Slow Progress

A week and a half has now passed since my visit to Fundo Comun and things have moved frustratingly slowly. To revoke the mandates of all those currently holding elected positions in the council and start again cleanly we need to call a Citizen's Assembly, yet for this assembly to be legally binding more than 20% of the population over 15 to attend. This means that our immediate priority upon returning to the community was to find and update the demographic census of our community, only with this done can we know what number constitutes 20%.

While working as an election monitor I did a number of interviews with voters and members of the National Electoral Council. Quite by chance a man overheard me talking about the council project in La Independencia and told me that he had been a voice in the old one, and that he had the demographic census. Great news! So upon returning to the community Luis and I went straight to visit him, our enthusiasm still fresh. He was not in. Two more visits, two more knocks on the door, two more disappointed silences.

On the fourth visit, the neighbours' curiosity could wait no longer. They've watched us come and go, come and go with an intense interest that they've worked hard but fruitlessly not to betray. My gut does not like the neighbours but Luis seems oblivious to its preference and starts talking with them anyway.

"What are you doing here?"

"We're trying to re-activate the Community Council."

"Are you Chavistas?"

"...I am....with the process."

With that they abruptly say goodnight. Three nights later we are back knocking on the door, and back to the now familiar disappointed silence. The neighbour's door opens, we are invited in. The father is incredibly drunk, the daughter isn't. They talk loudly, though we are already listening. Conversational dynamics are tacitly laid down. The father says that the man we are trying to see is beyond Chavista, a class of leftist fanatic all unto himself. In this simple statement, and the feigned knowing acceptance on Luis's face we have been defined, we are "good Chavistas", mistaken rather than evil. This suits me fine for the moment, we just want a council.

The daughter introduces herself to us as the head of the financial organ of the council. This is interesting. Every leftist with whom we have spoken has talked bitterly of this young woman as a fierce member of the opposition and to blame for the failures of the council. Apparently the conflict started from two points. The first was when the PSUV members tried to use the council to stop the distribution of opposition political materials in the community. The second was when the creation of a MERCAL in the community was proposed.

MERCAL is a government mission which sells food with discounts of about 35%, it is chiefly aimed at ensuring nutrition for poor though it remains open to all. It currently provides food to about a quarter of the population, independent of its sister mission PDVAL[1]. This mission has been heavily, and often fairly criticised for corruption[2]. It has also been attacked for inducing food shortages, artificially lowered prices causing demand to outstrip supply. Yet most common in international journalistic and academic circles is the charge that it serves as an instance of transparent vote buying[3]. In my mind this last criticism simply misses the point because it overlooks questions of intent. Bolivarianism declares (and I believe rightly so) that food provision is a social concern and hence implies the provision of food to the poor at prices they can afford, whether this "buys" their support or not. When understood thus, to call MERCAL vote buying is to level the same charge at the NHS in the UK. The NHS provides free medical care from state revenues because of a moral concern for the health of all, is it not misleading to say this "buys" the support of the poor? We can perhaps say that this is its de facto effect, but I believe this demeans and degrades the relationship between all citizenries and their representatives to one of patrons and clients rather than exposing it to be such a relation. Regardless, the opposition needs to decide whether it is against the ethical proposition of MERCAL, if not then MERCAL wouldn't even "de facto act as a mode of vote buying" because its continuation (or replacement with alternative institutions such as conditional cash transfer schemes[4]) wouldn't be contingent on PSUV rule.

Anyway, in La Independencia the opposition members of the council declared it to be middle class neighbourhood and hence not in need of a MERCAL. At this point the conflict apparently turned personal, as individuals were singled out and attacked for their political affiliations. One woman told me how members of the opposition had gathered outside her apartment banging pots in a common form of Venezuelan protest known as cacerolazo and shouting anti socialist slogans. It is important to realise just how intimidating this is outside one's home.

Yet the story we get from these two people from the opposition is completely different. They claim that the real conflict in the council revolved around the issue of tenancy. Those who owned their apartments disputed the rights of those who rent to participate in the council, claiming they have a smaller stake in the community. I am sure there is some truth to this. It must be hard for owners to accept the vote of someone renting for a year as of equal worth to their own when their financial position is incredibly intertwined with the value of their property, something affected by community development projects.

We leave the apartment better informed, and, now, with contacts in both camps. The next night, much to my surprise my knocks are answered. The man, A, starts off by giving me his full account of the old council in an educational tone, I let him continue though I already know the details he gives me. He takes me on a tour of leftists in the community introducing me as a revolutionary, this gains me almost instant acceptance despite bad Spanish and far from Venezuelan looks. This is the first time I have been called a revolutionary by another person in earnest. Though this is interesting to my great irritation he doesn't have the census. I have spent a week and a half trying to contact this man because he told me he had the census.

The night is however far from wasted. One woman to whom he introduces me has a summary of each building's census data. This is fantastic! I don't think we need the full census, we can just adapt the summaries and register new families, waiting for the council in order to carry out the census properly. We should be able to work out the numbers we need for a legal assembly.

Luis sends me a text asking how the meeting went, I reply, "little by little progress comes".

[1] http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/news/3202

[2] http://www.redpills.org/?p=942

[3]  http://www.yale.edu/polisci/info/conferences/Venezuela/papers/DoesClientilismWork.pdf

[4] http://gulzar05.blogspot.com/2008/02/poverty-alleviation-models.html