Support for Venezuela's Chavez Down but Alive
Tue May 13, 2003 12:10 PM ET By Patrick Markey
CARACAS, Venezuela (<a href=reuters.com>Reuters) - Dictator, thieving despot or madman in a red beret. Opponents of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez are never short of insults for the retired paratrooper turned populist South American leader.
But in the slums that ring the Venezuelan capital, people like Alicia Gil are more than willing to give him the benefit of the doubt.
"Before, I wouldn't bother with any political leader; they wouldn't do anything for you. But I'd defend this one tooth and nail," said the mother of six outside her government-financed home in the arid hillsides near Caracas.
Most recent opinion polls show support for Chavez has slipped to around 30 percent from a peak of nearly 80 percent soon after his first election victory four years ago. But even with diminished backing, he commands more support than any one leader from within the splintered opposition movement.
The question of how much support Chavez can muster could be key this year as opposition negotiators try to get the government to accept a referendum on his rule in an effort to end political strife in the world's No. 5 oil exporter.
Venezuela's economy is crippled by recession, unemployment has matched inflation's steady climb and political rancor over Chavez' rule remains as bitter as ever a year after the leftist leader survived a short-lived coup in April 2002.
But from residents of Gil's hardscrabble El Winche neighborhood to middle-class business owners, Chavez supporters say his greatest merit has been to recognize the needs of the impoverished majority. That sense of involvement keeps firm their belief in his promises for a better Venezuela.
Many are suffering in the economic downturn; some struggle even to define concrete gains from his policies. But they say they are still eager to back him at the ballot box.
A slight woman with long mousy hair, Gil said thanks to a government program she exchanged a shack for a three-bedroom house with white tiles and a state-financed mortgage.
"This is not about Chavez. It's about the process, the change," Gil said. "You have to give it a chance."
HARD CHANGES, FALLING SUPPORT
A retired army lieutenant colonel who once led a botched coup bid himself, Chavez came to power in a landslide election victory in 1998 on promises he would ease poverty and reverse the neglect and corruption of past governments.
He won that election by 57 percent, one of the highest majorities in Venezuela's recent history.
He pushed through reforms such as cheap credits, housing and land redistribution that he promised would help most of Venezuela's 24 million people who live in poverty despite the country's oil wealth. Chavez won re-election in 2000 with 59 percent of the vote.
Despite his loss of popularity, his core followers maintain their faith in him. In one pocket of middle-class Chavez support, about 300 residents gather weekly in an east Caracas theater to hear speeches that echo the president's rhetoric.
Political skits on a wooden stage draw howls of laughter and jeers at the mention of opposition leaders dismissed as inept remnants of past corrupt governments.
"This government tried to do something that had not been done before and that was take care of the biggest population here, the poor people," said Dimas Sanchez, a U.S.-educated businessman. "That implies a huge change, and change is hard to understand and hard to accept."
CONTESTED REVOLUTION, ECONOMIC CRISIS
Foes of Chavez say he has failed miserably to live up to his promises and instead has driven Venezuela to financial ruin and authoritarian rule.
They point to the sharp economic downturn and growing ranks of unemployed. They say the poor are poorer for Chavez' reforms, which they dismiss as cheap vote-buying tactics.
To be sure, most Venezuelans are worse off than they were four years ago. The economy shrank nearly 9 percent in 2002. A two-month opposition strike in December and January battered the economy further but failed to oust the president.
But Chavez has stepped up his populist rhetoric with relentlessly upbeat speeches about imminent recovery and defeat of the "elites" he blames for trying to scuttle his reforms.
His message is not lost in places like Los Mallaganes, a sprawling maze of poor homes west of the capital, where his supporters say Chavez remains the only politician to have connected with them.
"This government has paid attention to us," said Agustin Barrios, a 41-year-old unemployed contractor. "Before, a person from the 'barrio' wasn't worth the same as an oil worker."