VHeadline editor & publisher Roy S,. Carson writes: Part of the problem, as far as Venezuela is concerned, is the perception of one side against the other in political and social debate ... at least where ANY debate exists! Undoubtedly due to the fact that President Hugo Chavez Frias is so forceful in his anti-capitalist (anti-Bush!) rhetoric, there are clear misunderstandings in the eyes of others around the world, and it, basically, depends on one's geographical location and one's own particular point of view, usually heavily influenced by the conditions under which one lives, where one lives.It is the same perception that to many Latinos -- who more easily form their perceptions from Hollywood movies, and red carpet events in the flora of celebrity magazines -- that the United States is an unattainable dream of paradise where luxuries abound and there is NO dark side.
- On the other hand, USA heartland Americans have a different perception of their reality, usually very much divorced from the glitz of La-La-Land California and most definitely more down to earth.
As for Margarita, I wonder how many cruise ship passengers really understand that the paradise island is, in fact, part of Venezuela.
I remember a Canadian tourist family, basking pool-side at a plush hotel near Porlamar (Isla de Margarita), telling me that they had no thoughts, ever, of travelling as far away as South America (obviously at some other extreme of the planet, yet this side of the planet Mars) ... and their distinct surprise when I pointed out that they should look at the visa stamped in their passports to learn that they were, in fact, already in Venezuela, South America!
A hapless British drug-smuggler recently told an English court that he had been lured (?) into travelling to Venezuela to pick up and smuggle out several kilos of Colombian-produced cocaine on the understanding that Venezuela was somewhere in the south of Spain... He began to get a lesson in geography when he found himself aboard a 12-hour flight to Caracas and then another 12-hour flight back again right into the arms of waiting UK Customns & Excise men!
But it is the LOCAL perceptions that worry most about Venezuela's future since the political opposition has a per4ception of anyone and everything to do with the President's United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) as a red rag to their bullishnesses. On the other hand, the pro-Chavez 'Chavistas' see the opposition as the scum of the earth (escualidos = squalids!) who want to deprive them of every hard-won right to new-born democracy and to enslave them all over again. They (the Chavistas) now have a political voice and they're damned well going to use it!
The problem is, though, that there have been, and still remain, abuses on both sides ... and it may well take decades to eradicate them, if not generations!
Yes! Undoubtedly there were (and continue to be) serious abuses on the part of those loosely defined as being within the political opposition. Many of them are past the point of redemption anyway, living on the spoils of decades of political and economic corruption during admi8nistrations that preceded the election of Hugo Chavez Frias to the Venezuelan presidency.
I remember attending a pre-Christmas diplomatic reception at the Miraflores Palace in December 1998, just after the election of Carlos Andres Perez (CAP) on the coat-tails of Jaime Lusinchi (and his deputy-president-cum-barrangana) Blanca Ibanez. New to Venezuela, I had innocently asked an ambassador from aEuropean country (best not to mention which!) what he thought of Venezuela and the undoubted climate of tension that, then,was already in the air. Perhaps undiplomatically, the diplomat confided in me over a glass of 12-year-old Scotch that "the **** was about to hit the fan" and that he would be surprised to see CAP having much capacity to deal with "the situation"!
Our conversation was gracefully interrupted as I towed the ambassador out of harm's way in the handshake line-up with the President-elect when he slurred that the country would be swamped in the brown stuff if ever the unfortunate people of the barrios (hillside slums) decided to descend en pass on the palace on Avenida Urdaneta. He wasn't playing at 'Mystic Meg' but the whisky fumes could, possibly, jave played a part in it for, just two months later (February 29, 1989) the event did indeed take place, going down in history as 'El Caracazo' in which many hundreds died to be anonymously buried in mass graves.
- Small wonder then that Venezuela's under-privileged classes have a sense of rebellion against anyone who attempts to force them into similar submission as the era when (President) Jaime Lusinchi proudly stated that "it's only idiots who pay income taxes!" But that was yesteryear and a lot of water has gone under Venezuelan bridges since then though, at time, you'd think the barge was stranded on mud-flats waiting for another dredge to pass by.
This last weekend's election results do indeed give strength of purpose to President Chavez' PSUV and Venezuela's new 'United Democratic Opposition' seems, anyway, to have decided at least to attempt to cooperate with the central government administration, hopefully to achieve some degree of success with policies that have so far proved to be failures in the hands of inept officials whose only raison d'etre was their affiliation to the more fanatical extremes of the Chavez bureaucracy.
HOPEFULLY ... and I will stress HOPEFULLY ... the PSUV gains, tempered by opposition gains in the key cities and other urbanizations, will lead to an implementation or re-examination (Chavez' famous 3xRs) of the labyrinths of power to weed out the dross and to replace them with more 'fit-for-purpose' personnel to drive the nation forward to the ultimate benefit of ALL Venezuelans and not just the privileged few who tout the color of their party membership cards in the belief that all doors should be open unto them.
Who will be the first to take a tumble? Insiders at the Foreign Ministry (MRE) say that encumbrances such as Nicolas Maduro and Arevalo Mendez are already on the skids.
Some are even preparing to celebrate their imminent departure if only President Hugo Chavez Frias can be brought to understand the depth of the incompetencies over which ineffectively claim control.
A number of ambassadors are ready for the chop and a number of talented replacements remain quietly in reserve ready to leap into action to repair the damage sustained over a space of years to Venezuela's diplomacy on a world scale.
Again ... it's a matter of perception ... but for anyone interested in the minutia of politics a la Venezuela, these are exciting times ahead. The right steps taken with resolution, then Venezuela's positive future is secured.
Without those steps (even if it needs a few doors kicking in) we would have to yield to despondency but, as a new era in Venezuela's life begins we prefer NOT to see the glass half-empty but rather half-FULL ... waiting only for the toping to be added to enjoy what it has to offer.
Roy S. Carson
vheadline@gmail.com
Venezuela is facing the most difficult period of its history with honest reporters crippled by sectarianism on top of rampant corruption within the administration and beyond, aided and abetted by criminal forces in the US and Spanish governments which cannot accept the sovereignty of the Venezuelan people to decide over their own future.
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