Eileen Byrne

Words and pics.  Tunisia, Morocco, Algeria, UK, Venezuela.    [email protected] Twitter: eileenbbyrne  @2011-2018 EileenByrne

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Venezuela

Words and pics from a visit to Caracas, Feb 8-21 2018.

In February 2018, after the protests of 2017 had failed to bring a change, Venezuela seemed to be in a state of quiet desperation.

I had worked in Venezuela in the 1990s, reporting for Caracas’ English-language newspaper, the Daily Journal (since closed). At that time, the Bolivarian revolution was still a dream on the part of Hugo Chavez, as he languished in prison after heading an unsuccessful coup attempt.

There were the same problems then, before Chavismo, not least the corruption; Columbian narco-dollars have traditionally been laundered through Caracas. But there were not the levels of malnutrition, inadequate healthcare and street crime among long-suffering Venezuelans that I found in February 2018.

In early summer 2018, President Nicolás Maduro was re-elected amid a very low turnout and with some opposition parties boycotting. Ex-Chavista Henri Falcón ran against him and secured more the 20 per cent of the vote. Juan Guaidó, who in January 2019 emerged to head the latest challenge to the Maduro government, was pretty much unknown. The focus of opposition attention was still on his mentor, Leopoldo Lopez, who in 2018 was still under house arrest (the house arrest was lifted the following year).

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It’s the traditional Carnival holiday. Kids in fancy dress take centre-stage. There are little supermen, superwomen, spidermen, sleeping beauties, ballerinas, Spanish flamenco dancers, and a baby dressed as a grand vizier.

But behind the smiles many families are struggling. The nationwide economic crisis means it’s a daily challenge to stay above the breadline. For increasing numbers of households it’s only the government’s Caja CLAP – a box of basic groceries delivered sporadically – that keeps the wolf from the door.

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A minature Simón Bolívar. The revolutionary leader was born in Caracas in 1783 and led the struggle for independence from Spain. When Hugo Chavez, another military man, embraced socialism in the 1990s, he declared that he was taking Bolívar as his inspiration.

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Despite the austerity, carnival means celebration, On state TV, officials urge citizens to display that alegría, or gaiety, that is said to be such a typically Venezuelan quality. All citizens have a “right to alegría”, declares one official, “in this magical land, this land so blessed by God with natural resources.”  

This year, for the first time, there’s a ‘Carnival Bonus’, a cash payment of 500,000 bolívars (about $2) for some lucky families. To be eligible, householders must have registered for a Carnet de la Patria – an identity card that suggests its holder is loyal to the ideals of the Bolivarian Revolution.

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Antímano neighbourhood is on the slopes above the capital. The higher up the slopes you go, the poorer communities are, the more children are clearly malnutritioned, and the higher the crime rate is. No-one ventures out at night, as street gangs -- young locals who are often armed and have found work with the drugs trade -- rule the streets.

The father of this family can no longer work as a motorcycle-taxi, as he can’t afford to replace his imported tyre. The household’s only income is what his wife earns giving manicures. Yesterday they each ate one arepa cornmeal bun in the evening, nothing more. Unfortunately, they’re are not well connected with local circles of the ruling PSUV Socialist Party. “We last received the Caja CLAP (of basic provisions) around Christmas time. I don’t know when the next one is due...” As for the May 2018 presidential election, “I don’t know yet if I’ll vote....”

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The red roofs were all donated by Chavez’s housing initiative. During the early, free-spending years, when oil prices were still high, there were also new hospitals and colourful playgrounds for the kids. On the ground floor of Antímano’s community centre a small neighbourhood clinic is still staffed by two nurses seconded from Cuba. But as the economy unravels its equipment looks dusty and basic drugs are lacking. The endless sloganizing on state TV has long been sounding hollow.

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The yoga teacher. She and her husband are bringing up their toddler on meagre earnings, now undermined by the collapse of the currency in a country which imports many basic products. She herself has lost a lot of weight, she says. “We’ve sold off some of our furniture, and clothes and kitchen things,” to afford basic foodstuffs. “What I don’t know is what will happen when we have nothing more to sell.”

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The black market flourishes as food shortages grow. The mural behind the street vendors denounces black marketeers -- the famous bachiqueros -- and shows them as predatory ants. But just a few metres away dozens of street vendors are carrying on a busy trade in products such as cornflour diverted from official distribution networks. All this under the protection of local racketeers, the so-called Bolivarian militias, or others, who cream off some of the profits.

(Photo supplied by Elisana C.)

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Health workers protest as many of their colleagues head abroad looking for a decent standard of living. They are struggling to deliver the services their patients rely on, without basic drugs and equipment. They are raising their families on wages now worth just a few dollars a month. It’s an unofficial picket, designed to put pressure on their own unions: “Fair salaries. We don’t want to resign.”

Staff at this clinic reported that crucial drugs used in paediatric care, such as the drug used to relax muscles in children a few months old who have been diagnosed with spastic hemiplegia, have been unavailable since last year. Their small picket was joined by a few nurses from the larger hospital across the way, on their lunch break. It’s so distressing to see terminal cancer patients without access to pain relief due to the drug shortages, they tell me.

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The parents carry a heavy weight. Their only child, Juan Pablo Pernalete, was 20 and a keen basketball player. He took to the streets to join opposition protests and on April 26, 2017 died after being hit in the chest by a tear gas canister fired at short range -- as the authorities acknowledge. He was one of the more than 160 people who died in the protests across Venezuela that called for the end of the Maduro goverment. His parents claim he was deliberately targeted by security forces. They, and other parents of young people killed that summer, are still pressing the authorities for full judicial investigations.

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”Here we don’t speak ill of Chavez” says the poster on the bookshop door. The shop is for students and staff of the Bolivarian University in Caracas, founded by Hugo Chavez soon after he was elected president back in 1998. The same slogan is posted up in ministry offices, reminding civil servants where their loyalties lie.

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“She was born in the revolution!” says the father of the little girl. He’s a graduate of the Bolivarian University and now has a full-time job there. His wife has a business studies degree. Both believe that under President Nicolás Maduro the Bolivarian revolution is in safe hands -- although there should be more supervision of how state funds are spent, she adds. They receive their Caja CLAP, the box of basic provisions, without fail each month. Yes, they are aware that in some neighbourhoods child malnutrition is a problem. “But there are government initiatives to tackle that,” he says with confidence.

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Watched by independence hero Simón Bolívar on horseback, the mining minister announces a census of all gold and diamond retailers -- to make sure they are all brought within the formal economy, he says.

February 2018.

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The writing on the wall: ‘The little hand conned me’, stencilled on a building just a couple of minutes from the headquarters of the feared Sebin secret police.

No-one is sure whether this graffiti is the work of government supporters, or their opponents. La manito, ‘the little hand’, refers to the official opposition (opposition protesters once waved empty hands on marches, to show they were peaceful).

The government accuses opposition leaders of having used idealistic young people as canon fodder in the protests of summer 2017. Some activists, meanwhile, blame the official opposition for agreeing to dialogue with a government that continues to override civil liberties.

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‘Commitment and Absolute Loyalty’ It is the fifth anniversary of the death of Hugo Chavez. State TV television broadcasts images of his successor, Nicolás Maduro, visiting Chavez’s tomb in a military barracks near Caracas. On Maduro’s left, the former military man Diosdado Cabello. Venezuelans like to identify Cabello as one of the main powers behind the throne these days.

5 March 2018

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Once the home of leftists, the Central University of Caracas now feels neglected. Academics survive on bolívar-denominated salaries that have shrunk to have a real value of less than $7 a month. They complain that their students are dropping out because they can’t afford the bus fare to the university, let alone books.

But speech is still free on this campus. Hard-pressed academics exchange gossip about the latest corruption scandal in ruling circles, and wonder how long this situation of permanent crisis can last. 

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A collapsed currency. Hyperinflation has become even more dramatic since December 2017. The Venezuelan bolívar has plummeted, out of control. This wad of banknotes is now worth about 70 US cents. The central bank stepped up its printing of paper money, but prices soared even faster. Some analysts blame currency controls and general economic mismanagement. The government maintains that the hyperinflation and food shortages have been stoked up by the US and Venezuela’s own opposition, which want to see the government fall.