This October, Venezuela will face an election that has potential to be a watershed in national history. For the first time in the 13 years that he has been in power, President Hugo Chavez is up against a real democratic threat in opposition candidate Henrique Capriles Radonski, the young, energetic, and charismatic governor of the heavily populated state of Miranda.
Although regional elections are scheduled for December and those for the National Assembly, currently dominated by Chavez’s party, won’t be for another three years, the result of this election will determine my country’s future. Will Venezuela continue to be what is seen as a ‘bastion for the Left’ in Latin America, or will we go down an unknown capitalist path, one that is touted as democratic, secure, and free?
I hate to say it, but both futures look bleak. Belonging to the wealthier class, my family is always appalled at my attempts to balance their incessant diatribes against Chavez and his ‘communist’ project with justifications for the President’s socialist and redistributive policies. Nevertheless, it is difficult for an idealist like me to not view Venezuela as the socialist haven of justice, solidarity, and cooperation that many international observers see.
It’s obvious that meritocratic capitalism is unjust when the majority of a country’s population has been excluded from opportunities available only to the wealthier classes, when exorbitant levels of inequality are represented in lush Caracas country clubs set against a background of slum-straddled mountains. Chavez was a force of change around the time he was elected by a population tired of the same old political elites, of the same old stagnant, self-serving system. Nobody can deny that the empowerment of formerly marginalized groups and the visible reductions in inequality haven’t been positive forces for the country.
Indeed, one of the advances for which I most congratulate Chavez is his empowerment of citizens, allowing them to participate in their own governance at the local level. Redirecting funds from city and state coffers to these ‘communal councils’ has increased the agency of the individual to ameliorate the community according to the needs that they perceive. Abroad, he has also encouraged regional ties and has not been afraid to be polemic in providing a counterpoint to U.S. hegemony in Latin America.
However, taking a closer look at the effects of Chavez’s policies, one can’t help but to accept that the rosy view from the outside does not compare to the quotidian reality in Venezuela.
Take, for example, ‘Mision Barrio Adentro’. In theory, Barrio Adentro takes Cuban doctors to the heart of Venezuela’s slums, or ‘barrios,’ and provides free basic healthcare for its inhabitants in exchange for oil delivered to Cuba. Widely touted abroad as one of Chavez’s most progressive policies, domestically it is one of his most questioned. Modules are on the edges of dangerous slums, they operate for only a couple hours a day, and the ‘expertise’ of Cuban doctors is not trusted by the very people who they are there to help. My friend explained to me that she preferred to pay a high premium to send her child to private clinics uptown rather than receive doubtful healthcare from doctors who, according to her, treat everything with an injection for dengue fever.
Local ‘Mercales’ are frequently out of stock of the subpar subsidized and fixed-price food products they are meant to sell, and the quality of education provided by the alternative Bolivarian Universities as part of ‘Mision Sucre’ is nowhere near the quality of traditional public universities. But worse than the lack of success of these social missions, or even the blatant government corruption, is Chavez’s complete failure to address the ever-worsening security situation in Venezuela.
So far in 2012, there have been 498 recorded kidnappings and last year, there were 19,336 recorded homicides in Venezuela. Tragically, this violence most negatively affects the poorer sectors of Venezuelan society. While wealthier Venezuelans retire from the dangerous streets in their electrified, gated towers, barrio dwellers can’t escape the violence gangs and drugs bring to their communities. In addition, the dysfunctional prison system is extremely overcrowded and effectively controlled by drug-dealing prison gangs.
When I think of the upcoming elections, I am torn between the two candidates. Although Capriles is a much better choice than most of the other opposition candidates in terms of social justice, transparency, and democracy, I am wary of installing another exploitative neoliberal regime in Venezuela that would backtrack on all of the advances pushed by Chavez.
Democracy requires active, conscious, and responsible participation; we should not take lightly this right we have to vote. As I continue to inform myself on the platforms and issues and eventually choose a candidate, I urge Venezuelans to step beyond their ideological paradigms and do the same.
