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Contributed Content
Peter
Tveskov
Venezuela Since the 1960's
The last time I was
in Venezuela was in early 1964. At the time I represented Oilwell
Supply in Brazil where we serviced two customers: Petrobrás,
the national oil company, and Brantley Drilling Company.
We lived in the lovely city of Salvador da Bahia. I was assigned to vacation
relief in Venezuela where USSI Ltd. had turned the
warehousing and day to day operations over to “East West Oil Tools”
whose manager in Anaco was Bob Thompson. USSI Ltd.
still maintained a presence in Maracaibo in the person of Ned Niver, my former
boss from Anaco, who was based there with his wife and family.
It was delightful to return to Anaco and be reunited with old friends such as
Joe and Susan McKee. Joe managed an independent supply company and they had been
our neighbors when we lived in Anaco.
It was great to see them again and in retrospect even greater considering that
Joe was seriously injured in an automobile accident shortly afterwards and they
had to return to the US. Joe’s younger brother left the US Air Force to run the
business, but tragically was killed in a case of road rage, when he too was in
an automobile accident and the other party pulled a gun and shot him.
On a funnier note; during that stay I was driving on one of the deserted dirt
roads east of San Tomé when I had to stop to answer the call of nature, only to
have Joe McKee land his Cessna next to me on the road! One could not have
privacy anywhere, it seems!
On another occasion, I had borrowed someone’s Nash Rambler
to drive to Ciudad Bolivar to visit my folks. It is not clear to me why anyone
would use a Nash Rambler in Eastern Venezuela where it
would be strictly an “orphan”, but so be it. In any event, the owner had had a
piece of diamond plate steel welded to the bottom of the car to prevent damage
to its innards. As I approached Soledad, I realized that the carpet in the back
seat was on fire. Apparently enough heat had built up between the “shield” and
the floor boards to set the nylon afire. I kept going till I reached a filling
station in Soledad – what else could I do? I rushed in and asked the attendants
for a can of water, which he provided. He shook his head when the crazy gringo,
rather than filling the radiator, threw the water in the back seat!
Anyway, back then Venezuela and Caracas were bustling. Caracas was a reasonably
safe place to be, even though my wife did get temporarily kidnapped right in
front of the U.S. Embassy by a cab driver who, I suppose, thought she was my
Venezuelan girlfriend, being short and brunette. Once he got the picture- Judy
spoke very little Spanish - he drove her to the Hotel Ávila and dropped her off
in a hurry together with the stuff she had bought at Sears that
day. A very scary experience for both of us.
Caracas was not as clean as what we were to experience in Rio de Janeiro and
Salvador da Bahia in Brazil, but a good place to spend some time.
I recently saw a tourist article in a newspaper about Venezuela, a rare thing to
find indeed. It mentioned the Hotel Tamanaco and the Tarzilandia restaurant.
I was amazed that after forty years there was nothing new in Caracas. I mean,
while I personally preferred to stay at the Hotel Ávila rather
than the Tamanaco, we did eat in the churrasquería Tarzilandia back
then when we visited Caracas. Plús cá change, etc., etc.
The fact that Venezuela after forty years of democratic – albeit imperfect –
government, now is falling into the hands of another caudillo, buckles the mind.
Imperfect or not, during the forty years since the fall of Perez Jimenez on
January 23, 1958, not only had popularly elected presidents completed their
terms and even turned the office over to popularly elected presidents of the
opposition party, but one president had even been impeached and removed from
office.
So what is happening? In the forties Venezuela had about 5 million inhabitants,
in the sixties around 7 and today there are three times that many people.
Traditionally the white criollo aristocracy had run the country. With the
growing prosperity in the '50s and '60s, more and more Venezuelans moved into
the middle class, augmented by the thousands of European immigrants mostly from
Southern Europe who came, set down roots, stayed and developed businesses in the
country.
Then, as well as now, the hills around Caracas were covered with ranchitos,
primitive dwellings built of corrugated sheets and – if lucky – concrete blocks.
Venezuela had and has compulsory, free public education and a rudimentary public
health system. The aristocracy of course either had their children educated
abroad or in private – usually Catholic – schools, while the middle class,
including the children of the immigrants, took advantage of the free public
liceos.
I attended both types of schools, the Colegio de San José in Mérída and
the Licéo Andrés Bello in Caracas.
In the 1970s the Bolivar collapsed and the population grew exponentially. I have
no data to back this up, but I speculate that the lower classes of the
Venezuelan population grew exponentially faster than the middle and upper
classes, placing burdens on both the private and public sectors. Thus many
Venezuelans either were unable to move into the middle class or dropped out of
it.
I am told that large numbers of the now second and third generation Italian,
Spanish and Portuguese immigrants decided to return to their mother countries,
as their monies evaporated through inflation and opportunities in Europe grew,
especially for someone with even a modest Dollar nest egg to invest and the New
World’s entrepreneurial spirit which they had learned and taken advantage off in
Venezuela.
The middle class Venezuelans? My real experience with that group came through my
high school days in Caracas and work in the oil fields. As far as I am
concerned, the quality of a Venezuelan driller and roughneck was on par with
that of his counterpart from Texas and Oklahoma. On the other hand, due to the
laws governing the employment of Venezuelans by the foreign companies, you would
have a Venezuelan tool pusher on the rig, usually wearing a white liqui-liqui suit
and with manicured nails, that is: When he was around. He usually would not be
in the way, as the rig also would have an American toolpusher as a back-up!
In my dealings with Venezuelans at all levels, I found them to be good people
with a nice sense of humor, especially in the Andes where they were
exceptionally admirable people.
Considering that the country had lived through a century or more of civil wars,
golpes de estado and dictatorships, it is amazing that any kind of civic
institutions, behavior and responsibility had survived. Traditionally some local
war lord, usually from the Andes, would march on Caracas and take over for a
number of years. The last of course was Juán Vicente Gomez whose thirty year
reign at least produced stability for the country.
The last of these caudillos was of course Perez Jimenez who – despite the brutal
police state imposed by his henchman Pedro Estrada and his Seguridad
Nacionál – did invest the country’s resources in its infrastructure.
Some of these monuments to PJ have lasted until now, for instance the Caracas-LaGuaira
Autopista that unfortunately now is out of service due to a collapsed viaduct,
but also White Elephants such as the cylindrical Hotel Humbolt on
top mount Ávila – complete with skating rink – and the cable car going up there.
When PJ was deposed, he was planning a direct route through mount Ávila via a
tunnel to Maiquetía, right through the mountain! Somewhat like the Russian
Czar’s arrow straight railroad from St.Petersburg to Moscow, that still exists.
Then followed the forty years of functioning albeit imperfect democracy and then
came ex-Colonel Hugo Chávez.
Interesting that after his unsuccessful coup attempt in 1992 he was court
martialed and sent to jail. That in itself proved something about the maturity
of Venezuelan democracy! In the “Good Old Days” he would have been “Shot while
trying to escape” or if of a “good family” locked up for awhile and then exiled
to France or some other comfortable place.
One significant thing about Chávez in the Venezuelan context is his ethnicity
and social background. He is not a white criollo, but a mestizo from Barinas,
son of a school teacher. A product of the newly democratic Venezuelan military
that for the first time in the country’s history had accepted that the military
should be subordinate to the civilian government, he decided that the civilians
did not know what they were doing and that he – a military man – should set
things straight. The old fashioned way.
He has the following of the great majority of the Venezuelan poor “lower
classes”, what Juán Perón called his “shirtless ones”, the descamisados,
if for no other reason because for the first time ever they are being promised a
future. It is questionable whether he and his system are the ones to deliver,
but at least the promise has been made. He was elected to office legitimately
and in a recall referendum kept in office – for as long as anyone can foresee.
The traditional movers and shakers in Venezuela have never really caught on to
the Henry Ford principle: You must pay the worker enough to buy a Ford car.
It all belongs to them.
Despite Venezuelan democracy being in a crisis, the opposition parties till this
day have not been able to unite around a credible program or candidate to oppose
colonel Chávez and until they do, he will indeed be President for Life.
His propaganda is simple: Help the people the old fashioned “machine” way: With
visible cash while playing on Venezuelan patriotism and xenophobia by blaming
the gringos for everything wrong in the country.
He flies around the world in his presidential Airbus A300 –
not even PJ had a presidential airplane – he flew into exile from La Carlota to
Miami in a Venezuelan Air Force C-54 -
but cannot keep the highways in and out of Caracas or Mérida in repair.
He has jailed some of the senior military officers, but given raises to the rest
– his contemporaries from the Caracas military academy.
On the other hand he has purchased 100,000 AK-47s from
Russia to equip his “reserves”, actually a militia, sort of like Saddam
Hussein’s Fedayeen Hussein. One can speculate that at least some
regular army officers might take time out from their leisure activities in the
Círculo Militar in Caracas to wonder what these armed peoples’ reserves might be
up to, never mind how many of the AK-47s end up in “armies of liberation” in
other parts of Latin American, adding to Colonel Chávez’ image of himself as the
new “Libertador”!
Chávez’ friendship with Fidél Castro also plays into the image of the anti-yánqui
liberator. He can provide Cuba with money and Cuba in turn can send teachers and
physicians to Venezuela to take care of the descamisados. Now, that is
where the traditional rulers of the country are extremely vulnerable, as that is
probably the one area where they have failed in their responsibilities over the
last 195 years of feudal rule.
As for the US, we need the oil and despite Chávez’ saber rattling, oil is
fungible. Chávez & Co. cannot drink the stuff, so once it is on the world market
we will get what we need, although undoubtedly the oil companies will make sure
that they are well paid for it – including Chávez’ own CITGO!
I doubt that Chávez can reach as reasonable an agreement with the Chinese as he
can with the US, if his plan is to ship Venezuela’s oil there. I suspect that
China will be a more hard-nosed trading partner than the US ever was and that
any deals reached will have sub-clauses that we cannot even imagine.
Never mind that Iran and its oil are a lot closer to China than Venezuela!
Bottom line: Chávez still needs the money to keep his Airbus flying
to Brazil, Argentina and Bolivia, to buy weapons from his newly found friends in
Russia and China and to rub the yanquis noses in it by making nice with Fidel!
So unless either Chávez’ government - or ours - makes a really stupid mistake,
the tightrope act will continue for awhile.
All one can say is that Venezuela and its people deserve better than what they
are getting now! That, of course, would not be the first time in their history.
A letter to my Venezulean Friends
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Estimados, queridos &
acordados amigos del Colegio de San José de
Mérida y del Liceo Andrés Bello de
Caracas,
Antes de todo, me tienen que perdonar mi castellano,
que después de tantos años ya está bastante corrupto.
Sería una desgrácia enorme sí el Padre Barrenechea
SJ que pasó tantas horas entrenandome en esa bella
idioma en un enfuerzo para el examen de equivalencia
en el liceo de Mérida leía esto!
Durante los años desde entonces he aprendido y
olvidado Italiano y Portugués, así que me tienen que
perdonar.
Bien, así será.
Desde cuando salí la última vez de Venezuela, muchas
cosas han cambiado, y no siempre para lo mejór. Mis
observaciones muy subyuntivas dependen de lo que leo
en El Universál y El Nacionál todos
los dias por via del “web” y de lo que hé oído de
amigos durante los años.
Hablando de los periódicos, es interesante que hoy
parece mucho lo que pasaba en los años de Péres
Jimnez: Lo importante es lo que no aparezca en ellos!
Beisból es importante, pero otras cosas occurren en
el mundo – y en Venezuela.
Mis pensamientos van a los amigos de entonces:
Carlos Rivas “Pachondy”, Roberto Perez Lecuna, los
Vernet: Carlos y Pedro, los hermanos Enrique y
Carlos Urdaneta, Rafael “Calderita” Urdaneta,
Bernardo Suarez y muchisimos otros ademas los que ya
no están con nosostros: Jorge Olavarría, Roberto
Matute, Francisco de Sales Roche, P.Carlos Reyna SJ,
P.José María Velaz SJ, Hermano Eduardo Willanzheimer,
Padres Ollaquindia, Barrenechea, Aranzadi, Ordoñez y
Bilbao, profesores Arconada, Rivero y Paez, siempre:
El Padre Prefecto: Pascasio Oriortúa SJ y tantos
cuyas caras permanecen en mí corazón, mientras sus
nombres desgracidadamente han sido olvidados.
Al fin del cuarto año del Bachillerato Carlos Rivas
me regaló el libro de Eduardo Blanco “Venezuela
Héroica” y lo dedicó a mí así:
“Dedico ésta interesante narración poética de
nuestra máxima epopeya. Para que su lectura produzca
en tí un sentimiento de tanta emoción como en
qualquiera de los venezolanos. (Que procuramos
repetír economicamente aquellos momentos nostálgicos
de 'Carabobo')
“Tu amigo
Carlos Rivas”
Este libro hasta hoy ocupa un lugar de orgullo en
los estantes de mi librería.
Aunque Pachondy tenía mas o menos dieciseis años
cuando escribía éstas frases, su sentimiento todavía
vale, yá que él és profesor emeritus de química.
Venezuela tiene de todo. Depende de sus hijos e
hijas aprovechar de estos dones de la naturaleza. Su
pueblo no necesita mas de los Juan Vicente Gomez ó
Marcos Perez Jimenez. El pueblo venzolano – el Bravo
Pueblo del himno nacionál – tienen lo que és
necesario sín más caudillos!
Acuerdense del 23 de Enero del 1.958 cuando el
pueblo pasaba por las calles de Caracas cantando el
himno nacional, cargando los grandes cuadros vacíos
que antes habian contenido los retratos del tirano
caído!
Su amigo de siempre
“El gocho gringo y dinamarqués”
Peter
Branford, Connecticut. El 13. de Marzo del 2.006 |
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