On Monday, February 27^th, I returned from 12 days in Venezuela with a Witness for Peace delegation. Witness for Peace is a politically independent, grassroots organization committed to nonviolence and led by faith and conscience. Founded in 1983 to send delegations to Nicaragua during the Contra wars, it has since that time sent over 700 delegations to Guatemala, Chiapas, Colombia, Haiti, Cuba and now their first ever delegation to Venezuela.  The purpose is to learn first hand the effects of U.S. foreign policy on the citizens of these countries and to share our experiences.

We spent the majority of our time in the capitol of Caracas, a large, modern bustling city nestled in the mountains 3000 feet above sea level. We met every day with people of all walks of life – Human Rights Agencies, Opposition Party Leaders, Union heads, the state owned oil company, church groups, the Ministry of the Interior, a University Professor who is a U.S. Policy expert, and finally the Political Counsel and the Press Attaché from the U.S. Embassy.  We also toured several barrios (marginalized communities) and visited a number of cooperatives in Caracas and along the coast and talking with people on the street at every opportunity.

Historical Background

Venezuela has the 5^th largest supply of oil in the world and provides 25% of all U.S. oil imports. Venezuela has a population of 24 million with sixty five to eighty percent living in poverty (30% in “extreme” poverty). Under previous administrations they were unable to afford health care (privately owned), education (private schools), decent housing, or basic food at reasonable prices. Seventy eight percent of all products (food, clothing, appliances, cars, etc.) are imported making them very expensive.

The current president, Hugo Chavez, was elected in 1998 by a land slide. (ELECTION ONE) His commitment was to use the vast oil resources to improve the quality of life of those living in poverty. President Chavez’ first agenda item was to rewrite the constitution with delegates to the constitutional assembly being elected (ELECTION TWO) from every community in Venezuela for their areas of expertise (human rights, women’s rights, indigenous, etc.)  When completed in 1999, the constitution was voted on by the entire population and unanimously approved. (ELECTION THREE)

 According to one opposition party leader (a 35 year member of the democratic left who opposes Chavez) “Our Constitution is one of the best in the world.” Articles of the constitution are found every where you go, on bags of rice, beans, and flour in the super markets and you can buy a pocket size book of the constitution on any street corner. It outlines every persons (mentioning women specifically) civil, social, economic, educational, and human rights. Social Security is provided for all, including homemakers because they are recognized as an important part of the economy.

President Chavez was again elected, in 2000, under the new constitution (ELECTION FOUR) and again won with 58% of the vote. He was temporarily removed from office by a military coup in 2002, and the United States immediately recognized the new interim president, Pedro Carmona, a pro-US businessman. In his first 24 hours in office, Carmona dissolved the National Assembly, voided the 1999 constitution, and fired the Supreme Court Judges and National Electoral Court. When tens of thousands of Venezuelan citizens took to the streets of Caracas and demonstrated outside of the Presidential Palace, the military returned Chavez to his office (ELECTION FIVE????).  The degree of U.S. involvement in the coup is disputed but Chavez’s belief that it was orchestrated by the Bush Administration and the CIA accounts in part for his hostility towards the “empire of the North”. There is evidence that the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) funds some of the opposition forces in Venezuela.

There was a “recall referendum” in 2004 organized by the opposition to remove Chavez from office. This was again soundly defeated (ELECTION SIX) by the electoral process.

The Social Revolution

We visited one of the education “Misions”, financed by the oil company that has been organized to provide education free to every citizen. “Mision Robinson” provides basic literacy education, has educated 1.2 million, and in 2005, the United Nations certified that illiteracy had been eliminated in Venezuela.  “Mision Ribas” provides secondary education to adults who had to drop out of school and, after two years or four semesters of study, results in a High School equivalency (GED), qualifying them to enter university level. When a family member graduates, that family receives a free “library in a box” of paper back classics. “Mision Sucre” provides scholarships through university level for those who qualify.  The pride and hope of those who were able to receive education for the first time in their lives and the fact that it was free was truly inspiring.

We visited the cooperative of Katia, an Endogenous Development Center, funded by PDVSA, the oil company, as an economic model. There are twenty others in process or planned throughout Venezuela. We toured their T-shirt factory where everyone owned their own sewing machines and actively participated in the running of the factory and decision making. In the shoe factory there was excitement over their receiving their first contract to deliver 10,000 pairs of leather shoes made of Venezuelan leather. We saw a breathtaking organic community garden that covered an entire hillside, a project of the community’s senior citizens. This project provided food for the community and opportunity for the seniors to make some money and take advantage of the other services the cooperative offered.

The Katia medical clinic, staffed 24/7 by 19 doctors and 40 nurses, offered general medicine, pediatrics, gynecology, immunizations and dental work all free to members of the cooperative. We learned that Venezuela has bartered oil at a reduced price to Cuba in exchange for 19,000 doctors who are working in every community in Venezuela providing basic and preventative medicine. We also visited the supermarket in Katia which is part of the “Mercal Mision” project. These markets, over 140 of them, are found all over Venezuela and allow the poor to purchase basic foods at prices that are kept low by the government subsidies. We also found there are soup kitchens for the very poor, 675 in Caracas alone. They are supplied with food free from the government which is prepared and served by volunteer organizations.

In the communities we visited where the housing is primitive and considered “high risk” due to frequent mudslides, there was general disappointment about the governments housing initiatives. They have made little progress in providing affordable, safe housing due to “inefficiency, bureaucracy, and corruption”. However, we did hear they are making progress on land reform. The land reform law in the new constitution requires that fallow land be titled to anyone who has lived on it for more than 10 years.  In the last three years, 2.8 million hectare (about 6.9 million acres) have been given to small farmers. In addition eighty to ninety percent of the population now has access to drinkable water, a huge success.

Criticisms:

• There is a lack of opposition in the General Assembly and Chavez’s party controls the five branches of the government (the opposition parties withdrew from the elections in 2004).
• There is censorship of media. Major newspapers and all commercial TV are owned by the private sector who generally opposes Chavez. The publisher of El National told Witness for Peace There is no Censorship
• There is no progress in housing “corruption, inefficiency, bureaucracy”.
• Government needs to develop other natural resources (i.e. Iron ore, gold, aluminum, agriculture, tourism)
• The middle class see Chavez as having “authoritarian tendencies”.
• There are over 300 political prisoners. “Politics should not be criminalized.”
• “Misions” run parallel to, but should be integrated into government ministries.
• Chavez stopped subsidies to private Catholic schools.
• Active and retired military are in visible government positions.
• Venezuela is a friend of Cuba.
• Venezuela has refused the US permission to install US military bases
• The Chavez style is “clumsy, inefficient, confrontational and aggressive”.

Successes:

• Major advances in Education, Health Care, Food, Clean Water, Land Reform and Social Security.

• Dramatic increase in Gross Domestic Product.
• Micro credit available from the government for community projects and startup businesses.
• Citizens know their constitutional rights and are empowered to mobilize themselves.
• People for the first time pay income, sales, and business taxes to supplement national budget.
• The oil company budgets 4 BILLION annually for “Social Investment”.

Conclusions

To say there was a diversity of opinion about this new social revolution would be an understatement. However, there was strong consensus among both supporters and detractors of the Chavez “experiment” that Venezuela has a legitimate democracy, and is experiencing a profound social revolution. Most realize that it is not perfect and of course each specific criticism reflected that person’s personal experience and position in society. Some of the comments we collected on U.S. foreign policy are below:

• it is well known that U.S. interests seek control over self determination and democracy in South America” (opposition party leader)
• “the people of the U.S. are good people BUT your government always wants to control other countries…can't leave others have their own democracy (Sr. Jenny, human rights activist)
• The U.S. rules of commerce and trade are used to maintain domination.” (Labor leader).
• The U.S. does not understand there are other kinds of democracy. The aim of Chavez is to lower dependency on the U.S.”.

Analysis

When I read back over what I wrote after my Witness for Peace trip to Nicaragua in 1985, I am very very concerned about the similarities I see. The social progress that a democratically elected, popular government can make in a very short time to improve the quality of life for their citizens is threatened by how quickly the U.S. foreign policy experts begin their campaign of distortions, untruths, and fear mongering to discredit that new government when it's only “crime” is to make the poor of their own country a priority over U.S. economic interests.

What is happening in Venezuelan relations now closely mirrors the pattern established by U.S. foreign policy over the last 50 years.

Guatemala

In 1954, the CIA was directly involved in the overthrow of the democratically elected Arbenz government of Guatemala. The CIA effort to overthrow the Arbenz government was authorized by Truman in 1952 and the $2.7 million budget for “psychological warfare and subversion” was approved by Eisenhower in 1953. President Arbenz’ “crime” was to nationalize many of Guatemala’s natural resources to benefit the poor. In the years that followed the overthrow, Guatemala’s military leaders developed and refined, with U.S assistance and The School of the Americas, a counterinsurgency campaign which left tens of thousands (many indigenous) massacred, maimed or missing. (www.gwu.edu for CIA Assassination: the Guatemala 1954 Documents)

Chile

In 1970, Salvador Allende was the first democratically elected socialist president in the world. Chile’s politics had been dominated by the elite since its liberation from Spain and again there was gross economic inequality with the majority of the peasants living in sub standard conditions on large estates belonging to the oligarchy. By 1930 American companies had invested over $1 billion in Chile, mostly in the copper mines. (Motive???) Allende’s vision to restructure the economy for the benefit of the poor resulted in a brutal military coup to overthrow him in 1973. It was orchestrated by the Chilean military who received material aid, logistical support and assistance from the CIA. The US gave immediate diplomatic recognition to the new military leadership under General Augusto Pinochet.  The first few months in power the Pinochet government arrested, tortured, and disappeared supporters of the Allende government resulting in over 30,000 deaths. Pinochet remained in power, a military dictator, for 15 years. (www.hartford-hwp.com)

Nicaragua

Nicaragua was ruled from 1934 to 1979 by the family of Anastasio Somoza, a dictator installed with the help of the U.S. marines in. During that 45 year period, over 300,000 peasants were killed or disappeared in order to keep the economy ripe for U.S. investment. In 1979 the Sandinistas rebel army (FMLN) overthrew the government of Somoza and began a series of social reforms to benefit the poor. The Sandinistas, a socialist government, eradicated illiteracy, made education universally free to all, provided medical care to every citizen, instituted land reform, and dramatically reduced the infant mortality rate. They accomplished this, in part, by using their natural resources for the benefit of their own citizens. The result of this highly successful “social experiment” was the Contra War, U.S. support for the former Somoza National Guard, trained at the School of the Americas, who terrorized civilian communities, killed community leaders, teachers, priests, and destroyed infrastructure. Again thousands of civilians died between 1979 and 1986 when the population “cried uncle” and voted for the Presidential candidate supported by the Reagan administration. Nicaragua is now again the second poorest country in Latin America, all improvements and positive changes eradicated by the “structural adjustment” demands of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund.  (www.gwu.edu  for “Nicaragua: Making of U.S. Policy”)

In the last few decades there is ample evidence of both overt and covert U.S foreign policy intervention in Colombia, Chiapas, Cuba, El Salvador, Haiti, Granada and Panama. As U.S. citizens, I believe we have a responsibility to know about and speak out against our tax dollars being used to undermine or overthrow other governments. It is morally indefensible to undermine beneficial social structures and advances for our economic and political gain. Please share this information with your friends, relatives, neighbors and co-workers. When you hear the hostile rhetoric from the State Department and the White House about Venezuela and Hugo Chavez that there are ulterior motives and there are two sides.

Page last updated: July 1, 2006