oh such confusion...

This is just getting worse and worse. Yesterday I had a personal breakdown on behalf of Venezuela. It just seems impossible to get any kind of objective analysis of what is going on in this country. Quite a few things have happened during the last weeks and it is certainly necessary to stay updated the whole time with the latest political turns to follow the discussions and be able to get a grip of the situation. Every day I listen to endless interviews on the radio with politicians, attorneys, journalists, government-employees, doctors, ministers and so on. As it is all over the world, people from different political camps always sound so sure about their own point of view and take every oppertunity to spread their propaganda rather than meet the critique presented and really try to answer the arguments. I get so tired. Really.

I have had some quite appalling talks with people very active in the student movement, fighting for a free and independent university and educational system, but also part of the opposition in general. The stories about how people demonstrating against the government and Chavez have been treated is hardly what one would expect to take place in a society bragging to be a socialist one. People being put in prison without trial and tortured, and this just for speaking their mind about the prevailing system. Huge discussion sessions being organised for and with the public about the reform of the constitution, but not letting students entering because they are openly against Chavez.

And then again, there is almost always some explanation to everything, why things happen, but people are often very quick in making their judgements without considering this explanation. Then, the explanation doesn't neccessarily justify certain behaviours, but to be able to move forward one has to keep an open mind. But... then again, who has the right to impose a way of thinking upon others? I just got here, I haven't been through everything that people living here have experienced, nor will I stay here long enough to be affected by the social changes coming up.

My breakdown the other day was a result of severe ideological confusion. Or actually I would rather call it practical dissapointment...according to what I have been told so far about Chavez and the whole Bolivarian revolution it does seem more and more like a power concentrating, people conforming project, in a socialist disguise. There have been a few of those throughout history and my god, basta ya! But, well, I have said it before and I'll say it again, it all depends on from where one gets the information. A few weeks ago I really realised how extremely priviliged the people at my university are, they are all part of the middle, upper middle, or over class and they don't really represent the majority of the Venezoelan population. So, one could argument that their disliking of social changes don't make the changes less needed or justified. But one could also argue (like my teacher in "Cambios en el mundo - Reacción en Venezuela") that the general Chavez-dislike within the universities is more an effect of higher education and a greater perception of the political turns. What to say, what to think…

One of the hottest topics right now is the addition of article 337 to the reform. The National Assembly has proposed another 25 articles in the 1999 Constitution (that is the one prevailing) to be reformed. Article 337 deals with the government’s rights to put the constitution on hold for as long as it is considered neccessary, as long as it exists a threat to the state. The article can be compared with the US’s ”state of emergency”. For example it allows the police to arrest people without any prior suspicion of crime, the right to information, right to an attorney, and so on.

This article, amongst others, has been quite heavily criticized even by Chavez-supporting parties: the social democratic party (PODEMOS), PCV and Patria Para Todos. They also claim that some parts of the reform will signify a change of the fundamental structure of the constitution. For such a thing to be carried through there has to be a much more extensive process (submitted in the constitutional assembly for example), but these are steps that have been completely ignored.

Well, to be continued...

I will just add one photo today. It is from my excursion with my Marine ecology class last week end, it sure is hard work out here...
The wreck that you can see was a ship that sank during the World War II, I went snorkling around and under it, very very nice!

So for now, I have nothing more to add. I guess I walk around with a general feeling of blurryness and I have a really hard time to straighten it all out. But this weekend I will be going away to los llanos, 6 hours out of Caracas. It will surely be something different and maybe I will be refilled with more positive feelings about all of this...

So long!