so im here again writing about the brigade. its been a bit haphazard but im sure everyone will cope. so on the second day of the brigade we visited one of the barrios in caracas. this barrio is considered a very revolutionary barrio and has been since before chavez. it was also one of the first barrios to come out in defence of chavez after the opposition removed him in the coup of 2002. the barrio is called barrio 23 enero (january), or the che guevara barrio. there are murals of che everywhere. some very simple while others are extremely well done. the barrio is home to just over half a million people. its made up of big high rises that were originally built for the military, but were taken over by the people when the dictator jimon perez was overthrown.
the people booted out the local police as they used to be involved in extortion and feeding the drug trade. the old police station is now a community radio station and it training area with 2 really big computor suites. the community have tried to take over the role of the police, and there has been discussion about how effective they have been at limiting the drug trade. and while crime is still a problem the levels have definately decreased. this is partly because they have formed a very tight knit community, this cuts down crime as people dont know if the person they are robbing is the daughter of a friend or not. and if there is someone dealing drugs people know because people talk and word gets round. its a very effective system.
at one point during the visit, one of the girls on the brigade started to have a reaction to something. she went to one of the barrio adentro clinics and was seen immediately and given some medicines to take. all for free.
the barrio was initially called the 2nd of december; this was from 1952 when the dictatorship first started. but became 23 january (enero) when the dictatorship collapsed to commemorate the struggle by the people against the dictatorship. it was originally built to house 70,000 people, but in the 70´s people from the countryside started coming into the cities and taing over green bush areas and building there. for alot of people they could only find jobs or make money in the cities. so around the highrises are the typical houses that e associate with barrios.
the barrio is very politicized, alot of the country was radicalized after the cuban revolution. guerilla groups began springing up in the mountains, and also in the cities. when the dictatorship fell and some of the buildings given to the people, the ones that weren´t handed over were occupied by the people. there emerged two sections within the barrio, those that had been given the apartments within the buildings and those that weren´t given, but occupied. over time those that occupied the buildings gained the title and property rights, now everyone within the barrio owns their apartments. during the 70´s the armed groups began to fight for rights to clean water, housing etc. during the 80´s and 90´s there were regular confrontations between the armed groups and police and army. they compare the situation to belfast in northern ireland.
alot of comrades from barrio 23enero have been assasinated in its history. but they continue to look towards cuba as a shining light, as a beacon to head towards. and barrio 23 enero is that for the rest of venezuela.
we visited the former police station which is now a community radio station. the police station was built 30 years ago to fight crime. when they finaly kicked the police out after 30 years the police had used the institution as a site of torture and repression. they would shoot indicriminately from the guard towers at the buildings. in august of 2005, the people from the barrio through different methods of discussion, agreement and confontation escorted the police from the site and the barrio. since then they have seen a huge improvement within the barrio since. they have taken great pride in utilizing mission robinson which is where people go out and teach people; mothers, fathers, sisters, children everyone how to read and write. mission robinson 2 is where people who have completed mission robinson 1 go on to complete their schooling. within the former police station they have an info centre with 64 computors for the community to use.
so now what used to be a place of darkness and despair is now a place of hope. they have seen the struggle for the 5 most basic things that people need that they see as important for the building of socialism; housing, education, recreation, health and employment. they see these as key to building their 21st century socialism and they want to ensure the revolution guarantees these rigths. they want their revolution to be peaceful and that is what they aim for. they have had 11 elections and that is the way they want it to continue . moving forward peacefully is the only way to guarantee happiness for all men and women. they were confident that they would win the majority in the elections, but knew that it was possible that the opposition would also win some areas. but they would respect those losses as they are very proud of their democracy and acknowledge that people can have different views and opinions. this they believe is what makes their democracy strong.
the radio station is open to different political groups, they get most of the equipment from the state but are organized collectively. alot of radio stations were set up after the government allowed the opening up of the airwaves to rebel radio stations. the opposition were not happy as it gave alot of people a voice. they were helped by basque groups to set up the radio station and initially helped to fund it. they still have strong links with alot of basque groups and had pictures of palistinian solidarity groups up all over the station.
the barrio 23 enero was a really inspiring visit as we saw how people who were organised could function and fight for their demands without relying on the state and police forces and actually do a better job of it. this was another example of the way socialism is being built here in venezuela. while chavez is the face of the revolution it is the people below who are the body. they identify areas that need improvement and where work needs ot be done and the government provides the funding. and again it shoes how democratic this revolutionary process actually is in venezuela. the fact that the opposition can still broadcast vitriolic statements about the government without having their licences removed is testament to this. but alot of the middle classes watch these stations and form their opinions on what they see. so when you ask them what they think of chavez they saw things like. oh he is a dictator and wants to be prsident forever. and is trying to make venezuela another cuba. but this is just regurgatating what they see on tv.
the argument that chavez is chasing out foreign investment and removing property rights is completely false. there is so many multinational copanies operating here and you can find all the goods that we can find in nz here no problem. and in the case of private property, most people here own their homes and the government provides low interest loans for people to buy their homes. so cuba this is not.
and with that im out.
peace
