Notes from Caracas: “Social justice” comes at a price

Venezuela has undergone a socio-economic transformation over the last decade, amid calls for “social justice.” Many people have paid the price, with their savings and their lives. Tel Aviv’s protesters should be aware of the costs of attaining what they are calling for.

A tale of two cities
I received a note from a Tel Aviv-based friend of mine – a fellow journalist who knew I had just arrived in the Venezuelan capital, Caracas – which read, “Greetings from another revolutionary city, although one with good vibes.” I LOLed (literally, I actually laughed out loud … not one of those instant messenger LOLs) and immediately began comparing the two cities.

Caracas is enduring the aftershocks of a social revolution that confronted head-on the capitalist establishment. It was sparked not from the ground-up by a movement challenging the status quo, but rather from the top-down by one, Hugo Chavez, who as President of Venezuela self-invokes the memory of Simon Bolivar to validate his “revolutionary” ways. Just as Bolivar two-hundred years ago lead a separatist war to break away from Spain (ironically with the support of another colonial power, the British), so, too, does Chavez claim he is ridding his country of colonial imprisonment. (In this case, it is those capitalist Yankees to the north. Never mind that Venezuela’s economy is based almost entirely the export of its medium-grade petrol, with the US serving as its biggest client. Details do not make good catchphrases.)


The aftershocks, ten years later

Those aftershocks include an economy that has been turned upside-down, with a currency that trades at three or four different official and unofficial rates, a credit risk rated among the world’s worst, a growing debt despite rising petrol revenues, and a security gap that makes neighboring Colombia – once notorious for its violent kidnappings – look like a safe house.

Fernando Gutierres (not his real name) works in commercial production. He supplies many of Venezuela’s filmmakers with the equipment they need to do their jobs. Most of it comes from the US, so Gutierres has no choice but to buy it from there. To do so, he obviously needs dollars, but greenbacks are incredibly hard to come by. A regulation imposed by the Chavez government limits the amount of foreign currency Venezuelans can actually buy, giving priority to certain VIPs and their businesses. Gutierres is not one of them. He now cuts cheques in the local currency, bolivares, to buy US dollars … at twice the official exchange rate. Essentially engaging in a quasi-official black market rate known as “the parallel exchange,” Gutierres is the type of businessman – forced to endure such expensive work-arounds – that Chavez blames for driving up prices in Venezuela. He has called them the “capitalist bourgeoisie.” Gutierres says he has no choice.

Notes from Caracas:
Stack of Venezuelan Bolivars, Caracas, Venezuela, August 2011 (photo: Roee Ruttenberg)

The currency policy is also forcing foreign companies doing business in Venezuela to rethink their strategies. In July, global movie-house, Paramount Pictures, announced that it would stop releasing its blockbuster productions (like Transformers) in Venezuela. Why? Because it was practically impossible to physically extract box office revenues out of the country.

The irony is that Chavez’ Bolivaran-inspired style of socialism has not really redistributed the wealth from the few to the masses, but rather from a select few to another select few. Notably, the latter are his supporters while the former are his opponents. And his policies are further indebting the public, to the tune of $50 million a day. (In early August, the government announced it would issue $4.2 billion worth of bonds.) This is not just plain ole debt, but expensive debt at a time when global oil prices are peaking. But the nationalized petrol company is not seeing those revenues (and thus not reinvesting them into its infrastructure). Instead, profits are going to Chavez’s causes – hardly the social revolution one might think of or the one suggested by wall painting of Chavez close to those of Argentine Marxist Che Guevara.

Notes from Caracas:
CHEvez - Chavez and Che, the "revolutionaries"

The death toll rises
Such uncertainty, expectedly, has led to capital flight and, with it, a loss of jobs and opportunity for many average Venezuelans. A combination of those factors has paved the way for an unprecedented level of violence in Caracas. Over one particular weekend recently, official figures (hard to come by here) indicated that the bodies of 59 murder victims were brought into the capital’s morgues. Again, these are just the bodies that were actually counted. And it is estimated that three-quarters of those killed in the upswing in violence are not from “the haves” but rather from “the have-nots.” These are not casualties from violent drug wars, like in Mexico or Guatemala, but rather innocents killed in violent petty crime. A young girl is said to have been recently shot pointblank for refusing to give a robber her blackberry.

Oddly enough, the neglected streets are not much safer than the country’s neglected prisons. A recent riot at one facility just outside the capital lasted nearly one month and left 19 people dead. Last week, Chavez’s newly-appointed minister for prisons announced a one-month hiatus of sending people to prison while the facilities are reviewed. Critics argue she essentially unveiled a policy that gives criminals a one-month do-as-you-wish opportunity, knowing that even if they are stopped they cannot actually be arrested. There is nowhere to take them.

The growing mistrust. Is he really sick?
Despite re-jigging the constitution to allow himself to stand for a third 6-year presidential term, with elections scheduled for 2012, it seems a growing number of Venezuelans have turned tired of the man and of the myth. (Look again at the wall painting and you may see that Chavez’s right eye has been sprayed with what appears to be a blue paintball.) So great is their mistrust of Chavez that many doubt he genuinely has cancer and question his declaration that he is receiving chemotherapy treatment in nearby Cuba (a strong Venezuelan ally). They suspect he is using it claims of an ailment (and a future recovery) as a political ploy. Since his reported treatment is a State secret in both countries, it is impossible to independently verify his health status.

Oddly enough, these problems are not natural disasters but rather man-made ones. Until about a decade ago, Venezuela prospered economically and socially. Its rich history of acceptance, tolerance and absorption was the envy of liberal Western nations. As far as I can recall, there have never been real racial tensions or socio-economic ones (i.e. a war of classes). And even over the past decade, as things started to decline, the people have repeatedly rejected calls to “sectarianize” the instability. For example, a few years ago, when security forces raided Jewish institutions, under orders of the Chavez government, the people of Caracas turned out in the streets to defend Venezuela’s Jews. (By some estimates, some 50% have now left Venezuela, though the country’s insecurity – not anti-Semitism – are said to be the cause of their departure.) It is this same spirit of diversity that in the first place welcomed Jewish refugees fleeing Nazi-Germany as they sailed through the Atlantic looking for ports of disembarkation. The country’s Jewish history became part of Venezuela’s narrative of acceptance and openness. You can imagine my surprise when walking into a Caracas bakery, I saw the Catholic clerk studying The Zohar … in Hebrew.

Notes from Caracas:
Women at Caracas bakery reads the Zohar in Hebrew on the counter, August 2011 (photo: Roee Ruttenberg)

The Hebrew text of the Zohar as read by a Venezuelan clerk at a bakery in Caracas, August 2011 (photo: Roee Ruttenberg)

Just one day earlier, perusing through a local newspaper, I saw a column written by a woman with a non-Jewish sounding name (though admittedly she might be Jewish) explaining the significance of Shuavot (to whom, I’m not entirely sure). The article was called “Ruth in the history of the Jewish bible.” But the column appeared in a publication called Prensa del Sur or “Press of the South,” a title that suggests a continued rejection of the northern hemisphere’s dominance of the global media agenda. It is this sort of a rejectionist attitude that reminded me what one Tel Aviv tent participant said to me when I asked her why she was participating in the demonstrations. “First of all, these aren’t demonstrations,” she corrected me. “This is a declaration of a new way of a life, for us and for the world. It’s a new approach to markets and transactions, with less emphasis on the exchange of money for things, and more emphasis on the exchange of services.”

I can only wonder if, when she has finished paying her rent, presumably, with the tomatoes she has earned by giving someone a footrub, will she think of the consequences of her call for a socio-economic earthquake? Social justice is indeed a nice catchphrase, but it comes with a cost some might not be willing to endure. Perhaps the non-demonstrator at the tent non-demonstrations might consider consulting some Venezuelans who refuse to go out after dark, muchless sleep in a tent, before calling for a different world order.