Chavismo’s Strengths in President Maduro’s Re-Election Campaign

By Marco Teruggi  –  July 24, 2024

Venezuela is on the countdown to next Sunday’s presidential elections. It is noticeable in the conversations, the questions about who to vote for, and the posters with the face of the current president and candidate, Nicolás Maduro, that are seen in the streets of Caracas, particularly in the 23 de Enero neighborhood, a historic bastion of Chavismo located in the west of the city, with its 56 colorful blocks and hills crowded with houses.

The neighborhood is quiet a few days before the election. On an avenue, there is a “Red Point” where people campaign for the president with flyers explaining “Maduro’s achievements” and murals with names of social organizations multiply. “There are many types of organizations, such as foundations, collectives, agroecological fronts, communal councils, communes, the United Socialist Party of Venezuela,” says Alexei Ramos, 36 years old, a political activist “all his life” from this area.

Not only is 23 de Enero one of the most Chavista neighborhoods, but also one of the most organized. Here, there is no visible sign of campaigning by opposition candidates, neither Edmundo González Urrutia, Maduro’s main opponent, nor any of the other eight candidates, such as Benjamín Rausseo, Javier Bertucci, or Enrique Márquez, who aspire to a third place on July 28.

“Maduro will win. The rest is a lie. Why? Because we are for peace. If the right wing wins, it will be a return to the past,” says Julio Garnique, member of the Casa de la Cultura, who joins the conversation at the foothills of one of the blocks from where you can see all of western Caracas and the Ávila mountain.

Opposition threat
Sunday’s election appears to be polarized between Maduro and González Urrutia, the 74-year-old candidate backed by María Corina Machado, one of the most extreme figures of the Venezuelan opposition. The presence of the far-right leader as the real leader of the opposition campaign and her predominant place in a hypothetical government presided by González, who promised her any position “she wants,” is one of the factors mobilizing people to vote for Maduro in 23 de Enero.

“We know that if the opposition wins, the persecution will be terrible, the persecution against political cadres, social leaders, those who are in front of the communes, those who are with the government and do work with the communities. We are, unfortunately, the target of these violent opponents,” says Ramos.

“They are going to take their revenge. The stateless right wing wants nothing to do with us,” adds Garnique. “This parish where we live is a combative parish that identifies with the revolutionary process. They are going to come after me because I think differently from the right wing.”

Urrutia’s promise of “a country of reconciliation and unity” does not convince many in this neighborhood “linked to the popular struggles since long before Hugo Chávez,” Ramos explains. His uncle, for example, a social movement organizer, was murdered by police forces in 1983, while his father was shot in the face. Memories also vote.

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“It all started with the food. It was the hardest time we went through, and that was quickly reflected in the context, the physical part that you could see in the people around you,” says Susana Pérez Betancourt, a resident of 23 de Enero and an audiovisual producer, referring to the economic crisis. “It was a strong impact. It is a psychological shock when you see someone who is chubby, a little overweight; it is customary to see him like that, and suddenly, overnight, you see him extremely thin.”

Betancourt remembers the hardest years of the crisis, particularly between 2015 and 2019, when the country was collapsing. Mass emigration began, and now, it is difficult to find someone in Venezuela who does not have a relative or friend abroad. “A great many people have a family member abroad,” Betancourt says.

The situation began to change in recent years. President Maduro announced that “in the first quarter of 2024 only, growth figures exceeded 7%,” and the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) forecasts a 4% growth this year. The macroeconomic data reflects reality: with greater monetary circulation, the appearance of home delivery service applications or cabs, new stores, and nationally produced food brands.

“There are organizations that produce pork, sell churros, hot dogs, salchipapas… things that were not part of our usual consumption have been introduced as a result of migration,” explains Ramos about the economic landscape in this Caracas neighborhood that, little by little, is recovering from the great crisis.

The electoral machinery
In addition to the Chavista identity, the fear of an opposition government, and economic improvements that may explain the Chavista vote on Sunday, another key factor is the PSUV and its “electoral machinery.”

“We are better organized than in all previous elections, both quantitatively and qualitatively,” explains Iris Varela, historical leader of Chavismo, former minister of Penitentiary Affairs, and current deputy in the National Assembly, in a conversation with Público. “We set a goal during these years of building our real base with activists and committed people, who we know are our sure votes.”

This electoral machinery comprises “the national leadership, the intermediate structures, which are the political teams of the states, the municipal and parish political teams, and the base structures, which are the heads of the UBCH [Hugo Chávez Battle Unit], community heads, and neighborhood leaders. We have a head of our base in each one of the streets of this country,” Varela explains. “There is no other party organized like this, nor has this number of people, nor this structure.”

The goal is for the party machinery and all the organizational structures of Chavismo to achieve a strong mobilization on election day. Confronting them are González Urrutia, Machado, and what many point out as the support of the United States, always a gravitating factor against Chavismo, both politically and through sanctions, which still weigh on the economy, although their effects have been alleviated.

 

(Público)

Translation: Orinoco Tribune

OT/SC/SF