[list_indonesia] [ppiindia] Hugo Chávez and Petro Populism (1/3)
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- Date: Sun, 27 Mar 2005 11:57:17 +0200
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http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=3D20050411&s=3Dparenti
Posted March 24, 2005
Hugo Ch=E1vez and Petro Populism
by Christian Parenti
Research support was provided by the Investigative Fund of The Nation Insti=
tute.=20
The views from the slopes of Barrio San Agust=EDn del Sur are spectacular. =
Tight passageways frame Caracas and the lush, cloud-draped Avila Mountain b=
eyond. Along the neighborhood's rough cement steps, teenagers lounge around=
, flirting, arguing or lost in the cheap text-messaging functions of their =
cell phones. Ascending a nearby cliff is a small garbage dump. From afar it=
s refuse looks like the sand in some ominous urban hourglass.=20
Illiteracy, violence, disease and the listlessness of endemic unemployment =
have shaped the life of this barrio since landless squatters from the count=
ryside first settled it about forty years ago. But much of that could be ch=
anging.=20
ADVERTISEMENT "Even though we have had problems, we are moving forward," sa=
ys Carmen Guerrero, a woman in her late 40s who is one of San Agust=EDn's m=
ost dedicated activists. "Here, we are all with President Ch=E1vez. Everybo=
dy except for maybe six families."=20
On the yellow walls of her living room are masks in the form of fashionable=
ladies' faces, a clock, a mirror and a small picture of Venezuela's populi=
st president, Hugo Ch=E1vez Fr=EDas. Guerrero explains that she and her nei=
ghbors are studying in several government-created programs called missions =
and organizing themselves into committees to deal with everything from loca=
l and national election campaigns to sanitation and legalization of land ti=
tles.=20
Like most slums in Caracas, this community also has a state-owned, subsidiz=
ed market, a soup kitchen, a number of small-scale cooperative businesses a=
nd a little two-story, octagonal, red-brick medical center. Upstairs two Cu=
ban doctors live in cramped quarters; downstairs is a small waiting room an=
d clinic.=20
Guerrero's neighbor, a young man named Carlos Martinez, is showing me aroun=
d; he works with the local construction cooperative. They have a contract f=
rom the mayor's office to lay new drainage pipe in the barrio. Given the re=
cent flooding, it is an important task. Later he shows me where a patch of =
ranchos--dirt-floored shacks made of corrugated tin and wood--are being rep=
laced at government expense by solid, two-story brick homes.=20
For this little barrio and a thousand others like it, such changes mean a l=
ot. Like two generations of Venezuelan politicians before him, Ch=E1vez has=
pledged sembrar el petr=F3leo--to sow the oil. That is, to invest its prof=
its in a way that transforms the very structure of Venezuela's economy. But=
what would that entail? Are social programs enough?=20
Lately Ch=E1vez has been talking about a "revolution within the revolution,=
" about "transcending capitalism" and about "building a socialism for the t=
wenty-first century." It is a discourse that frightens his enemies, electri=
fies his base and inspires the left throughout Latin America. After two dec=
ades of the US-promoted Washington Consensus--a cocktail of radical privati=
zation, open markets and severe fiscal austerity--Latin America is an econo=
mic disaster marked by increasing poverty and inequality.=20
Taken as a whole and controlling for inflation, Latin America has grown lit=
tle since the mid-1980s and hardly at all in the past seven years. With the=
entire region primed for social change, a new breed of populists and socia=
l democrats is coming to power. Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay, in addition =
to Venezuela, have leftist governments of some sort, while Colombia, Ecuado=
r, Mexico, Nicaragua and Peru will hold presidential elections in 2006.=20
But a closer look at Venezuela reveals just how vexing and complicated a po=
litical and economic turn to the left can be, even in a country that is ric=
h with oil and not deeply indebted.
Thus far, Venezuela's Bolivarian Revolution, named for South America's nin=
eteenth-century liberator, Sim=F3n Bol=EDvar, has deepened and politicized =
a pre-existing tradition of Venezuelan populism. Despite Ch=E1vez's often r=
adical discourse, the government has not engaged in mass expropriations of =
private fortunes, even agricultural ones, nor plowed huge sums into new col=
lectively owned forms of production. In fact, private property is protected=
in the new Constitution promulgated after Ch=E1vez came to power. What the=
government has done is spend billions on new social programs, $3.7 billion=
in the past year alone. As a result, 1.3 million people have learned to re=
ad, millions have received medical care and an estimated 35-40 percent of t=
he population now shops at subsidized, government-owned supermarkets. Eleme=
ntary school enrollment has increased by more than a million, as schools ha=
ve started offering free food to students. The government has created sever=
al banks aimed at small businesses and cooperatives, redeployed part of the=
military to do public works and is building several new subway systems aro=
und the country. To boost agricultural production in a country that imports=
80 percent of what it consumes, Ch=E1vez has created a land-reform program=
that rewards private farmers who increase productivity and punishes those =
who do not with the threat of confiscation.=20
The government has also structured many of its social programs in ways that=
force communities to organize. To gain title to barrio homes built on squa=
tted land, people must band together as neighbors and form land committees.=
Likewise, many public works jobs require that people form cooperatives and=
then apply for a group contract. Cynics see these expanding networks of co=
mmunity organizations as nothing more than a clientelist electoral machine.=
Rank-and-file Chavistas call their movement "participatory democracy," and=
the revolution's intellectuals describe it as a long-term struggle against=
the cultural pathologies bred by all resource-rich economies--the famous "=
Dutch disease," in which the oil-rich state is expected to dole out service=
s to a disorganized and unproductive population.=20
But for the moment, the Venezuelan battle against poverty is possible only =
because oil prices have been at record highs for several years, and the sta=
te owns most of the petroleum industry. All of Venezuela's oil and mining a=
nd most of its basic industry were nationalized in the mid-1970s. On averag=
e, oil sales make up 30 percent of Venezuelan GDP, provide half of state in=
come and make up 80 percent of all Venezuelan exports.=20
Internal and often sympathetic critics of the reform process in Venezuela s=
ay it is one thing to "spend the oil" on social welfare; it is another alto=
gether to "sow the oil" and create new collectively owned, productive, nons=
ubsidized industries that will generate wealth in an egalitarian and sustai=
nable fashion.=20
"When the coup happened we realized we had to get involved or we would lose=
everything," explains Carmen Guerrero. She says she was always a Ch=E1vez =
supporter but was not very active until the April 2002 coup d'=E9tat agains=
t Ch=E1vez launched by Venezuela's main business council, its notoriously c=
orrupt labor federation, dissident military officers and masses of middle- =
and upper-class Caraque=F1os. Declassified documents have since revealed th=
at the CIA knew at least a week beforehand that a coup was planned, while o=
ther US government agencies, such as the National Endowment for Democracy, =
were channeling aid to the opposition.=20
"There is no going back now," says Guerrero. Then, very seriously, she adds=
: "I hugged Ch=E1vez at a rally. I don't know how I got through security. I=
guess because I am short. I can't explain the feeling, the emotion was so =
strong." She clutches her fists to her breast and looks away.=20
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