Venezuela under Chavez: Some Truths Are Not All That Complicated: Replies
Wilpert, Gregory
I AM GRATEFUL to Leo Casey for his detailed response to my article. It allows me to explore some of the stereotypes about Chavez and Venezuela that I lamented in my article. There is no doubt in...
...True, some of the penalties have been toughened, but, unlike during previous presidencies, this aspect of the law has not been applied during the Chavez presidency a single time...
...Also, the only assassination of a well-known political figure was of a Chavez government official (Danilo Anderson) who was investigating those involved in the coup...
...More than seventy peasant leaders have been killed by hired assassins in the past four years in Venezuela's countryside over land disputes...
...If this had happened in the United States, one can be certain that many would be facing the death penalty three years after the fact...
...This action was taken by the Constitutional Assembly, which set a 180 -day time limit...
...There is no doubt in my mind that Casey presents Chavez as what I referred to as "the stereotype of the caudillo (strong man...
...I agree with some of the watch groups' criticisms of the law, but it is no more restrictive than the broadcast regulations (the law only affects broadcast media) that exist in many other democratic countries in the world...
...The area that Casey claims has been most seriously affected is labor...
...The fact is that the Venezuelan left used to be far more divided than it is now...
...Rather, in all except for one case the deaths were caused either by unidentified shooters (such as during the April 2002 coup), civilians from both sides, or by city police under the control of a city mayor who was with the opposition...
...Finally, Casey tries to discredit Chavez on the basis that he has divided the Venezuelan left and not united it...
...This is simply not true...
...His elaboration of this charge is full of false or distorted claims about what has happened in Venezuela...
...Next, Casey claims that Chavez established a new union federation under his control, the UNT...
...The problem is not that such principles are complicated, but that the situations in which such principles would be applied are...
...He quotes Chavez as wanting to "demolish" the old labor federation, the CTV It is well known that Chavez's rhetoric has always been over the top, and such statements cannot be taken literally...
...Perhaps Casey should have mentioned, before anything else, that Venezuela's media, despite all of the attacks it has supposedly suffered, are still among the most anti-government media in the world...
...GREGORY WILPERT is a journalist and sociologist who has been living in Venezuela for five years...
...To call these the action of "death squads" or "disappearances," conjures the image that these are politically motivated killings to annihilate the opposition, as was the case in El Salvador, Argentina, and Chile...
...Unfortunately, here, too, he leaves out important details that would paint a completely different picture than the stereotype he is developing...
...Venezuela's ComDISSENT / Summer 2005 n 91 ARGUMENTS munist Party plays an insignificant role in Chavez's coalition and does not have a single member in the cabinet or in the National Assembly...
...Fourth, Casey claims, "Scores of government critics are now being rounded up in political arrests," without saying a word about the circumstances...
...About half of its top leadership has been critical of Chavez on various occasions...
...The UNT has had serious internal debates as to how far it should go to support Chavez, which proves that it is entirely capable of acting on its own...
...In addition, there was a consensus that the Venezuelan labor movement had to be reformed...
...He edits the Web site Venezuelanalysis.com and is publishing a book on the history and policies of the Chavez presidency with Verso Books...
...The real reason that several parties split or left the Chavez coalition has less to do with his abrasive style (although that cannot be discounted) and more to do with differences in policy...
...Even now, hardly a day passes when the newspapers and the airwaves are not full of attacks against the government...
...As for Chavez's supposedly decreeing a halt to collective bargaining, this is not true...
...Not one person has been convicted so far, for a coup that abolished the Constitution and all constitutional branches of government and that placed the president under arrest...
...Chavez's security forces, however, were almost never responsible for these deaths...
...All of these peasant leaders were Chavez supporters...
...Second, the record of human rights abuses, such as the breaking up of peaceful demonstrations or the torture of arrested demonstrators has been much better during the Chavez government than during previous governments...
...First of all, only a small handful of political leaders have been arrested, and in all cases there is a clearly actionable case against them: their active role in the April 2002 coup...
...Polls consistently showed that unions and the union federation were perceived as the least trusted and most corrupt institutions in Venezuela...
...The people who have been affected by actual death squad activity in Venezuela are Chavez supporters...
...Much more important is the PPT (Fatherland for All) party, which has its roots in the labor movement and which has several cabinet members, including the labor minister...
...For example, those who left, such as Solidarity, wanted to compromise with the opposition over the land reform law while Chavez did not...
...First, the violence came from 90 n DISSENT / Summer 2005 both sides of Venezuela's political divide and affected both Chavez supporters and opponents equally...
...However, not a single one of these extrajudicial killings was politically motivated...
...Although it is true that people were killed during demonstrations between April 2002 and March 2004 (hardly before or since that period), there are several facts one should be aware of when drawing conclusions about the Chavez government with regard to this violence...
...In several cases, such as that of an oppositional mayor, a judge has ruled in their favor...
...Venezuela's security forces have had an abysmal human rights record for decades, and only during Chavez's presidency has it begun to improve...
...The claim that the "Leninist" left sides with Chavez, thereby making his coalition authoritarian, is absurd...
...In almost all cases the individuals in question have been released from prison and are awaiting the results of an investigation or of a trial...
...92 n DISSENT / Summer 2005...
...ARGUMENTS Third, to bring up extrajudicial killings as evidence of Chavez's repression of the opposition is absurd...
...There is indeed a law against disrespecting public officials, but this law was on the books for decades before Chavez came into office...
...With regard to human rights abuses, Casey mentions violent attacks against opposition demonstrations...
...I absolutely agree...
...There are plenty of problems with this new federation, and it could still implode, but it is false to portray it as the government's effort to undermine the right to organize in Venezuela...
...THE NEXT AREA Casey touches upon is the supposed repression of freedom of speech in Venezuela...
...Of course, the most important party is Chavez's own, the MVR (Fifth Republic Movement), whose members come from a broad spectrum of parties...
...As for the "repressive new legislation," it is true that various groups have criticized it and in some cases rightly so, but the fact is, the law does not establish prior restraint in any way, as Casey claims...
...Casey concludes that democrats must apply one standard and that this truth is not so complicated...
Vol. 52 • July 2005 • No. 3
