Venezuela's Determined Democracy

...Lusinchi continues the sophisticated policies of Be-tancourt: purging rebellious officers, adroitly shifting appointments so that no officer can secure a geographical base, and trying to ensure that only moderate military men achieve high positions...

...Two groups, the Army and Marxist guerrillas, have on occasion threatened Venezuela' s democratic society...

...When he died in bed, officers again battled for pre-eminence...

...Huge reserves of iron ore, bauxite, manganese, and oil were discovered during the reign of the cauditlos, but they were ill-equipped to deal with the bonanza...

...His capricious authoritarianism conflicted with the requirements of technological advancement...

...Once the repression began, they reasoned, the peasants and workers would awake from their lethargy and rally behind the revolutionary cause...

...When the AD, after winning another election in 1964, lost to the Christian Social Party (COPEI) five years later, it peacefully relinquished power to the victorious Christian Democrats...

...Following Simon Bolivar's successful struggle for his native land's independence from Spain in 1821, a cabal of war lords ruled the sad and poor country...

...El Salvador and Guatemala have placed civilians at the helm...

...Beyond the Army'seffectiveness and doctrinal disputes within the Marxist camp, perhaps the most decisive factor in defeating the extremists was the skill of the elected governments...

...The scenario failed...

...Lusinchi is pushing ahead with social programs at a necessarily reduced pace from that of the buoyant 1970s...

...In the same period the gap between the rich and the poor, albeit still enormous, has narrowed...

...Nonetheless, severe poverty persists in some almost deserted rural areas and in the crowded outskirts of the cities...

...Only 57 per cent of Argentinians, 55 per cent of Mexicans and 47 per cent of Brazilians can count on hygienic water...

...More than any Latin nation, it has welcomed an influx of foreign capital, technology and managerial skills...

...Then it embarked on a cautious, pragmatic economic course...

...This is a far different situation from the one that existed in 1821, when Thomas Jefferson wrote of the grim future of Latin republics: "History furnishes no example of a priest-ridden people maintaining a free civil government...

...Despite their present crushing debt, few Venezuelans expect or want a return to the caudillismo that so recently characterized Latin America...

...Arbitrary power was stamped upon their education, upon their habits, and upon their institutions...

...Afterabloody battle withM-19 guerrillas last December, Colombia still remains the oldest, if flawed, democracy among our southern neighbors...

...Whether the AD or the Christian Democrats ruled, they gave all interest groups—the growing urban proletariat, peasants newly endowed with land, industrial entrepreneurs, and labor leaders—a share in the burgeoning prosperity and a stake in defending technically competent, orderly, liberal government...

...At the same time, the 1984 poll demonstrated the public's aversion to authoritarian rule: 95 per cent said they would not welcome the ascendance of a military dictator or any other form of "strongman...

...In a world of towering national debt, constricted welfare budgets and declining oil exports, there is always the possibility that Venezuela might retrogress to dictatorship...

...They did not anticipate immediate victory...

...Today, the violent Left has virtually died out...

...But they failed to win large-scale support either within the Army or from civilians...

...It continues to be the most affluent country in South America, having generated a per capita income of $4,900 in 1985, twice the level reached by Mexico or Brazil...

...Since it lived for a century and a half under military rule, the danger of at least a new caudillo capturing the public imagination certainly exists . Several officers have in fact rebelled over the past 28 years...

...Venezuela is of course fortunate in possessing a store of natural resources...

...Not until the Acci6n Democratica was elected did the average citizen feel the impact of this important national income...

...But as Costa Rica and Colombia have demonstrated, oil is not a critical ingredient of political transformation...

...Argentina is putting its former military oppressors on trial for violating human rights...

...Brazil has peacefully retired its Army to the barracks...

...The AD laid the foundation for Venezuela's durable democracy...

...The civilian reformers have exhibited unusual dexterity in handling the Army...

...Oil exports had permitted enormous public expenditures for development and social welfare...

...On a rudimentary yet critical level, the government has brought potable water to 91 per cent of the people, thereby sharply reducing deaths from infant diarrhea, typhoid and cholera...

...Gradually, all sectors of the public have come to regard competent leaders, subject to the rule of law and devoted to the principle of fairly elected governments, as their best hope for solving the country's problems without recourse to violence...

...The founders of the United States, including Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton, had long before expressed the same disdain...

...Most recently, American oil technicians, French intellectuals and Colombian workers have invigorated the society...

...Even in 1821, as Spanish colonials exploded in wars of liberation, John Quin-cy Adams said, "I see no prospect that they will establish liberal institutions of government...

...By the 1970s, the guerrillas turned to urban terrorism, shooting down political victims and killing innocent bystanders...

...During the colonial period, a small white elite of Spaniards ruled...

...Venezuela has thus shown that we misread history if we conclude that democracy is impossible in Latin America...

...The present generation of officers, like its civilian counterpart in the expanding middle class, appears to have begun to accept the proposition that a liberal democracy offers the best guarantee of internal stability...

...In 1982 it spent an average of $16,595 on each of its soldiers, while Argentina spent $11,254 and Brazil a mere $6,004...

...military rule is pervasive and seemingly permanent...

...McCord's previous articles in the series were "China's Hong Kong Experiment" (NL, August6,1984), "A Wagerin West Africa" (September 3, 1984), "Singapore's Success Story," written with his wife Arline (August 12-26, 1985), and "Malaysia's Improbable Triumph" (September 23, 1985...

...Rather, they hoped to discredit democratic government and trigger a military coup d'etat...

...Caracas In 1977, Latin American expert Daniel H. Levine could confidently assert, "the political future of Latin America lies with authoritarian regimes...

...In fact, since 1958 the party in opposition has turned out an incumbent President four times...

...He crushed Right-wing counterrevolts, held free elections in December, and handed over authority in January 1959 to an AD government led by R6mulo Betancourt...

...Headed by Admiral Wolfgang Larrazabal, it promised to repatriate the exiles as well as establish a political democracy...

...Lusinchi has had to try to repay a huge foreign debt of $34 billion by imposing austerity measures on his 16 million people...

...aid in the Hemisphere...

...William McCord, professor of sociology at the City University of New York, is currently ascholar-in-residence at the Bellagio Center, Italy, and a Visiting Fellow of Clare Hall, Cambridge...

...Venezuela has not always had such good fortune...

...Significantly, the Catholic church, weakened by anticlerical reforms in the 19th century, views the changes that have taken place with a degree of benevolence...

...The last may have been a fatal mistake, for the young refugees learned abroad all of the organizational skills and political strategies that their new homes, particularly the United States, had to offer...

...While the Marxists preached revolution to an inattentive (and shrinking) peasantry, the AD and COPEI leaders delivered land, schools, urban housing projects, and health care to the country...

...Its annual growth rate from 1960-80 averaged over 6 per cent, equaling the rate achieved by Brazil's military dictatorship during its "economic miracle...

...it allowed the emergence of new political parties, encouraged growing tolerance of differing positions, and promoted extensive modernization...

...Peru has held its second successive Presidential election...

...After the military tortured student leaders—including Jaime Lusinchi, the current President—they were sent packing, too...

...These "marginal men," from Vac prados io Yanqui entrepreneurs, have disproportionately provided the leadership for Venezuela's economic and political progress...

...In some years, Venezuela expends more public funds on the military than any other Latin nation...

...In contrast, Brazil's rating dropped to 68, Peru registered a 62 and Bolivia a 43...

...The public and private sectors together built hydroelectric plants, iron ore mines, steel, aluminum and chemical industries, as well as consumer businesses and factories that produce capital goods...

...Similarly, Venezuela has made electric lighting available to 90 per cent of the people...

...Plagued by mass ignorance in 1959, 88 per cent of Venezuelans can now read, and a literate middle class has emerged...

...When the Generation of 1928 finally returned home, it first dedicated itself to setting up a democratic system capable of controlling and channeling conflict...

...And while the oil slump has lowered GNP figures, diversified manufacturing ventures have begun taking advantage of the nation's other mineral resources...

...Yet until recently the military had a distinct "professional" mission: fighting Marxist rebels...

...But with the start of the 1980s a world recession precipitated what came to be called la crisis: Oil income fell, the Administration had to cancel ambitious projects, and unemployment and inflation rose...

...The rotund, humorous, gentle physician confronted a somewhat troubled economy, though...

...Inspired by Cuba, many university students wished to participate in what they perceived as a world revolution, and they thought that the AD and COPEI governments were insufficiently socialist and militant...

...Revenues from this enterprise enabled it to build schools, roads, new industries, and utilities, further validating election pledges...

...Subsequently, other energetic minorities began arriving...

...Indeed, from its position as one of the more backward nations in 1958, Venezuela scored a 79 in 1983 on Clark Kerr's index measuring the physical quality of life—a solid indicator of a nation's level of infant mortality, literacy and life expectancy...

...In one of those rare moments in Latin American history, Larrazabal kept his word...

...The Leftists could not provide a believable alternative to the supermarkets, scholarships and superhighways...

...Thus, by the time Jaime Lusinchi was sworn into office two years ago, Venezuela enjoyed a very stable government...

...By 1975 the government was sufficiently powerful to nationalize the oil industry...

...In the 19th century, the Basques distinguished themselves in commerce...

...In the 1920s and '30s, foreign oil companies extracted and exported the oil, to the profit of the autocrats and the very rich...

...Although some means of production were nationalized, a mixed economy was steadfastly advocated...

...In the days of the Alliance for Progress, it received special attention (along with Colombia) and ranked as one of the largest per capita recipients of U.S...

...No less important, consumer manufacturing has increased by 240 per cent in the last 25 years...

...In 1986, only 10 per cent of the people consider themselves active churchgoers...

...In effect, it was a "legal whitening" used to promote social mobility...

...A 1984 national poll revealed that 61 per cent of the people believed their lives had worsened materially in the previous year (in 1979, only21 per cent expressed this opinion...

...One of them, Juan Vin-cente Gomez, established a stable autocracy in 1908...

...Quite the contrary, it is a viable alternative and, just possibly, the wave of the future...

...Bolstered by the discovery of petroleum reserves in 1921, Gomez kept his people in poverty and ignorance, running the nation as his personal "cattle ranch" for 27 years...

...Jimenez exiled the leaders of Accion Democrdtica (AD), the country's popular social democratic party...

...Seemingly entrenched in power, Jimenez insouciantly presided over a rapidly developing society whose officers and petroleum workers, airplane mechanics and international lawyers were increasingly absorbed in an oil-based, export-oriented economy that demanded orderly, predictable, rational, and at times creative behavior...

...Venezuela has not hesitated to embrace different forms of foreign contact either...

...In addition to its natural wealth, Venezuela has benefited from its human resources, including migrants from poor economies who have found the country a land of opportunity...

...Thegovernment'sex-penditure for education is the highest in Latin America, with free schooling provided from the primary grades through university...

...Nevertheless, the politicians continue to "buy off' the Army in a quite literal sense...

...Those holding such views could hardly envisage the transformation of Latin America in the 1980s...

...A temporary military junta forced Jimenez to flee to Florida in 1958...

...The poorest slum-dweller possesses a home, running water, electricity, and often a television set...

...The military, now loyal to the democratic regimes, crushed the guerrilla attacks...

...Big estates, if they were highly productive, were not broken into uneconomic plots...

...Inadvertently, G6mez and later Jimenez created their own nemesis by persecuting and exiling the group of university students seeking a liberal democracy, land reform, and the use of oil revenues to spur development...

...Priests and bishops tend to support the social doctrines of the Christian Democrats even though the general secularization of the society has led to a decrease in religious fervor...

...Much of the credit for the peaceful revolution that has stripped the old oligarchy of its power must go to the famous "Generation of 1928" and its leader, Romulo Betancourt...

...He also disbanded the labor unions, "radical" parties and peasant groups...

...In the 1930s, exiles from the Spanish Civil War influenced the country's life by assuming advanced places in law, the universities and politics...

...The autonomous Venezuelan Development Corporation, for instance, developed the great Orinoco River basin...

...Flexible Spanish governors responded by introducing a unique legal procedure, the Gracias al Sacar, which rewarded industrious and worthy prados with all the rights and privileges of the Spaniards...

...Sexual mixing among whites, the indigenous Indians and imported slaves soon propagated a new and far larger ethnic group, theprados...

...General Marcos Perez Jimenez emerged triumphant and, aided by the aristocracy and the church, imposed his rule in 1948...

...In the 1960s, the revolutionaries took to the countryside where they launched a destructive campaign...

...One might wish that Venezuela would follow Costa Rica and simply forgo the luxury of an Army...

...In 1985, Venezuela spent 20 per cent more per capita on education than did Cuba, twice as much as Brazil or Chile, and 70 times more than Haiti...

...In return for unwavering loyalty to civilian rule, the government, even in these straitened times, provides fine equipment, delightful officers' clubs, high salaries, and lush benefits to its soldiers...

...Where democracy functions well, the press and courts operate freely, and the people have achieved unprecedented levels of education and prosperity...

...Amid all this movement, Venezuela stands out as perhaps a harbinger of the continent's future...

...Another wave of Spaniards, Portuguese and Italians fled to Venezuela after 1945 to seek their fortunes...

...In the 1960s, for example, it initiated a major redistribution program which parceled out publicly held land and compensated the aristocracy for the expropriation of private holdings...

...Nor does there seem to be any enthusiasm for such a resolution of the present considerable discontent in Venezuela...

...Yet compared with the rest of Latin America, Venezuela has several unmatched advantages...