Violence and Transformation in Venezuela’s Public Universities

The Venezuelan government's decision to reduce federal funding for the nation's public universities in May generated two months of political turbulence that erupted into violence on university campuses. The conflict is rooted in a broader national debate over the role of education in society and the role of the state in public education.

The Chavez government is attempting to modify the nation's educational system in line with socialist values. To this effect the Chavez government has taken steps to broaden access to higher education, and the pro-Chavez student movement has called for greater student control over the management of university budgets. In addition, the government is currently drafting a new law which would facilitate the participation of councils composed of students, their families and the local communities in academic life. This has clashed with the interests of the entrenched, opposition-aligned university administrations and their student allies who are largely identified with the middle and upper class minority of Venezuelans. This elite constituency fervently defends the autonomy of the university from the state.

Violence on Campuses

The government's decision to cut university funding came as part of an overall 6.7 percent reduction in the national budget in response to the global financial crisis. The political opposition seized on the budget cuts to generate student street protests against the Chavez government. From the other side of the spectrum, pro- Chavez students organized to demand greater accountability from the opposition-aligned university administrators who they accused of swindling university funds. At the height of this mobilization, unidentified individuals perpetrated violent attacks against both opposition and pro-Chavez students at the Central University of Venezuela (UCV).

Venezuela's public universities enjoy the status of "autonomy" which means that the government allocates funding but the university manages the funds independently. Chavez's minister for higher education, Luis Acuña, has stated publicly that the university budget reduction "must not touch student facilities, such as the cafeteria and transportation, among others, nor the [payment of] personnel." [1] Acuña has urged university administrators to do what many other directors of government institutions have done and cut back on unnecessary spending including executive salaries and luxuries such as cars, cell phones, travel, and elaborate conferences, in line with Chavez's executive order issued last March. In contrast, opposition leaders, including university administrators, have declared that the budget cuts seek to cut back on student benefits and could even result in the closure of the public universities.

The violence began on May 19^th on the eve of an opposition march called by the UCV rector Cecilia García. At around 7pm on the night prior to the march, individuals on motorcycles entered campus grounds and discharged firearms at the Student Union building. On the day of the march, May 20^th, masked individuals burned three university buses. This was followed by an attack on a pro-Chavez student from the School of Social Work who was shot in the abdomen and leg.

Two days later, on May 22^nd, approximately 20 masked individuals carrying automatic weapons and acting in a coordinated and professional manner entered the Law Faculty and searching it room by room asked for the whereabouts of students from the pro-Chavez student organization called the March 28th Movement (M-28).

Tensions were reignited again last month at the UCV when unidentified assailants launched tear gas canisters at a group of pro-Chavez students who were participating in a hunger strike against the university administration. These students were protesting the administration's decision to offload the recent budget cuts onto student services such as the cafeteria and transportation.

On June 18^th the first floor of the student union building was broken into and set on fire. The office of Ricardo Sanchez, an oppositionist and president of the student union, was also damaged, though it is not clear if this was the principal target of the arson. Reportedly, Sanchez had previously received death threats. [2]

Although the identity of the assailants remains a mystery and despite the fact that Chavista students have been the main victims, opposition political parties and newspapers have immediately pointed the finger at the Chavez government claiming that it is responsible for the violent acts.

This article does not pretend to solve the riddle of who is behind these conspiratorial actions, but it is always useful to ask the following question: which political actors stand to benefit from this violence? The answer seems obvious: the political opposition.

Immediately following the first incident of campus violence, the oppositionist daily newspaper El Nacional, without clarifying the identity of the culprits, ran the cover story headline, "Government violence does not impede university march."

Ismael García, a deputy in the National Assembly and leader of the opposition Podemos party, alleged that these actions are part of a plan by the central government to criminalize student protesters and thus provide the pretext to invade and take over the universities.[3] Ostensibly, such a take-over would nullify the autonomous status which prohibits government security forces from entering campus grounds.

Opposition student leaders echo the idea that the violence constitutes part of a government plan. The leader of the opposition group "100% Students" at the UCV said at a press conference following these incidents that, "There is a plan by the government to create violence and chaos inside of the UCV and thus justify a [government] intervention." [4]

In contrast, Vicente Moronta, one of the students sought after by the armed group which entered the Law Faculty on May 22^nd, blamed the top rector of the University for the violence. "They are trying not only to silence our voice, but also to end the lives of human beings, in this case, of those who support the project of socialism," said Moronta.[5] When asked about the identity of the individuals, whose military maneuvers appeared more professional than the typical rag-tag student violence, Moronta posited that, "We suspect that they are paramilitaries that are connected to police forces from Eastern Caracas, possibly the Polibaruta or the Polichacao," he said, referring to two police forces located in opposition strongholds.[6] The Polichacao, or Chacao police force played a role in aiding the coup attempt of 2002 which resulted in the death of at least 19 civilians and temporarily ousted Chavez from office.

Other theories abound with regards to who is responsible. The talk show host Mario Silva blamed the violent opposition party Bandera Roja while Luis Fuenmayor, a former rector of the UCV, credits "vanguardist," "ultra left wing groups which sympathize with the National Government."[7]

Notwithstanding who is responsible, this violence has benefited the opposition in two important ways. First, the attacks further strengthen the opposition's claim that the government cannot provide security to its citizens, or in this case, to their sons and daughters who attend the country's public universities. The opposition levels virulent criticism in reaction to government initiatives but frequently falls short of providing any concrete alternatives to solving societal ills such as access to healthcare, the lack of housing, or poverty. The problem of insecurity, however, is the opposition's golden arrow since crime and murder rates have risen precipitously since the urban rioting of 1989 and have accelerated since Chavez assumed office in 1998. The opposition has been largely successful in shaping the public debate such that the Chavez government is linked to this rising crime. Moderate opposition voices bemoan the government's inability to address the problem of insecurity. More hard line oppositionists often state falsely that Chavez directly encourages the poor to steal from the rich and urges Chavistas to attack oppositionists.

Second, the chaos brought by the violence has impeded any genuine national debate regarding how Venezuela's education system should be run and structured. Last month, following the protest march at the UCV, pro-Chavez parliamentarians invited Rector Garcia and opposition students to a public debate in the National Assembly. Yet a few minutes into the debate the rector declared it an "ambush" and a "trick" and walked out. The lack of debate has allowed for the prolongation of the status quo whereby university administrators, who are overwhelmingly aligned with the opposition, continue to use their autonomous status to run the universities like private companies with little governmental oversight.

The Educator State vs. the Autonomous University

In addition to deciding how the budget cuts will be administered, this conflict also hinges on whether public education should be the responsibility of the state or of the autonomous universities.

In the end of June, Chavez's ministers of education sent their proposal for a new education law to the National Assembly. According to Education Minister Acuña, the new law will establish the role of the state in "democratizing admissions" policy, establishing the qualifications for educators and promoting a curriculum which extols "democratic values" in both basic and higher education.[8] Significantly, this new law reasserts the principle of the "Educator State," or Estado Docente. The Estado Docente designates to the state the primary responsibility in directing the education of its citizenry.[9] This political concept has roots in the ideas of General Simon Bolívar who at the outset of the Venezuelan Republic believed it necessary for the state to instill republican values and ideals of social harmony.[10] In response to Acuña's attempt to augment the authority of the state, the Professor's Association at the UCV has already announced that it is preparing to defend "the institutionalism of the academy as a free space for the formation of a plurality of thought and criticism."[11]

The Estado Docente clashes with another key political tradition in Venezuela which upholds the "autonomous" status of Venezuela's public universities. University autonomy was also formulated during the epoch of Simon Bolivar. It was created during Venezuela's 19^th century independence movement in part to undo the monopoly which the Spanish Crown and the Catholic Church held over education.[12] "Autonomy was originally designed to facilitate the free [and unimpeded] search for the truth," says Professor Hernán Lopes of the University of the Andes (ULA) in Merida.[13]

To this day, the autonomous status grants university administrators control over the university's budget, admissions policy and the establishment of academic curriculum. It also bans state security forces from entering university grounds. This law is reinforced by the experience of the 1970s when President Rafael Caldera sent tanks onto the UCV campus which he claimed was harboring guerrillas and then closed the university for two years.

Yet according to Professor Lopes, in the context of Venezuela's current political conflict the concept of autonomy has been twisted and utilized by university authorities who have "converted the university into an arm of a [opposition] political party."[14] Lopes also states that the top rectors, beginning years ago, have merely sought to utilize the university as a launching pad into political office. For example the top rector of the University of the Andes (ULA), Lester Rodríguez, was elected as the opposition mayor of Merida last November.

Student Opposition

Just as administrators and professors have increasingly converted the university into a bastion of Venezuela's political right wing it is also the case that the student movement has, to a large extent, become associated with this political opposition. Over the past three decades the universities have become increasingly limited to the children of the middle and upper class. The recent anti-Chavez protests against the budget cuts have demonstrated the way in which opposition parties seek to mobilize this student constituency for political ends.

In part, opposition parties have looked to these student groups because during Chavez's presidency massive street demonstrations have played an important role in Venezuelan politics. President Chavez and his United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) have the ability to organize mass demonstrations with little prior preparation. In contrast, the political opposition representative of business and elite interests lacks a street force on par with the Chavistas who are predominantly working class. For this reason they have sought to utilize students to generate a street presence and to demonstrate to Venezuelan society that they constitute a popular and massively supported political alternative.

This opposition strategy was revealed during the demonstrations against the non renewal of the broadcast license for the opposition television station Radio Caracas Television (RCTV) in 2006. At this time it was discovered that opposition parties in conjunction with publicity companies from the United States were scripting student speeches and even designing student opposition logos and slogans.[15]

Similarly, the recent march on May 20th in Caracas was called by Cecilia García, rector of the UCV, and supported and attended by leading oppositionists and their party members. Also, in Merida, which houses the nation's third largest university, oppositionist administrators have provided resources to student demonstrators who in recent weeks have initiated violent protests to object to the budget cuts. These resources include the free use of campus grounds for launching violent protests and lawyers to defend students who are arrested for sacking stores and vehicles.

Although many claim that the opposition students are being manipulated, these students frequently display a genuine and at times vicious class antagonism toward the pro-Chavez students, many of whom come from the lower economic classes. In part, this resentment has been sown by the government's creation of a parallel educational system which prioritizes access for students from poorer backgrounds. To this end the Chavez government created the military academy the National Experimental Polytechnic University of the Armed Forces (UNEFA) in 1999. It also inaugurated the high school- completion-program Mission Ribas and the Bolivarian University of Venezuela (UBV) in 2003. In addition, the government has implemented Mission Sucre which provides higher education scholarships and facilitates the process whereby a student is transitioned into the public university system.

Opposition students argue that the government is cutting funding from the autonomous universities such as the UCV and the ULA and putting it into these non-autonomous, government-created institutions where it imposes socialist indoctrination as part of its march toward dictatorship. A closer look at the numbers, however, reveals that the UBV which has a national student body of 130,000 possess a budget that is one fifth of the budget of the UCV, which has a student body of 40,000.[16]

Opposition students further argue that those who graduate from the high school completion program Mission Ribas receive a lower quality of education and should therefore not be granted the same diploma and awarded the same credentials as those who graduate from a regular public or private high school.

Another source of tension is the Education Ministry's decision to lower the required test scores for enrollment at the autonomous public universities. Over the past thirty years the raising of required entrance exam scores has provided an obstacle for college aspirants from poorer economic backgrounds that could not afford a tutor and who were therefore less competitive candidates. Currently, the lowering of the required test scores and the rapid growth of Venezuela's college age population has expanded what is already an overcrowded class size and overstretched academic resources.

As an expression of this resentment, opposition students in Merida attacked the UNEFA with rocks, breaking several windows, and burned a Venezuelan flag in front of the university when it received a funding increase in 2007. Similarly, when the oppositionist Henrique Capriles was sworn in as governor of Miranda state last November his supporters barricaded the entrance to Mission Sucre and Mission Ribas offices thus prohibiting students from attending classes, an episode which constitutes one incident in a string of opposition violence in late 2008 against pro-Chavez institutions, Cuban doctors and government workers. In addition, during confrontations opposition students often insult the Chavista students by calling them marginales, or marginals, which is meant to be a derogative term for poor people, as one student in Merida recently explained.

The Chavista Students' Response: Democratize the University

Pro-Chavez students have also taken to the streets so as to challenge the current university structure. On June 16^th students at the UBV held a mass march and discussed how to structure a more humanistic and socialist pedagogical system. They also called for students to have a say in administrative affairs by creating a system of "co-government" in the universities. Similarly, nearly 2,000 students, educators, and government workers, among others, marched in Merida in the end of June "in rejection of the student violence" and "to support peace."

Jose Luis, a student in the school of Social Work at the UBV in Merida, explains that in contrast to the old educational system the purpose of this recently created university, "is to create an Academy with integrity where the academic content is not merely the professor giving us instructions but rather where we [jointly design the curriculum]. This is a profound break with the old system of relations between the professor and the students." He adds that the aim is to create the "new socialist professional" and to promote ideals that emphasize "the collective well being."

Simon Adrade, the student representative for the Humanities Department at the ULA, says that the revolutionary student movement must retake the initiative from the right-wing students. "The student movement cannot merely be reactive," he says, "we must engage in social action, in cultural and economic action, [rather than] merely participating in the electoral [arena]." He adds that, "rather than awaiting directions [from Caracas] we must establish our own conception of the revolution [and] of the university."

At the Male Student Residence in Merida students are discussing the creation of a broad "anti-fascist front" to lead activities that will alert the populace about the dangers of opposition conspiracies and destabilization plans.

In the coming weeks it is obvious that something must be done to provide a measure of security. Until recently the antagonism between the universities and the government has prevented any joint security initiatives.

Finally, on Tuesday, June 22^nd top officials from the Ministry of the Interior, the Ministry of Education, the Office of University Planning and the UCV convened to create an Operational Security Committee. Following the meeting Acuña told the press that the state will guarantee safety in the area surrounding campus while it is the responsibility of the University to ensure internal security. "We want to guarantee that the Bolivarian Government is respectful of the University's autonomy and in no moment will it incur on university property nor on any other institution," said Acuña.[17]

At the beginning of July the National Assembly has initiated debates on the new education law. This coming month the government will likely conduct a nation-wide audit of university expenditures. Both issues have the potential to ignite new conflict.

 

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Notes

[1] Lorena Fereira. "Diálogo nulo entre ucevistas y Gobierno." Últimas Noticias. 21 May 2009. p 3.

[2] Eligio Rojas. "Amenazaron de muerte a un dirigente estudiantil." Últimas Noticias. 29 May 2009. P 29.

[3] "Ismael García denunció que el gobierno tiene plan para tomar las universidades." Pico Bolivar. 26 May 2009. p 5.

[4] "Se recalienta la UCV." Ultimas Noticias. 26 May 2009. p 26.

[5] Ibid.

[6] Ibid.

[7] Luis Fuenmayor Toro. "Los violentos." Últimas Noticias. 27 May 2009. p 52.

[8] Marco A. Ruiz. "Estado insiste en controlar ingreso a las universidades." 24 June 2009. p 2.

[9] According to Professor Ramón Alexander of the UCV, the Estado Docente posits that the state is the, "legitimate representative of the supreme interests of the nation" and that "education [is understood] as an essential part of the process of social assimilation and individual [formation] which is ruled by values and norms of social harmony." The state must therefore, "assume the direction of the educational process to ensure social development and the [survival] of its fundamental institutions."
Source: Alexander Uzcátegui, Ramón. "Algunos rasgos conceptúales e históricos para caracterizar Estado Docente en Venezuela." Memoria Educativa Venezolana. Online. Director: Ramón Alexander Uzcátegui. Accessed: 25 June 2009. < http://memoriaeducativa.pbworks.com/f/estadodocente.doc>.

[10] In Bolivar's famous Speech of Angostura, the constituent congress which aimed to reestablish the Venezuelan republic following the war of independence, Bolivar signals that in order to live in a republic the state must first form Republicans. For this reason the state must construct education as the basis for a modern society, "Morality and Enlightenment are the poles of the Republic, morality and enlightenment are our primary necessities," says Bolivar. According to Bolivar, to establish order and the supremacy of the law education is fundamental because it guides the formation of morality and the temperament required of its citizenry, says Professor Alexander Uzcátegui of the UCV.
Source: Alexander Uzcátegui, Ramón. "Algunos rasgos conceptúales e históricos para caracterizar Estado Docente en Venezuela." Memoria Educativa Venezolana. Online. Director: Ramón Alexander Uzcátegui. Accessed: 25 June 2009. < http://memoriaeducativa.pbworks.com/f/estadodocente.doc>.

The Estado Docente was also written into law by Venezuela's first democratic government in 1945. At the time of its passage this law provoked a fierce reaction from the Catholic Church which had an important stake in education through its religious high schools. The Church thus called upon its followers to rebel against the ruling, socialist Democratic Action party. The democratic government indeed fell just three years later to a military dictatorship in 1948.

[11] "Professores rechazan violencia en la UCV." Últimas Noticias. 24 June 2009. p 6.

[12] Carmona Rodriguez, Mirian. "Autonomía universitaria en Venezuela: siglo XIX." Procesos Históricos. Year 6, Nº 12. The University of the Andes, Merida, Venezuela. Online. Saber. Accessed: 25 June 2009. <https://www.saber.ula.ve/bitstream/123456789/23222/2/articulo4.pdf>.

[13] "Contra-golpe." Vanessa Davies. VTV. 9 pm. 17 June 2009.

[14] Ibid.

[15] See: "Legislators Present Evidence that Politicians Are Behind Venezuelan Student Protests." <http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/news/1767>  and for the role of U.S. PR firms see: "Who's Pulling the Strings Behind Venezuela's ‘Student Rebellion?'" <http://www.counterpunch.org/maher06092007.html >.

[16] James Suggett. "University Administrators and Students March, Debate Budget with Venezuelan Education Ministry." 21 May 2009. Online. Venezuelanalysis.com. <http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/news/4459>.

[17] "Gobierno y UCV trabajarán juntos para disminuir la violencia." Frontera. 23 June 2009. P 4A.