December 21st 2006
On returning from an exhausting, but exhilarating trip to Venezuela I am still dizzy at the whirlwind of visits, interviews and participation in the huge crowds from all areas of Venezuelan society in the historic election process and successful re-election of President Chavez.
During our visit, part of which was with the Irish Congress of Trade Unions and Irish Labour Party, we visited San Augustín – popular area in Caracas with an organised community. We saw Barrio Adentro 1 (Health missions) as well as the community cultural centre which was formerly an abandoned cinema. The installations have been taken over by the community and are now a centre for handicrafts, art, dance and a meeting place for the community to discuss their projects.
With the election campaign in full swing it was possible to see campaigning Venezuelan style with tables of information of the accomplishments of the Bolivarian Revolution in a range of shopping and other areas, almost always accompanied by revolutionary Venezuelan music. In San Augustín we met the coordinator of one of the 6500 soup kitchens set up by the Chavez government to benefit 900,000 poor nationwide to ensure a regular diet. The food these 150 children were now getting twice a day was both nutritious and regular, both out of their reach before 2003 when this community organised itself.
We met with renowned US lawyer Eva Golinger and had the opportunity to hear first hand the details of the US interference in Venezuela, both leading up to the coup and following it.
Eva Golinger has been instrumental in uncovering classified documents from the US government using the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) to prove Washington’s involvement in the 2002 coup as well as the funding of opposition groups during and after the bosses lock out and oil industry sabotage in late 2002 to early 2003. Her first book “The Chavez Code” was published in 2004 and her second book “Bush vs. Chavez – Washington’s War on Venezuela” has just appeared and will be published in English in early 2007.
We also attended a conference given by Chavez’s former Chief of Staff, Haiman El Troudi at the Miranda International center (CIM) who expounded some thoughts on the Socialism of the XXI Century as well as the recent history of Venezuela since Chavez came to power in February 1999. El Troudi emphasized that the concept of Socialism in the XXI Century was still being developed and would take the form of a national debate to define it more clearly taking into account the reality of Venezuela. He did, however, say that it would not be state capitalist based and that economic concerns would not be the center of the concept, but the human being and their material and spiritual welfare. This concept dovetails nicely with the Bolivarian Alternative for America (ALBA) which has the human being as the lynchpin of its policies.
It is not possible to list all the people and interviews we did on both TV and radio. But I have to say meeting and having discussions with an Admiral of the Venezuelan Navy and who is also Rector of the Armed Forces University was perhaps the most surprising.
Chavez won 62.89% of the vote ahead of his main rival, Manuel Rosales, who polled 36.85%. This has been accepted by all international observers and, perhaps surprisingly, by most of the Venezuela opposition.
This vote is the highest vote ever received by a President of Venezuela and the highest turnout in Venezuelan history since voting ceased to be compulsory in effectively 1993.
The following are the abstention figures: 1993 43%,1998 32%, 2000 43%, 2004 31% (presidential recall referendum), 2006 25.2% Venezuela is effectively becoming more democratic now that there is participatory democracy as opposed to representative democracy.
Chavez himself often quotes Castro when pointing out that there are not 4 million oligarchs in Venezuela. There will no doubt be many discussions on the most effective way of getting on board many of the youth I saw around Altamira square following the election. A small disparate group of privileged university students demonstrating against fraud, university independence and anything else they thought would get support. I suspect many of these voted for the yuppie First Justice Party (Primero Justicia) who received more than 1.2 million votes, making it the third biggest party. It is important to note that the First Justice party is effectively a fascist group whose ground has to be continually cut from beneath it to ensure they do not prove to be a fatal aspect to the continuing Revolution within Venezuela.
Moves are already being made in this direction, not least building 50 new universities by the end of 2008 and ensuring that the economy is stabilized and benefiting all key sectors of Venezuelan society. This would help kill two birds with one stone. Tackle the long term problems of equal opportunities in further education and bring another weapon in the battle against fascist ideology.
Bearing in mind that Venezuela has a small population of just over 27 million it is worth asking why there were more than 2000 international news and TV journalists and 600 hundred international observers in Venezuela for the elections? The reason could be because it is the world’s fifth largest oil exporter (but that is not new) and it is most likely that the Bolivarian project and Chavez’s international influence are a phenomenon that inspire millions of workers and threaten the rich and powerful. Take note of who is the most popular and respected politician of the Middle East? Hugo Chavez.
The battles ahead are many and varied. President Chavez has been talking for some time about the Revolution within the Revolution. Many activists from all levels of Venezuelan society have been pinning a lot of hopes on the second term of President Chavez. They have a right to. Their experience of his first term has been nothing short of genius in so many ways.
As Mao Zedong said “We Live in interesting Times” and is a quote of relevance. Whether this is a curse or blessing depends on the actions we take, motives we have and in the confidence we express that only with the mass of the people involved in all key aspects of decision making, can the Revolution be carried forward.
If this is the case then the hope I see in the eyes of millions will continue across the whole of Venezuela and the Liberator Simon Bolivar’s vision of a united Latin America as a bulwark against US imperialism.
Andy Goodall
VSC Coordinator
www.venezuelasolidarity.org.uk
info@venezuelasolidarity.org.uk |
