Chavez's Bolivarian Revolution

Chavez and his bolivarian Revolution

f you only listen to what the Bush administration or the corporate media have to say about what is happening in Venezuela, you probably have a distorted view of that country. What you may not know is that since 1998 seven nationwide elections and referenda have shown that support for President Hugo Chavez and his Bolivarian Revolution has steadily grown. His movement's reform programs, Constitutional revisions, and strong opposition to US policies in Latin America and elsewhere have seen increasing support.

Through more than six years of well-financed opposition (including millions from US sources), electoral fraud aimed at stealing elections from Chavez and his supporters, a corporate media war designed both to undermine his support and aid his ouster, the 2002 Bush-backed coup, and the US-funded recall referendum last year, President Chavez and the Bolivarian Revolution in Venezuela have fought for an independent, anti-imperialist agenda. The goal is the basic transformation of capitalist, oligarchical Venezuela into one that belongs to the whole people.

Having wrestled political power from the ultra right oligarchs who, closely aligned with the US, were not above widespread human rights abuses, assassinations of leftist leaders, violent political repression of their opposition, and other fascist tactics to keep control over Venezuela's oil sector, Chavez began his presidency with a reform of the Constitution in 1999. Chavez rose to popular acclaim as the leader of an anti-fascist movement in the military and a symbol of reclaiming Venezuelan sovereignty in the mid-1990s. He ran his campaign in 1998 on a reform platform that promised fundamental change for Venezuela.

The new Constitution, written and adopted by a National Assembly and Constitutional Assembly composed by a large majority of his supporters (elected by the people), expanded civil rights and protections, institutionalized the rights of Venezuela's indigenous peoples, protected and broadened workers' rights and deepened political democracy through direct participation rather than forcing people to rely solely on political parties that usually did not serve their interests.

The new Constitution also mandated the provision of basic services, including free education from the lowest levels through the university and free public health care. In sum, the new basic legal instrument of Venezuela was based primarily on forging a balance between freedom and justice, i. e. that one person or group's freedom could not become another's injustice.

Following the passage of the new Constitution, another national election was held as a result of new provisions that altered the terms of many of the national offices. President Chavez and a large majority of his supporters were elected or re-elected by wide margins in 1999. Chavez won with 60 percent of the vote. In the 2004 recall referendum, Chavez won 6 million of the ten million votes cast (a Venezuelan record for votes in a national election). Today, public opinion polls place his coalition's popular support at about 70 percent.

To abide by the new Constitutional provisions that ordered the creation of basic services, Chavez wrote 49 laws in December 2001. These laws, among other things, ordered the restructuring of Venezuela's publicly owned oil enterprise (PDVSA). The new laws required the repatriation of much of the profits from oil and brought direct control of the enterprise under his administration. Prior to this, despite the company's public status, the oligarchs who controlled it were the exclusive beneficiaries from oil produced and refined in Venezuela. Chavez's goal was to use the returned funds as an economic basis for other social reforms.

Another of the 49 laws was the so-called land law. This law allowed the government to expropriate unused private land with compensation (a version of eminent domain) or tax unused private land. The expropriate land would be turned over to small farmers or agricultural cooperatives and collectives for their use. Additional tax money raised would subsidize their efforts.

The oil sector reform and the land law aroused the hate and venom of the anti-reform business elite who set the events in motion for the illegal US-backed April 2002 coup just weeks later.

In conjunction with the land law, the Chavez administration established what it called Mission Mercal (one of several "social missions"). Mission Mercal is essentially a funding stream that subsidizes and has built hundreds of small supermarkets and farmers' markets that get much of their foodstuffs from local agricultural production. Essentially, the goal is to stimulate local production and provide very inexpensive food items to Venezuelans. Subsidies allow local farmers to compete on a more level playing field with the import market. Mercal also oversees the free distribution of basic daily nutritional needs to the poorest communities.

Social missions, mainly initiated in the last two years, have been among the most significant new programs adopted by the Bolivarian Revolution. In line with the new Constitutional requirements of provision of basic services to the people, social missions cover different aspects of life in poor communities. Some of the missions are aimed at abstract concepts (though they have had a profound impact on real life) such as justice, rights and equality. Others are more directly concrete, such as the provision of education, food and nutrition, health care, jobs, protection of indigenous and national culture and more. For example, Mission Robinson is a program that has established hundreds of small schools in poor working class communities that teach basic education (language, math, reading, history) to all age groups. Missions Ribas and Sucre established free education at the secondary and university levels.

Other missions focus on health care. Mission Barrio Adentro is a network of small clinics, mainly in local neighborhood homes and staffed by medical experts, that provide primary care to local community members. Other levels of this program provide more complex medical services. In conjunction with Mission Milagro, the Venezuelan government has established over 100 technologically equipped, well-staffed people's clinics in Caracas and other urban areas and aims to build as many as 500 more throughout the country. Barrio Adentro and Milagro are regarded as the foundation of Venezuela's free national health care system in the making.

Both programs have been enormously aided by 14,000 volunteer Cuban doctors and medical experts who have staffed many of the new clinics and are training