There are times where one stops and wonders, for a brief second, if mainstream news corporations are even trying to present some remotely accurate news or at least operating with some lack of pre-meditated corporate interests. Then, there are times, like reading the deliberate and pointed demonization campaign against Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez (as well as Bolivian President Evo Morales), focusing in on the Venezuelan constitutional referendums and Chavez’s meetings with the FARC and Iranian president, that you realize you should just throw all those illusions out your 17th story window. (1) These days, it is impossible to ignore the mainstream (U.S. and international) media’s servitude of neoliberalism and imperialism in ripping apart Chavez, whose name is now being tossed around with the same weight as a Saddam or a Fidel Castro, to make him our latest bogey-man of anti-democracy, oppression and general “Third World” rabble rousing.
THE KING, THE SHUT UP, AND THAT DARN CHAVEZ
Here in Chile, I got a first hand view of all of this with the media coverage of the XVII Cumbre Iberamericano held November 9th to 11th, reporting rife with its gratuitous character assassinations of Chavez and hints of a Latin-America wide socialist conspiracy. The mainstream press both here and internationally centered in on the closing discussion of the “official” Cumbre (gathering) - which is a key economic and political meeting of top leaders from throughout Latin America, Portugal and Spain - on November 11th. Even though it was Spanish King Juan Carlos who broke all rules of diplomatic behavior by telling Venezualan President Hugo Chavez “que te calles” (i.e. you – impersonal - shut up) in the middle of Chavez’s debate with Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Zapatero, the press somehow found a way to make Chavez look, once again, like a crazy ranting dictator. Journalists could not help but peg Chavez’s discussions at the forum, which included, god forbid, pleads in support of water access for Bolivia and critiques of neoliberal leaders such as former Spanish PM Aznar, as further proof of his megalomania.
In total contrast to the mainstream media’s campaign, I had the privilege of seeing a completely different reality at the closing event for the Cumbre’s parallel social movement gathering (similar to the World Social Forum), the XVII Cumbre por la Amistad y Integracion de los Pueblos Iberoamericanos, held here in Santiago the same day. At this free and open closing event, I was finally allowed a chance to hear Chavez speak for himself, alongside Bolivian President Evo Morales two other Latin American leftist presidential figures, who took the time to speak to a (unfortunately small) crowd (2) of social movement leaders and general public.
No big surprise: I did not hear any hints of the angry dictator, the demagogue, the trampler of human rights and all-around baby-eater fabricated in the press. Instead, I heard a socially revolutionary and ideologically committed leader encourage further action towards collective economic equality (better known as socialism) in a coherent, accessible, and intelligent manner. Yes, he was animated and forceful, yes, he knew how to move the crowd, and yes, he was unflinching in his critique of capitalism. He even said revolution (gasp). But this charisma and commitment seemed far more the marks of a strong populist leader than the demagoguery and fascism it is so often spun as. And perhaps that is why the oligarchies in his country and the international neoliberal elites fear Chavez, Morales and the newest Latin American left leaders so much.
CHAVEZ: “EL UNICO CAMINO” AND THE VENEZUALAN MIRACLE
In a matter of an hour, Chavez bridged political economic analysis, rhetoric, friendly humor, and anecdote after anecdote to cover everything from the Venezualan economic and social successes, his upcoming reforms, the failures of the private sector and neoliberalism, to the need for cross-Latin America unification under “el unico camino”: socialism. Among others, he cited his creation of a fully functioning public transportation and public air travel system (Confederation Venezuela de Aviation), massive minimum wage increases (that includes an additional food allowance), the state’s planning for a 36 hour workweek, along with a brief recounting of Latin American resistance to imperialism from Bolivar forward. He even had time to indulge in some self-effacing jokes turning the racist “monkey” taunts national and international elites had turned on him and Bolivian President Evo Morales.
These distinct “facts on the ground” in Venezuala cemented Chavez as more than a talking head and into a leader with a concrete, evolving economic model geared towards equity and diverse public benefit. Chavez did not have to rely on the usual Marxist diatribes but could easily turn to the changes he has heralded and will continue to in his country, such as reigning in the majority of Venezualan petroleum revenue towards new schools, hospitals, technical universities, and other social investments to drop poverty by almost half, eliminate illiteracy and raise the income for the working and poorest classes by over 200%.
In a particularly emotional moment, which highlighted Chavez’s overall theme of Latin American and international unification in the face of neoliberalism, a cell phone call came from Cuban President Fidel Castro himself to Chavez, on the Cuban Vice President’s phone. (3) This bridged to the story Chavez had told earlier in his talk, where Castro put in an critical phone call to Chavez during the attempted coup in Venezuela. Castro, where he pleaded for Chavez to keep fighting imperialism to the death in the same way Salvador Allende did. In this less dramatic call, Chavez instead repeated the words of the ailing Cuban leader to the crowd, who thanked Chileans for their support of the movements in Nicaragua, Cuba, and throughout Latin America and urged the continued struggle to socialism.
YES, ANOTHER TERRORIST: EVO MORALES AND "LA LUCHA POR LA IGUALIDAD"
Bolivian President Evo Morales, who followed Chavez, has received his own share of slandering by the neoliberal press and oligarchy in his own country and internationally, some of which, he noted, has gone so far as to call him a “narco-terrorist” and the “Bin Laden Andino.” It was even less imaginable to see this calm, collected, and passionate leader in this light and even more impossible not to be compelled by his developing model of socialism and equitable economics.
Morales calmly recounted statistics regarding plummeting poverty and the results of the steady nationalization of natural gas resources and reclaiming of Bolivia’s natural resources, as well as sketched more of his own plans for public transport, education and poverty elimination in Bolivia. Morales did not miss his opportunity to shut down his critics issue-by issue, including silencing the allegations against him as cheap post 9-11 scare tactics, and reaffirm the Bolivian people’s commitment to protect and advance their young revolutionary state against any imperialist aggression.
Morales – by far, the least career politician - also made perfectly clear his roots out of social movements in Bolivia and reaffirmed the importance of these groups in leading the move towards socialism, especially in defining a form of government appropriate for each country. He and Chavez both made perfectly clear the role of diverse groups – not just either labor or campesinos as it had been in the 60’s and 70’s - in the struggle for socialism and in defining the economic path for each nation, moving far beyond the older, static communist ideology of the 20th Century.
CUBA, NICARAGUA AND A WORD FROM THE OLDER GUARD
The energy and enthusiasm for Chavez and Morales’ talks were built up by the preceding speeches from Cuban Vice President Ricardo Lagre and Nicaraguan President and Sandinista leader Daniel Ortega. (4) Lagre brought forward a clear, concise message: Cuba has made socialism happen, Cuba has survived the U.S. brutal embargo, and the people of Cuba will not simply embrace capitalism once Fidel passes on. Refreshingly, he made no attempt to tone down his anger at the recently re-strengthened U.S. sanctions, which was condemned by even the most centrist leaders during the “official” Cumbre the days prior (of course, virtually unmentioned in the U.S. media).
Recently-elected Nicaraguan president and Sandinista party leader Daniel Ortega’s speech centered less on particular reforms and more towards reciting histories of the U.S. aggression in Nicaragua, Cuba, and throughout Latin America, turning frequently to some tried-but-true rhetoric. You could tell, though, the excitement he brought forward in the older activists in the crowd, who had watched and aided the Sandinistas’ bitter fight for survival, as he thanked the Chileans who had come to Nicaragua during the 1980’s to support the movement. His short time in office thus far might have contributed to the fact he had less to say in respect to his current plan for Nicaragua – which has been fairly silent in the media as well – or perhaps he just knew his audience.
By the end of the event, the passion and concrete successes and plans of these leaders turned upside down my expectations (based on the standard U.S. and Chilean activist rallies) of the entire event. Instead of yet another rally full of anti-Bush, pro-“pueblo” speeches and vague calls for revolution, these four figures offered a palpable view into the radical social change sweeping Latin America and perhaps soon, worldwide. (5) After standing mere meters (6) away from these Presidents, the caricatures of Chavez and Morales created by the mainstream international presses were almost laughable in the face of their words and more importantly, in the face of the critical new economic models and social movements backing these leaders.
The real importance of these two conferences in Santiago – and the real reason Spain’s King could not stop himself from literally trying to shut Chavez up – is that they were clear signifiers that times had changed. As Chavez noted, the days are gone where these regional conferences would be a puppet show in the service of the neoliberal consensus and U.S. interests. Suddenly, the social movements and groups that the bourgeoisie hoped would be appeased by mediocre liberal reforms are taking charge of their own broader revolution. Suddenly, concrete but flexible socialist economic models are answering to the will(s) of the majority of its peoples. Suddenly, the tools of democratic elections are being used to dismantle the master’s house. And suddenly, it’s easy to see that it will take more than an ill-conceived defamatory media campaign to turn back the radical changes in economics and politics sweeping – and holding fast – across Latin America.
Footnotes, of sorts:
(1) Just reading Newsweek’s November 19th issue the other day, for example, you could see several casual jabs at Chavez’s governance, all without an actual article on Venezuela. Not so mention the “Ahmenijad and Chavez team up against America” articles all over the press last week…
(2) Unsurprisingly, none of the anti-Chavez opposition who had protested his arrival at the Venezuelan Embassy in Santiago showed up to even hear what he had to say.
(3) Unfortunately, the crowd could not hear Castro because, after a few entertaining minutes of watching the numerous community leaders onstage struggle with the cellphone, they realized the phone itself didn’t have speakerphone. (Yeah, how many leftist revolutionaries does it take to get a cellphone…)
(4) I’m not exactly sure what happened with Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa, the newest socialist-leaning (or “Christian left,” as Correa refers to himself), anti-neoliberal leader to emerge out of recent Latin American elections. He was announced as participating and even referred to by the emcee but never actually spoke or was referred to after that. Too bad, because it seems like he has some interesting ideas of his own…
(5) And to top it all off, there was no one selling punk patches, Che T-shirts, indigenous items or revolutionary books on the premises.
(6) Yes, we have embraced the metric system.
