Racism and religious diatribe in Foreign Minister Roy Chaderton's OAS speech
<a href=www.vheadline.com>Venezuela's Electronic News Posted: Tuesday, June 10, 2003 By: Gustavo Coronel
VHeadline.com commentarist Gustavo Coronel writes: As I was reading about the invasion of the Caracas headquarters of Petroleos de Venezuela by unemployed chavistas from eastern Venezuela, in furious demand of their share of the spoils, I was listening to the speech given by Roy Chaderton at the OAS meeting in Chile...
And I could not believe my ears.
In a very hesitant manner, reading from a text that seemed unknown to him up to that moment, Chaderton denounced the Venezuelan media as racist ... because they have no blacks in their TV programs or newspaper staffs. Although this is partially true, since blacks are in clear minority in those organizations, Chaderton was getting into hot waters by saying this.
Why? Because there are virtually no blacks in the staff of Chaderton's Foreign Ministry. And there are practically no blacks in the government TV station "Venezolana de Television."
The truth in all cases is that the mixture of racial shades in Venezuelan organizations reflect, very approximately, the percentages of those shades in the overall make up of our population. There is no conscious racial discrimination involved, although, again, there are distortions introduced by cultural and educational ingredients which are disappearing as time goes by.
The mere mentioning of this element by Chaderton as a sign of racism in the Venezuelan media is racist in itself. We have to remember that Chaderton spoke in hateful terms about the "blue-eyed and white" managers of PDVSA at the time of the April 11, 2002 events.
Racist expressions have been very rare in Venezuelan politics ... they have only been characteristic of the Chavez regime ... Chavez just said, a few days ago: "I am black and ugly but I am no communist."
The racial ingredient is ever-present in the speeches of the President, suggesting a strong inferiority complex ... this racial line of the President has been picked up by more cultured members of his staff, like Chaderton, except that it seems to be backfiring when used in international circles which know about the Venezuelan reality.
Venezuelan censa, since 1926, have never classified Venezuelans in terms of whites, 'mestizos' and/or blacks. A rough estimate indicates that mestizos make up some 70% of our population. They are of all shades, all coffee and milk, more coffee or more milk. Whites are about 20% of the total, while blacks, really blacks, make up no more than 10%. Native indians are very few, some 1%. The fact that we are a 'mestizo' country has allowed for very permeable social boundaries, much more so than most other Latin American countries like Peru, Bolivia, Argentina or Paraguay. The limitations to this fluid ethnic situation have traditionally been derived from the historical colonial social structure, in which creoles owned the land and blacks were slaves. This has slowly evolved into a more homogeneous and tolerant social structure.
Racism against whites is also racism ... this is what Chaderton is doing as part of the political strategy of the government. He does not do this out of conviction, as he does not mix with blacks. In the Chavez cabinet, the only blacks are Maria Urbaneja and Aristobulo Isturiz.
In a very mediocre cabinet of over 20 persons they represent less than 10% of the total and, I must say, they are as mediocre as the white or 'mestizo' members. More than color, therefore, mediocrity is the dominant characteristic of the government team.
Perhaps worse than the racial issue brought up by Chaderton was the religious issue. In Venezuela 75% of the population is Catholic, about 20% Protestant and 5% belong to other denominations or to none. There are some "adepts" of Maria Lionza, the sorceress, as well as some enthusiastic followers of Voodoo ... some at the highest levels of the government. There is a beautiful Muslim mosque and a very influential Jewish community lives side by side with Muslims. The Constitution allows total freedom of religion and ecumenical events frequently take place in total harmony.
- This is the reality of the country that Chaderton has badly misrepresented in Chile, blasting Christians as "very dangerous" people ... as criminals like Hitler and Stalin.
The objective of these highly artificial charges was no other than to reiterate Venezuela's alignment with the Muslim world ... not so much in a religious sense but in a political sense. Chaderton's whole deplorable speech was designed to irritate the US further, to insult Secretary of State Colin Powell ... Powell, a Black Christian, listened in a dispassionate manner, but will certainly not forget.
When I referred to the Chavez government team as resembling a lunatic asylum I was not trying to be disrespectful, but factual. Our memory of Felipe Perez and his religious admonitions is still fresh. The person in charge of the currency blockade quotes the prophet Malachi at every possible moment.
Military strongman Baduel claims to have had 5 lives before this one ... on national TV hookup, Chavez describes the voodoo maneuvers being attempted against him ... Chaderton keeps an autistic countenance except when he is being racist ... Minister Cabello sings continuously the theme song of the revolution while Isturiz and Urbaneja dance the merengue. Anybody would have reasons to worry about this bunch.
One feels like Casey Stengel, when managing the original New York Mets ... he kept asking: "Does anybody here knows how to play this game?"
Gustavo Coronel is the founder and president of Agrupacion Pro Calidad de Vida (The Pro-Quality of Life Alliance), a Caracas-based organization devoted to fighting corruption and the promotion of civic education in Latin America, primarily Venezuela. A member of the first board of directors (1975-1979) of Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA), following nationalization of Venezuela's oil industry, Coronel has worked in the oil industry for 28 years in the United States, Holland, Indonesia, Algiers and in Venezuela. He is a Distinguished alumnus of the University of Tulsa (USA) where he was a Trustee from 1987 to 1999. Coronel led the Hydrocarbons Division of the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB) in Washington DC for 5 years. The author of three books and many articles on Venezuela ("Curbing Corruption in Venezuela." Journal of Democracy, Vol. 7, No. 3, July, 1996, pp. 157-163), he is a fellow of Harvard University and a member of the Harvard faculty from 1981 to 1983. In 1998, he was presidential election campaign manager for Henrique Salas Romer and now lives in retirement on the Caribbean island of Margarita where he runs a leading Hotel-Resort. You may contact Gustavo Coronel at email gustavo@vheadline.com
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