Getting Past the Spin Cycle:
We see and hear a lot about Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez.
Here are some thoughts from someone who actually visited the country.

This past spring, I had the pleasure of spending two months in Venezuela. I went there to work as an intern at botanical gardens in Caracas and Ciudad Bolivar and also to get some firsthand knowledge of the reality of the political situation there. I found the people of Venezuela, both supporters and detractors of Chavez, to be very open about their views of the administration.

One thing that most Venezuelans agree on is that their president is crazy. Few of them, however, consider him a dictator, a title that has been bandied about this country for some time. A number of independent international organizations have monitored the Venezuelan elections and declared them to be fair. Despite passage in 2005 of harsher penalties for libel, defamation, and insult which drew the attention of international freedom of speech organizations, the largely opposition-controlled media is alive and kicking in Venezuela. One only has to turn on a TV to see Venezuelans speaking out against their president. Chavez responds to his critics with “Alo Presidente,” a live program that airs every Sunday – all day. It starts at 11 a.m. and he’s still talking by dinnertime. He talks about anything and everything.

Elected in 1998, his party has been picking up steam ever since. The opposition (even with U.S. support) is weak and divided. In the parliamentary elections last December, it was becoming clear that they would be slaughtered at the polls. In an attempt to circumvent the electoral process, several opposition candidates withdrew from the election at the last minute, claiming it was ‘fraudulent’. The act backfired, and Chavez’ party won 68% of the seats in parliament – the two-thirds needed to change the constitution and place a referendum before the public. Voters approved the new constitution with a whopping 72% majority.

Chavez’ support comes from vigilantes, gardeners, musicians, taxi-drivers, and other blue-collar workers. A handful of white-collar professionals also sing his praises. I encountered several women who worked and volunteered in the missions (social programs funded by oil money to provide health-care and education to the poor) that said they would “go to the streets for Chavez.” Chavez enjoys approval ratings of 70 percent. His socialist Bolivarian Revolution platform is popular among the working poor as well as those who believe in a government that prioritizes healthcare and education.

On the other hand, his critics were just as eager to point out his faults. Most of the upper-class individuals I met were in this category. Some claimed that Chavez had “hijacked their country.”

“Poor people just don’t think sometimes,” one woman told me.

What surprised me was that there are many working poor who oppose Chavez. One young woman who worked at the garden and also as a math professor at a local university told me that Chavez was a demon, and that she hoped my country would invade and save her people. She carried a pistol in her purse at all times, living in constant fear. She told me of being hijacked at a stoplight once in broad daylight on her way to school. With a gun to her head, thieves took her car. She told me through her tears that she was convinced that Chavez had organized this criminal underground.

Other critics I met told me they wanted to drive expensive cars, live in mansions, and work in managerial positions. Clearly goals not in step with the Bolivarian revolution.

One common gripe was that Chavez spends millions in oil revenue to offer humanitarian aid to other Latin American countries when Venezuela could use the money domestically. I said that my president invests billions of dollars which contribute to the suffering of foreign nations. And that’s tax-dollars. The oil money goes into his pockets, and those of his friends.

Most Venezuelans don’t know that Americans don’t have universal healthcare. They also don’t know that higher education usually causes students to take out loans that they will spend half their lives paying off. We may have a ‘healthier’ economy than Venezuela, but our priorities are vastly different. As the largest exporter of crude oil in the western hemisphere, Chavez appears to be using that money to invest in the health and education of the people of Venezuela and other countries.

With my head full of what I considered a much better understanding of Venezuelan politics, I flew home. Hours after landing, my friends asked me what I thought of Chavez. I told them he could stand to use a bit more diplomatic tact, but that his policies were solid. I said I thought it was a beautiful thing that one million more adult Venezuelans are literate, and that new free inner-city health-care clinics were going up all over the country.

“But what about the term extension thing?” they asked. A trusted friend said that Chavez had proposed unconstitutionally extending his term limit to 25 years. I wondered why I heard nothing about this in the news or from my friends while in Venezuela. I was disheartened by the idea because it indicated Chavez might have more faith in himself as a leader than in the people’s revolution.

Later, I got an e-mail (in Spanish) from a Chavista friend in Caracas asking me what I thought about his country and the revolution. I mentioned my concern about the term limit extension. He responded with confusion, and knew nothing of this “proposed 25 year term.”

After doing a little research it became clear. Fox News snatched up an erroneous Associated Press story on the matter and headlined it, “Chavez Proposes Referendum to Stay President Until 2031”.

What Chavez said (in response to the opposition withdrawing from the elections) was that the people could vote on a referendum that would end term limits. Under the existing constitution and with his recent reelection in December, Chavez can serve until 2012.

What I would consider a reasonable response to the opposition’s election antics was apparently spun to fit the American media’s picture of Chavez as dictator. Neither the AP, nor FOX issued a retraction. This wasn’t something that was just lost in translation, it was a completely different story. This sort of spin is exactly the reason I encourage folks to look beyond Fox News and appreciate the apparent makings of a true democratic revolution, and the potential it has for combating U.S. imperialism and initiating progressive social change in South America and the rest of the world.

Susan Fawcett recently graduated from the University of Michigan where she studied scientific illustration and biology. She now works full time as an artist and musician, and has spent 6 months of the past year traveling through Latin America.

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