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The Chavez Regime: Totalitarianism in Socialist Drag If you think Hugo Chávez is the democratically elected, leftist revolutionary who is fighting U.S. oil interests, Bush, and imperialism to help the poor of Venezuela, think again. I’d like to tell you a story you may not have heard. For background, I have lived in both the U.S. and Venezuela. I rejected U.S. involvement in Vietnam and Iraq and when stateside, identify with the left-leaning democratic side of politics. I admire George McGovern, Bill and Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama – you get the picture. I am critical of the post-colonial classism in Venezuela. Poverty, classism, and the political tradition of the Latin American “strongman” are what got Chávez elected President in 1998. He came in, put his finger on the problem, and looked like he was really going to do something. The poor voted for him and so did many in the middle and upper socio-economic classes, who had to admit that the two-party system of the past was not doing much to solve the problems of Venezuela. But what Chávez said he would do and what he has done are two different things.
A Short History The indigenous immigrants of Eurasia discovered Venezuela about 15,000 years ago. After Columbus’s visit to the Americas, there came waves of European explorers, conquerors, colonists, and missionaries. They looked for pearls and gold, and subjugated, enslaved, raped, and slaughtered the indigenous peoples. From the 1500s to the 1800s, indigenous and African slaves were put to work on cattle ranches and cocoa plantations. In the early 1800s, Spanish colonists under the leadership of Simón Bolívar fought for and obtained independence from Spain. The 1800s were characterized by coups, civil wars, and battle after battle. The post-colonial Venezuelans who ruled with an iron fist and maintained control of vast expanses of land were called “caudillos.” They were the Latin American strongmen who rule as military dictators and totalitarian thugs. In 1928, a group of college students led an anti-government riot, which led to a major shift in political consciousness toward democracy and sent all the organizers into exile. In 1945, “the generation of ’28” returned and led a civilian-military coup. Their enlightened government was toppled in 1948 and a new military caudillo, Marcos Pérez Jiménez, took power for the next 10 years. After he was toppled, “the generation of ’28” returned to power. Rómulo Betancourt, Venezuela’s father of democracy, began a succession of democratic governments with significant improvements on many fronts, but poverty, corruption, classism, and political violence were ongoing. In 1992 Hugo Chávez led a military coup against the government of Carlos Andrés Pérez. He was unsuccessful but managed to kill 50 people and establish a cult following. Chávez was pardoned in 1994 and elected president in 1998. A Leftist? The core leftist values include workers’ rights, strong unions, equitable distribution of wealth, protection of minority groups, a free press, independent democratic institutions, and government programs that ensure the provision of food, housing, education, and healthcare for all. In nine years, Chávez has made it clear where he stands with regard to all of these. Chávez has relentlessly attacked the CTV, the country’s largest union. He has ignored almost every union demonstration and strike that has ever been held. When the entire country went on strike calling for him to step down, he waited them out for two months, fired 18,000 highly trained oil workers, and brought in workers from Cuba, the Middle East, and North Africa. There is more poverty now than there was before Chávez came into office. But the old oligarchy and the new Chavista oligarchy are fabulously wealthy. Chávez supports minority groups that agree with him, but those with a different opinion are considered enemies of Chávez and therefore enemies of “el pueblo.” The press has been relentlessly attacked with violence in the streets, organized government assaults on press installations, and legal attacks in the courts. National and international press associations have been harshly critical of the Chávez regime for years and lodge their critiques regularly. Chávez’s apologists remind us of his programs for the poor. But the achievements of Chávez’s programs are always exaggerated, and there are continual reports of inefficiency and corruption. Chávez is opposed by practically every leftist and progressive party in Venezuela, including major leftist intellectuals like Pompeyo Márquez and Teodoro Petkoff, his mentor Luis Miquilena, his close friend and ex-Minister of Defense Raul Baduel, and his ex-wife Marisabel Rodríguez, who has recently taken a strong political stand against him. |
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