Five years ago Julio Cesar was held up at gunpoint and shot in the legs point-blank. He lost both to amputation.
A carpenter with three children, Cesar relied on friends and family to survive until Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez visited his impoverished barrio, listened to his story and got him fitted with prostheses. Cesar now ekes out a living selling detergent and other cleaning products on the street.
“I would prefer to be hungry with Chavez than have the opposition return,” said Cesar, who lives in Catia, one of Caracas’ largest and most dangerous slums. “Chavez is the only president who came here to the barrios. He loves the people.”
Throughout the impoverished neighborhoods that hold half of Caracas’ 5 million people, residents praise the paratrooper-turned-politician for everything from eliminating the annual enrollment fees in public schools to sending a loved one to Cuba for medical treatment to opening “popular markets” that provide discounted food.
Yet, while pledging their support for Chavez, many poor Venezuelans also said their lives have not improved appreciably since he took office five years ago–a contradiction that explains much about the political dynamics in this oil-rich country and the opposition’s prospects for ousting him if a binding referendum takes place in the next several months.
Many opposition leaders dismiss Chavez as an old-fashioned populist who has used his folksy charm to convince the poor he is working to improve their lives even as poverty grows and unemployment reaches record highs. Critics say Venezuelans are realizing in increasing numbers that he is just another incompetent leader.
“He’s the black sheep of the family. People love him, but they would not put money into his hands,” said Henrique Salas-Romer, a key opposition leader who lost to Chavez in the 1998 presidential election. “People deep inside, they know that Chavez does not have the capacity to improve their lot.”
Support strong, some say
But experts say opposition leaders are underestimating the depth of Chavez’s support. They say the president has cleverly targeted selective social programs to the poor while using his bully pulpit to hammer home the notion that he is the first president in generations to care about them.
The opposition also has failed to articulate an alternative program to Chavez’s self-styled leftist “revolution”–a huge obstacle as they begin making the first tentative steps toward reaching out to the poor in an effort to unseat the populist leader.
Even with the economy bottoming out and the nation’s top legislative body deadlocked, Chavez’s overall support remains around 35 percent, a respectable figure given the months of violent street demonstrations. Most of that allegiance is in shantytowns such as Catia, a vast maze of narrow streets and tightly packed concrete-block homes that stretch up several hillsides.
“The poor don’t identify their poverty with Chavez,” explained Alberto Garrido, a political scientist who has written several books on the mercurial leader. “There still exists a hope that Chavez can give them a better life. There also exists a great lack of confidence in the political opposition which has the same faces they identify with their misery.”
Garrido and other experts said Chavez first won the presidency because he offered a sharp break from the ruling class that had led the nation for decades. Venezuela’s traditional political parties used the nation’s oil wealth to build roads, industries, universities and other big projects but increasingly ignored the growing numbers of poor people.
The social crisis exploded in rioting that killed hundreds in 1989, led to Chavez’s attempted coup in 1992 and his election six years later.
Neighborhood projects
Since taking office, Chavez has significantly increased the wages of teachers and doctors. He has sent troops to poor neighborhoods to repair roads, paint apartment buildings and assist in other infrastructure projects.
Ana Colina, a 32-year-old homemaker with two children, said Chavez helped her buy prescription glasses at a 50 percent discount for her daughter and sent her cousin to Cuba for a difficult medical procedure.
“I like the president a lot,” said Colina, who lives in a barrio called La Cruz. “He’s helped the poor.”
Yet, Colina acknowledged that her sister recently lost her factory job and that poverty and crime have not eased, though she doesn’t blame Chavez.
“All of the things bad that happen are not the result of the president,” she said.
Experts agree there was plenty of poverty before Chavez took office, but it has intensified in the last year as the country has been buffeted by a coup attempt and a series of punishing opposition-led national strikes that failed to oust the president.
The economy shrank 29 percent in the first quarter of this year, and the official unemployment rate is near 20 percent, though most experts say the true rate is far higher.
Ana Maria Sanjuan, a sociologist at Caracas’ Central University, said Chavez’s social programs lack coherency and are plagued by mismanagement. Many of them are unsustainable given the current economic crisis.
Yet, Sanjuan said Chavez has helped the poor just enough to nurture their hopes that he can deliver the goods somewhere down the line. His fiery speeches railing against the “oligarchy” and praising the common man also have empowered the poor.
One result of this new consciousness is the brigades of Chavez supporters who carry out small-scale community projects in neighborhoods such as Catia.
Earlier this week, a group of Chavez activists were putting the finishing touches on a wall and guardrail to prevent schoolchildren from walking in the street. Others gathered to tack up posters informing residents on how to combat dengue fever.
Inside Cesar’s cramped home, a group of Chavez supporters vowed to do whatever it takes to keep their man in the presidency.
“He’s humble, simple and a humanitarian,” said Freddy Ramirez, an ironworker. “He’s the only leader for our country.”
