Venezuela: The Times They Are A-Changin’

[BayCityProgressive]

http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/articles.php?artno=2006

Venezuela is changing. Fast. No other word captures the speed and magnitude of change as well as that weighty word--‘revolution.’ This is indeed the word used by many of the Venezuelans I had the privilege of meeting and interviewing during ten days in March. Venezuela is undergoing a ‘Bolivarian’ revolution. But what does 'Bolivarianism' entail? . . .
Contrary to the image often portrayed in the foreign media, Chavez has gone overboard in seeking to include as many as possible in the Bolivarian state. He has time and again extended an olive branch to his enemies.

To be honest, Zhou Enlai’s quip about the results of the French Revolution—that it is ‘too early to tell’—is doubly applicable to Venezuela. Radically different constituencies, political visions and potential futures are today co-existing more or less harmoniously within the dramatic process of change. This is perhaps inevitable. But some of the wide ranging ambiguity about the future direction of Bolivarianism has to do with Chavez’s crucial strategic choice in favour of peaceful social change. Contrary to the image often portrayed in the foreign media, Chavez has gone overboard in seeking to include as many as possible in the Bolivarian state. He has time and again extended an olive branch to his enemies.

For example, immediately after the failed coup against him, his first act was to guarantee the constitutional rights of the coup leaders, none of whom have been harmed. Likewise, he has consistently avoided using military and police forces under his command to repress the opposition, and had been exceedingly cautious towards foreign companies and investors. Some of his strongest supporters therefore consider Chavez excessively soft. The ideological message of Bolivarianism is straddling this society -- deeply divided by class -- with a strong Venezuelan and pan-latinoamerican nationalism. The ambiguity is patently visible in the street iconography of Caracas, which combines the faces of the aristocratic liberal Simon Bolivar and the radical communist Che Guevara, both sharing the landscape with huge billboards of fashionable young women advertising beer.

[PaDem]

1. Thanks for posting this...........

I hope Venezuela continues on this path in the face of increased efforts by our own government to destabilize.

[Peace Patriot]

2. Thanks so much for this post! Great article! It describes up close, in detail,

what I have been perceiving from afar: that Bolivarianism is a genuine, grass roots democracy movement, that is combining the energy and savvy for newly enfranchised majority with a strong and visionary leader of their choice, who shares their passion for democracy and helps them implement THEIR ideas for what they need and what will improve their economy and their political life. It is a powerful combination--a strong, determined, colorful leader, a very well-read and intelligent guy, who also speaks the language of the streets--and a motivated people. Now when I encounter a Chavez-basher, echoing the corporate line, I often comment on what an insult it is to Venezuelan voters, who have had since 1998 to closely scrutinze Chavez, and have repeatedly voted for him and his policies, in highly monitored elections. After writing and voting on a Constitution, and wiping out illiteracy in about five years, so that everyone could read it, would these same people put up with a "dictator"?

I recently saw the documentary "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised," by the Irish film crew who were present when the 2002 violent military coup attempt occurred, and you really have to see it to understand what is happening in Venezuela, and, indeed, throughout Latin America, inspired by the Bolivarians. The Venezuelans' rebellion against that coup attempt may be the most important event in Latin American history since the revolutionary war led by Simon Bolivar against the colonial powers. Many a time, since then, has a military coup or fascist junta overthrown peoples' hopes for a better government and a better life, in this region, often followed by years and decades of brutal oppression--too often sponsored by the US and our corporate rulers. Seldom does the opposite occur: that the people win. It has lit a fire in Latin America. There are now leftist (majorityist) governments covering most of the South American continent--Brazil, Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, Bolivia, Ecuador, Nicaragua and Venezuela, and promising democracy movements in Peru, Paraguay, Mexico and Guatemala. Colombia* is the remaining dinosaur of rightwing rule and the lethal US-funded "war on drugs," but the recent rightwing paramilitary scandals there, connected to the top echelons of the government--and the recent exposure of a plot among the fascists to assassinate Chavez--seem to have spurred an even stronger sense of unity among Latin American leaders, a consensus that the days of US interference in their affairs are over. Even the rightwing/corporatist president of Mexico publicly lectured Bush on the sovereignty of Latin American countries, mentioning Venezuela in this context. I was astounded. I would tend to doubt his sincerity, but the fact that he felt compelled to say it marked a new day in north/south relations.

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*(I don't know a thing about Honduras, except that it's very poor. It has been very quiet. And the other Caribbean countries--El Salvador, Costa Rica--are suffering through right-leaning/corporatist "free trade." Cuba is Cuba--an inspiration to the Bolivarians in some ways, but not a model.)

[eridani]

3. Yep, autocratic as hell

The government turns over a formerly government-run hotel to a workers' cooperative. Some centralized power grab!

[druidity33]

4. K&R nt