Economics With A Face

There was also a large hospital that had been refurbished by the Chavez government and in addition renamed. At this large facility Venezuelan doctors worked during the day while Cuban doctors worked during the night. It did appear to be in excellent condition but, as such, they were also currently dealing with overcrowding as people from other neighborhoods now came to this renovated facility whose care was far superior to those closer to their homes.

Directly next to the small healthcare facility from the Barrio Adentro I, we toured a government Mercal, a store where food was sold at about half the cost of private retail outlets. Government subsidies accounted for the price differential. There was plenty of rice, lentils, and oil, all manufactured by the state company CASA. All these products also contained propaganda messages with stories and drawings on the back of their packaging. The store also contained various jars of sauces and other goods that were from a common national brand name company, and we were told this was a recent edition to the Mercal.

There was no chicken or milk in the store. When these products arrive there are huge lines that form and people buy all these products up until they are sold out. Customers are only allowed to buy limited amounts of these goods as they are in such high demand at the low government prices. The limits (in theory) prevent both the store selling out quickly and to prevent reselling of the goods. The stores are partially subsidized to cut the prices and in addition they do not have to pay taxes that private businesses do pay.

Walking around the streets with Yajaira she pointed out quite a few interesting things. Five years ago, when the economy was better in the region, there were no street vendors. Now looking up and down the street many were visible. We headed into a centro commercial that was located right off the street but it was now practically deserted. While some of the stores were having a rough time a few years back and had started to close, it was impossible for the remaining to compete with the Mercal and that competition had sealed their fate.

This reflected a comment that the BBC posted in a recent chat it had with Chavez. At the BBC site a store owner stated:

I am a single mother of 3 with a food shop in Caracas. The government has just opened a Mercal store close to me with subsidized prices at 50% of what I can sell. My business will soon be finished. I am one of millions of poorer Venezuelans that are facing lower income and unemployment. Does the government plan to employ 25m people? Why don't they understand they can best help us by allowing our businesses to do well? Most of us do want work and do well and provide for our families. Andreina, Caracas, Venezuela

We next toured a school and were introduced to a group of young adults who were in charge of programming for a local radio station. The radio station is another of Chavez’s Misiones . The programming ranges from local news to music, but of course is in the revolutionary spirit. A few people at the meeting wore Che shirts. Again they operate on government funding so they don’t need to worry about taxes or finding advertising like private programming.

Across from the school was another medical facility called Comite de Salud. Previously, it was called an ambulotorio and was a small clinic for local people much like the Barrio Adentro I program. However, this building was now run by a Cuban doctor and the name had been changed. I was originally under the impression that all the medical facilities build under Barrio Adento were being put in areas that previously had no medical services. The ambulotorio showed that this was not the case. There had originally been a Venezuelan doctor in the area that had now been replaced by a doctor from Cuba.

Walking down the street we were told how regular garbage service with trucks and dumpsters had been suspended. Now Cooperativos Bolivarianos cleaned the streets but Yajaira showed us how much of the trash was simply dumped into a washway/river that ran along the road. After the cooperatives would leave it there it was left to the rain to eventually wash it away.

Over lunch, Yajaira told us about some of the problems she had encountered on the day of the referendum vote. For a little background, the recall referendum was an attempt to oust Chavez from power in 2004. Opposition groups gathered millions of signuatures (twice) for referendum vote that took place on August 15th, 2004. Acording to international observers Chavez triumphed by 20 percentage points on this date, but not without a good deal of controversy. (Read an exchange on the topic between President Carter and The Wall Street Journal’s Mary O’Grady HERE, HERE, and HERE).

I had heard that there were horribly long lines the day of the elections and her stories confirmed this. She arrived at 4:00am in the morning to vote so she could get to work early but there was already a long line at the poling station. Earlier, from her apartment above, she could see trucks of people arriving around 3:00am in the morning. Apparently these people held up the line for a good part of the day although they were not sure exactly how. Needless to say the line didn’t move. She finally reached the front and voted at 2:00pm. There is a good deal more she told us about the election and her experiences in the city (attempting to enter a school, ID cards, etc) that I am going to leave for another post. In short, it was an extremely enlightening discussion.

Tonight for dinner we were invited over to Vladimir’s house to have dinner with his family. Elisabeth, his wife, had many more stories for us. I won’t get into all the details here but I’ll point out just one that I found interesting. After the opposition initially collected enough signatures for the referendum against Chavez, the government began to knock many of the names off the list using arbitrary standards such as if the signatures looked like they were written by the same person. In the end it was declared that everyone would have to return to the polls to confirm that they had signed for the referendum. But before this was done a list of everyone who had signed for the referendum was made public on the internet by Luis Tascon, as deputy in Chavez’s party.

(READ MORE ON THE TASCON LIST HERE AND HERE)

Those who had signed the referendum found it difficult to obtain government identification (something needed to vote), if they had contracts with the government they were often cancelled, while others were fired from jobs. The government also made it clear that people could retract their signature from the referendum in the second election if they wished. We were told that many people did just that to avoid further harassment. Amazingly the referendum still passed on this second go-around.

After dinner we watched another film that was basically news coverage of the events that let up to April 11th , 2002 when Chavez stepped down from power and his return shortly afterwards. It gave Em and I both a much clear understanding of all the events that had occurred prior to the recall.

Back at our place it was sad reflecting on all we had seen and learned today. We live in a place where you don’t give a second thought to signing a petition to recall Gray Davis. Not so in Venezuela, but people still signed, marched, and protested to get Chavez out of power. All that effort and sadly is still in office… two years after his original term was supposed to end.

You begin to realize that it is impossible to completely understand what this country has gone through. You get glimpses when you share in their excitement when they recount the joy they felt the day that Chavez stepped down, or you think you share in their depression when they recount his return. But the fact is that what I will feel will never be as intense or as real. Makes me glad I had the sheer luck of being born in California, and true pity for those who now forced to deal with the current political situation in Venezuela.