WASHINGTON, D.C.-The free world was jubilant last December when Venezuela President Hugo Chavez suffered an electoral rejection of his referendum to amend the Venezuela constitution.
By the most narrow of margins—51 to 49 percent—the voters turned down a proposal that would have allowed Chavez to run for president indefinitely, terminate Venezuela's central bank's autonomy, and cut the work week.
Little is known in the U.S. about the student movement or its leaders who were responsible for Chavez' defeat. Political opposition that predates Chavez had been a different sort, e.g., opposition political parties.
By the students leading hundreds of thousands in non-violent marches, a new force emerged in the country that not only opposes the direction that Chavez and his supporters are taking the country, but also seeks to rebuild the country psychologically from the bottom up.
It is being argued by some that the students saved the country, at least for the moment, from dictatorship and the transforming of Venezuela into a communist/socialist state.
To better acquaint the public with the student movement, the Cato Institute held a Policy Forum on March 12, on the "Venezuelan Student Movement for Liberty." The forum featured three Venezuelans involved with the struggle against the Hugo Chavez government. These included student leader Yon Goicoechea, author and human rights activist Gustavo Tovar, and author, former government official Gerver Torres.
Each speaker offered his personal perspective of the Venezuelan student movement and the meaning of the 'No' vote for the referendum that voted against eliminating of the president's term limits.
"…Venezuelans rejected through the referendum, constitutional changes…that would have turned their country into a socialist state," said Ian Vasquez, who moderated the forum, and is director of Cato's Center for Global Liberty and Prosperity. "The students played a key role in public and behind the scenes to assure the public that there is a viable future for democracy in that country."
Unlike the typical forum at Washington's myriad of think tanks, this discussion was filled with passion, hope and visions of a new society, in this case, of Venezuela, (and by extension, Latin America), where the alleged posturing and fraud of a Chavez is replaced by "democracy, human rights, and opportunity," to use the words of the moderator.
The non-violence of Martin Luther King was invoked as well, and seems to indicate that the students want to avoid riots and fighting. It is not a political movement in the traditional sense, but rather a searching for a dialogue among the Venezuelan people to decide their future in an open way.
Leading the student movement is a young law student of 23 years, Yon Goicoechea, who is head of the National Student Parliament. He said Chavez' closure of the popular TV station in May 2007 was the incident that galvanized the students. Radio Caracas TV (RCTV) had been broadcasting for 53 years, and was the oldest and most popular station, according to a CNN report (May 27).
RCTV had long been an outlet of opposition parties, and President Chavez did not like the station, accusing it of supporting the failed 2002 coup against him, according to CNN.
Goicoechea explained that he and his fellow students "instinctively" went to the streets to oppose the closure because they perceived that this closure was putting Venezuela on the road to totalitarianism. The referendum was perceived in the same light. There were 45 public demonstrations, where thousands of students in Caracas, and simultaneously in cities throughout the country, marched in protest.
Goicochea said they did not have a plan to defeat Chavez and impose some other government. He said that the student movement does not have a political ideology, i.e., Left or Right, and that democracy has no ideology. He said he was a "Liberal," but that was incidental. More important, he said, is his "right to be different."
Being only 23 years old, Goicoechea stressed that he did not feel he needed to be tied to the past. He said he respected Hugo Chavez, but in a democracy all sides should be welcome. He spoke of the need in the country for Venezuelans to agree on common values, a theme that was mentioned often at the forum.
Older than Goicoechea and more philosophical, Gustavo Tovar sought to explain the principles that underlie the student protest. He wrote the book that tells the story of their movement and their vision— Students for Liberty (translation from the Spanish title).
"In order to change politics, we have to change the language," said Tovar quoting from a poem by 1990 Nobel Prize winner Octavio Paz. He explained, "We couldn't talk to each other." The "very deep problem of social exclusion" needs to be addressed, he said. There needs to be agreement on common values and human rights for the dialog to take place.
Formerly at a university, when Tovar lectured young people, he observed that he was "very boring" to them. So, then he began the journey of self-examination. By this he seems to mean actively listening to others you disagree with, respecting that person, upholding human rights, and resisting the temptation to become violent.
"Being against terrorism or being in the opposition in Venezuela doesn't make you a democrat," he said. The main problem in Venezuela is not to throw [Hugo] Chavez out, but to rebuild the country, exemplify our values and not respond to violence, he said.
The social malaise of Venezuelan life stems from public attitudes about the source of the poverty. Chavez came to the presidency with "ideas shared by millions of Venezuelans, who strongly believe that Venezuela is a very rich country and that poverty exists only because oil wealth has remained in the hands of the few," writes Gustavo Coronel for the Cato Institute.
The attitude that wealth is acquired through redistribution rather than through work is a fundamental weakness in their social system, which although didn't originate with Chavez, he has been able to exploit it.
The "curse" of oil revenue has lead to a great expansion of corruption in Venezuela under Chavez, according to Coronel and the three speakers.
"Populist political leaders willing to promote a welfare state in order to consolidate their political positions…" has been a major factor in the dialogue that Tovar is referring to, and this corruption predates Chavez, whose call for its elimination probably more than anything else catapulted him into power. But under Chavez, corruption has become more "democratic," from a few in the top realms of the government to its expansion to lower levels.
"Corruption now permeates all levels of Venezuelan society" and "…ordinary citizens must pay bribes to accomplish bureaucratic transactions and have to suffer rampant neglect of basic government services," writes Coronel. Officials can enrich themselves and the government doesn't take action.
The third speaker, Gerver Torres, a senior scientist with Gallup, discussed the public opinion and politics in Venezuela and Latin America from a more theoretical standpoint. Torres, a consultant to the World Bank and the IMF, was government finance official in pre-Chavez days. Torres said that Gallup surveys in Latin America show the Venezuelan population believes itself as being victimized by foreign interests. When asked whether other countries were taking advantage of their natural resources, 80 percent said 'Yes' and only 12 percent said 'No,' said Torres.
Additionally, Torres reported that a majority (54%) believes that their country is heading towards socialism, while only 18 percent believe the country is heading towards more capitalism.
The Chavez government, of course, nurtures this attitude and the other attitudes about pernicious foreign interests and the redistribution of oil wealth. It is little wonder then that the Venezuelan student movement, with leadership like Goicoechea, Tovar and Torres, have sought to call into question some of these basic attitudes held in the country, and are striving to found Venezuela on new principles.
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