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Venezuela – The Chance for Revolution For forty
years, Venezuela had been ruled by two corrupt capitalist parties contemptuous
of the poor and oppressed; much like the US or Britain. At the end of the1990s,
unlike Britain, four fifths of the population lived in poverty, half of which
were malnourished. 60% of the land was held by 1 to 2% of the population. The
lowest fifth of the population received under 4% of national income while the
top tenth received nearly 40%. This was
despite being the fifth largest oil exporter in the world with proven reserves
of 77bn barrels. Today oil can generate $30bn per year. During the heyday of the
Organisation of Oil-Exporting Countries; OPEC, in the early ‘80s, some of the
oil money was distributed more widely but with the decline in oil prices and
imperialism’s imposition of a Structural Adjustment Programme, Venezuela
entered into crisis and per capita income fell rapidly. Then in 1998,
the Venezuelan people elected, en masse, Hugo Chavez, the son of poor teachers
and a former paratrooper, who had previously attempted a coup, in 1992.
Hugo
Chavez Since then,
Chavez has far from eliminated poverty or oppression but has introduced many
radical social reforms to benefit the poor.
One of his first moves was to introduce a new constitution that was
approved in a popular referendum. The new constitution rejected the corrupt
bourgeois model of parliamentary politics with its anti-working class parties
and bankrolled elections. In its place it emphasised popular assemblies, mass
movements and continuous referenda. The new constitution also includes
guarantees for indigenous peoples, and women's rights, free healthcare and
education up to university level. Chavez also
formed a political coalition known as the Movement for the Fifth Republic; MVR,
that won political control of the National Assembly. The National Assembly then
passed a package of forty-nine laws that continued this ‘Bolivarian
Revolution’, named after the Venezuelan revolutionary, Simon Bolivar, who
liberated much of the Northwest of the continent from Spanish colonialism. This
‘revolution’ had: ·
Consolidated state control of the oil industry. ·
Increased the export tax on
oil from 16 to 30%. ·
Played a key role in uniting
OPEC to stabilise the price of oil. ·
Ensured oil supplies to
socialist Cuba. ·
Passed an agrarian reform that
allows the government to redistribute land to the poor if it has remained
unproductive for two years. It also allows for credit to any private farmer who
prefers to make the land productive rather than lose it. ·
Introduced a large-scale
micro-credit program for the poor, especially for women. ·
Financed ecological and
local development projects and passed a law to protect small fishermen. ·
Provided schools for over one
million children for the first time and doubled education spending. ·
Tripled the number of literacy
courses. ·
Increase health spending
fourfold. ·
Cracked down on tax evasion
and corruption. ·
Regulated the informal economy
to protect the poor. ·
Started to clean up the
oppressive and corrupt judicial system. ·
Initiated a review of
appalling prison conditions and a review of unjust sentences. ·
Reduced unemployment from 18
to 13%. ·
Reduced infant mortality by a
fifth. ·
Raised public sector wages by
20%. ·
Reduced inflation from 40 to
12%, ·
Opposed Plan Colombia and
NAFTA. In
October 2001, Chavez had held up a photograph of dead Afghan children and said
the US must halt what he called, ‘the slaughter of innocents’. No
wonder then that the predominantly white middle classes were opposed to this
revolution, while the predominantly black working class remained behind it. One
reactionary parasite summed up the situation: ‘Sure, there are a few abusive rich people, but it's not just them he's targeted. It's people like me. You know, middle class people, with an apartment, two cars, maybe a vacation outside the country once a year.’ US imperialism
was also determined to see Chavez and the MVR removed from power. In Dec. 2001
the middle class and better off sections of the working class employed in the
international sector of the economy carried out a one-day general strike,
followed by public demonstrations in the new year. In April, the
government sacked the managers of the state run oil company, Petróleos de
Venezuela; PDVSA, because of their political sabotage of the oil industry. In
response, on Tuesday 9th, the Chamber of Commerce Employers’ Federation, Fedecámaras,
and the reactionary trade union, the Venezuelan Workers Confederation (CTV),
went on strike. They demanded the reinstatement of the managers, but were also
aiming to remove the government from power. The strike was to last three days.
By Thursday, April 11th, opposition demonstrators were converging on the
Miraflores presidential palace, urged on by the private TV channels that had
also taken Chavez’ presidential speech off air in contravention of the law. Working class
supporters of the government, organised within militia known as Bolivarian
Circles, also mobilised to defend the president. Some of these workers were
armed with stones, clubs, petrol bombs and in a few cases handguns. Separate
cordons of city police and National Guards were between the two groups. Army
intelligence had discovered that anti-government groups were seeking a
confrontation that day. During the
demonstration, shooting broke out and eleven people were killed and ninety-five
wounded. Most of the deaths were of government supporters and most were shot
from above by snipers. Two snipers were arrested at the scene, but uncertainty
still remains as to who initiated the killing. Within hours,
reactionary generals from within the Armed Forces had arrested Chavez and seized
power. The army chief, General Efrain Vasquez Velasco, demanded Chavez'
resignation but failed to get it. The next morning they announced it anyway,
along with the story that Chavez had asked to go to exile in Cuba. In fact he
had been taken to the Fuerte Tiuna military barracks in Caracas and then to the
island of La Orchila off the Venezuelan coast. The arrested snipers were
released by the generals. The new junta
was led by Pedro Carmona Estanga, head of Fedecámaras, the Employers’
Federation, and a former oil executive. He immediately dissolved the National
Assembly, the Supreme Court and Attorney General, the National Electoral Council
and all state and municipal governments. He also nullified the package of
forty-nine laws introduced by the National Assembly to reform the economy. The
new manager of the state oil company, PDVSA, immediately declared that we’re ‘not
going to send a single barrel Carmona
then announced the immediate end to the managers general strike in the oil
industry. General
Vasquez confirmed that military and civilian police were conducting a national
search for the vice-president, Diosdado Cabello, who was responsible for
organising the workers’ militia, known as the Bolivarian Circles, and Freddie
Bernal, the Mayor of the working class district Libertador. The
People’s Response
Few
people believed the generals and there were plenty prepared to speak out.
Aristobulo Isturiz, the education minister was with Chavez at the palace at the
time of his arrest. He said that Chavez had ‘told
the military staff he was not resigning, that they could go ahead with their
coup and take responsibility for it….They took him away under arrest’. The
Attorney General, Isaias Rodriguez, said ‘the
president has not resigned, we have not seen any clear evidence of any such
resignation, and President Chavez continues to be the president of Venezuela.’ Speaking
by telephone to Cuban TV, the president’s daughter, Maria Gabriela Chavez,
said that it was ‘a
lie, all lies, he said he never resigned, that and
he is being held incommunicado’. She
quoted her father ‘You
have to help me... I am a jailed president.’ The
Cuban communist party newspaper, Granma, described events as a
‘counter-revolutionary conspiracy by… the economically-dominant classes’. The
generals did have one group prepared to peddle their lies; the US State
Department. They said that they considered there had been no coup. For them,
‘the people in Venezuela spoke, and Chavez resigned in response. It
was now the turn of the working class to speak. Tens of thousands of government
supporters, mainly from the working class neighbourhoods in the West of Caracas,
took to the streets. Antonio
Orellano a 65 year old from the
neighbourhood of Petare, shouted that they would fight back: ‘There's
going to be a civil war here. They attacked the private television stations that had helped mobilise for the opposition and fought with police. In the uprising that followed nine people were killed.
Government
supporters surrounded the presidential palace and the naval base where Chavez
was being held demanding proof of his resignation. ‘We want to see Chavez,’
one protester said. ‘The
Venezuelan people don't buy it that he has resigned.’ Pedro
Carmona was forced to suspend the inauguration of his new cabinet while police
fired water cannon and tear gas to disperse the demonstrators in the capital.
He had also been forced to back down on his dissolution of the National
Assembly. This made life difficult for the new junta as MVR deputies were
planning to take their seats in the Assembly again on Monday, while William
Lara, the Assembly president, had pronounced that: ‘We
say this is a coup d’etat.’ Meanwhile
the reactionary trade union, the CTV, and General Vasquez withdrew their support
form Carmona as they had depended upon the National Assembly as a fig leaf for
their crimes. 2,000
members of Mr Chavez's former paratroop regiment demanded the reinstatement of
their president and on Saturday troops loyal to Chavez took over the Miraflores
palace, leaving Carmona to flea with other conspirators to Fort Tiuna in Caracas
where Chavez had been held. The
vice-president took over: ‘I, Diosdado Cabello, am assuming the presidency until such time as the
president of the republic, Hugo Chavez Frias, appears’. Chavez
returned, the next day, walking slowly through a packed crowd, with his fist in
the air, towards the Miraflores palace, to the tune of a military band. The coup
had been defeated and it had been at the hands of the working class and loyal
sections of the army. The lessons regarding state power and the exercising of
democracy were being learned: ‘People have to stop waiting for the government to do things for them. They have to start doing
things for themselves, with
local government in a support role,’ says
Freddie Bernal, the Mayor of Libertador and one of Chavez' most trusted aides.
Rosa Quintero, a working class woman said: ‘We went down on April 12, not because we were looking for food or money… We
went because we were fighting for our
future and we are prepared to do it again.’ The
Supreme Court of Injustice More
than 100,000 supporters of Chavez and the MVR had reason to march through
Caracas again when the Supreme Court cleared four officers of taking part in the
April coup. They accused the judges of being bought off by the middle class
opponents. At the end of the march Chavez spoke to the crowd and said the
court's decision was unacceptable. He has now launched an investigation against
the judges, accusing some of them of being corrupt and drunkards, two
characteristics that one might think were obligatory for judges in capitalist
society. No
Pasaran! In
November, Caracas had seen fighting between MVR supporters and the city police
that had left two people dead and dozens injured. The police were commanded by
the Mayor, Alfredo Peña. A small group of officers had also been on strike and
Chavez has said that the police force had ‘fallen into anarchy’. Peña
had been visiting Washington to visit the World Bank and the US State Department
where he was being prepared to take power from the government. He was also due
to meet with the secretary-general of the Organisation of American States; OAS.
The OAS is a group based in Washington that Che Guevara once said had the job of
‘administering the colonies for the United States’. Army
units, loyal to the government, seized control of the police force in Caracas
and ended the strike. The National Guard took control of several police
stations in the capital. Opposition
governors and mayors led protesters along with rebel police who supported them.
Soldiers have used tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse the crowds and
prevent further fighting between the police and supporters of the government who
had gathered near to the National Assembly. The troops allowed an opposition
delegation to enter the assembly and deliver a petition demanding the government
return control of the autonomous police
force to Alfredo Peña. Later, when ordered to return the police to Peña, by
the Supreme Court, Chavez told a mass demonstration that: ‘Nobody
can stop Venezuela. The people is on the street and will continue on the street,
defending
its revolution, defending its democracy, defending its legitimate government,’ The
crowd replied, ‘No
Pasaran!’ - ‘They shall not pass’.
Generals
Call for Resignation Again Seven
generals and eight colonels demanded Chavez’ resignation again and early
elections. They called for civic disobedience and were discharged from the army
for their political interference. The officers are part of a dissident group
that has been occupying a square in Caracas for more than a month.
Many of the officers were involved in the coup in April. The defence ministry
said the officers had been discharged for disciplinary reasons: ‘President
Hugo Chavez asked that these generals be
discharged however possible.’ Although
several junior officers have joined the protest, the call to rebel has not been
heeded by the country's barracks. The government has criticised the rebels,
saying they do not command any troops. Although no moves have been made to
arrest the officers, they are due to face charges of insurrection in a
military court. The
‘Strike of the Spoilt Brats’ The
opposition have been calling for a referendum on Chavez’ rule in February and
for early elections. The Supreme Court has ruled these out, as unconstitutional.
Chavez has rejected calls for any form of referendum, at least until the
midpoint of his term that will come in August. To
force their demands the middle class has recourse to the same reactionary
alliance that preceded the April coup. From Dec 2nd, Fedecámaras and the CTV
declared a strike within the oil company PDVSA, the fourth within the past year.
This has become known as the ‘strike of the spoilt brats’. With
disruption throughout the year, the oil industry had already contracted by 17%
in the second quarter. The economy as a whole has declined by 6% in the first
three quarters of the year. Unemployment has climbed again to reach between 17
and 24% according to various estimates. In February the government were forced
to abandon exchange rate controls and allow the currency to float after middle
class elements were sending money abroad to an estimated total of $120bn. The
Bolivar has this year lost half of its value, contributing to inflation of 30%. Oil
production and refining has now fallen to below 400,000 barrels per day and
exports have fallen by 90% from the normal 2.7m barrels per day. Oil and
derived products provide over 80% of Venezuela's export revenues. Ali Rodriguez, head of PDVSA and a Chavez supporter, warned that the country faced a $6bn charge if oil exports are delayed in December. He explained that
‘They want to create chaos, seize the oil industry and regain the power they held for 40 years, when
corruption and misery were rampant, when the poor had no access to education, to
health’. Various
elements tried to have a rerun of the April coup. On Friday Dec 6th, Joao
Gouveia, a Portuguese citizen, shot dead three people and wounded many more. He
was later said to have confessed to being paid 35m Bolivars by the pro-coup
General Medina Gomez to cause a massacre that they could take advantage of.
General Medina Gomez, like clockwork, moments after the shootings called on
military officials to overthrow the elected government by force. All of the dead
were anti-Chavez demonstrators and more fortunately still, the plan has
eventually backfired with public realisation that these thugs will even kill
their own people to gain power. Mayor
of Libertador, Freddie Bernal, said that ‘it was a trick to create a
provocation’ and the next day nearly two million took to the streets of
Caracas in support of Chavez and to denounce Friday’s killings and the oil
strike. Chavez
announced that middle and upper level managers of the state oil company who
participated in sabotage and hijacking manoeuvres will be fired: ‘Pressure from a group of managers, a group of coup-plotters, won't push me out… I'm
here at the will of the great majority of Venezuelans.’ He
then sacked four striking executives at PDVSA. He had sacked them before in
April, but then re-instated them after he was returned to power in order to calm
the situation. This time they should be gone for good. Chavez also vowed to
purge PDVSA from the ‘coup plotting oil elites’: ‘Behind the attempt to stop PDVSA there's nothing but a new coup attempt to
topple the legitimate government,’ The
traitors in the CTV voted to remain on strike until their managers were
reappointed. The strike had now become the longest in Venezuelan history.
Outside the oil sector and especially in the poorer neighbourhoods, the strike
was not being observed. On
Dec 5th, the government sent a navy ship to take over the oil tanker, Pilín León,
named after a Venezuelan model. The tanker, carrying almost 10m gallons of
petrol had been held up for almost two weeks. The captain was arrested, but the
crew refused to work for the army. The ship was later re-boarded with a new crew
and the others were ordered to leave the ship. Perhaps they should just have
been thrown overboard! The fuel was unloaded by loyal workers at a distribution
terminal near the western city of Maracaibo. A second vessel was steered by an
army general towards the main port near Caracas, temporarily easing fuel
shortages around the capital. The government took control of two more Venezuelan
oil tankers idled by their striking crews in the states of Sucre (east) and
Falcon (west.) Chavez has warned that anyone interfering with the army's efforts
to ensure a restart of work at PDVSA will be arrested. Marines
arrested ninety sailors on Lake Maracaibo - 500 kilometres west of Caracas -
when they seized the oil tanker Moruy. Labour
Minister Maria Cristina Iglesias has said that, ‘We
cannot deal with delinquents,’ and
this time Chavez is remaining firm in removing these worst elements: ‘We have begun to recover PDVSA and we will start a cleansing in PDVSA… Those
who didn't show up for work ... well, they will be fired.’ The army has remained loyal and has been responsible for distributing the few supplies of petrol and making sure that food is transported and distributed to the population. Along Bolivar Avenue in central Caracas they have organised markets for the working class where cheap food and other commodities are available.
International
solidarity has come from the state-owned oil firm in Brazil; Petrobas, who have
shipped 520,000 barrels of oil to Venezuela, from Trinidad who have sent 400,000
barrels and from Colombia’s National Workers’ Union who have offered the
support of skilled workers in the oil industry. Oil has also arrived from
joint-venture companies that Venezuela has 50% control of. OPEC has also offered
to honour any Venezuelan contracts that can’t be fulfilled.
In
contrast international oil companies have ordered their captains not to load
Venezuelan oil in an international blockade intended to force the privatisation
of PDVSA and weaken the industry so as to gain concessions. On
Sunday Dec. 29th Chavez said that the four-week long strike is doomed and has
already failed, that the worst is over and that the long queues of people
waiting for petrol will dwindle. However the war continues; ‘like
a war for Venezuela a
war between patriots and traitors’. In
this war, the working class are beginning to get more organised and play a more
conscious and central role. The history of Latin America, whether in defeats
such as the 1973 coup in Chile or victories such as the Cuban socialist
revolution, demonstrates that working class democracy and security is not
compatible with the continued existence of the middle class. Such a class has to
be abolished and the state taken into the firm control of the poor. Venezuela
has taken many steps along this path. If these are to be consolidated, many more
must be taken and held against armed revolt. As two members of the Bolivarian
Circles have said recently: ‘[The
people] will descend from the hills, emerge from the barrios - the blacks, the
marginalised’ ‘if
this conflict deepens to the point that we need to be armed, we will be
armed.’ |
