I stood, wearing a black tank top and khaki pants, in a seething crowd of red.
I had just a week and a half left in Venezuela, and I wanted to see Hugo Chavez. In person. It’s not that I was star-struck by any means, but I can’t deny the draw of a man who arguably commands more news attention than any other current world leader.
Since his election in 1998, Chavez has masterminded a country-wide polarization that is quickly coming to a head. In just the five and a half weeks while I was in Venezuela, it became increasingly impossible to avoid signs of “¡Ahore, si!” — the message to, drone-like, accept the constitutional reforms set for a Dec. 2 vote.
The proposed reforms came so fast that few Venezuelans knew how they would actually affect their country. In this Caribbean nation, where life is experienced on front stoops, in line for a chicken-stuffed arepa, drinking bottles of frosty Polar Ice beer on street corners, rumors abound on both sides of the issue.
Pregnant women are scrambling for foreign visas because, according to coffee shop talk, children born in Venezuela will no longer be able to leave the country until the age of 20.
No vacations, no school trips, nothing.
That’s a rumor, but here’s a fact: Venezuelan birth certificates state that children born here are under the care of the Venezuelan government.
That’s not a problem for Ana Gonzalez, who has an eight-year-old son. Every day after school, Gonzalez drops him off at the downtown Caracas headquarters of PDVSA, the state-owned oil company behind Citgo in the U.S. At PDVSA, Gonzalez’s son receives psychology sessions and karate classes.
Besides, Gonzalez has a rumor of her own: “If you say something against President Bush in the United States, you go to jail! It’s not like that here,” she said.
I asked her how she knew that was true.
“Chavez said so.”
Rumor: In the near future, all Venezuelans will be required to bear arms to protect the country in case of an imperialist invasion.
Fact: Hundreds of schoolchildren flooded the main avenue in Barcelona, a city east of Caracas, on a recent Saturday morning to practice military-style marching, with salutes and goosesteps I’ve only seen before in movies about Axis forces during World War II.
Rumor: Telephone lines and computers of “imperialists” (North Americans living in Venezuela) and other potential dissidents are tapped.
Fact: North Americans I met use Skype to speak with loved ones abroad about the political situation in Venezuela, because it’s apparently difficult to tap.
Rumor: Chavez plants some of his own supporters in opposition marches to induce violence so the police and National Guard have a reason to attack the students.
Fact: Masked gunmen met opposition students after another march when they returned to their university. Eight students were injured that day. Another student was shot dead in northwestern Venezuela when an anonymous gunman drove by an opposition march.
Rumor: Chavez has invited Iranian mujahadeen to “train” Venezuela’s indigenous people to fight for their land.
Fact: “The U.S. empire is crumbling,” said Nicia Maldonado, Venezuela’s Minister of Indigenous People. “Our ally is Iran, and we are the countries who will be the future.”
I was repeatedly warned to avoid downtown Caracas and other Chavista strongholds because my appearance is so obviously North American. Several times, when I was in a downtown area, Venezuelans approached me and said I should leave for a safer neighborhood. One pastor, born to U.S. parents in Venezuela and who has lived in Venezuela his entire life, told me there are neighborhoods where he can no longer venture because he looks North American.
On that recent Sunday morning, thousands of buses from around the country brought Chavistas to Caracas to honor their leader. Avenida Bolivar, a major thoroughfare, was closed for the occasion. The usual rickety, overcrowded buses and posh European sedans with leather interiors were replaced by a stage that would soon hold Chavez himself.
To the chagrin of the military reservists charged with protecting their president, I lifted myself up onto the fence separating the people from the stage. I looked back, and saw an ocean of red surging toward me.
If Chavez’s recent words provide any foreshadowing, I knew his speech would be heavily laced with anti-American rhetoric, and the Chavista crowd – now a mob numbering tens of thousands of people – could become unruly toward outsiders.
I knew it wasn’t safe. I walked away.
Chavez did speak to the crowd that day, and his words were among his most inflammatory to date.
“Assuming that this fascist minority manages to unleash violence in the streets, we are going to run them over,” he said.
“The unpatriotic oligarchy will be razed to the ground.
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