Venezuela: Bolivarian Tragedy
Trump’s disregard for international, and even national, law —by bombing a country with which we were not at war and kidnapping its president — was outrageous and inexcusable, but not unimaginable, given Trump’s erratic and aggressive charcter and the US Government’s history of invading or fomenting coups to overthrow elected governments, especially in Latin America. But the question is how the “Bolivarian Revolution,” once a powerful and immensely popular movement that inspired progressive activists across Latin America, had let itself become so vulnerable. It was obvious that it had lost popular support — the government’s refusal to recognize the opposition’s overwhelming victory in the most recent presidential elections — and that the squandering of resources by corruption and mismanagement had left it with little international respect, which meant that no other country was likely to make an issue of Maduro’s forced removal.
The 23d of January, is the anniversary of one of the climactic moments in Venezuela’s eternal history of struggles against perceived oppressors, the overthrow of military dictator Marcos Pérez Jiménez by an extraordinary combination of popular and military forces on January 23, 1958. Thus this seems an appropriate moment to reflect on Venezuela’s history of rebellions against foreign or domestic oppressors. And to examine how, despite or because of the country’s great natural resources, it got to its sorry fate today.
Hugo Chávez was only four years old in 1958 and from a rural area, but he became aware of that rebellious history in Caracas as he worked his way up through the army, until finally, as a lieutenant colonel and founder of the clandestine combined civilian-military alliance, Movimiento Bolivariano Revolucionario, he attempted a coup against another detested president, Carlos Andrés Pérez, in 1992. That coup failed, and Chávez was imprisoned for four years, but his call for revolution had such wide support that the nexr president, Rafael Cardera, pardoned and released him, after which he founded the “Fifth Republic Movement” (Movimiento Quinta República and was elected president of the country in 1998.
First, the coup cum revolution of January 23, 1958. Through 1957, after President Marcos Pérez Jiménez convoked a plebiscite to continue, without elections, in the presidency he had seized by coup on February 2, 1952, people mobilized through the trade unions, liberal and socialist political parties and even local self-help neighborhood organizations had been seeking an opportunity to foment a genral strike or other mass protest. And when in January the clandestine Junta Patriotica, a coalition of political parties including liberal, socialistas and communists, called for a mass uprising against the dictatorship, they were suddenly joined by officers in all three branches of the armed forces, who had their own grievances against the president, to demand the end of the government of Pérez Jiménez. When military aircraft overflew the center of Caracas and the presidential palace, he rushed to the closest Caracas military airport with all the wealth he could assemble and flew to the Dominican Republic, where he was given asylum by that country’s military dictator, General Rafael Leonidas Trujillo. The huge housing complex that Pérez Jiménez had built for his officers and supporters, on the ruins of demolished working class neighborhoods of Caracas, he had named for the date of his 1952 seizure of power, February 2d. Seized by ordinary working-class Venezuelans, it was popularly — and later, officially — renamed January 23, “el 23 de Enero”, and has been a center of leftist working-class politics ever since.
What Hugo Chávez called his “Bolivarian Revolution” had began as a widely popular movement that promised greater social justice, investment of resources in education health and infrastructure that benefitted everybody. His reforms included the creation of Consejos Comunales for local, neighborhood self-government, and what were called Misiones Bolivarianas financed by the government to combat extreme poverty and offer medical and educational services in the poorest neighborhoods. He was reelected repeatedly, the last time in October 2012, retaining very broad popular support despite great opposition and a serious coup attempt (see “Coup, uncoup” in links below) by conservative forces. These “missions” have been sharply criticized for corruption and other defects, and — especially the medical misiones —for depending heavily on medical personnel sent from Cuba by Chávez’s close ally, Fidel Castro. Still, for all their deficiencies, the missiones were seen generally by the poor in those neighborhoods as evidence of respect and care for them, and contributed to Chávez’s continuing popularity. Infrstructural improvements duting Chávez`s governments include road repair and bridges, construction of schools and clinics, and other works.
But Chávez died of cancer in 2013, and his successor, former bus driver Nicolás Maduro, never elicited comparable popular support, nor — apparently — could he effectively control subordinates who saw government expenditures as opportunities for self-enrichment.
Part of the problem with the Bolivarian Revolution, that led it to corruption and authoritarian measures, was what its leaders understood as “Bolivarian”.
I first arrived in Venezuela in July 1963, as a new college graduate and volunteer in Acción en Venezuela, a privately funded community-organizing program to send US and other foreign nationals, almost all very young, to improve conditions in the barrios, as Venezuelans called the poorest working-class neighborhoods. Once we had learned enough of the language to make ourselves understood, we were paired with Venezuelan nationals, many of the college students, to try to organize the people for self-help projects such as construction of stairways, schools and water lines, and courses in various occupational skills.
Besides all the other new sensations of colors, tastes, accents and attitudes and the terrible heat and sometimes violent, sudden rainstorms I experienced for the first time, as a community organizer in very poor neighborhoods on the hills surrounding Caracas, I had also to adapt myself to the speech and gestures of the locals and to fathom their loyalties and preconceptions And I was soon impressed by the cult of Simón Bolívar, with statues and portraits of “the Liberator”, el Libertador, in parks and public buildings everywhere.
It’s easy to understand why military officers would admire the real, historical Simón Bolívar, 1783-1830, who had been an extraordinarily successful strategist and commander in the wars of liberation of Spanish-speaking Sourth America from Spain. But, as I have argued and, I believe, demonstrated in my essay on his poltical thought (see “Liberty and People” in the links below), he was no model for a modern, democratic polity. From Bolívar, Venezuelan military men like Hugo Chávez could and did take not only the Liberator’s firm stand against foreign intervention, but also his insistence on authoritarian, top-down rule and intolerance of opposition or even of criticism.
Geoffrey Fox, The Land and People of Venezuela. HarperCollins, 1991
Geoffrey Fox, Liberty and People, a critical examination of Bolívar’s political thought. And the history and unexpected popularity of that essay.
23 de enero 1958 How the coup was organized and effected.
Parroquia 23 de Enero Architectural and political history of the housing complex
Symphony That Helped Sink a Dictator
Coup, uncoup The brief attempt to overthrow Hugo Chávez.
Meeting the comandante, Hugo Chávez (New York University, 2002)