From the New Internationalist:  The Presidential elections truly are a national event in Venezuela. There are rallies to attend, public statements and press releases by the candidates, mini-newspapers containing plans for the next six years of government, and everyone has an opinion. The posters are the easiest to spot. On every street corner, two faces are prevalent; Hugo Chavez, and his main opponent, Capriles Radonski. Chavez, corazon de mi patria. Heart of my country. Capriles, hay un camino. There is a way. Where this way will lead us, exactly, we are not told. With just two weeks to go until voting takes place, the candidate who tops the polls is difficult to miss. Hugo Chavez is a larger-than-life character, and has become well-known for his statements denouncing, imperialism, capitalism and US foreign policy. The man who famously called George W. Bush ‘Mr. Danger’ for his murderous policies of invasion in Afghanistan and Iraq looks to be set on course for yet another election victory on October 7th, but what about Capriles? The Roundtable of Democratic Unity [MUD] coalition he represents are looking far from united; just two weeks ago, four organisations withdrew their support for the opposition candidate, after leaked documents revealed the neo-liberal agenda of his economic policies. But what are his main campaign policies, and how has he gone about communicating them to the Venezuelan people? Does he have the potential to cause an upset? According to articles in mainstream western media, Capriles is a ‘centre-left progressive’, and indeed, this seems to be the way the Presidential candidate is attempting to present himself to voters. Instead of attacking theMisiones introduced by the Chavez government to tackle health care and education, Capriles has recognised the immense popularity they enjoy with the millions of ordinary Venezuelan people who run them at a local level and benefit from them. So Capriles has decided that, if elected, he will keep theMisiones in place. If only he was telling the truth. On August 23rd, an internal MUD document was leaked to the Venezuelan media, revealing his economic plans. The MERCAL Misiones, government-subsidised supermarkets offering families basic foods for a fraction of their usual prices, are among the targets; food subsidies would be decreased by 60% over the next three years. The Gran Mision Vivienda, which aims to build two million houses and also funds poorer sections of society to build their own housing, is to be ended. I have been extremely impressed by the fast and efficient Metro service around Caracas, of which I can travel on for free, as a disabled person, as can my brother, as someone helping me. Under Capriles, however, subsidised travel will be taken out of service, as well as normal prices being increased by 5% every four months in several cities. Even before the leaked documents, it may have been difficult for voters to believe claims that he would keep Misiones in place that would never have existed without the actions of the Chavez government he is so intent on attacking. A march of hundreds of thousands which took place on Saturday in Caracas, the capital, and was dubbed ‘Misiones con Chavez’ in support of his re-election bid, seems to be a case in point. Similarly large mobilisations have taken place in the cities of Merida and Trujillo in recent days, attracting numbers that the opposition simply cannot. Rather than policies, however, it seems to be Chavez’ personality that he really dislikes, so perhaps we should analyse Capriles’ own background, in order to understand where he is coming from. In 2002, during the coupwhich ousted Chavez from power for a grand total of two days, Capriles was serving as mayor of Baruta. On April 12th, the Baruta police arrested the Minister of the Interior, Ramon Rodriguez Chacin. On the same day, it was in Baruta that Capriles was part of a crowd that attacked the Cuban embassy, cutting off water and electricity, destroying vehicles parked outside and refusing to allow the Cuban ambassador to leave. Chavez has often been criticised for his ties with the Cuban government, which has resulted in such atrocities as thousands of Cuban doctors providing free health care for the poorest sections of Venezuelan society through theMision Barrio Adentro. Of course, attacking the Embassy of any country is illegal under international law, but Capriles refused to accept responsibility, claiming that he helped to prevent further violence, and after a lengthy investigation and more than one arrest, was cleared of all charges under a government amnesty in December 2007. It doesn’t add up to a record to be proud of. Nevertheless, Capriles is determined to get his message out. Hugo Chavez may have Plan Carabobo, his proposal for the next six years of the Bolivarian revolution, but Capriles has his Plan Venezuela, and he seems unwilling to give up without a fight. Indeed, that is what many are now concerned about; as the April 2002 coup, and the oil bosses’ strike in December of that year show, the opposition are not averse to using extra-constitutional methods to achieve their objectives. As an electoral victory for the opposition becomes increasingly unlikely – a recent survey of opinion polls from August and the first week of September gave Chavez an average of 51% support, but Capriles only 35% – there are worries that the opposition may decide to refuse to accept the results of the election. In a speech delivered in Caracas last Thursday, however, Capriles claimed that he was still confident of his chances. “…and we are going to see the victory of Plan Carabo– err… Plan Venezuela!” It was a slip of the tongue, but perhaps, for once, Capriles was closer to the truth than he would like to admit. |
One thought on “Who is Henrique Capriles Radonski?”
I live here in Venezuela for the past six years, among the so-called common people, Chavez supporters and otherwise, among which I have many friends. To be brief, I find your article biased, out of focus, and partly very untruthful. The “real” government program of the MUD has been 100% unmasked as a forgery, most probably induced by members of the Chavez government who have done everything, from personally and degradingly insulting Capriles to bribing close political supporters. Living here in Venezuela is something different than coming here once in a while for some socialist sightseeing, like millionaire and freetime socialist Sean Penn. Living under Chavez is a daily nightmare. His obvious personal mental problems, among which narcism and megalomania are very easy to detect, have turned a lively, Caribbean-tinged tropical country into a madhouse, where the police is to be feared almost as much as the normal assaulter and killer, and where law and order are far from where they should be. Cronyism everywhere, but this time in one color only. The economy is a shambles, the chavist governments are totally incompetent and corrupt, hanging on by sycophancy to the great Comandante. We common people all feel it in our pockets, and I can tell you that for a country with so much oil revenue as Venezuela, the country is mired in poverty from which it won’t get up while this regime, with a totally absurd and outer planetary notion of Marxist theories, keeps on with its plans to transform Venezuela into a “perfect socialist state”.
Where have we heard that phrase before? Right. How many times was this plan succesful in the laast 100 years? None.
I would kindly advise you from Caracas, on this day while the elections are on their way, to forget about the ideologic propaganda the Chavist regime is so keen on pursuing to keep a smoke screen on foreigners, like it happened to me years ago. It’s pure recycled bogus. The ideologies of Chavez, Marine Le Pen and extreme rightist thinkers are closer than you might think. If wearing a red shirt and a red star makes you a socialist, then Madonna would have been already the first female pope with all her crosses.
Capriles has considered scrapping part of the social programmes of the Chavist regime because they are a total waste of money and resources. Living here will show you how and why. But since Capriles knows that while extreme poverty has decreased – a good thing Chavez did – the normal poverty group has expanded enormously, while the middle class has fallen to near poverty thanks to the nutcase economic politics of this regime. So to avoid massive unrest from which the defeated Chavists will profit, even fomenting it with their armed Bolivarian “urban guerrilla” groups, Capriles has no choice than to keep on the missions. with the big distinction of putting them under budgetary scrutiny and efficiency, which would be a good thing for everyone, the poor first. Too much open cronyism, corruption and abuse of power have I seen myself to keep on believing that the Chavez regime should proceed with its disastrous course.
So, if Capriles wins – which is likely – maybe it would be a good idea for you to understand that Che Guevara is dead, that peoples do not live of revolutions and that the poor don’t feed themselves with empty electoral promises.