6 December 2006
Posted to the web 7 December 2006

Reason Wafawarova
Harare

THE predictable election victory by incumbent Venezuelan President, Hugo Chavez on December 3 must be viewed in its geo-political context.

It is a victory for the socialist revolution, a blow to imperialism and a slap in the face of neo-liberal capitalist market forces.

It is a victory for wealth redistribution between social classes; redistribution designed to better the lives of the poor and the vulnerable.

It is a blow to the super profits of multinational corporations such as Shell, Exxon and Mobil.

Above all, it is a blow to the US-led western influence coming at a time when the US is grappling with how best to evade continued humiliation in Iraq, and precursor arrangements for another pending defeat in Afghanistan.

But who is Hugo Chavez?

Hugo is the son of two Venezuelan school teachers who rose from his days as a little boy selling homemade sweets to fellow pupils to an 18-year-old young man who chose to join the Venezuelan Army in 1974 ahead of his family's wish that he pursue formal university education.

He was the 23-year-old soldier who in 1977, conspired with five colleagues in the army saying they were fighting an unjust and immoral cause as they hunted down guerrillas in the mountains of Venezuela.

This was the time when he came face to face with the writings and teachings of Simon Bolivar, the man who helped liberate Venezuela from Spanish rule.

Hugo was touched by the words, "Cursed is the soldier who turns his weapon against his own people" and he implored his colleagues to join him in taking an oath of repentance under a tree in 1982.

He is the same man who at 38 decided to seize power militarily from former President Perez on February 4 1992.

For his troubles, he earned himself a 26-month jail sentence through which he regarded himself as a prisoner of conscience, a prisoner with dignity and a prisoner with a vision.

He is the man who at 40 and coming from prison was asked a simple question by a group of journalists; "Commandante Chavez, now where are you going?"

His answer was equally simple.

He said, "To power."

He is the same man who then went on to form a civic political party with an alliance to the military in 1995 and decided to revive the legacy and doctrine of Simon Bolivar, naming his revolution the Bolivarian Revolution and christening all his supporters and followers as Bolivarians.

What is the Bolivarian Revolution and why is it so popular as to gather the 70 percent majority Chavez amassed on December 3?

This is a revolution based on the primacy of eradicating poverty ahead of worshipping the so-called market forces.

It is a revolution based on reversing the destruction of the IMF-imposed Structural Adjustment Programmes by making sure that the people of Venezuela do benefit from the exploitation of their resources, particularly their oil.

Chavez came in on the back of radical promises to thwart imperialism as he swept to power in December 1998.

He immediately followed his radical promises with sweeping changes like increasing corporate income tax from 30 percent to 50 percent, royalties from 1 percent to 33 percent and the national oil company's ownership share from 40 percent to 51 percent.

To show that he meant business, he kicked out Italian Oil Company, ENI together with France's Total for refusing to comply with the new changes.

The Venezuelan middle class and US initiated economists responded by inviting Washington for a showdown with Chavez.

Venezuela was isolated, farmers poured hundreds of thousands of milk into the rivers to create a shortage, slaughtering of cattle was stalled to create beef shortages and oil companies organised a critical fuel shortage in 2000.

Chavez sought assistance from Iran and Brazil's Lula as well as Cuba's Castro and he did not look back.

Neither did the neo-liberals in Venezuela's middle class look back.

They responded to Chavez's resolve by masterminding a national oil strike, which in essence was an employers lock out.

The strike lasted three long months and Chavez decided that he needed to be decisive with the neo-liberals controlling the national oil company, Ptroleus de Venezuela (PDVSA).

He took a bold move and fired 18 000 people in one day, mostly middle and top management.

Not only did he fire the neo-liberals, but he ensured that they would not return by blacklisting them so that they could never again set their imperialist feet in the oil sector at whatever point in life.

That move was applauded by the majority poor of Venezuela but it angered Washington so much that Condoleeza Rice then described Chavez as "a democratically-elected despot who rules in an illiberal way".

Much as Chavez triumphed over his internal enemies, so did the rise in determination among his enemies. They temporarily toppled him in a coup in April 2002 and installed a former business chief executive, Carmona for a good two days before Chavez was back at the helm by popular demand, much to the chagrin of Washington, whose ambassador had already gone airborne with his country's delight over the triumph of liberties, whatever he meant by that.

Chavez came back a reformed man, telling the Venezuelans that the passive, tolerant and elastic Chavez had died with the coup and he was back with no room for imperialism and its proponents.

He enlisted the services of Mexico, Bolivia, Cuba, Peru, Argentina, Brazil and much of Latin America as much as he enlisted Iraq, Libya, Iran and Nigeria as OPEC members in his fight for a New Latin America and viable oil prices.

He came to power in 1999 when the oil price was US$13,00 a barrel and saw the price rise to the current US$55 a barrel.

He has so far used the resultant billions of petrodollars to expand the education sector, the health sector, co-operatives and a viable government housing project.

The Oil Companies find it hard to leave given the billions of dollars sunk in their unfinished projects especially in the yet to be exploited Orinoco belt which rates as the largest Oil reserve ever.

With all this in his favour Chavez declared that he was not going to bother himself campaigning in the just ended December elections.

He said he was a man of big things and campaigning against his main opponent Rosale was simply not a big thing.

The result? A massive 70 percent majority win in a 62 percent voter turn out.

Chavez says in Rosale he defeated Washington and in Washington's defeat he defeated western imperialism. In his favour he celebrates the new life to socialism.

The western powers have based their hope on the death of Fidel Castro whom they believe to be Chavez's motivation and mentor and they have publicly wished that the Cuban Commandante dies soon.

Whichever way one looks at it Chavez's rise to power has pushed the CIA into overdrive and Washington is sneezing as Chavez has clinched a new deal with rising power China and ahs so far cut oil exports to the US by six percent, a figure too worrying for the Americans.

The man is in the driving seat and this is why he could afford to call George W. Bush the devil at the 61st UN General Assembly in New York this year.

Chavez has strongly influenced election results in Latin America since 1999. Many leftist politicians have gained a lot of ground and some of them have won elections in the region and it would appear like if Fidel Castro was to die, then he would die a happy man after predicting that Latin America would one day rise and fight US led neo-liberal policies.

What a way to exit a revolution; seeing your successor starting up so well just before your own eyes.

Chavez has advised the Venezuelan neo-liberals to go and join their colleagues from Cuba who are based in Miami where they shamelessly team up with the US to fight their own motherland.

Should someone tell our own neo-liberals and neo-cons in Zimbabwe to just go to Miami or maybe London and leave the Chavezis of Zimbabwe to empower the poor?

This writer thinks so.