Iceman
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Unless you have a very compelling reason for moving to Venezuela, I would suggest that you reconsider your options.
I am a foreigner living in Venezuela for the past 15 years. I am not an embassy or oil company worker, just a regular guy with a small business, a family and all the usual day-to-day stuff that Venezuelans live through. I love Venezuela. My family is Venezuelan. I pay taxes in Venezuela and create employment here, too.
It's not true that Chávez has damaged the economy. Venezuela is awash with money, thanks to the price of oil. The economy is not the problem. I need to tell you a longer story to highlight what really IS the problem, and why you should reconsider.
The problem is that the country has been socially mismanaged since oil was discovered back in the 60's. A small, educated, privileged percentage of the population, many of them politicians, laid claim to all the wealth that was created, and little money was reinvested in education, housing, infrastructure, health, and so on. The privileged few made unbelievable fortunes, much of which was shipped out of the country.
The poor and uneducated got a very small bite of the cherry, but even that small amount was better than they were used to, so superficially at least, they made some progress. Economic immigrants from other poor Latin countries flooded in to try to get some of the new-found wealth. Great shanty towns - the barrios - grew up, with homes made of wood, cardboard and waste materials, and soon the populations of these enclaves outnumbered the wealthy few by 20 to 1.
Social resentment simmered under the surface, as the poor began to realize that they were getting the rough end of the stick. The resentment was held at bay by handouts and jackboots, and the barrios turned into a pressure-cooker just waiting to explode.
Things continued like this for a decade or two, and then Chávez came along and took the lid off the pressure-cooker. Social resentment exploded violently onto the streets, and suddenly the minority elite began to fear for their lives, their families, their businesses and their wealth. Overnight the tables were turned. Thousands left the country with their money and belongings.
On the surface, you might think that this is only justice after so many years of abuse by the rich. And perhaps it might have been, if Chávez had worked to reconcile both rich and poor to work together for the benefit of everyone. But he did not. Instead he cynically used the social resentment as a tool, and manipulated the poor into believing that they had a right to own and control everything - through him - while omitting to tell them that rights have a price. Responsibilities.
He turned industrialists, landowners and business-owners into the "enemy of the poor", and instead of dissipating the social resentment, he stoked the fires and built an army of vengeful followers, ready to strike at his command.
The country´s industrial base has all but collapsed, but he is afloat on a sea of oil money, and could not care less. He and his closest followers manipulate the poor - and getting poorer - into perpetuating the class war. And since their original targets have all fled the country or gone to ground, Chávez is redirecting the social resentment at Capitalism in general, and George Bush in particular. Now they are exporting the class war to other countries, too.
What comes next? Here's my guess.
Chávez needs a fight in order to maintain and control the class war myth. A real shooting war, rather than the verbal war he wages daily. I don't think he is much bothered whether the fight is on home ground or overseas - Bolivia for example - as long as it allows him to impose martial law on the general population and maintain total control, thus protecting his own position.
I think he is actively looking for that fight right now. The upcoming November elections will be a turning point. If his "chosen men" fail to control the results in his favour, he will need to find, or manufacture, some kind of crisis that requires military intervention, and then things will become nasty.
But even if the results ARE favourable to him, his following of non-militant, everyday folk, is dwindling as they witness the corrupt "party followers" getting richer while they themselves remain poor. Social resentment of another kind is beginning to bubble under the surface.
If oil prices were to fall, and the handouts came to an end, the government's ability to buy consciences would be lost and that resentment would become violent protest. Again the jackboots would be on the streets to control the population.
I believe that Venezuela is a civil war just waiting to happen. You might want to bear that in mind when you make your choices.
No doubt some "party follower" will tell you that I'm a Capitalist, Imperialist, Bush-loving oppressor of the masses, paid by "The American Empire" to undermine the revolution.
What else could they say? In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man gets put to death.
The choice is yours. Good luck. |
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