in an economy that needs major state spending to grow. A 51% increase in government spending in the first nine months of 2006 contributed was a major factor to boost sales of cars and food.

In 2002 and 2003, major strikes had a huge impact on Venezuelan economy. In the past, prior government to Chavez’ had to cut on government spending as oil prices fell.
J-C De

Chavez : facts and figures
July 28 1954 Born in Sabaneta, Barinas
February 4 1992 Failed coup attempt.
December 6 1998 won the Venezuelan presidency with 56% of the vote
July 30 2000 Reelected with 60% of the vote
April 11 2002 Coup d’Etat. Chavez resigned before resuming his presidency two days later.
August 15 2004 Chavez defeated a recall referendum with 59% of the vote.
December 3 2006 Reelected with 62% of the vote.
A French version of this story was published in February 2007 in L’actualité (Canada)

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