Venezuela Elections 2006

Chavez Supporters

4 days to go.

Things are getting quite tense.

This Sunday, 3rd December 2006 (or 3D as locals are calling it), the national presidential elections of Venezuela will take place.

Manuel Rosales, backed by a coalition of opposition parties, is standing against current President Hugo Chavez.

Chavez's 5-year term has been one of contraversy - especially from an external viewpoint. His vocal opposition to the United States and rash comments about certain world leaders have made him political enemies. But he has strong ties across much of South America, and with countries such as Cuba and Iran.

He is a populist leader, with socialist and even communist parties standing behind him in Venezuela. Across South America, he has been leading a "socialist revolution", offering financial assistance to his allies and working to get them into positions of political power.

In Venezuela, he is leading a so-called "Bolivarian revolution", supposedly reminiscent of revolutions of the 1800s such as Simon Bolivar who gained the Bolivarian countries - Venezuela, Colombia and Ecuador - their freedom. The main manifestation of this seems to be Metro trains full of ridiculous posters of silly-looking people in colonial clothes.

Under his leadership, the benefit from inflated oil prices is supposedly going back to the people ("Ahora es de todos" - now is for all). And it does seem to be true to some extent. Over the last few years, infrastructure has been improved in Venezuela, and Social Initiatives (Misiones) are being run to help those in poverty and to stimulate education (apparently literacy is now 100%). The true success and value of these depends very much on who you talk to.

But the economy is a mess. Unemployment is high, forcing people to take on casual labour. Children are having to leave school to work. Extreme poverty is still increasing. Mixed enterprises and obscure laws are hindering the stability and growth of companies.

The majority of people I have spoken to (OK, mostly middle class students and business people) are opposed to Chavez because of what he is doing to the economy. They do not see a sustainable future for Venezuela under his leadership.

Manuel Rosales' slogan "Atrevete a Cambiar" roughly means "Dare to Change". He promises to build a Venezuela where everyone will benefit - not just those in poverty. He promises change.

But whether this will happen I don't know.

Chavez is giving a lot of people what they want. He is giving them hope. He is investing money now in those who need it most, which to those people seems great. But the question is, can it last? Well, the other question is, is it really helping?

One thing is without question: whichever way this election goes, there are going to be a large number of severely angry people. Political opinion is extremely polarised in Venezuela, and people are willing to fight for what they believe in.

From Rosales's side, there is talk of "defending your vote" and from Chavez's side of "not leaving without blood being shed".

This is rather scary.

A number of emergency laws are going to be in effect this weekend:

1. No alcohol may be purchased after 12 noon Saturday. Bars and clubs will be closed.
   
2. Any gathering in groups outside is forbidden.
   
3. The army have been given the order to kill should any trouble occur.
   

This is also rather scary.

The German embassy phoned my flat a few weeks ago to tell us to have 2-3 weeks of supplies (including water) stocked away as we might not be able to go to the shops. This week, they have set up an Emergency Centre at one of the Universities.

So, as I said, things are getting quite tense.

It's certainly an exciting time to be in Venezuela.

In my flat, we're planning to have a nice day watching all the excitement unfold on TV maybe with a few beers, surrounded by our boxes of emergency supplies. One things is for sure, I will be staying off the streets until everything is clear.

Let's just hope democracy is served and people trust in it and accept whatever the outcome without resorting to violence.

Look out for some more updates over the weekend...

A little too much adventure

October 14th 2006. 30 miles West of Caracas.

The road to Choroni

After one bus journey shut off from the world and forced to watch the cheesiest teenage chick-flick ever created (What a Girl Wants) and a second bus journey careering over about 2000ft of mountain on winding roads clearly not designed for a bus – but accompanied by a group of locals all to eager to share their 5 bottles of white rum with us – Andreas and I arrived at Choroni, a small colonial town a few hours west of Caracas.

This was a recon mission. The plan was to check out the nearby jungle in preparation for a 3-day hike two weeks afterwards.

It turned out to be a whole world of adventure that we weren’t at all prepared for.

Just add music

After dire warnings of dangerous snakes from locals and a steep trek through banana plantations and the long way up the side of a very steep mountain – especially with big packs and sweltering heat – we arrived at the top. On the way we’d seen all the abundance of insects and butterflies this country has to offer, but none of those monkeys we’d been promised.

We had about 3 hours before dark to head down the other side to find the town of Chuao, and its beach - supposedly one of the most beautiful and tranquil in Venezuela. Easy. There we planned to sit back with a couple beers and enjoy our accomplishment.

This never happened.

When Lonely Planet suggests “take a local guide” it really is a bit of advice worth listening too.

By about half an hour before sunset (which is 6 o’clock sharp) we were literally running down the mountain, stumbling through dry river beds and fighting our way through dense jungle. There was no sign of Chuao. We hadn’t seen a single person for about 3 hours – the last one being a local merrily hiking up the mountain path at an incredible rate considering his bare footedness.

The worst camp site ever
stumbled upon by man

The occasional tantalising glimpse through the trees still showed a mountain between us and the sea. It seemed almost futile. Then we lost the path. We were in an utterly horrible banana plantation. This was the stuff of nightmares. Waterlogged and full of horrible stinging plants that grasped at your ankles, and who knows what kind of terrible spiders and snakes. But it was getting dark now. We were tired, wet and desperate. We had no choice. We would have to camp here in this green hell.

Modern technology

It started with some comedy as we settled down in the tent to eat our pasta. Lack of forks meant we were using the covers of our mobile phones. But quickly paranoia started to set in. The more we talked about our situation, the more our fears escalated. Where were we? What should we do tomorrow? Where would we get more water? How would we find the path again? We came up with three options:

1. Chance it, just heading north – either straight through the jungle or along the dry river bed – until we find the beach (we had a compass at least)


2. Find our way back to the path and try and find a wrong turn that we surely must have taken


3. Head all the way back over the mountain, but with very little water.

None of them seemed like very good options. We were scared.

Somehow we got some sleep, and in the morning we managed to muster up some optimism and decided to attempt option 1 first of all. But it turned out we were trapped between two converging rivers, with thick thick jungle blocking our way. After one hour of “off-roading” it, we were back at our hellish camp site.

Back up the mountain. We now had just about 1.5L of slightly dubious water that we’d found in a tap near the plantation. It was very hot. It was very steep. We had a long way to go before we found our goal – the crazy old man living up there with some chickens, a pig, and a very strange grasp of the art of speech – but most importantly a fresh water tap.

We were desperately thirsty when one more moment of panic came upon us. We’d discovered a fork in the path that we hadn’t seen yesterday. Which way was it? If we took the wrong one where would we end up and where would we find water? Then Andreas spotted some banana trees in the distance. The old man had had banana trees. We headed that way, but it felt wrong.

Why hadn’t we take that guide that Lonely Planet had suggested? Why hadn’t we take more water from that tap? What had we got ourselves into?

A chicken!

Agua

We were there! The old man’s abode. There it was – fresh water gushing from the tap and glistening in the sun. We rushed towards it. We drank. I can hardly describe how good it felt. We were OK.

After some lunch and a long break, the rest was easy. Back over the mountain, a swim in the lovely cool river and to Choroni beach for such a well-deserved beer and some freshly fried fish.

I don’t think we would have been ready for a 3-day hike. I think we will listen to Lonely Planet in the future.

But what an adventure!