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Venezuelan
consumers gobble up U.S. goods despite political tension
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Focus
Venezuela: Part 1 of a 3-part series
By
David J. Lynch
He
roams Latin America, hurling insults at President Bush, sneering
at the United States as the enemy "empire" and spending
billions in oil money to undermine Washington wherever he can.
To many Americans, Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez seems
a Latin wild man. But to the millions of Venezuelans who adore
him, he is the first leader who genuinely cares for the nation's
poor majority, a welcome departure from politicians who traditionally
catered to the elite.
"I think God sent him. I think he's the reincarnation
of Simón Bolívar. He's with the poor," says
Omaira Perez, 60, referring to the 19th century general who liberated
Venezuela from Spanish rule.
This larger-than-life figure may, however, be
more vulnerable than he appears. There are early signs that Chávez,
even as he dominates regional politics, is losing ground at home
and elsewhere in Latin America.
The past two years, Chávez has lavished
aid in the form of cheap oil and bond purchases on countries including
Cuba, Bolivia and Argentina. But for all his largesse, Chávez
is no more popular in the region than Bush.
A recent poll by the Chilean firm Latinobarómetro
placed both near the bottom of a ranking of 10 regional leaders,
with identical 39% positive ratings. Chávez's effort to
secure a rotating seat on the United Nations security council
last fall collapsed after he blasted the U.S. in a speech to the
world body and called the U.N. "worthless."
At home, even as some critics worry that Chávez's
iron grip on all government institutions and his "socialism
for the 21st century" signals a creeping dictatorship, the
president's political standing may be eroding. "This is not
Cuba. … Chávez is not Castro," says Teodoro
Petkoff, a former opposition presidential candidate and now the
editor of the newspaper Tal Cual.
The Venezuelan leader's insistence on uniting
numerous leftist parties into a single socialist bloc and eliminating
the constitution's presidential term limits has opened the first
fissures in his coalition. Annual inflation of more than 20% —
Latin America's highest — is undermining the economic gains
of recent years and igniting doubts about Chávez's free
spending. Recent nationalizations of two companies owned by U.S.
firms further sours the business climate.
A divisive figure
Even some sympathizers are beginning to look beyond
the former Army paratrooper who confronts the United States with
its most charismatic Latin American opponent since Castro. "He
divides the country. He polarizes the country. As long as he's
there, I don't think the country will be able to stabilize,"
says Margarita Lopez Maya, a historian at the Central University
of Venezuela.
Caracas pollster Oscar Schemel says Chávez,
52, is losing support because of his post-election focus on ideological
issues that lack popular appeal. In Schemel's most recent poll,
41% said Chávez was doing a good or excellent job, while
38% labeled his performance subpar. In November, Chávez
enjoyed a much wider 49%-to-31% margin.
Despite Chávez's enormous personal popularity,
71% of respondents said they want a different type of president.
"People describe the new leader as neither Chavista nor opposition,
neither rich nor poor, neither one nor the other," Schemel
said. "Someone that can unite us."
Chávez's "Bolivarian revolution"
ministers to the impoverished with free medical clinics, reading
programs and subsidized supermarkets. In his weekly television
shows, he speaks in the straightforward, often earthy language
of the street. Blood-red murals bearing his image are everywhere
in this gritty capital.
But on the world stage, where he embraces Fidel
Castro and Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, even supporters sometimes
cringe at his antics. He's lambasted Bush as "the devil"
and a "political corpse" and suggested that Secretary
of State Condoleezza Rice is a sexually frustrated "illiterate."
During Bush's recent six-nation Latin tour, Chávez gleefully
shadowed the president, drawing large crowds to anti-American
rallies in Argentina and Nicaragua where he led chants of "gringo,
go home!"
Through his control of the U.S. petroleum company
Citgo, a subsidiary of Venezuela's state oil company, Chávez
this winter doled out more than 100 million gallons of discounted
home heating oil in 16 U.S. states. The program, featured in Citgo
television ads, benefited more than 400,000 households.
While tweaking the world's richest nation for
its inability to take care of its own, the giveaway hasn't done
much for Chávez's image in the United States. In a USA
TODAY/Gallup Poll this month, only 9% approved of the Venezuelan
leader.
Still, Chávez — who said earlier
this month that the U.S. has dispatched "special CIA units,
real killers" to murder him — faces no imminent political
threat. His term runs until 2012, and the opposition that he has
vanquished in three presidential elections and seven referendums
remains moribund.
He has a firm hold on the military, so the prospect
of a coup, such as the one that briefly toppled him from power
five years ago, is remote. Bolstered by an estimated $49 billion
in annual oil revenue, up from $8.6 billion in 2001, he has plenty
of cash.
Sunday, on his weekly Aló Presidente television
program — where he typically holds forth for hours while
fielding citizen questions "Larry King" style —
Chávez, garbed in an open-necked, deep red short-sleeve
shirt, welcomed visiting Cuban architects, criticized U.S. policy
toward Iran and outlined plans to establish new satellite cities
outside Caracas. While leaving vague the precise contours of his
socialist game plan, he pledged to safeguard private property.
"Here we are creating our own model,"
he said.
Popular among the poor
The Venezuelan leader clearly retains the fierce
affection of the poor. His vote total in December's re-election,
7.3 million votes, was more than twice his winning tally in 1998.
"He's done a great job," says Henri Ibanez, 49, a resident
of the Catia barrio. "The corrupt people who used to run
this country — they're out!"
Catia is a rough slum of working poor and inebriated
idlers, where homes of cinder block walls and corrugated metal
roofs cling to a steep hillside directly beneath a series of high-tension
wires. Residents climb narrow concrete staircases and tread paths
littered with empty soft drink bottles, rotting fruit and dog
waste to reach their front doors. Inside, many of the small homes
are clean and decorated with a few modest ornaments.
For decades before Chávez took office,
politicians ignored people like these. Now, they are at the center
of the country's politics. Evidence of the impact his policies
are having on individual lives can be found at an abandoned fuel
distribution center where the government has installed a workers'
cooperative called Fabricio Ojeda.
A slogan at the entrance reads: "The change
in thought in favor of the collective is the beginning of the
revolution."
Inside, 154 local people — all but two are
women — make uniforms for the army, schools and businesses.
The co-op is part of the government's strategy to boost self-reliance
by constructing what it calls "endogenous development"
centers around the country. Standing in the textile factory beneath
Chávez's portrait, Mirta Molina says many of the workers
had been unemployed long term.
"The state gives us the tools to construct
our own destiny," she says. "We're trying to generate
the collective good, not just for us, but for the community and
the nation."
High above the clean, well-lighted factory floor,
ceiling fans move the air. On one wall, pictures of Jesus Christ,
Che Guevara and Chávez compete for space with a "prohibido
fumar" (no smoking) sign.
Until three years ago, Nancy Muentes, 28, stayed
home with her young son and daughter. Now, her monthly salary
of 465,000 bolivars — about $217 at the official exchange
rate — makes it easier to afford necessities for the children.
Her husband doesn't have a full-time job. Asked to recall her
first payday, she says: "It felt good because I'd never had
any money. Any money I'd had was my husband's."
A short walk across the open courtyard, Carmen
Poleo has brought her 13-year-old grandson to the medical clinic
to have his swollen neck examined. Up to 400 people each day come
here to see a dentist or doctor, have X-rays or lab work done
and even get specialized obstetrics or gynecological services.
These benefits, the glue that binds Chávez
to his people, are part of an estimated $7 billion in annual social
spending on new health and education programs, says the Council
on Foreign Relations.
"We've come here many times. It's good care,"
Poleo says. "The public hospitals near here — sometimes
they wouldn't even attend to you."
Wealthy not on his side
But Chávez's hopes of remaking Venezuelan
society with a home-grown socialism are bitterly opposed by the
affluent.
At the seven-story El Tolon mall, the multiscreen
cinema is showing Borat. Shoppers can dine at Il Grillo, an Italian
eatery, where a lunch for two of carpaccio, plump tortellini draped
with gorgonzola cheese, and zesty Mediterranean salad costs $65.
Standing outside the Nine West store, industrial
designer Alessandra Polga's smile fades when talk turns to "that
crazy guy Chávez." She's worried about inflation,
the government's collectivist tendencies and the Venezuelan president's
affinity for Castro.
"The main problem is people don't remember.
They don't realize what happened elsewhere can happen here,"
she says, alluding to Cuba.
Polga's already applied for a visa to join her
brother in Canada. Asked why, she gestures toward her 8-month-old
son, Diego, and says, "A future for my child."
For now, Chávez is unbowed by criticism
or complaint. The effort to meld a single governing party continues,
despite the objections of three of his coalition allies. And constitutional
reform, including the elimination of presidential term limits,
could come to a vote later this year. Some analysts suggest it
might be the first contest Chávez loses.
"The
country's resisting," says Petkoff. "This is not an
open highway for his plans."
By
David J. Lynch
is a writer with USA TODAY. Petroleumworld not necessarily share
these views.
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