VENEZUELA No Exception

...Moreover, the behavior of the military was in marked contrast to its image as a "popular" and "non-elitist" force...

...In contrast, P6rez's rhetoric is an affirmation of the holivariano ideal of Latin American solidarity and a rejection of the view that Venezuela is in a special category unto itself...

...Causa R ran the former head of the steelworkers union, Andr6s Veldsquez, as presidential candidate and drew 13% in the Guayana region...

...Even after the riots, P6rez refused to reconsider his dealings with the agency, commenting: "Going to the IMF is not one option...

...Stable Democracy...

...Even though AD-la9bor backed P6rez's wing over that of Lusinchi's, the CTV is not about to go back to the role of party handmaiden...

...And, as was vividly demonstrated by the people in the barrios during the week of February 27, Venezuelans are no longer satisfied with hollow rhetoric...

...At the annually televised "CTV New Year's Message to the Nation," Delpino declared, "We defend the independence and autonomy of the labor movement vis-a-vis the bosses, political parties, the government and religious denominations...

...Perhaps the most stark evidence of the persistence of dire poverty and deplorable health facilities is the recent outbreak of malaria, reaching nearly epidemic proportions in certain areas, decades after the government announced that the scourge had been forever eradicated...

...He pledged to limit payment on the debt to 20% of the nation's annual foreign exchange earnings...

...Venezuela's enduring two-party system is also under revision, as was evident in the recent national elections...

...In contrast, the recent disorders shook all major urban areas and took everyone by surprise, including the Left which has not promoted armed actions in over a decade...

...Six days later, the United States and private banks sent a $450 million bridge loan to tide the government over until the IMF could approve loans of $450 million, and $1.2 billion for the rest of 1989...

...Domestic Reform Beyond the debt and foreign policy, perhaps the most far-reaching change which P6rez promises to implement is in the area of political reform...

...Such rigorous adherence to creditors inevitably left its mark on the population...

...The December election of the populist Perez, whose campaign generated support among Venezuela's poor, was greeted with suspicion by business and foreign creditors...

...Venezuela's oil boom period ended in 1986, shortly after P6rez left office, and was already declining before then...

...The governor of the state of Miranda (which includes part of the capital, Caracas) and the minister of defense blamed "subversive elements...

...REPORT ON THE AMERICAS a w 0 0 0 0 o a 4 Steve Ellner teaches economic history at the Universidad de Oriente in Puerto La Cruz, Venezuela.Following P6rez's victory in the presidential elections in December of last year, some observers remarked that the mandate to return Democratic Action to power for another five years demonstrated the solidity of the political party system and the stability of the nation...

...Bolivar's Ideal All Venezuelans venerate Sim6n Bolivar, the country's "Liberator," but many ignore his essential argument for Latin American unity in the face of the long-term danger posed by U.S...

...policy in Central America...

...it does not kill with explosive chemicals but with hunger...

...A group of the president's closest followers has been particularly vocal in support of applying the political reforms to the party itself, particularly by organizing primary elections...

...P6rez takes power at a time when the country's political structures, especially of the old Left, are under pressure from the grass-roots...

...With an economy in decline, sectors of the Left suspicious of him and a Republican administration in Washington hostile to Third World assertions of autonomy and schemes of international cooperation, President P6rez will have difficulty translating his militant slogans into effective programs...

...we back them and will continue to back them...

...Michel Camdessus, president of the IMF, wrote to President P6rez, saying he was "profoundly moved" by the many deaths that occurred during the five days of rioting...

...Perhaps the most telling indication of popular discontent with the nation's political system is that 22% of the electorate did not vote at all despite mandatory voting laws...

...These belonged to "Causa R," a small leftist party which has harshly criticized the rest of the Left for placing ideology ahead of concrete worker demands...

...Under Lusinchi, Venezuela was the only Latin American nation to dutifully pay interest and principle on its $35 billion foreign debt...

...The occasional gap between P6rez's rhetoric and actions was demonstrated by the austerity plan and concurrent "letter of intention" which his administration drew up with the IMF...

...However, resentment in Venezuela's slums had been building for some time, particularly in response to the illegal hoarding of products by merchants waiting for official authorization to increase prices...

...Yet he also said the riots were "not an action against the government...

...P6rez supports Causa R challenges the old Left these proposals but he faces opposition from his own party machine...

...Up until now the abstention rate has always been under 12%, even in 1963 when the Left carried out armed actions in support of an electoral boycott...

...Last year the CTV finally sponsored new elections which Causa R won, in spite of the inclusion of upper echelon employees in the roster of voters...

...AD has dominated the Venezuelan Confederation of Workers (CTV)-the nation's largest labor organization-since its founding in 1947, never tolerating open challenges to the party...

...Many remember Perez for extending massive material support to the Sandinista guerrillas during his first presidency (1974-1979) and for his efforts to play a leadership role in the Third World...

...If his views were to prevail, a number of top AD leaders who are part of the business elite would be forced out of the party...

...On that occasion the organized Left played a leadership role and the violence was concentrated in Caracas...

...In the last year Venezuela has seen a sharp upsurge in student and worker unrest, and a military massacre at Amparo, a town on the Colombian border, outraged many throughout the country...

...This sort of violence is not supposed to happen in Venezuela, a country that regards itself as an exception in Latin America due to its vaunted democracy and economic prosperity...

...Nevertheless, he "confirmed that the economic policies were well-conceived...

...Witnesses saw soldiers shoot people who were merely walking on the street or who happened to look out their windows...

...But CTV president Juin Jos6 Delpino broke with this tradition during Lusinchi's administration and became one of the government's harshest critics...

...The press reported that the violence had erupted in the wake of the new government's austerity measures, including price increases on basic goods and services, implemented as part of an agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF...

...A more realistic analysis was presented by the country's new president, Carlos Andrds P6rez, who described the disorders as "an action of the poor against the rich...

...A blue-ribbon presidential commission set up in 1984 advocated a series of modifications in government structure and electoral practices...

...Carlos Lander, acting president of the principal union confederation and a leader of AD, maintained that ordinary people were not involved, only "loafers, thieves and vagabonds who have never worked in their lives...

...Community leaders-including those of AD-participated in spontaneous but peaceful marches in Caracas and elsewhere...

...The secretary general of the ruling Democratic Action party (AD) insisted that foreigners "have penetrated the slums with a style of struggle which is not typical of Venezuelans...

...Over the years, P6rez had been a harsh critic, referring to the IMF as "the bomb that kills people, not property...

...Much of the remaining vote went to the Left, with the Movement Toward Socialism (MAS) drawing 10...

...The number of deaths was officially set at 247 but reporters who visited Caracas' central morgue gave higher estimates...

...His strategy of avoiding conflict with foreign creditors is a disappointment to many voters who believed he would follow a more militant course...

...The first reaction to the news of higher bus fares was not violent...

...Just prior to the riots, members of the Perez administration argued that the IMFrecommended measures would not produce the traumas that they have in other Latin American nations due to the basic soundness of the Venezuelan economy...

...In 1981, 22.5% of Venezuelans lived in acute poverty...

...Canache believes that AD's status as a multiclass party was never meant to take in economically powerful groups...

...As proof, P6rez pointed out that not one of AD's headquarters had been targeted by the rioters...

...expansionism...

...When government measures increased the price of gasoline, reset maximum interest rates and eliminated cheap "preferential" dollars for certain basic imports (which in effect amounted to a devaluation of the local currency), the price of public transportation increased by as much as 100%, far in excess of the government-approved hike of 30...

...P6rez himself, however, is unlikely to favor severing AD's ties with wealthy individuals...

...Its recommendations, which have received widespread acclaim, include election of state governors (who up to now have been appointed by the president) and nominal voting for congress and municipal councils rather than selection by party slates...

...The last time that Venezuela witnessed such turmoil was after the overthrow of dictator Marcos P6rez Jim6nez in 1958...

...Under the guise of evenhandedness, Perez also harshly criticized the Sandinista government and the confrontational debt stance of Peru's Alan Garcia...

...Although a majority of organized workers voted for Pdrez, he will not have an easy alliance with the labor movement...

...The government's effort to recuperate stolen goods and make mass arrests was met with gunfire in slum dwellings where, under normal circumstances, neither police nor soldiers dare enter...

...In 1981 their union was taken over by affiliates of the CTV, and its leaders were thrown out...

...PNrez's talk of Latin American solidarity is tempered by his adherence to bilateral debt negotiations and rejection of a Third World "debtors club...

...The most prominent member of this group is national deputy Carlos Canache Mata who is in the running for the 1993 presidential contest...

...These protests quickly got out of hand and commercial establishments, especially grocery stores and supermarkets, were ransacked...

...Under P6rez, Venezuela will most likely promote international meetings to discuss the problem, but will not support collective negotiations with the banks...

...Foods such as spaghetti, sardines and corn flour, basic staples in the diet of the poor, disappeared from the shelves for weeks...

...The riots came at a time of growing popular discontent...

...In the December elections, P6rez's principal rival catered to provincial nationalism by harping on the Colombian threat to Venezuelan territorial claims, while he failed to question U.S...

...This belief that Venezuela is different from its Latin neighbors, even superior, has influenced and often misguided government policy...

...MAS' and Causa R's strong showing at the state level augurs well for the Left's chances in the gubernatorial elections later this year...

...Although between them P6rez and his principal rival from the Social Christian Party (COPEI) polled 96% of the vote, AD and COPEI's combined congressional vote declined to 75...

...Other foreign lenders quickly sent $600 million in short-term financing until permanent loans could be arranged...

...P6rez's most fervent detractors say he is a demagogue who cannot deliver on his campaign promises, especially since resources are scarcer and problems are greater than during his first administration...

...it is the only option for a country that has exhausted its international reserves...

...During the campaign, P6rez commito0 w w_ ted himself to reversing Lusinchi's consistently pro-United States foreign policy and to hardening Venezuela's position toward foreign creditors...

...Just six years later, that number was up to 54...

...On the foreign debt, Pdrez's predecessor, Jaime Lusinchi (1984-89), played down proposals to draw close to other Third World debtors on grounds that any association with them would tarnish Venezuela's image as a "responsible payer...

...One sign that times are slowly changing in the labor movement is the determination of the nation's largest union-the steelworkers of the Guayana region-to resist outside interference...