Here is the view of a NYT reporter of what is going on.
December 23, 2002
Some in Venezuela Say Forget About Politics
By GINGER THOMPSON
CARACAS, Venezuela, Dec. 21, It's Day 20 of a national strike that has crippled a major producer of oil and has pushed Venezuela to the brink of social chaos. But at a salsa club called El Maní, it's Saturday night. The dance floor is full, and an unlikely pair of friends alternate heavy discussion with bursts of laughter at the bar.
Jorge Orlando Tesorero, 55, is the owner of the club. Like hundreds of thousands of people who support the strike, he would like to see President Hugo Chávez ousted from power. "This used to be a united country," he said. "Now we suffer constant cycles of conflict because his arrogance prohibits him from listening to the demands of the people."
His drinking buddy, Nestor Asdrubal Henríquez, is a local councilman from President Chávez's beleaguered political party. "The problem is not politics," Mr. Henríquez said, trying to raise his voice above the music. "What the opposition really wants is control of our oil."
Even though their views pit them on opposing sides of a political conflict that has torn Venezuelan society, they acknowledged they were weary warriors. So they agreed to put aside their political differences, at least as long as the band kept playing.
"Sometimes I worry that Venezuela is going to war with itself," Mr. Tesorero laughed, looking out from his bar stool toward the dance floor, glowing with strings of Christmas lights. "But then I come here at night and I see the people dancing. They are black and white. They are rich and poor. They are Chavistas and anti-Chavistas.
"This is a neutral zone," he said. "People are getting tired of fighting."
High-Profile Debate
The political storm that consumes this country continued to rage through the media over the weekend. Leaders of the opposition to President Chávez promised in newspaper headlines and televised news conferences to keep up the strike at the state-run oil company, cutting off the country's lifeblood and deepening international fears of oil shortages.
For his part, the president played down the effects of the strike and vowed to keep up his own fight. He used his weekly television address to portray himself as the nation's Santa, inviting children to sit on his lap, kissing them on the cheek and handing them dolls of the baby Jesus.
President Chávez, a former military officer who considers himself the leader of a social revolution, dismissed the masses of people who have filled the streets of the capital to demand his ouster as puppets to "a small group of coup leaders." He threatened to arrest oil managers who obstructed operations and promised a nation panicked by empty gas pumps and bare supermarket shelves that he would find ways to keep fuel and food flowing through the Christmas season.
Blame and Support
Angry words from government and opposition leaders in the media were echoed in the worries of many Venezuelans who were interviewed in the mile-long lines outside gas stations and banks.
In an impoverished neighborhood on the west side of the city, Julia Hernández, a mother of two, said she had gone three days without cooking fuel. On Saturday, she waited in line for three hours outside a neighborhood propane deposit. When she reached the counter, she was told the supply had run out.
Asked what she would do, she shrugged and smiled, then told her 11-year-old son, "I guess we'll have cheese and bread for dinner again.
"This is the sacrifice I have to make to support my president," she said. "The rich have betrayed this country, and they want to take him away."
At La Cita, a Spanish restaurant, Gustavo Vega, a furniture designer, gulped a tall glass of scotch after waiting in line 10 hours for gasoline.
"The shortages are his fault," Mr. Vega said of President Chávez. "The people want new elections, and he refuses to listen."
Moderates Also Heard From
Despite all the anger and partisanship, there are many Venezuelans ? ? construction workers and advertising executives, shopkeepers and homemakers, doctors and college students ? who are rejecting the highly charged outrage of their leaders in favor of more moderate positions, offering glimmers of hope for a peaceful, if not joyful, resolution to the crisis.
Business owners who are opposed to Mr. Chávez began opening restaurants and stores that had been shuttered at the start of the national strike, saying they hoped to restore some sense of normality to the Christmas season and recover from weeks of steep financial losses.
Tomás Kepets, director of the Medici Gallery, organized an exhibit on Saturday evening for the Venezuelan artist Enrico Armas.
"People with taste and money will always look for a way to enjoy them," he said. "They cannot live on politics alone."
Hours earlier, a group of government supporters urged President Chávez to pursue peace. Dozens of men and women stopped traffic on two lanes of a major freeway on Saturday morning to stage a soccer match, not a riot, against their political adversaries. The organizers of the game, which ended in a 1-1 tie, said they hoped to play their next match in front of Miraflores, the presidential compound.
"This game shows that political opponents can coexist," said Boris Zavarsi, a 23-year-old construction worker, standing on the sidelines of the soccer game. "I know there are people who are with Chávez. And there are people who are against Mr. Chávez. But most Venezuelans are people like me. And we want peace." |
