The Conflict between State-led Revolution and Popular Militancy in Venezuela

In Merida, Venezuela socialist governing officials clashed last June with families that took over unproductive farm land. Throughout the month of June the government evicted and dismantled the ranchos, or makeshift homes, built by hundreds of migrating families on these privately owned lands. The lands which these families took over, located on the border of Merida and Zulia, are situated near a conflict ridden zone that has been known for paramilitary, narcotraffic and criminal activity. This zone also serves as an important corridor for commercial transport. This clash illustrates an apparent contradiction within the Chavez government's "participatory and protagonistic democracy" which calls on citizens to seize control over their communities and lives yet must also ensure political stability in strategic regions of the country.

The Chavez administration seeks to bolster citizen participation in various political arenas, and Presidential rhetoric provides an impetus to collective action. In 2005 President Chavez explained that, "Workers often demand a fair salary and other benefits, and they have the right to demand this. But the working class is obliged not just to demand its rights, but to constitute itself into a factor for the transformation of society" [1]. Chavez frequently declares that the Caracazo, the massive urban riot of 1989 in response to IMF austerity measures, was the "founding act" of the current Bolivarian Revolution. While such statements draw supporters to the streets they also create problems for governing officials.

Inherent within the Bolivarian Revolution is the conflict between working class activism and the rule of law in a constitutional democracy. This conflict will be explored by examining the land takeovers in Merida. It is also worth taking a step back and examining the scope of collective action in Venezuela. It will be seen that behind these collective actions there are long established traditions of political struggle. This government's challenge has been to unite Venezuela's diverse revolutionary currents and Leftists factions into a single political program.

The empirical data which exists on the range of collective actions shows that during the first ten years of Hugo Chavez's presidency there was an average of 1,314 street protests per year, ranging from road blockades to congregations of people to protest marches, more than 3 per day [2]. This does not take into account both legal and illegal strikes which also disrupt daily life. Many of these protest methods, such as the road blockade, although they have long been utilized by Venezuelans to express discontent, are nonetheless illegal. The protesters are frequently supporters of President Chavez yet the high level of popular mobilization can confound governmental attempts to provide orderly and institutional solutions to volatile political problems.

Venezuelans often address pressing social ills by utilizing militant protest methods. To cite just three examples of protest actions from the month of June: 1) On June 10th nearly 100 individuals invaded and took over the Tower of the Americas located in the center of Caracas to demand affordable housing, an event which recalled similar waves of building invasions in 2004 and 2006 [3]; 2) In Piñago, local families shut down the highway which connects Caracas to the neighboring cities of Urdaneta and Guaicaipuro on June 18th to express discontent over the tight rationing of drinking water in this sector [4]; 3) On June 23rd a group of patients in the General Hospital of the Tuy Valley, located about an hour's drive south of Caracas, left their hospital beds on wheelchairs, crutches and stretchers and blockaded the hospital entrance to protest the long wait for an operation [5]. One can encounter anecdotes like these in Venezuela on a daily basis.

Another recurring protest method is the autosecuestro ("self-kidnapping") whereby the family members of prisoners refuse to vacate a prison upon the conclusion of visiting hours. Last April 20^th, 184 family members of prisoners in nine different penitentiaries in the state of Bolivar initiated an eight day sit-in to demand the annulment of a law which dictates prison terms for repeat offenders and punishments for prisoners [6]. Prisoners themselves also engage in militant action. The Venezuelan human rights organization PROVEA cites 29 cases in 2008 in which prisoners have sewn their own mouths closed to protest their living conditions [7]. Finally, another frequently used protest method is the takeover of private or public land by families who are in need of a home.

A preliminary examination of the data on street protests suggests that many of these protests are conducted by individuals that belong to Venezuela's lower classes and who carry out these actions in their own local communities. According to the reports issued by PROVEA, between October of 2007 and September of 2008 there were a total of 1,763 street protests. Of this number 83 were violent in nature and 1,680 were peaceful. During this period the most common method of manifesting discontent was the road blockade which accounted for 749 out of the 1,763 street protests, or over forty percent. This also implies a high level of militancy since this method of protest is illegal and participants are therefore risking arrest. The road blockade violates Article 50 of Venezuela's constitution which guarantees the right to free and unimpeded transit for all Venezuelans within national territory. Of these 749 street blockades 53, or one in every 14, were repressed [8].

The high level of popular mobilization in Venezuela dates back to the 1980s. Statistics demonstrate that it was beginning with the collapse of Venezuela's political and institutional order in 1983 that Venezuelans dramatically stepped up their street actions [9]. Yet the roots of this mobilization may date even further back. Alejandro Velasco, a historian at New York University, studies political activism in Venezuela's largest urban housing development called 23 de Enero. He suggests that over a long period of time revolutionary groups based in lower class communities developed specific traditions of political struggle. He notes that these methods of collective struggle differ from one community to the next and that such differences contribute to current debates among revolutionaries.

"To be sure," says Velasco, "ideological differences among revolutionary factions [in and out of office] stem from the clash of competing visions over the shape of the future.  But these visions are forged in and against the backdrop of specific memories of the past, in the ways revolutionary factions remember their relationship with the ousted regime, and the strategies they deployed, at times over the course of decades, to usher in its downfall" [10]. Today, many protesters identify themselves as revolutionaries and they utilize protest methods developed and tested "over the course of decades" even though such actions are illegal and sometimes pit them against socialist officials.

Land Takeovers in Merida

Another common form of protest is land appropriation which is a long established tradition in Venezuela. Many of the barrios, or sprawling slums which ring Venezuela's major cities were built by migrant families who constructed entire neighborhoods. In Merida itself migrant families built the Ali Primera barrio in El Vigia which is named for the iconic Venezuelan folk singer. There have been at least 33 land takeovers in Merida so far this year [11]. The utilization of the land takeover as a protest method illustrates the difficulty of trying to channel the mass collective energy unleashed by the Bolivarian Revolution into the framework of government institutions.

The primary motivation of the land takeover is the lack of access to adequate housing or to parcels of farm land. The United Nations estimates that perhaps as many as 2 million Venezuelans live in inadequate housing conditions [12]. Universal access to housing and land are both legal rights protected by the Venezuelan constitution. Recognizing the need for collaboration between an active citizenry and the state in solving societal ills, Article 82 which guarantees the right to an "adequate, safe, comfortable and hygienic home" also posits that, "the progressive satisfaction of this right is the shared obligation between citizens and the state in all of their environments."

In Merida, Venezuelans who lack access to both housing and land took matters into their own hands. Beginning in early 2009 hundreds of families took over and built makeshift homes on unproductive, private land in the municipality of Alberto Adriani. In response, on June 15th the socialist Governor of Merida, Marcos Diaz, and the socialist mayor of Alberto Adriani, Roberto Ramos, initiated operation "Evacuation South of the Lake." The stated goal is to clear "invaders" from nearly half-a-dozen different zones in the municipality [13].

Municipal authorities claim they are planning to build a school house, a drug prevention office and a food distribution center on the occupied land. For her part, Omaira Hernández, one of the squatters, says that, "This isn't the first time we've invaded these lands," adding that even if they are cleared from the area, "we will return to take possession of these lands." She also notes that authorities first announced their intention to build new government facilities here years ago but that these plans never materialized [14].

Following the first evictions the municipal spokesperson, Arrieta Truco, asserted that the Municipal Chamber together with the Governor's office would apply drastic measures due to the failure to reach an accord with the occupying families. "We want to respect the laws and of course private property, having exhausted dialogue, and following the norms and directions laid out by the president of the Republic, Hugo Chavez" [15].

According to plan, on June 19th the evictions continued as authorities sent earth moving vehicles to dismantle 820 ranchos from the Chama Park and the La Forteleza farm in Alberto Adriani. At 2:30am, 290 police officers and 50 soldiers from the Armed Forces began the first evictions at the Chama Park. At the La Forteleza farm 200 National Guardsmen and 100 soldiers dismantled the squatter settlements. Authorities also conducted a census in the Chama Park and promised the squatters that this information would be used to provide them with homes [16].

"Inititally we tried to negotiate with the families," Diogenes Andrade, who was secretary general for the Governor's office from this past December to March, said during an interview in July. "Nonetheless, in certain areas the families refused to negotiate and for this reason the Government began the evictions in the presence of the Public Defender (Defensor del Pueblo) to ensure the protection of human rights."

Andrade, currently the director of infrastructure for Merida, distinguishes between several different kinds of invasions. In the first place there are invasions by people who are in need of a home and of land. Secondly, there are invasions that are induced by the political opposition, sometimes with the participation of Colombian paramilitaries with the purpose of destabilizing the Chavez government. Finally, there are the invasions which are a combination of the two.

"This zone, [where the land takeovers have occurred], besides being a zone of rapid transport, and of cattle production for Tachira, Merida and Trujillo, has been converted into a corridor where paramilitaries want to advance in the creation of a fortress so as to gain greater control over the half moon," said Andrade. The term ‘half moon' refers to the violent separatist movement led by elites and land holders last year in Bolivia's oil and gas-rich eastern provinces, which form a half moon shape. In Venezuela the "half moon" refers to the three border states controlled by opposition governors or mayors, Tachira, Merida and oil-rich Zulia.

In May of 2008 Zulia state legislators proposed a "feasibility study" for autonomy using the Bolivian efforts as a model. Last March the opposition governor of Tachira, Cesar Pérez Vivas, created a parallel state security force not answerable to Caracas with the participation of business groups and private security firms.

Andrade also worries that the land takeovers will heighten tensions between large land owners and peasants. "Don't think that the latifundistas (large estate owners) in this country are little angels," says Adrade. "In the Panamericana zone any person is worth 3,000 bolivars ($1,400)." Speaking in a telephone interview last June Alex Alayo, a leader of the National Peasant Front Ezequiel Zamora, affirmed that mercenaries hired by estate owners have murdered over 200 peasants since 2001. At least a dozen murders have been attributed to paramilitary death squads in the Merida-Zulia border region this year [17].

During the Chavez presidency land conflicts have intensified since 2001 when the Land Law established that land which is unproductive ("ocioso") can be nationalized and redistributed. Article 115 of Venezuela's 1999 constitution explains that, "The right to property is guaranteed," and that, "only for the cause of public utility or social interest, mediated by a firm sentence and a prompt payment of just indemnification, can any class of goods be expropriated." The Constitution also guarantees indemnity to the owners of expropriated goods.

The land takeovers in Merida are also condemned by Governor Marco Diaz who suggests that some of the invading families are acting in a dishonest manner. He asserts that the takeovers are the work of "professional invaders" who in fact currently own homes in different parts of Alberto Adriani. Ostensibly, they are merely attempting to acquire more land in an illegal manner [18]. Other representatives of the PSUV speaking at a local press conference assured that these squatters had sold their previous homes in neighboring states for as much as 12,000 bolivars ($5,580 dollars) before moving on to invade new land [19].

A confrontation ensued on June 15th when local police moved to clear 33 squatting families from the Las Rurales and Las Pernías sector of the Pulido Méndez parish of Alberto Adriani. Reportedly, the police fired shotguns of plastic shrapnel, an anti-riot weapon, while families threw Molotov cocktails at the officers, though it is unclear who initiated the violence [20].

On June 23rd, after another failed attempt to conduct a dialogue, Alicia Medina, a squatter, explained that during the electoral campaign Mayor Ramos had visited her home offering her a new living plan. For that reason she decided to stay so as to fight for a "dignified home," as is encouraged by President Chavez [21].

Meanwhile, the political opposition to President Chavez has leapt at the opportunity to decry the expulsions. Leonardo Carrero, president of the social Christian COPEI party in El Vigia categorized the evictions as "brutal" and as representing "capitalist trickery" [22]. On the other hand, Ramon Guevara of the Democratic Action party, one of only two opposition legislators in Merida's nine person state assembly, explained that, "The only thing left for us to do is to congratulate [the socialist officials]" and hope that their actions will reflect "the universal thinking of all of the legislators of [Chavismo]" and that "this action allows us to recognize that private property is untouchable" [23].

Conclusion

Government representatives finally came to an agreement with some of the families that took over land in El Vigia during a meeting on July 12^th. 302 of these squatting families formed committees and nominated spokespersons to meet with officials from the National Institute of Land (INTI). The spokespersons, wearing matching t-shirts of the governmental job training program Mission Che Guevara, expressed their desire to receive governmental support for the raising of crops and animals.

Guido Molina, a government official, explained that rather than distributing individual parcels of land the government's intention was to assist in the formation of "social organizations that are in charge of working the land in a social manner" [24]. Government officials cite "food security" as a reason for creating farmer cooperatives. Venezuela currently imports nearly 80 percent of the food which it consumes. The principal spokesperson for the occupying families, Elisa Quivera, bemoaned that not all of the families who participated in the government census conducted during the evictions would be eligible for state support [25].

The partial resolution of the land conflict in El Vigia demonstrates the socialist government's attempt to assuage the collective action of its own revolutionary supporters while also ensuring political stability. It also highlights the way in which criminal conspiracies are woven into the conflict between the Chavez government, rural peasants, and opposition forces.

The land takeovers in El Vigia are emblematic of the high level of collective mobilization in Venezuela. This mobilization is encouraged by governmental rhetoric. As a political strategy the Chavez government has often called for massive demonstrations of support so as to counter the efforts of the country's well-financed political opposition. Chavez himself may owe his political career to the slum dwellers of Caracas who surrounded the presidential palace and demanded the President's reinstatement after he was briefly kidnapped by military generals in the failed coup of 2002.

Yet governmental support for "participatory and protagonistic democracy" based on popular initiative is sometimes at odds with the desire to "advance within the Bolivarian revolution" through a process of "orderly development," as one socialist delegate in Merida put it [26]. The specific methods of political struggle developed in Venezuela's working class communities "over the course of decades" form an enduring legacy. Currently the utilization of long tested protest methods can hinder the achievement of strategic governmental goals even as the government calls on revolutionaries to seize control over their communities and lives. "Indeed," writes Steve Ellner, political science professor at the University of the East in Puerto La Cruz, "achieving distinct and not always compatible objectives is a formidable challenge for Venezuela's unchartered path to socialism" [27].

Special thanks to Professor Marco Antonio Ponce for his generous help.

Author's email is Zacharylown[at]gmail.com

Notes

[1] Wilpert, Gregory. Changing Venezuela by Taking Power, the History and Policies of the Chavez Government. NY: Verso 2007.

[2] Antonio Ponce, Marco. Chapter: "Derecho a la manifestación pacífica" in: Situacíon de los Derechos Humanos en Venezuela. Informe Annual Octubre 2007/Septiembre 2008. Programa Venezuelano de Educación-Acción en Derechos Humanos (Provea). Caracas, Venezuela. 2008.

Note: Provea monitors more than 50 regional news publications per day for reports on street protests. Its researchers also note the demands of the protesters, whether the protest is repressed, and other attributes. Wherever an individual case is in question the organization seeks corroborating sources. Inevitably, the numbers cited here with regards to instances of street protest will reflect a tendency rather than an exact figure.

[3] Mabel Sarmiento Garmendia. "Renace la zozobra en el centro por nuevas invasions." Últimas Noticias. 10 June 2009. p 2.

[4] Janet Queffelec/Dique. "Falta de agua sacó de quicio a familias de Piñango." Últimas Noticias. 18 June 2009. p 36.

[5] Janet Queffelec/Dique. "Pacientes de traumatología se hartaron de esperar quirófano." Últimas Noticias. 23 June 2009. p 32.

[6] "Reclusos acuerdan finalizar autosecuestro en 9 cárceles del país." Radio Nacional de Venezuela. 27 April 2009. Ministerio del Poder Popular para la Comunicación y la Información. Online. Accessed: 3 August 2009. <http://www.rnv.gov.ve/noticias/index.php?act=ST&f=19&t=96037>.

[7] Situacíon de los Derechos Humanos en Venezuela. Informe Annual Octubre 2007/Septiembre 2008. Programa Venezuelano de Educación-Acción en Derechos Humanos (Provea). Caracas, Venezuela. 2008. p 56.

[8] Antonio Ponce, Marco. Chapter: "Derecho a la manifestación pacífica" in: Situacíon de los Derechos Humanos en Venezuela. Informe Annual Octubre 2007/Septiembre 2008. Programa Venezuelano de Educación-Acción en Derechos Humanos (Provea). Caracas, Venezuela. 2008.

[9] Lopez-Maya, Margarita. "Venezuela after the Caracazo: Forms of Protest in a Deinstitutionalized Context." Bulletin of Latin American Research. April 2002, Vol. 21 Issue 2, p 199. UK. Blackwell Publishers. Online. EBSCO. Accessed: 3 August 2009) 

[10] Velasco, Alejandro. "‘We Are Still Rebels': The Challenge of Popular History in Bolivarian Venezuela."  In David Smilde and Daniel Hellinger, eds. Participation, Politics, and Culture in Venezuela's Bolivarian Democracy.  Durham: Duke University Press, forthcoming.

[11] Liliana González. "PSUV apoya deportación de colombianos invasores de El Vigía." Frontera. 26 June 2009. p 3A.

[12] Cubas, Raúl. "Derecho a la tierra." Chapter in: Situacíon de los Derechos Humanos en Venezuela. Informe Annual Octubre 2007/Septiembre 2008. Programa Venezuelano de Educación-Acción en Derechos Humanos (Provea). Caracas, Venezuela. 2008. p 214.

[13] Jorge Galvis Jr. "33 familias desalojadas en Los Pernías." Frontera. 17 June 2009. p 5C.

[14] Elaiiner Ríos. "Desalojados invasores de terreno ubicado en el sector Las Rurales." Pico Bolívar. 17 June 2009. p 27.

[15] Jorge Galvis Jr. "33 familias desalojadas en Los Pernías." Frontera. 17 June 2009. p 5C.

[16] Jorge Galvis Jr. "820 ranchos fueron desmantelados en desalojos." Frontera. 19 June 2009. p 5C.

[17] Paramilitary activity has also been sighted in the Merida-Zulia border region. On March 26th pamphlets containing death threats began circulating in this area. The pamphlets, some of which are signed by the Colombian paramilitary group the Black Eagles which engages in "social cleansing," threatened to kill "prostitutes, criminals and drug users" and anyone who is out past 10 pm.

Source: James Suggett. "Venezuelan Government: Separatist Opposition Uses Paramilitaries for Social Cleansing, Destabilization." Online. Venezuelanalysis.com. 15 June 2009. Accessed: 5 August 2009. < http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/news/4521>.

[18] Jorge Galvis Jr. "820 ranchos fueron desmantelados en desalojos." Frontera. 19 June 2009. p 5C.

[19] Elaiiner Ríos. "Miembros del PSUV en contra de invasiones originadas en el municipio." Frontera. 24 June 2009. p 27.

[20] Elaiiner Ríos. "Desalojados invasores de terreno ubicado en el sector Las Rurales." Pico Bolívar. 17 June 2009. p 27.

[21] Jorge Galvis Jr. "Invasores no dejarán tierras de la zona industrial." Frontera. 23 June 2009. p 5C.

[22] Jorge Galvis Jr. "Oficialistas impulsaron invasiones en Alberto Adriani." Frontera. 24 June 2009. p 5C.

[23] Rosa Elena Quiñónez B. "Somos y seguiremos siendo defensores de la proprieadad privada." Pico Bolivar. 29 June 2009. p 2.

[24] Jorge Galvis Jr. "Ocupantes ilegales no volverán a invadir La Forteleza." Frontera. 13 July 2009. p 6A.

[25] Ibid.

[26] Jorge Galvis Jr. "Psuvistas rechazaron ocupaciones de tierras de El Vigía." Frontera. 24 June 2009. p 5C.

[27] Ellner, Steve. "A New Model With Rough Edges: Venezuela's Community Councils." Online. NACLA Report on the Americas. Vol. 042, Issue 3. January/February 2009. Accessed: 5 August 2009. <https://nacla.org/node/5750>.