Why Chavez commands popular support

[Judi Lynn]

Thursday, February 26, 2009
Why Chavez commands popular support
By Julie Webb-Pullman

OH! AH! Chavez is not going! The reasons for the expression above are obvious — the majority of the Venezuelan people support President Hugo Chavez! And not just him but also their socialist revolution — they understand that the deep transformations of the country’s social, economic, cultural, civil and political systems will take several decades to attain and consolidate, and that this requires a committed and capable head of state. In the last 10 years Chavez has proved himself to be both.

Most media concentrate their attention on Venezuela’s cities and industries, where both the gains, and the remaining needs, are most obvious.

Nationalisations, the myriad of new health centres, educational facilities, and social and cultural projects, on the one hand, and housing, sanitation, public security and environmental challenges, on the other, have all come under the media scope.

But Venezuela is more than just an urban "dream" or "nightmare" — depending on which media you are reading — and is far more diverse and complex than such limited observations allow, something which Chavez at least appreciates and which goes some way to explaining the depth and breadth of his support nationally.

Take San Martin de Turumbang, a small indigenous community of several hundred families on the riverbank of Venezuela’s border with Guyana, and four hours mostly four-wheel drive from the nearest city.

San Martin has a health clinic with one doctor, a school, and a spattering of small general stores serving the population composed of various indigenous groups with distinct cultures, languages and traditions.

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