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In order to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the death of Hugo Chávez, Chavismo organized the “Global Meeting on the Validity of Bolivarian Ideas of Commander Chávez in the 21st Century.” The 3-day meeting, held in the Teatro cultural complex Theresa Carréño in Caracas, summoned people from the upper echelon, such as Nicolás Maduro, Diosdado Cabello, Vladimir Padrino López, Héctor Rodríguez, Tania Díaz and Ernesto Villegas, as well as some left intellectuals such as American Claudia de la Cruz, Brazilian Alberto Almeida and Mexican Fernando Buen Abad , who hailed the Bolivian revolution as “anti-imperialist, humanitarian and socialist”.
Former presidents, presidents and prime ministers such as Rafael Correa, Evo Morales, Manuel Zelaya, Raul Castro, roosevelt skerritt (Dominica), the current President of Bolivia Luis Arce, Ralph Gonsalves (Saint Vicente and the Grenadines) in Caracas, and other figures of the Latin American left such as Presidents Gustavo Petro, Alberto Fernandez, Gabriel Boric and Lula did not show, perhaps they revealed the political divisions between the representatives of the pink progressive. the tide or insignificance of this event.
The commemoration tried to create the illusion that “Chavismo continues to exist without him.” But, is it the same chavismo?
Inside the doors of Teresa Carreño people sang “uh ah Chavez no se va” and the song “Chávez Corazón del pueblo”, but outside, Venezuela is going in a different direction. There is a significant divide between what Chavistas think (or say!) is Chávez’s legacy, and what it really is. Although it should not surprise them that his speech and his socialist policies turned into capitalism, as usually happens. Chavista orthodox ideas seem to be against the current dollarization of the economy, the creation of Special Economic Zones, the loosening of price controls and casinos.
An important part of chavismo strongly criticizes Maduro for the economic failures (highly overseeing Chávez’s own hand in it), as anyone can see just by navigating. bludgeon. Once a popular platform for chavistas to exchange and publish political articles, today it is a reflection of what it was and is not able to gather more than the last circles of hardliners within the movement, until it did the ministry often censored them. of telecommunications.
Rafael Ramirez, president of PDVSA for 10 years about Chavez (the same man who dismantled PDVSA’s workforce and is suspected of making millions of dollars from the company), wrote in Aporrea on March 5th “Chavez is no longer here, and every day Madurismo is buried, he disappears and is abandoned, softening his strong revolutionary content, pretending to turn him into a cartoon … If we did an exercise of imagination and Chavez was in our among today, he would certainly take the whip to clear the merchants from the temple.“ Of course he would go on to compare Chávez to Jesus.
another columnist who said “Commander Chavez had only limited iconic dates, to call an empty and hypocritical slogan in his name.” another wrote: “Maduro knew how to deceive Chavez and himself he shot himself on the soul of the people. He killed Chavez and betrayed the Venezuelan people.” Yes, Maduro “cheated” Chávez.
The anniversary of the death of the caudillo shows the ideological contradictions of chavismo, but mainly that the movement was willing to dismiss its own ideology in favor of keeping power. But, was there ever an ideology? Like a devious chameleon, the regime uses all kinds of narratives (left/right, liberal/conservative or any combination of these) as long as they are useful to cling to power. That’s why even if they identify as hard socialists they salute ultra conservative Christian groups. That is why the government continues to refer to Chávez as a messianic figure while removing the iconography of the Messiah from the streets.
They may be tearing the essence of the movement peu to peubut for a while it’s about preserving power, whatever it takes, even ending the revolution as we knew it.