Victory for Bolivarian Revolution

Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez easily won re-election on Dec. 3 with 61 percent of the vote, 23 percentage points ahead of his main opponent.

Pro-Chávez, anti-Bush banner in Caracas, Venezuela reads: 'Vote against the devil! Vote against the empire!' WW photo: Rebeca Toledo

“Today begins a new era,” Chávez told supporters at a victory rally in Caracas. “The central idea of that new era will be the deepening and the expansion of the Bolivarian Revolution towards socialism.”

This landslide electoral victory comes to a government that speaks openly of “socialist revolution” and in the name of workers and peasants, the poor and Indigenous peoples. It is a stunning blow to the Bush administration and U.S. corporate interests in the region.

The victory comes amidst a sharp turn to the left in Latin America. In just the past five weeks leaders with progressive histories have won elections in Ecuador (Rafael Correa), Brazil (Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva), and Nicaragua (Daniel Ortega).

“Venezuela has independence. Venezuela is free. Venezuela will never be a North American colony,” said Chávez.

In the weeks before the election, Washington funneled millions of dollars to opposition right-wing candidates through groups like the U.S. Agency for International Development and National Endowment for Democracy. U.S. consultants, political strategists and communications experts went to Venezuela to assist reactionary candidates.

Pre-election reports suggested that the rightwing was gearing up to contest the election, charging “election fraud.” This tactic fell flat as numerous observers from entities ranging from the European Union and the Carter Center to the Organization of American States were unable to report any significant difficulties. The election, using new high-tech voting machines, was virtually without incident.

Despite Washington’s political isolation throughout Latin America, there are still tens of thousands of U.S. troops there.

According to Venezuelan-American lawyer Eva Golinger, author of “Bush vs. Chávez: Washington’s War on Venezuela,” the U.S. has been building a secret base in Colombia near the Venezuelan border as a future launching point for espionage operations. She noted in an October interview with Australia’s Green Left Weekly that recent U.S. military exercises in the Caribbean were an aggressive show of strength near Venezuela.

The exercises included eight major warships, all armed with “Tomahawk” cruise missiles. One of the ships was the aircraft carrier USS George Washington, with 85 combat planes and 6,500 troops on board. The warships prowled off Venezuela’s coast for two-and-a-half months.

A key reason why Washington is targeting Venezuela is the example the Bolivarian country sets not only for the southern continent, but for the United States as well. In the U.S., racism is rampant, tens of millions have no health care, pensions are being slashed and dismantled, and quality education is fast becoming a privilege only for the haves.

Yet in Venezuela, a country whose $130 billion gross domestic product is about one hundredth that of the U.S., people’s needs have become the first priority.

The Chávez government has initiated a vast array of “Bolivarian Missions,” including anti-poverty initiatives, the construction of thousands of free medical clinics, the launching of educational campaigns that have achieved nationwide literacy, and the enactment of food and housing subsidies.

The Missions bring workers and peasants into the country’s top governing structures. These initiatives have granted thousands of free land titles to formerly landless poor and Indigenous communities.

“I think the president has done what he said he would do,” José Medina, 54, a schoolteacher in the working-class neighborhood of Cano Amarillo outside Caracas, told the Washington Post on Dec. 23. “He’s put the social policies above everything else.”