Will US intervention divide Venezuela’s ‘Chavismo’ movement?
In Venezuela, the ‘Chavismo’ movement is at a crossroads, faced with a choice between accepting and resisting the US’s demands on its government.
The 23 de Enero neighbourhood in Caracas, Venezuela, is considered a stronghold for ‘Chavismo’ supporters [Catherine Ellis/Al Jazeera]
The 23 de Enero neighbourhood in Caracas, Venezuela, is considered a stronghold for ‘Chavismo’ supporters [Catherine Ellis/Al Jazeera]
Caracas, Venezuela – In the sprawling Caracas neighbourhood of 23 de Enero, towering apartment blocks rise from the hillside, each one a burst of colour. But Wilmar Oca, a 20-year-old university student, pauses beneath one squat, white building.
Before her stretches a mural depicting an oval-faced man in a red beret: the late Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez.
For Oca, Chavez and his legacy have transformed this neighbourhood. Once riddled with crime and drugs, 23 de Enero now hums with a sense of opportunity, she explained.
“I feel I have a commitment to Chavez in everything I do,” Oca said proudly.
But the political movement Chavez founded, Chavismo, is now facing the greatest test of its 27-year history.
Since 1999, Venezuela has been led by socialist leaders: first Chavez, then his hand-picked successor, Nicolas Maduro.
But on January 3, the United States attacked Venezuela and abducted Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores. Maduro’s former vice president, Delcy Rodriguez, has since agreed to cooperate with US demands.
That runs afoul of one of the basic tenets of Chavismo: opposing what its leaders describe as US imperialism in Latin America.
Now, members of the Chavismo movement are confronting a dilemma. Supporting Rodriguez’s government means entering into an uneasy alliance with the US and its interests.
But for Oca and others, what happened on January 3 was akin to a kidnapping.
“We feel like our mum and dad have been taken away from us,” Oca said of Maduro and Flores. “They’re like parents to my generation — and we want them back.”
Some Chavistas, though, see the attack on January 3 as an opportunity for a political reset, one that holds possibilities for economic growth.
It’s a situation that finds the Chaviso movement wrestling with the conflicting pressures of resistance and pragmatism, ideology and survival.
“What you see instead is a movement adapting to circumstances — above all, to stay in power,” said Phil Gunson, a Caracas-based analyst at the International Crisis Group, a think tank.
Wilmar Oca credits the Chavismo movement with improving the 23 de Enero neighbourhood of Caracas, Venezuela [Catherine Ellis/Al Jazeera]
Wilmar Oca credits the Chavismo movement with improving the 23 de Enero neighbourhood of Caracas, Venezuela [Catherine Ellis/Al Jazeera]
Fraying US-Venezuela bonds
The Chavismo movement was not always in conflict with the US.
In fact, at the outset of his presidency in 1999,