Where has Chávez taken Venezuela?
After 10 years as president, Hugo Chávez has polarized Venezuela, but inspired its poor.
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Those who are on it don’t have access to passports, national identity cards, or work in the public sector,” says Zambrano.Skip to next paragraph
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Most of the Chávez era of participation plays out in the “barrios,” the tough Caracas neighborhoods that comprise Chávez’s base. The government has also reached out to rural areas, especially through technology programs such as wireless access and community radio and television stations.
One such beneficiary is the tiny rural community of Rio Negro, in the state of Miranda, which the government connected to the Internet in 2007, thus sparking a sense a participatory zeal in the town. “We want things to happen here,” says Nayetty Delgado, a community activist. “If we don’t see results, we try to motivate people to participate.”
“We promote the sharing of knowledge as a tool to give society the opportunity to grow more quickly,” explains Carlos Figueira, the president of the National Center for Information Technology. “It’s from a solidarity perspective to reduce the digital divide so not only the privileged actors in society grow.”
Last year alone, they trained 454 communities in open-source software.
Sparking civic participation
“The Chávez period has been all about making people ‘participants’ in the nation,” says Mr. Smilde.
The clearest way to see what Smilde means is to look at civic participation.
In recent regional elections for more than 300 mayors and 22 governors, 65 percent of the population turned out to vote. It was a modern record. In regional elections in 1998, only 54 percent turned out, according to Venezuela’s National Electoral Commission.
Student movements have also risen, starting first to protect their freedom of expression as the RCTV television license battle waged on – a movement that reached its height in December 2007 upon the constitutional referendum vote. Students supportive of Chávez rose in parallel protest.
Part of growing participation comes from polarization and sheer anger, but the byproduct can be viewed as a positive one. “Before, no one participated in anything,” says Eva Golinger, an American writer in Venezuela who denounces US intervention in the country. “People are motivated and feel obligation to play a role in their country.”
After 10 years, it is only recently that Chávez’s grip on power has seemed to have loosened a bit.
The first blow came with the rejection of the 2007 constitutional referendum. Most recently, although his party won the majority of gubenatorial seats in local elections, they lost key races, including some in key areas of urban Caracas, losses that have emboldened the opposition.
Chavez for life?
On Feb. 15, Venezuelans will vote in another referendum, this one an amendment to the constitution that would abolish the limit on presidential terms, as well as those for other political offices.
Chávez says he needs more time to continue his revolution. “There’s still much to do,” he said in a recently released television ad. “I need more time. I need your vote.”
Some say that if he loses the referendum and his term ends in 2013, it will be the end of Chávismo, the name given to his social movement. But many say that the ideals that the movement has planted in society are here to stay.
“There is a major part of the population that is visible now that was once invisible,” says Ms. Golinger. “You can’t make people invisible again.”