“The role
of people of color is rising in the
Americas.”
Many who approve Chavez's policies
and even applaud his confrontational approach to
President Bush wince at his rash rhetoric and find
as ominous his description of Cuba's one-party
system as a “revolutionary democracy.” In his
September address to United Nations General
Assembly, the day after Bush spoke, Chavez
famously said “the Devil came here yesterday” and
“it smells of sulfur today.” Harping on his
provocative metaphor the U.S. media were able to
bury his illuminating talk under acerbic headlines
and dismissive comments. The mildest media
criticism was he had failed to show proper
deference or common courtesy to his host country's
titular head. Few media sources acknowledged that
his speech won occasional applause, and some
delegates even smiled or laughed at his anti-Bush
jibes. When asked, Rafael Correa of Ecuador called
Chavez's comment an "insult to the devil." Correa
had earlier called Bush a “dimwit” but after he
was elected President of Ecuador, Bush called to
congratulate him.
The
mainstream media failed to mention Chavez's public
assertion that through CIA agents, secret funds,
and connections to rich Venezuelans, Bush
sponsored plots to have him removed from office,
including by assassination. Chavez has chosen to
deal with this danger with increased security and
brash metaphors.
The Bush
administration has long reacted to Chavez with
sputtering fury. Yet today the President of
Venezuela sits more comfortably than ever atop a
fourth of the world oil supplies – equal to that
of Iraq. Venezuela supplies a fifth of US oil
needs, and continues to be Chavez's leading
customer.
The State
Department has cast Chavez as a tyrant in the
class of Saddam Hussein, or a Marxist, or a
ferociously anti-American clone of Castro. Lately,
the characterization has been downgraded to
“populist” – intended as a sharp criticism.
Actually, his “Bolivarian” revolution springs from
multicultural grass roots that pre-date the
foreign invasion of the Americas that began in
1492, centuries before Karl Marx, Castro, Hussein
or populism.
“The
Chavez ‘Bolivarian’ revolution springs from
multicultural grass roots that pre-date the
foreign invasion of the Americas that began in
1492.”
Like
four-fifths of Venezuelans today, Chavez was born
of poor Black and Indian parents. Since the days
of Columbus, descendants of the Spanish conquerors
have claimed the privilege of governing Latin
America. They have effectively barred Indigenous
people from high office. Chavez stands as a direct
challenge to white domination of South American
governments.
Chavez is
not only proud of his biracial legacy, but has
been using oil revenues to help the poor of all
colors improve their education and economic
standing. He also has flatly rejected Bush
administration efforts to isolate Cuba, counts
Castro a friend, and has repeatedly accused the
U.S. of meddling in his country, in Cuba and
around the world. He has pointed to the history of
interventions by the United State that began with
the Monroe Doctrine of 1823. Latin Americans,
particularly those of his economic and racial
background, are increasingly walking to polling
booths to register their view throughout Latin
America.
Chavez rules a country where three percent
of the population, mostly of white European
descent, own 77% of the land. In recent decades
millions of hungry peasants have drifted into
Caracas and other cities, to live in barrios of
cardboard shacks and open sewers. Chavez wants to
reverse poverty, provide jobs, provide education
and health care, and redistribute vacant lands. He
has begun to transfer fields from giant unused or
abandoned haciendas to peasant hands, and though
landlords have responded with alarm, he has
promised further distributions.
“Chavez wants to reverse poverty,
provide jobs, provide education and health care,
and redistribute vacant
lands.”
Chavez's
“21st century socialism” has repeatedly held out
an olive branch to its capitalist foes, and keeps
an open-market system. Though foreign oil
companies continue to pull in large profits, he
does insist corporations pay back taxes and higher
royalties. Once they walked away with about
84% of Venezuela's oil profits, but he has
demanded 30% of those profits. Banks and credit
card companies report large increases in deposits
and loans.
At this
moment with oil prices booming – and accounting
for 47% of government revenues and 80% of exports
– everyone in the country is doing well, including
his wealthy adversaries. The stock market has
risen 130% this year, and the economy is soaring
over 10%, the highest growth rate in the Americas.
Chavez has stated, "All this stuff about Chavez
and his hordes coming to sweep away the rich, it's
a lie. We have no plan to hurt you. All your
rights are guaranteed, you who have large
properties or luxury farms or
cars."
But the
most dramatic beneficiaries of “21st century
socialism” are the poor. Three million people have
enrolled in one of the government's four free
educational missions that offer [1] basic
literacy, [2] primary school education, [3] high
school equivalency and [4] university education.
The number of households in poverty dropped from
42.8% in 1999 when Chavez came to office, to 33.9%
in 2006. During the same period households that
suffered extreme poverty dropped from 17.1% to
10.6%. The official unemployment figure had been
more than cut in half, and the poorest 25% of
people has seen their consumption rate more than
double.
“The
poorest 25% of people have seen their consumption
rate more than
double.”
Chavez has
brought education to almost a million children who
never sat in a classroom. And with 10,000 Cuban
doctors, sent by Fidel Castro, he has opened
11,000 medical clinics primarily in barrios. To
Venezuelans, President Chavez believes in
payback.
In 1998 and
2000 Chavez won the Presidency by majorities
Republicans and Democrats here dream about. In
2002 he defeated a two-day coup attempt engineered
by the local elite in alliance with the US, and in
the recent recall vote, 90% of voters turned out
to keep him in office. Chavez's strength rests
with his poorest citizens. It is also evident that
many of his constituents have mobilized behind a
broader agenda than his, one stressing
participatory democracy and elevating the status
of women. At this point, President Chavez does not
see this popular movement he unleashed as a
threat, and may try to lead
it.
Chavez also announced a program called
Petrocaribe to provide inexpensive oil to “small
Caribbean and Caricom countries, and the larger
Antillas such as Cuba, Jamaica, and Dominican
Republic.” He also expanded this plan to bring
affordable heating oil to the poor in U.S. cities
such as Chicago, New York and Boston. When he
tried to provide humanitarian relief for victims
of Hurricane Katrina the White House flatly
rejected his offer and called it a publicity stunt
that insulted the government's ability to help its
citizens.
“Simon
Bolivar, Founding Father of South America's
Revolution and the first elected President of
Venezuela was also of African and Indian
lineage.”
Over the
centuries South Americans have endured a crop of
caudillos, or military dictators. Many
began sounding a radical note only to be
overthrown by the CIA or other foreign forces.
Some remained in power by shifting their policies
after visiting the American ambassador's residence
in Caracas.
This former
paratrooper seems to spring from a time when
Africans and Indians armed and united to fight the
first European invasion. For inspiration Chavez
can reach back to the misty dawn of the foreign
landings when heroic Black and African men and
women rose to battle invading armies and their
Christian missionaries. In 1819 Simon Bolivar,
also of African and Indian lineage and the
Founding Father of South America's Revolution,
became the first elected President of Venezuela.
Vicente Guerrero, an illiterate Black Indian
guerilla General during the Mexican Revolution,
took his army into the Sierra Madre mountains
where he trained them to wrest their country from
Spain's colonialism – and also taught himself to
read and write. Mexico's ruling white elite mocked
his lack of education and called him a
“triple-blooded outsider.” But in 1829 after
Guerrero came down from his mountain refuge, he
became President of Mexico, the first Black Indian
head of state. Guerrero wrote Mexico's
constitution, emancipated its slaves, ended racial
discrimination and abolished the death penalty.
His foes in Venezuela also consider Chavez
a racial outsider, but the faces of millions of
his supporters refute the charge, and his message
continues to triumph at the polls. He seems to
relish his role as Latin America's chief
antagonist to the Bush administration. Many
believe his audacity instills courage and provides
cover for Latin American leaders who have the
audacity to challenge the giant to the
north.
“Chavez’s
foes in Venezuela consider Chavez a racial
outsider.”
Time will
tell if Chavez's programs and supporters can
protect him from the machinations of his wealthy
Venezuelan foes and their powerful U.S. allies.
Ordinary Venezuelans have initiated their own
revolution, and though at this point it undergirds
Chavez's political and economic strength, it may
take new directions.
Hugo Chavez
and his people, historically poor and oppressed,
are attempting to write an exciting chapter in the
heroic record crafted originally by millions of
unknown African and Indian people in the Americas,
and continued by Simon Bolivar and Vicente
Guerrero.
William
Loren Katz is the author of forty books, including
Black Indians: A Hidden Heritage [Atheneum, New
York] now in a new edition celebrating its 20th
year. His Black Indian website is:
WILLIAMLKATZ.COM.
