The crash of the Venezuelan welfare and mighty state

For reasons that any student of Venezuelan society should look for in the events of the third and fourth decades of the 20th century, the great majority of Venezuelan political leaders during the rest of that century (extending into the current one) were men and women deeply influenced by Marxist and or other leftist theories.

University students who rebelled against the dictator Gomez during the 30s read much about Marxism, and it was a fact that most of the active opposition to this dictator came from the members of the early Venezuelan communist cells.

Romulo Betancourt, probably the most prominent of our Venezuelan political leaders of the last century, was a communist sympathizer at one point of his political evolution.

The Spanish Civil War captured the idealistic imaginations of many of our young politicians. Some of them went and fought in Spain against Franco, Hitler and Mussolini and for Stalin.

In those years the communists were the "good guys."
In Venezuela, to belong to the left became fashionable. It has been only in recent decades that Venezuelan conservatives have "come out of the closet" and have declared publicly their views without feeling ashamed.

The pioneer of the Venezuelan conservative groups was Carlos Rangel, a brilliant intellectual who wrote the extraordinary essay "From the Good Savage to the Good Revolutionary," the first book published in Venezuela in which the failure of the Latin American left is described in detail.

Even today, most everybody in Venezuela prefers to define him or herself as a member of the left ... our best humorists were identified with the left. Wit, womanizing, intellectual brilliance and high alcohol consumption, the most-coveted characteristics of Venezuelan politicians were all characteristics of the Venezuelan left. Conservatives were considered to be mostly boring, monogamous and colorless.

These personal traits, when translated into terms of National Policy, gave birth to several generations of political leaders for whom State Control of the economy, ownership of strategic industries, free social services were "religious" dogmas. These dogmas went hand in hand with deep nationalistic, almost xenophobic, sentiments and a deep distrust of the private sector.

The combination of Catholicism and Marxism produced a strange breed of parochial political leadership, not the splendid isolation of early 20th century North America but, rather, a closed society relying in import substitution, State ownership of hundreds of companies and very mediocre educational and health systems, since nobody paid for them and the State soon became too inefficient to provide the required funds.

Already by the end of the 20th century it was obvious that this model had failed miserably. The State had taken on so much burden that it could not possibly be faithful to its creed. Salaries of Public employees went largely unpaid, hospitals and schools lacked the most essential, infrastructure deteriorated rapidly, poverty increased. In parallel there was much corruption, which was the result of poor salaries, lack of controls and almost total impunity. If a saint had come to work for those governments he probably would have put his hands in the till, yielding to peer pressure.

The revolution of Hugo Chavez could have been a revolution to put a stop to the welfare and mighty State. But it was a revolution designed to reinforce this notion. It encountered a State already half broke, owing billions of dollars to public employees, but still making promises to these people that they could not possibly fulfill.

Instead of coming down to earth, facing the realities of our society, the new revolution kept extending the control of the State over the economy, kept reinforcing the concepts of totally free health and education, kept making promises to the Venezuelan people which could not be fulfilled.

As a result, and regardless of the good intentions which could have existed, the welfare and mighty State came crashing down on all of us, the rich and the poor.

Today the State is broke, the poor are miserable, the middle class is poor, the social services are paralyzed, the streets and roads full of potholes, the garbage uncollected in the sidewalks.

Faced with its incapacity to govern, the revolution has decided to go down in glory, claiming that its enemies did not allow them to accomplish their objectives. Better to be martyrs than to be defined by historians as incompetent.

VHeadline.com : Sunday, Jan 12, 2003

Gustavo Coronel is the founder and president of Agrupacion Pro Calidad de Vida (The Pro-Quality of Life Alliance), a Caracas-based organization devoted to fighting corruption and the promotion of civic education in Latin America, primarily Venezuela. A member of the first board of directors (1975-1979) of Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA), following nationalization of Venezuela's oil industry, Coronel has worked in the oil industry for 28 years in the United States, Holland, Indonesia, Algiers and in Venezuela. He is a Distinguished alumnus of the University of Tulsa (USA) where he was a Trustee from 1987 to 1999. Coronel led the Hydrocarbons Division of the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB) in Washington DC for 5 years. The author of three books and many articles on Venezuela ("Curbing Corruption in Venezuela." Journal of Democracy, Vol. 7, No. 3, July, 1996, pp. 157-163), he is a fellow of Harvard University and a member of the Harvard faculty from 1981 to 1983. In 1998, he was presidential election campaign manager for Henrique Salas Romer and now lives in retirement on the Caribbean island of Margarita where he runs a leading Hotel-Resort. You may contact Gustavo Coronel at email ppcvicep@telcel.net.ve

Thankyou. This is an excellent analysis.

Chavez came to power blaming the country's problems on "neo-liberal" economics, which is his code word for a free economy, which he blames for his country's woes. His solution is to centralize the economy.

The joke of it is that Venezuela has never had a free economy. All of its recent presidents have been cut from the same populist cloth as Mr. Chavez. Each has come to power promising to use government to help the people, each has further centralized the economy, and when that didn't work, and the economy lagged, the next president has promised and delivered even more populist solutions.

Chavez is not a revolutionary, despite his conceit. He is simply one more, delivering more of the same. Its just that he is the straw that has driven the camel to its knees.

The political spectrum in Venezuela really has no room for US style conservatism. The parties range from far-left socialists, to center socialists, to pro-business socialists. No one questions the essential presumptions of Venezuelan politics, which is that the key elements of the economy should be state run, and that a successful government should manage the welfare of its citizens.

Christian Marxism, or Christian Socialism if you prefer, is the middle of the road norm in Venezuelan politics.

This is why, when Chavez openly announced what he would do if elected, the traditional parties had no answer. They had no way to confront him philosophically, since essentially they saw the world through the same prism.

The primary difference is that under civilian democratic government, the contradictions in the system could be ameliorated by extraofficial means. Corruption of the survival kind, personal contacts, people looking the other way, all make a space for people to live their lives.

Chavez came to power determined to close the loopholes, and a socialist economy deprived of its loopholes must drive itself into the ground full throttle. People blame their problems on corruption. They don't realize that socialism makes corruption possible, having centralized power into a few hands, but it also makes it necessary just for survival. Corruption is the air that allows a socialist nation to go on breathing, that allows even the minimum of freedom of action that makes it bearable. Close that off, and the country asfixiates.

Talking Tough, Chavez Looks to Leftist Intellectuals in Brazil as Venezuelans Press for Vote*** CARACAS, Venezuela/PORTO ALEGRE, Brazil (Reuters) - Foes of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez clamored Sunday for early elections to vote him out of office, while the former coup plotter hinted he might be forced to take up arms again if his leftist "revolution" was defeated. Showing their support for an 8-week-old strike against the populist president, tens of thousands of his opponents massed Sunday along a major highway in east Caracas, waving red, yellow and blue national flags. But former paratrooper Chavez, speaking during a trip to Brazil, ruled out immediate elections and said his foes must wait until August, when the constitution allows for a binding referendum on his four-year-old rule.

The 56-day-old opposition strike has slashed oil exports in the world's No. 5 petroleum exporter, choking off the government's oil revenues and triggering an economic crisis.

Chavez, who staged a botched coup bid six years before winning elections in 1998, said that if his opponents succeeded in "breaking my revolutionary government ... then that would be terrible, because I would have to think of other methods. I once had a rifle in my hands. I put it away, I don't want to pick it up ever again. I have kept it somewhere," he told cheering supporters in Porto Alegre, Brazil.

He was attending the World Social Forum that brings together leftist intellectuals, grass-roots social groups and nongovernmental bodies. Citing the Argentine-born guerrilla legend Ernesto "Che" Guevara, Chavez said that if political movements like his own were not allowed to prosper in peace in Latin America "then the sounds of combat and of machineguns will start to rise up." To counter the financial impact of the opposition strike, Chavez said his government would have to introduce price controls on top of planned foreign exchange restrictions. He told reporters earlier his government was also studying a tax on financial market transactions. ***

. I once had a rifle in my hands.

This is as clear a warning as you will get. If they want to be free, they will have to be prepared to defend their freedom. They are going to have to put themselves on the line.

August or February, Chavez is not going to respect any referendum that ends with his being voted out. He will not go quietly. So the choice is pretty clear. If he won't go quietly, he must be made to go nonetheless.

His opponents aleady know that their lives are not secure if he remains in power. They must be prepared now to put their lives on the line to drive him from the throne.

Driving him out will not make them safe, if he is to be believed, voting him out will not make them safe. If he is prepared to resort to force of arms, after losing a referendum, then they must also be prepared to defend their freedom by force of arms. Anyone who is prepared to use force to take your freedom is not your brother; he is not your countryman. He is your blood enemy.

Chavez' conceit is that he is the vanguard of some kind of leftist revolution. But Venezuela has known only leftist rule from the beginning. All of Venezuela's political parties are of the left. Chavez did not introduce leftist politics, he simply inherited a country ravaged by leftist economics, and brought more of the same, with perhaps a more openly doctrinaire approach, and a military patina.

The primary difference, though, is that the others were prepared to leave office if the vote didn't go their way. He has announced from day one that he was not leaving office. Ever.

Horror in Venezuela Jesus Soriano and the price of dissent in Hugo Chavez's Venezuela by Thor L. Halvorssen - [Full Text] VENEZUELA IS NOW an abyss where there is no rule of law. A rogue government tortures innocent civilians with impunity while paying lip service to democracy and buying time at the "negotiation" table set up by the Organization of American States. Venezuela's foreign minister, Roy Chaderton, has funded an effective multi-million dollar public relations campaign to smear the opposition as coup-plotters and fascists intent on bringing about violence.

Jesus Soriano has never met Roy Chaderton or Hugo Chavez. Soriano supported President Hugo Chavez's meteoric rise, volunteered during the election campaign, and is now a second-year law student in Caracas. His law-school peers describe the 24-year-old as a cheerful and happy young man.

Soriano, a member of the Chavez party, is part of a national student group called "Ousia," a group that brings together moderates who support the government and opposition members seeking a peaceful resolution to the current crisis.

On December 6, Soriano witnessed the massacre that occurred during a peaceful protest in Altamira, a neighborhood in Caracas where the opposition has a strong presence. The killer was Joao De Gouveia, an outspoken supporter of Chavez who has an unusually close relationship with mayor Freddy Bernal, a Chavez crony. Gouveia randomly began shooting at the crowd. He killed three--including a teenage girl he shot in the head--and injured 28 people. As Gouveia kept shooting, several men raced toward him to stop the killing. Soriano was one of the men who wrestled Gouveia to the ground and prevented further killing. Soriano also protected Gouveia from a potential lynch mob that swarmed around the killer.

Soriano's heroic accomplishments did not cease that day. He became a national figure in Venezuela when he brought a small soccer ball (known in Venezuela as a "futbolito") to a sizable protest march organized against the rule of Lt. Col. Chavez. Soriano and other pro-Chavez partisans made their way towards the march intending to engage the opposition members in dialogue.

That hot afternoon, Soriano kicked the futbolito across the divide at the members of the opposition. They kicked it back. The magical realism of the event is evident in the extraordinary television footage of what occurred next. By the end of the match the anti-Chavez protestors and pro-Chavez partisans were hugging and chanting "Peace! Unity! We are Venezuela! Politicians go away! We are the real Venezuela!" In one particularly moving part of the footage, Soriano and a member of the opposing team trade a baseball hat for a Chavez-party red beret.

In one hour this sharply divided group of strangers accomplished more than the high-level negotiation team that seeks to defuse a potential civil war. Chavez was reportedly furious with the televised soccer match and even angrier that the reconciliation was a product of the efforts of one of his supporters. Soriano was declared an enemy of the revolution.

Last week Soriano organized another soccer match. On Wednesday he visited the Universidad Central de Venezuela, the main university in the capital, to attend a meeting of the student government. Violent clashes erupted as members of the Circulos Bolivarianos, an armed militia sworn to protect the revolution, began throwing rocks and tear gas grenades at the students. The militia identified Soriano and captured him. They then tied his hands and feet, lifted him up, and paraded him through the street like a sacrificial lamb chanting "Judas! Judas!" The entire spectacle was recorded by a cameraman who works for the official government television entity. Soriano was beaten so severely that he was left at the hospital emergency room. At the hospital he was detained by the DISIP, Chavez's secret police, and taken to their headquarters for questioning.

During his interrogation, fingernails in his left hand were torn out. After being further tortured and injected with drugs, the secret police took him into the bowels of the building and placed him in a cell. His cellmate: Joao de Gouveia.

Gouveia has the keys to the cell and comes in and out of the secret police headquarters at will. His only restriction is that he must sleep in the precinct, lest Chavez's police are revealed as allowing a confessed killer to roam free. Soriano's mother (who is also a Chavez supporter) tearfully claimed that Gouveia sodomized Soriano and beat him with such force that Soriano cannot open his eyes.

Soriano was released last Friday afternoon after Roy Chaderton advised Chavez that the case could filter out of Venezuela and could become a "human-interest story" with the potential to derail their PR campaign.

The government denied that Soriano had been mistreated. A thorough medical examination by a civil surgeon reveals that, beyond lacerations, severe bruising, and cracked ribs, Soriano had been repeatedly raped while in custody. His right arm shows that he has been injected. Nails are missing from his left hand. Soriano's internal organs have been crushed to the point that he urinates blood, and he cannot walk without assistance.

Once the medical report was made public, the secret police immediately began saying that Soriano was a member of a "right-wing paramilitary organization." This tactic, engineered by Chaderton, is used frequently to disqualify and discount opponents of the regime. All enemies of the "revolution" are coup plotters and fascists. The government now circulates a photo of Soriano in military fatigues. Carlos Roa, Soriano's attorney, showed me that the picture is a yearbook photo from when he was a schoolboy in military academy.

Although it was obvious that Soriano had been tortured, Iris Varela, a Chavez congressional representative, offered no apologies: "I am glad they did this to him. He deserved it." That such savage treatment is what greets government supporters who seek a peaceful resolution to the current crisis speaks volumes about Chavez's ultimate intentions. Soriano, now recuperating at home, must wonder why he ever supported the Chavez regime. [End]

Thor L. Halvorssen is a human rights and civil liberties activist who grew up in Venezuela. He now lives in Philadelphia.

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