VENEZUELA
Snapshots from its history
By Dawn Gable
Caracas, Venezuela
(Guest article)
"No volveran! (They will not return!) No
volveran!" This rallying cry heard throughout Venezuela
embodies the response to the recall referendum that would
subject Hugo Chávez's presidential mandate to yet
another vote. The chant refers to the ruling class that held
political power from 1958 until the election of Hugo
Chávez.
According to the once-chic Venezuela Exceptionalism Theory
of the international academic and business communities, in 1958
Venezuela established itself as a stable democracy, developing
into a nation more closely resembling its two most northern
American neighbors than any of those south of Texas.
Venezuela did make a break from its own past in 1958
regarding political stability. In the 150 years prior,
Venezuela had no less than 100 changes of power and 23
constitutions. But the period from 1958 to 1998 was hardly
peaceful. During Romulo Betancourt's first elected term
(1959-1964) there were six military uprisings, a steady stream
of terrorist attacks, strong guerrilla activity, one narrowly
escaped presidential assassination attempt perpetrated by a
foreign government and 916 political prisoners.
In 1967, nine years after Betancourt took office, Caracas
was deemed the most expensive city in the world. The wealthy
stashed their loot in foreign accounts as the poor suffered.
The infant mortality rate was 56 percent and life expectancy
was 65 years. During this period, Cuba and Brazil had each
increased their public education budgets by over 60 percent,
Vene zuela only raised its by 7.2 percent; and while Venezuela
boasted the highest population growth rate in the world, Cuba
and Brazil's primary-school enrollment growth rate was more
than 10 times higher than Venezuela's.
One well-respected author, who was a fan of Betancourt,
described the economic gap of this decade as being "as wide as
an alligator's yawn." A mere 1.7 percent of the population
owned 74 percent of the arable land. One fourth of all Caracas
residents were prosperous enough to own a car, but an entire
third of all Caraquenos lived in makeshift shantytowns called
ranchos. What's worse, 40 percent of these rancho households
had no immediate access to water, much less any other
sanitation services.
Then came the black-gold years. The oil boom of 1970-78, the
further raising of the government's oil revenue shares to 70
percent, and the nationalization of other natural resources
provided the government with an unprecedented income. Wages
increased, price controls were set, imports were subsidized,
and land titles were given out--albeit in a disastrous
manner.
But how did the government and the moneyed class use this
short-lived windfall to secure the future? They didn't. By the
early 1980s, corruption and mismanagement had created a huge
deficit and the nation's GDP plummeted. The discontent of the
1980s culminated in street riots, deadly repression and
political instability.
Like many other Latin American countries, Venezuela had
suffered hard economic times in the 1980s and was being brought
in line with the neoliberal desires of the World Bank, which
included austerity measures. One such measure ignited the
country. Although commonly referred to as "El Caracazo," the
uprising of 1989 occurred throughout the nation.
The poor flooded into the city centers, rioting and looting
for a couple of days before eliciting an official response. The
response was brutal. In Caracas the military was ordered into
the barrios. Within a few days the bodies piled up. Estimates
range from a low of 372 to a high of 2,000 people killed--the
accounts vary between official and independent sources. This
repression left the poor as well as many in the military scared
and seething.
In 1992, Hugo Chávez led a failed coup attempt. His
televised surrender speech gave the people their mantra for the
next six years: "Por ahora" (for now). These two words
contained the will of the nation, just like today's "No
volveran!" When this will became reality, Hugo Chávez
skated into the palace with a 56-percent vote count.
By 1998 the nation as a whole still had not noticeably moved
forward from 1967 in terms of social development. In fact it
was still at par with many other Latin Amer ican countries
which had had significantly less resources. According to a
United Nations Development Program Report in 2000, President
Chávez was handed a leading oil-exporting nation where
18 percent of its population were classified in extreme poverty
and an additional 26 percent were considered in critical
poverty.
These poor included two-thirds of the nation's children
under five years old. Forty-five percent of households still
had no daily access to safe water and 27 percent had no sewage
facilities. At least one person in 44 percent of all households
had a chronic illness, and there was one hospital bed per 585
residents, although most of these beds were only accessible to
the wealthy. Thirteen percent of the country's youth, nearly
all of them from the poor sector, were not attending school at
all. The drop-out rate among those who did enter school was 69
percent. In total, 44 percent of children in 1998 were excluded
from the education system.
In the past few years since Chávez took office, the
country has struggled forward despite crippling economic
sabotage by the business community, an expensive failed coup, a
constant media offensive, and international harassment and
direct meddling. Twenty thousand new homes have been built and
another 10,000 rebuilt by military programs called Avispa and
Reviba. Three million people received potable water for the
first time. One million received sewage services.
Two and a half million acres of productive land have been
distributed along with credits, technical support and
equipment, and 30,000 land titles were given to urban
squatters. All titles contain a no-resale clause. The federal
allotment to education at all levels more than doubled in
Chávez's first two years and more than 1 million
children were integrated into the education system.
Kindergarten enrollment tripled. Nearly 700 new schools were
built, over 2,000 were reconstructed, and 36,000 new teachers
were employed.
The Bolivarian school model was established in 3,000
schools, bringing two meals a day, art, sports and recreation
to many children's daily lives. One million people are being
taught to read and write under the Mission Robinson project.
Under the project, drop-outs will get a second chance at
finishing high school. Two new Bolivarian public universities
will open by spring and others will follow shortly, offering
tens of thousands of scholarships to the underprivileged.
Hundreds of thousands of poor are being attended by
volunteer Cuban doctors through the Barrio Adentro Program that
provides one doctor per 200 families in slums where no medical
facilities had ever existed before. The number of doctors
throughout the nation increased by 48 per 1,000 residents and
life expectancy rose by nine months. The new Proyecto Simoncito
gave support to women and infants from pregnancy to preschool,
while infant mortality and under-nutrition dropped
significantly.
The Women's Bank gave out 42,000 credits to small
woman-owned businesses; another 30,000 micro credits were given
out to farmers, fishers and transportation collectives.
Thirty-nine reforestation projects were established and
community nurseries produced 4.4 million plants. Laws
pertaining to fishing have protected coastal waters from
industrial fishing to the benefit of 200,000 community fishers
and various coastal marine species.
Three new metro lines, three freeways, a railway line, a
second bridge over the Orinoco river, the Caruachi dam, a giant
aqueduct, and second heavy oil refineries are under
construction, creating tens of thousands of jobs. Thirteen
cultural centers were built around the nation and the Caracas
Theater was re-opened. Two hundred and forty-three
"Infocenters"--computer salons with high-speed internet--were
installed in libraries, museums, city halls and NGO
offices.
Reprinted from the Jan. 8, 2004, issue of
Workers World newspaper
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011
Email: ww@workers.org
Subscribe wwnews-subscribe@workersworld.net
Support independent news http://www.workers.org/orders/donate.php)
HOME
:: U.S. NEWS ::
WORLD NEWS ::
EDITORIALS ::
SUBSCRIBE ::
DONATE
Email
this article
Printable
page