Rafael Puertas in front of his store next to President Chávez (Axis of Logic photo)

By lobbying the local mayor, the people in Niño Divino now have running water and a new pumping station opposite the entrance to the community, which will serve to pump water to all the barrios in this sector. These water lines snake up into the mountains surrounding the town. This one is the first pumping station for these poor communities in fifty years and the community of the Divino Niño had even managed to get the single road paved and avoid the usual mud bath when it rains. Things have certainly progressed in the last three years from having nothing, to having something and by extension more pride and self-esteem. Rafael (left) has a small store selling basic foodstuffs to serve the community and proudly displayed his poster of President Chavez on the outside of his humble dwelling.

"Guarantanteeing Food Sovereignty" is the slogan. Carmen Chávez and Alejandro Palacios at Mission Mercal soup kitchen. (Axis of Logic photo)

Food and Nutrition in the Barrios: For many decades leading up to the election of President Chavez in 1998, food shortages and poor nutrition, especially among the poorest Venezuelans were widespread and endemic. Malnutrition was rooted in the economic violence of prior regimes and in land ownership, denied to the campasinos (peasant farmers) ². Now, in the neighboring sector to Párate Bueno, 24 de Julio, the social missions are once again in evidence. Rubén pointed out a local store which sells Mercal products at solidarity prices and we entered what appeared to be a dead end street but on the left was one of the soup kitchens which form part of Misión Mercal – Mercal Máxima Protección. This part of Misión Mercal was launched two years ago to benefit the poorest in Venezuelan society – homeless people, children and pregnant mothers at risk, older folks and people with disabilities – and there are currently 6500 soup kitchens serving 900,000 Venezuelans across the country.

People in line at the soup kitchen for the midday meal (Axis of Logic photo)

These are not purpose-built units but are installed in the houses of local residents who sacrificially offer their homes for use in food distribution, medical clinics and for other community services. In this case in the 24 de Julio, sector Santa Rosa, Sr. Edito gave his home for use as a soup kitchen. The owner was not available when we arrived and so we spoke to the four cooks who work there, preparing meals, twice day for 150 beneficiaries of this mission. Food supplies are delivered by Mercal and a balanced diet provided. People were already in line with their plastic receptacles waiting to receive their midday meal. A strict control is kept of the beneficiaries but poor people are never turned away if they are not on the list.

Cooks in the soup kitchen. L to R Carmen Chávez, Ana Moreno, Fany Kanzler and Zulay Martín. (Axis of Logic photo)

The owner was not available when we arrived and so we spoke to The four cooks – Ana Moreno, Zulay Martín, Carmen Chávez and Fany Kanzler were hard at work preparing a meal of cooked white rice, shredded beef, black beans and fried plantains for their beneficiaries. Sra. Moreno explained that they are now more part of the community then ever and the central government provides them with a nominal stipend (US$100/month) to cover expenses. The effect of Mercal Máxima Protección has been not only to benefit the very poor, but also to create jobs, a sense of purpose and solidarity in the barrios. 

Isaura Palma and Yelitza Tambo: At the end of the street we met two wonderful women and talked on their front porch: Isaura Palma and Yelitza Tambo. An aura of combined strength, discipline and compassion flows from these beautiful women. (we regret that our photos of them didn’t take!). Isaura is responsible for the coordinating of the Mercal soup kitchen and was trained in Cuba in the Misión Franciso de Miranda, which is designed to train people in social work and organization in the barrios, which is vital if the revolution is to progress with order. On the other hand, Yelitza works in the Misiones Robinson and Ribas, helping her neighbors and comrades to read and write and to get through high school. Both women explained to us the joyous scenes on December 3^rd when Presidents Chavez’ crushing electoral victory was confirmed by the National Electoral Council (CNE). They explained how these scenes contrasted greatly with the scenes in the same street on April 12^th 2002, when Chavez was kidnapped and imprisoned by the fascist coup mongers. They told us that was a day they did not want to forget since it illustrated the dangerous enemy and fifth columnists who still infiltrated in Venezuela and the revolutionary process.

The Venezuelan family and culture

Master Builder Jos¦É Ledezma with his wife, two daughters and grand daughter (Axis of Logic photo)

The road became much steeper as we continued climbing up the side of the mountain, but it was obvious that the houses were being well maintained and were quite different from the slums here just 20 years ago (see photos below). José Ledezma, a master builder invited us into his home, which had been expanded to accommodate his growing family. We met his wife and two beautiful daughters, as well as the grand daughter living with them - a typical extended family in Venezuela.

We continued climbing and met Trina Rojas affectionately known as “Teresa”, a lady feeding one of her grand children on the front porch, who also lived in the same house. It is not unusual in Venezuela for grand children to be raised by their grand parents, who are normally much younger than in the US or Europe. Chavez himself and his elder brother Adán were raised for many years by their grand mother, Rosinés in Sabaneta, Barinas State in the 1950’s and 60’s. One of the things that impresses me most about Venezuelan culture is the health and depth of the extended family – an entity widely dissipated elsewhere as a result of corporate influence.

Alejandro Palacios talking to dance teacher, Trina Rojas, affectionately known as "Teresa" (Axis of Logic photo)

Teresa described how the paved road we were standing on had been only a dirt path twenty years ago until about fifteen years ago more people began to populate the barrio. Teresa is director of a traditional dance group called “Danzas Talento” which is formed mainly by children from the barrio 24 de Julio. The dance group rehearses all year round, either in her house or in the pre school we had passed some two hours ago where another dance teacher, José Gutiérrez works. The group also goes to neighboring barrios to perform where there is a cultural interchange and links formed to create a form of solidarity in Venezuelan cultural terms. This culture is being threatened still by US TV programs, and the anti-values of unbridled consumerism and materialism pumped out 24 hours a day by the commercial TV channels. Programs like Danzas Talento provide youth an alternative to these foreign values and solidify their identity as creative human beings and Venezuelans.

People such as Teresa are facing a uphill battle to preserve their century old traditions from the transculturization which is part of the incipient US hegemony in Venezuela, but this has been halted and is starting to recede with the boom in traditional culture being evident in barrios such as the 24 de Julio all over the country. One has to ask about the attitude of the moneyed middle classes in this regard who seem to be more attached to Miami and New York than their own traditions, and hence find it increasingly difficult to come to terms with the revolution in cultural terms, even though in theory they are also just as Venezuelan as Teresa and José Gutiérrez.

Work, play and full lives in the barrios

On Saturday at midday, we stopped to watch some games being played behind a private house where men take a break from work, play dominoes, "bolas criollas" -similar to the Italian game, bocce ball. We engaged in good-natured conversations with them as they placed greatest importance on the results of a play, measuring distances between balls played with lengths of pre-cut strings. I could not help but think about their well-rounded lives which combine hard work, learning, play and socializing with building community and helping those who have less - fully aware that they are contributing to a revolution that continues to transform Venezuela.

Playing "bolas criollas" in court behind private house on Saturday lunchtime (Axis of Logic photo)

I could not help but contrast all this with the lives of so many people in the U.S. and Europe where living, work and play have so little real meaning; where people are alienated from their governments and the wealthy ruling classes who control their futures; where passively watching TV, movies and listening to music "production" replaces play; where menial work replaces work that is directly connected to a greater purpose, higher value and the future of the entire country; where the highs from prescription and street drugs and alcohol replaces real joy; where fractured families and the disappearance of leisure time replaces the extended family and real community.

With the midday sun now blazing down, our small troop continued climbing to a shop selling lunch – a traditional soup or “sancocho” and ice cold beers. Locals were chatting and drinking outside in the shade and greeted us warmly since both Alejandro and Rubén are respected community members. Despite my limited Spanish I managed to communicate with some of them and it was once again obvious that support for Chavez is solid in these barrios.

We sat in the cool shade inside and relaxed while discussing the people we had encountered and the way in which the barrio had progressed in the last three years. Chavez posters were everywhere, but they were not plastered there by government apparatchiks as was the case in the Soviet Union – as the private media would have the outside world believe, alluding to a type of “Stalinist personality cult” for Chavez. The posters were stuck on the walls, murals and slogans painted by the people themselves since an inexorable link exists between Chavez and the common people. This solidarity with Chavez began when he was in prison and has accelerated since his release from prison on March 24^th 1994.

Chavez’ long, hard road since 1989

This has been a long, hard political road for Chavez since the 1992 military rebellion when he and other officers from the Bolivarian Revolutionary Movement 200 (MBR 200) tried to overthrow the government of Carlos Andréz Pérez. In February 1989, Pérez suspended constitution guarantees and ordered troops on to the streets of Caracas and other major cities to put down with force of arms of war, a popular uprising against the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The IMF imposed  a financial recipe which doubled all prices from one day to the next. Pérez’ attack on the people resulted in a massacre of unarmed civilians, dubbed the “Caracazo”. About 3000 people were known to have been murdered and buried in mass graves; the actual number killed by the inhuman machine gun fire may never be known.

Any act such as this would make any government in the world automatically illegitimate and a gross violator of human rights, but no human rights groups protested, least of all the US; not surprising since the value of private property was placed above the value of human life. Chavez’ rebellion was meant to restore national dignity and rid Venezuela of a proven genocidal regime. It is only now that the people responsible for this and other massacres in Venezuela’s recent history are being brought to book. Chavez ordered the families who had lost loved ones in the “Caracazo” to be compensated last year. Justice has been satisfied – at least to the degree that justice is humanly possible.

We strolled down the barrio road towards the center of town where election murals and slogans were still in evidence. Alejandro and Rubén went their way and I went mine in the full knowledge that I would soon return to these barrios. I will return to them because these communities of humble, dignified people are aware and in greater control of their own destinies - more than any people I’ve ever known. Their quiet humility³, awareness and dignity bring me back to my true self and where the same qualities lie too often dormant. Visiting these people is for me, not unlike a silent, receptive visit to unspoiled nature where renewal takes place. But reason for their awareness, humility and dignity is not by chance. They are aware that the destiny of their children and grand children is inextricably linked to the programs of social justice at the core of this exemplary, peaceful, democratic and participatory Bolivarian Revolution.

- Les Blough – La Victoria

End Notes

1. The IV Republic (The Fourth Republic) was the pre-Chavez government run by the ruling oligarchy at the pleasure of the U.S. Government and transnational corporations. Chavez formed the V Republic (The Fifth Republic Movement) commonly known as the MVR. 

2. Prior to the Chavez administration’s launch of Misión Mercal, about 80% of Venezuelans were in deep poverty and food was scarce. During those years, wealthy foreign landowners (largely U.S. and British) bought massive ranches (often illegally) which lay dormant and unproductive. They forbade the landless campasinos (peasant farmers) from growing vegetables on “their” land and often those who trespassed were shot by armed guards employed by the foreign landowner. There was an imperialist reason behind these nefarious practices: They kept Venezuelans dependent upon foreign food imports – in one of the richest agrarian countries in Latin America! During his first term in office, President Chavez has initiated land-reform which includes redistribution of this unproductive land to formerly disenfranchised people for agriculture, housing and small businesses.   

We visited one family where the grandmother had died. The surviving daughter and her family were in the midst of 9 days of grieving, traditional in Venezuelan culture. The photo depicts the shrine to grandmother, set up in their living room. The family's grief was deepened because grandmother did not live to vote for President Chávez, having passed two days before the election.   (Axis of Logic photo)

In one of the homes we visited, we found this Nativity, typical in Venezuela and normally built on or around December 1st. (Axis of Logic photo)

Cooks in the soup kitchen in barrio 24 de Julio, sector Santa Rosa. L to R Carmen Chávez, Ana Moreno, Fany Kanzler and Zulay Martín. (Axis of Logic photo)

Preparing shredded beef in Bolivarin soup kitchen in barrio 24 de Julio, sector Santa Rosa  (Axis of Logic photo)

Venezuelan "sancocho" or traditional soup. A recipe of root and green vegetables with beef on the bone for taste and nutrition.  (Axis of Logic photo)

Local Bolivarian secondary school (Axis of Logic photo)

Sign announcing the installation of new sewage system in Barrio 24 de Julio by local mayor, Rosa león.  (Axis of Logic photo)

New houses are being built by their owners as incomes increase and people take more and more pride in their lives and community

Newly built house frontage indicative of better times in the barrios  (Axis of Logic photo)

Freshly painted house in barrio 24 de Julio  (Axis of Logic photo)

Contrast these modern apartment blocks with Divino Niño, the occupied squatters land just a few minutes walk from here. These apartments rent for around US$150/month  (Axis of Logic photo)

Corner stone of the opposition campaign. "Mi Negra" debit card - a voting buying scam which backfired on the Manuel Rosales in his campaign to defeat Chávez. However it's important to note that in all of Venezuela, the barrios included, the Rosales campaign spent millions of dollars with expensive, slick TV, radio and newspaper advertising and on professional wall murals like this one. While President Chávez certainly ran a successful campaign, the public promotion of his campaign that we saw was to a large extent, graffiti - highly skilled and otherwise - painted on whatever public surface offered the people a "voice".   (Axis of Logic photo)

-END-

Biography and more articles by Les Blough

Top of Page