Chavismo celebrates 25 years at the helm of Venezuela and its continuity is at stake

“For now and forever”, says an inscription on the mausoleum of Hugo Chavezwho on February 2, 1999, 25 years ago, took office for the first time as president of Venezuela and opened an era that has continued Nicolás Maduro after his death.

“A tragedy” for some, “a success” for others.

The charismatic ex-soldier won over crowds with his promise to end poverty. Today, however, the country is mired in an unprecedented economic depression, which, along with ongoing political crises, has driven around seven million – out of a population of 30 million – to migrate.

In this scenario, Maduro is seeking a third term, placing obstacles against anyone who represents a threat to the continuity of the so-called Bolivarian Revolution.

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Economy and oil

Maduro constantly repeats that he is facing an “unconventional war” against “imperialism” – as he calls the United States – and always attributes responsibility for the country’s problems to the sanctions with which Washington tried to remove him from power in 2019.

In 2022 there was a slight economic recovery, insignificant compared to the 80% reduction in GDP in a decade. And hyperinflation of thousands of percentage points led the government, ironically, to allow informal dollarization.

The oil industry, which generates virtually all of the country’s revenue, is also devastated: sanctions are to blame, the government says; apathy, corruption and lack of qualified personnel (many fired after a strike in 2002), experts say. Production, which was 3 million barrels per day (bd) with Chávez in power, plummeted to around 300,000 before recovering to 900,000 today.

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““Chavismo represented an important tragedy for the country,” tells AFP Benigno Alarcónpolitical scientist and professor at the Andrés Bello Catholic University (UCAB). “A government that, having initially had the highest income of any government in Venezuela and having had the opportunity to make Venezuela a modern country (…), “He wasted money on cronyism to stay in power.”

““There was no investment (…), there were no improvements in the economy, in infrastructure, in the country’s productive capacity”, he elaborated, highlighting how “they ended up killing the goose that laid the golden eggs”, Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA), which has become one of the most important in the world.

A woman carrying a suitcase passes in front of a mural depicting the late president of Venezuela, Hugo Chávez (1954-2013), in Caracas, on March 2, 2023. (Photo by Miguel ZAMBRANO / AFP) (MIGUEL ZAMBRANO/)

Poverty

There are no official figures on poverty, which is normal in this country that rarely presents uncomfortable economic indicators. A UCAB study placed it at 90% between 2018 and 2021 and at 81.5% in 2022.

““It is one of the highest in the world” Highlights of Alarcón. “The logic for maintaining power, regardless of Chávez or Maduro, is the same (…): they count on the misery of the people”.

“If you want to live, if you want to have medicine, if you want to survive in the midst of this reality, you have to be with us”, relates.

Rodrigo Cabezaswho was Chávez’s finance minister, makes a distinction between “chavismo” and “maturism”.

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“The confrontation with the United States is Madurism’s great alibi to try to justify its tremendous incompetence in managing the State, the economy and society, to try to justify its terribly authoritarian drift, violating human rights”, explains to AFP the now professor at the University of Zulia.

“This is the most unequal capitalism in Latin America”, criticizes, amid dollarization and the release of exchange and price controls. “Chávez’s success in placing the people at the center of public management has now completely dissipated.”

““No one can say that the Venezuelan economy was destroyed during Chávez,” he insists, citing growth, the increase in the minimum wage (currently US$3.5 per month) and the reduction of poverty in those years. “The focus was on what was popular.”

Men on motorcycles pass in front of a mural depicting the late President of Venezuela Hugo Chávez (1954-2013) in Caracas, Venezuela, on March 2, 2023. (Photo by Miguel ZAMBRANO/AFP) (MIGUEL ZAMBRANO/)

Policy

For Ana Sofia Cabezas, Vice President of the Chávez Foundation, the Constitution is “one of the most important things that Commander Chávez left us”.

The text, approved in 1999 and promoted by the former president, is an example in human and social rights, although the detractors of the chavismo They accuse them of being their main rapists.

Chávez represented “the hope of change and social redemption,” says Cabezas, remembering that he always easily won the elections in which he participated: 1998, 2000, 2006 and 2012, months before he died.

The former president changed the Constitution so he could be re-elected indefinitely, now benefiting Maduro, re-elected in 2018 and who will seek a third term this year.

Alarcón highlights that the “human rights violations began with Chávez”, although it is the Maduro government that is being investigated by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for the repression of student demonstrations in 2017, with a hundred deaths, among other allegations of extrajudiciality. executions, torture and arbitrary detentions.

Chávez’s face is everywhere, 11 years after his death. Maduro nominates him, the government channel shows old speeches, still dominating part of the cult of personality that the current president also enjoys.

“Chávez lives,” says Cabezas (who is no relation to the former minister) enthusiastically. “This translates into the awakening of popular forces, of the conscience of the Venezuelan people.”

Source: Elcomercio