The Hugo Chávez Show

The president of Venezuela promotes populist anti-Americanism.

By Eli Rosenberg, UCLA

Every Sunday morning in Venezuela, public television cuts off abruptly to reveal a black screen. This is the silent pause before the airing of the country’s most famous show: Interrupting regular broadcasting around 11 a.m., “Aló Presidente” is President Hugo Chávez’s weekly show—forcibly aired on all public channels—in which Chávez is allowed to be simply Hugo, talking, singing, and even reading poetry for hours on end.

The leader of a 1992 failed coup, Hugo Chávez has been making waves across the globe ever since he was elected president in 1998. Everything he has done in office has been to his sole political benefit: stacking the Supreme Court by increasing the number of justices from 20 to 32, changing the constitution to increase the presidential term from five to six years, and increasing executive control over the nationalized petroleum company by gutting the leadership after more than half the workers went on strike in late 2002.

With a National Assembly without a single representative from the opposition and 22 out of 24 state governors part of his political movement, there seems to be no limit to Chávez’ power. He is all but guaranteed reelection in the upcoming Presidential contest in December. With nobody to challenge him and nothing to contain him, “Aló Presidente” is Hugo Chávez at his finest: uninhibited, spirited, and clearly in his element, he is almost always amiable and intimate as he denounces fellow world leaders (usually George W. Bush), dreams about future projects, or even dismisses executives of the state oil company, PDVSA, by exclaiming “You’re out!” while he fires each with the blow of a whistle—reality TV style—as he once did in 2003. Watching “Aló Presidente,” one gets the feeling Chávez is serious about wanting to change the constitution (again) so he can remain in office until 2031 or beyond, as he so often asserts is his desire.

And while one has to wait until Sunday to watch “Aló Presidente,” the Hugo Chávez show never ends. Chávez is always putting on a performance, flaunting, appeasing and appealing to his audience simply because he can.

According to a March press release from the Inter-American Press Association, Chávez appears for 40 hours a week on Venezuelan television. To say he enjoys the spotlight would be an understatement; Chávez seems to thrive on the conflict he is able to generate with a microphone.

At the United Nations General Assembly in New York in September, Chavez stood at the same lectern that George W. Bush stood on a day before, denouncing the man he typically refers to as Mr. Danger and now calling Bush “the devil,” to the giggles and gasps of a crowd unaccustomed to such theatrics. But this was hardly a shocking turn of phrase from a man who has called Bush a donkey, a drunk, and a coward in recent months. This kind of rhetoric has become commonplace in Chavez’s frequent speeches, in which belligerent rants are a near daily occurrence. It is this kind of talk that causes many Venezuelans to shake their heads in disbelief.

To his loyal followers at home, sensational rhetoric may be an effective show of rebellion against world powers, but it is unclear how Chávez’ behavior plays on the world stage, where his abrasive manner and hubris—the swagger now referred to as Chavismo—seems to give credibility to his opponents.

Undoubtedly, Chávez’ Bolivarian Revolution relies on having something and someone to fight against. And through his pugnacity, Chávez has found a way to stay perpetually in international headlines

It is this ubiquitous presence that makes it impossible to imagine Venezuela right now without Chavez. He is treated in some corners as an almost messianic icon. Indeed, he paints himself as the representative of the leftist movements sweeping South America, and has come to personify a solution to the profound inequality and poverty that has plagued Latin America for decades: opposition to the Western free market system.

Most recently, to the deep concern of the Bush Administration, Chavez has forged strong ties with Iranian President Mahmoud Amahdinejad. “We stand by Iran at every moment, in any situation,” Chavez said in late August after accepting a golden High Medallion of the Islamic Republic of Iran from Amahdinejad in Tehran. The two countries are bonded by their common goal of higher oil prices and common enmity toward the United States and Israel.

Yet despite the surface level tension between Venezuela and the United States, and Chávez’s seemingly hollow threats to stop selling oil to the U.S., business between the two countries is still being carried out as usual. Venezuela continues to provide around 15 percent of U.S. oil, which accounts for a majority of Venezuelan sales, revealing a surprisingly symbiotic relationship.

Recently Chávez purchased weapons from Russia; he is training and recruiting a “million-man” civilian army prepared to defend Venezuela in what he terms a “hundred years’ war” should the United States ever decided to invade Venezuela. While this is nothing more than pure speculation at the moment, Chávez’ fear-mongering becomes slightly less ridiculous with the knowledge that Venezuela has been surging to the top of all U.S. government watch lists in recent years due to its alleged ties to Colombian guerillas and Chavez’s alliance with Iran.

Last April, as tensions heightened between Venezuela and the United States, the U.S. Military’s Southern Command launched Operation Partnership of the Americas, a large-scale military operation involving more than 6,000 troops and numerous battleships in the Carribean, as part of what they termed “efforts to improve training and readiness of U.S. naval forces in the region.” Often docking at ports in the Netherlands Antilles, not more than 30 miles off the coast of Venezuela, the military posturing was taken by many in South America as a warning from Washington that it is carefully watching the leftist turn in politics on the continent. This saber-rattling had the effect of intensifying the sentiment among most Venezuelans that regardless of their feelings about Chavez, they are united around a profound hatred of George W. Bush and the Iraq war.

Venezuelans are also aware of the undeniable advances that Chávez and his revolution have brought to a country where around 60 percent of the 26 million people are poor, and half of the poor lack the means to eat a full diet.

Chávez’ vast network of lavishly funded social programs—Las Misiónes—are obvious in any Venezuelan city as new schools, medical clinics run by Cuban doctors, literacy programs, housing projects, and subsidized supermarkets are visible in nearly every poor community in the country. The feeling of hope and progress inspired in these communities is palpable even to the outsider in the men who are employed to staff programs benefiting their own neighborhoods, the children who will tell you they can eat now because of the nutrition programs in schools, and the old women who smile as they recall being flown to Cuba, free of cost, for cataract removal surgery.

Venezuela feels like a country in the middle of a growth spurt, as the opening of new buildings, public transit systems and water treatment plants is a near daily experience in most cities. Yet however widespread the improvements are, the question remains as to whether these programs—all products of oil money—have actually addressed the roots of Venezuelan poverty, or if they have only temporarily alleviated its daily manifestations. In a country with very little economic production outside of the petroleum industry, it remains to be seen whether the poverty level has actually decreased as much as the government likes to claim, or whether Venezuela is simply benefiting from the growth provided by high oil prices.

In Venezuela, there seems to be little space between loving and hating Chávez. He provokes such emotional responses that it becomes difficult for many to analyze him objectively. Numbers pertaining to poverty, the economy, or exactly how and where government money is spent are in perpetual dispute.

Depending on whom you ask, there seem to be two realities here: the Venezuela that is progressing like never before, or the Venezuela that has become a nightmarish autocracy, so much so that thousands of Venezuelans have fled the country. So many Venezuelans have settled in Miami that they are now the second-most populous immigrant group there, after Cuban exiles. Under Chávez, it has become nearly impossible for Venezuelans to get visas to even travel to the United States. Many Venezuelans I have spoken to attribute this to the fact that the U.S. government increasingly fears that Venezuelans travel there to seek permanent asylum.

Overall, Chavez seems to embody the contradictions inherent in a country overflowing with them; uniting while dividing, inspiring hope while inciting anger, indicting the rich of the world while unabashedly sporting a Rolex watch, preaching peace while purchasing weapons and recruiting an army. If Chavez’s presidency is embodied in his television show, it is the hope of many that his promises will become more of a reality and less of a soap-opera.

 
Eli Rosenberg is a junior at UCLA. He spent 6 months studying in Mérida, Venezuela, where he also taught English at a public school.

An earlier version of the article appeared on www.beyondchron.org.

Illustration: Matt Bors

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