I.
The sacralization of history is an ancient practice in Latin America. In the region's Catholic countries, stories of the past, with their heroes and their villains, became instant paraphrases of the Holy Story, complete with martyrologies, holy days, and iconic representations of secular saints. But in Venezuela, where the presence of the church has been less rich and influential than in Mexico, Peru, or Ecuador, the transference of the sacred to the profane has been more intense, perhaps because of the lack of "competition" with strictly religious inspirations such as the Virgin of Guadalupe or the patron saints of Mexican towns. Venezuela's civic worship is unusual also in that it is monotheistic, which is to say, it has centered on the passion story of a man elevated to godhood. That man is Simon Bolivar.
In addition to parades, speeches, ceremonies, competitions, inaugurations, commemorations, unveilings of monuments, official publications, and other formal events in veneration of Bolivar that successive Venezuelan governments (oligarchic, civil, military, dictatorships) have produced, there arose a spontaneous and enduring popular cult of Bolivar already in 1842, just twelve years after his death. It was stoked by a kind of collective penitence for the sin of letting Bolivar die on Colombian soil. And so the liberator came to be relentlessly exalted by the same nation that, by rejecting his project for a Gran Colombia (which would have unified Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, and Panama), caused him to be ostracized. This Caribbean version of Moses and Monotheism was nicely codified by the Cardinal of Caracas in 1980, who declared from the seat of his diocese that all of Venezuela's misfortunes, the countless civil wars and the dictatorships of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, all sprang from the "treason" that was originally committed against Bolivar.
Official, popular, manufactured, spontaneous, classical, romantic, nationalist, internationalist, military, civil, religious, mythic, Venezuelan, Andean, Ibero-American, Pan-American, universal: the cult of Bolivar became the common bond of Venezuelans, the sacrament of their society. Other sanctified heroes shared the altar, but they stood in Bolivar's shadow, and they were not always beloved: Francisco de Miranda, an early champion of independence; Antonio Jose de Sucre, Bolivar's loyal grand marshal; and General Jose Antonio Paez (Bolivar's right hand in war, his adversary in peace, and the founder of the Republic of Venezuela). Even in scholarly circles his immaculate image prevailed until the 1960s. When, in 1916, a young doctor dared to suggest that Bolivar was probably an epileptic, the censure of this act of "patriotic atheism" against the Bolivarian faith--an "august, admirable, sublime religion"--was harsh. "How is it possible," it was said, "that a Venezuelan should ascend to the empyrean to remove Bolivar from Caesar's side, and relegate him to the inferno, beside Caligula?"
From a very young age, Hugo Chavez revered Simon Bolivar. And not just Bolivar. In his modest childhood in the small western plains city of Barinas, Chavez also intensely admired Chavez--that is, Chavez "El L?tigo," or The Whip, a famous pitcher who was killed in a plane crash after a brief career in the major leagues. According to his own telling of his life story, when he entered the Military Academy in 1971, at the age of seventeen, Chavez visited the tomb of El L?tigo to ask forgiveness, because new heroes were demanding his attention: Che Guevara and Fidel Castro. Chavez was always a hero-worshipper. His personal pantheon included Ezequiel Zamora (the popular leader in the Federal War in the mid-nineteenth century) and his own great-grandfather, a bandit-rebel whose hazy career dated to the beginning of the twentieth century.
In Chavez's fevered imagination, the interesting thing about this past populated with heroes was that they spoke directly to him and ended up being reincarnated in him. "Let me tell you something I've never told anyone," he confessed to several friends. "I'm the reincarnation of Ezequiel Zamora." (Some say he has always feared he would come to the same end: betrayed and shot in the head.) With his contemporary heroes, too, Chavez needed direct contact, a laying on of hands. In an interview in 2005, he recalled his first encounters with Fidel. "My God, I want to meet Fidel when I get out and I'm free to talk," he prayed in prison, after his failed coup attempt in February 1992, "to tell him who I am and what I think." Their first meeting took place in Havana in December 1994. Castro stood waiting for him in person at the foot of the steps of his airplane. From then on, Chavez came to see him "as a father," and his children saw him as a grandfather.
The day he came to visit Grandma's little house in Sabaneta,
he had to stoop. It's a low door, and he's a giant. I saw it with
my own eyes, didn't I? And I remarked on it to [my brother] Adan.
Seeing him there, as if it was a dream: "this is like something out of
a Garcia Marquez novel." In other words, forty years after the first
time I heard the name Fidel Castro, there he was in the house where
we were raised.... My God!
Garcia Marquez, indeed. During the fifteen years in which he patiently plotted his revolutionary conspiracy, forging his mystical links between his own genealogy and the nation's heroes, Hugo Chavez made himself into a kind of creature of magical realism. He would be the redemption, the climax, the supreme text prophesied by other texts, of the Sacred Writ of Venezuelan history.
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COMMENTS (24)
The Shah? Come on, it's more like the Don.
The Shah? Come on, it's more like the Don.
I'm a Venezuelan blogger, largely specialized on taking up stories like this one, picking them apart, and complaining loudly about the bits I don't like. You've completely flummoxed me, Dr. Krauze. I can offer nothing but star-struck praise here. You've taught me something valuable about my own country, and taught me that my own tendency to attribute Chávez's megalomania to purely personal, psychological causes is wrong. And you've managed to breathe vibrant new life into a topic that's been discussed so often, in so many ways, I'd long ago discarded it as immune to creative new approaches. Just stunning.
I'm a Venezuelan blogger, largely specialized on taking up stories like this one, picking them apart, and complaining loudly about the bits I don't like. You've completely flummoxed me, Dr. Krauze. I can offer nothing but star-struck praise here. You've taught me something valuable about my own country, and taught me that my own tendency to attribute Chávez's megalomania to purely personal, psychological causes is wrong. And you've managed to breathe vibrant new life into a topic that's been discussed so often, in so many ways, I'd long ago discarded it as immune to creative new approaches. Just stunning.
The biggest challenge facing Obama - and the biggest blunder by Bush - is the situation in Latin America. Not only is it trending leftist - it is trending radical leftist, supporting the drug cartels who are flooding Mexico & the US with drug gangs as well as drugs. And Mexico very nearly went leftit in their last election.
The biggest challenge facing Obama - and the biggest blunder by Bush - is the situation in Latin America. Not only is it trending leftist - it is trending radical leftist, supporting the drug cartels who are flooding Mexico & the US with drug gangs as well as drugs. And Mexico very nearly went leftit in their last election.
At least the Shah had a bit of taste...
Have you seen his family's palaces in Barinas?
At least the Shah had a bit of taste...
Have you seen his family's palaces in Barinas?
This is the finest article TNR has run in quite a long while.
This is the finest article TNR has run in quite a long while.
#3 It really is inevitable, by focusing on the Middle East, as was necessary, Bush neglected the trends in our own neighborhood. Difficult to see how he could have influenced any of those elections though. The leftist siren is very appealing and deadly to the supposedly downtrodden and uneducated. The rich man in town is made the bogeyman by which the dictator rises to absolute power; that story has been seen in innumerable countries. Which is why this class warfare that's been stirred up in the US is so dangerous.
Chavez is a worthless simpleton idiot whose fate is to have a bullet put in his head by one of his "revolutionary" cronies.
#3 It really is inevitable, by focusing on the Middle East, as was necessary, Bush neglected the trends in our own neighborhood. Difficult to see how he could have influenced any of those elections though. The leftist siren is very appealing and deadly to the supposedly downtrodden and uneducated. The rich man in town is made the bogeyman by which the dictator rises to absolute power; that story has been seen in innumerable countries. Which is why this class warfare that's been stirred up in the US is so dangerous.
Chavez is a worthless simpleton idiot whose fate is to have a bullet put in his head by one of his "revolutionary" cronies.
what quico said. Superb, eye-opening piece. One of the best things about TNR is the access to serious historians' serious, in-depth examinations of current issues from an historical perspective.
what quico said. Superb, eye-opening piece. One of the best things about TNR is the access to serious historians' serious, in-depth examinations of current issues from an historical perspective.
Well, that's 20 minutes I'll never get back. Somebody should tell Krauze about the value of brevity.
Here's the condensed version of why the democratically elected "Shah of Venezuela" stays in power:
1.) He is a democratically elected populist in a poor country. He provides services and speaks directly to the poor of Venezuela, who are the majority of the voters. That's a pretty good strategy in a Democracy, go where the votes are. You can legitimately argue the long-term effects of Chavez's interventionist economics, but no other Venezuelan government has done as much for the poor as Chavez. And right now, in terms of economic performance, it's hard to make a case that he has bung ... view full comment
Well, that's 20 minutes I'll never get back. Somebody should tell Krauze about the value of brevity.
Here's the condensed version of why the democratically elected "Shah of Venezuela" stays in power:
1.) He is a democratically elected populist in a poor country. He provides services and speaks directly to the poor of Venezuela, who are the majority of the voters. That's a pretty good strategy in a Democracy, go where the votes are. You can legitimately argue the long-term effects of Chavez's interventionist economics, but no other Venezuelan government has done as much for the poor as Chavez. And right now, in terms of economic performance, it's hard to make a case that he has bungled things worse than the US and the EU.
2.)There is no credible opposition. Who are they? How are they funded? Where are they, other than in Miami jeering Magglio Ordonez? What do they stand for, beyond defeating Chavez? Honestly, I'm asking. Do you know?
Some of the people who seek to discredit Chavez are discredited former hacks in the kleptocracy that fleeced the nation in the first 45 years of democracy. That, by the way, is the "bad" democracy that Chavez is referring to. Everybody in Venezuela understands that context Krauze twists it in such a way as to make Chavez antidemocratic. That'd be an odd position for a many who keeps winning elections. Fact is, Chavez is a result of the failed and discredited politics before him. Why is this so hard to understand?
3.) The private media, having for the most part sided with their wealthy owners in the ill-fated 2002 coup against Chavez, have lost credibility with many poor and working class Venezuelans. (It doesn't help when mostly white TV commentators refer to Chavez as a "monkey.")
In Venezuela, despite the claims of censorship, there is so much criticism of Chavez in the media that it is difficult to separate the noise from the substance.
4.) Finally, how's that free market laissez faire economy working for you in the US folks? Still got a job? Have you looked at your 401(k) lately?
Yes, oil revenues may be soft, but the performance of the US and the EU these days ain't much of a role model. Don't think people in Venezuela are not aware of the economic problems here and elsewhere, especially those Venezuelans who were unfortunate enough to entrust their savings with Stanford Bank's shuttered Caracas Branch.
So, forgive these poor Venezuelan socialists if your praises of free market economies fall on deaf ears.
As for Krauze damnation through inference, I really don't care that someone Chavez knew 15 years ago is a fascist or a cross dresser for that matter. Big deal! Krauze is using one of the sleaziest journalist tricks out there: put a skunk next to someone and hope the stink rubs off.
Krauze is of that school of journalism that says that if you call a man who has won at least four national elections a caudillo or strongman or dictator or "shah," then sooner or later that will make it so.
To date, Chavez has furthered his agenda through Democratic means. When he doesn't, I will be the first to denounce him. Until then, if you're going to slap a title on him, it should be "Presidente Chavez."
thank you JC for being the only voice of reason here.
thank you JC for being the only voice of reason here.
Chavez a shah? Somebody should take up a collection to have that piece of garbage whacked.
Chavez a shah? Somebody should take up a collection to have that piece of garbage whacked.
JC,
that's what you call brevity? LOL.
JC,
that's what you call brevity? LOL.
Anyone who thinks Venezuela is a democratic country and that Chavez is a godsend to the poor in our country, I invite you to come here and settle for 2 or 3 weeks in one of our slums with the warning that you might not get out alive.
Anyone who thinks Venezuela is a democratic country and that Chavez is a godsend to the poor in our country, I invite you to come here and settle for 2 or 3 weeks in one of our slums with the warning that you might not get out alive.
I visited Venezuela 15 years ago. Travel was safe, people friendly, and life was peaceful. A friend of mine just returned, he described horrors. Hotels under guard, army bribes for plane tickets, and guerrilla kidnappings at the bridge to the airport. Chevez has destroyed his country. The people of Venezuela better wake up before it is too late.
I visited Venezuela 15 years ago. Travel was safe, people friendly, and life was peaceful. A friend of mine just returned, he described horrors. Hotels under guard, army bribes for plane tickets, and guerrilla kidnappings at the bridge to the airport. Chevez has destroyed his country. The people of Venezuela better wake up before it is too late.
JC - You have no idea about Venezuela.
JC - You have no idea about Venezuela.
"The Shah? Come on, it's more like the Don." ---No. "The Shah" would seem to be apt. The title appears to be a play on the actions of the late Shah of Iran. After Britain withdrew its military garrisons and naval bases from "East of Suez" in 1971 (which included its withdrawal from the Persian Gulf), the Shah's government propagated a grandiose neo-Persian Empire theme, circa 1971 until his departure in 1978.
"The Shah? Come on, it's more like the Don." ---No. "The Shah" would seem to be apt. The title appears to be a play on the actions of the late Shah of Iran. After Britain withdrew its military garrisons and naval bases from "East of Suez" in 1971 (which included its withdrawal from the Persian Gulf), the Shah's government propagated a grandiose neo-Persian Empire theme, circa 1971 until his departure in 1978.
"'How is it possible,' it was said, 'that a Venezuelan should ascend to the empyrean to remove Bolivar from Caesar's side, and relegate him to the inferno, beside Caligula?'" ---Were statements really made? How about naming who made them, rather than the anonymous "it was said." That way the reader would be comfortable that it was said by someone more substantial than only the wife of the writer of this essay at the breakfast table. . .
"'How is it possible,' it was said, 'that a Venezuelan should ascend to the empyrean to remove Bolivar from Caesar's side, and relegate him to the inferno, beside Caligula?'" ---Were statements really made? How about naming who made them, rather than the anonymous "it was said." That way the reader would be comfortable that it was said by someone more substantial than only the wife of the writer of this essay at the breakfast table. . .
“We don't want to fight but by jingo if we do...
We've got the ships, we've got the men, and got the money too!
We've fought the Mexicans before...
and while we're ‘mericans true,
The ‘zuelans shall not have Caracas..."
---Modified "Jingo song."
“We don't want to fight but by jingo if we do...
We've got the ships, we've got the men, and got the money too!
We've fought the Mexicans before...
and while we're ‘mericans true,
The ‘zuelans shall not have Caracas..."
---Modified "Jingo song."
So the Castro-Chavez-Morales mutual admiration society isn't a Leninist plot to take over Latin America (or keep the Cuban economy afloat), but rather Chavez is merely the latest in a long line of caudillos that Castro has admired starting with Mussolini that includes Peron and Franco.
So the Castro-Chavez-Morales mutual admiration society isn't a Leninist plot to take over Latin America (or keep the Cuban economy afloat), but rather Chavez is merely the latest in a long line of caudillos that Castro has admired starting with Mussolini that includes Peron and Franco.
Chavez supporters always point out he has won elections. That is no surprise, with state resources, bullying different sectors of society and manipulating the results. Chavez always plays with loaded dice, that's why he is so sure of himself, but he'll get caught.
Chavez supporters always point out he has won elections. That is no surprise, with state resources, bullying different sectors of society and manipulating the results. Chavez always plays with loaded dice, that's why he is so sure of himself, but he'll get caught.
JC, Do you live in Venezuela? If you do, then how come you find "democratic" the way Hugo Chavez has handled his relationship with Alcalde Ledesma (who is not my cup of tea but got elected through votes. Last week he stripped the mayor of everything he needs to work for the people that elected him. Is that democracy? Is stripping of something like 300 candidates of their right to compete in elections with no charges whatsoever. I mean the guy has been in power forever, don´t tell me he "just " discovered these 300 give or take were corrupt. Still, no proof whatsoever, no trial, nothing. He has gone after Maracaibo´s Mayor Rosales, because he is corrupt but there is nothing to prove this ei ... view full comment
JC, Do you live in Venezuela? If you do, then how come you find "democratic" the way Hugo Chavez has handled his relationship with Alcalde Ledesma (who is not my cup of tea but got elected through votes. Last week he stripped the mayor of everything he needs to work for the people that elected him. Is that democracy? Is stripping of something like 300 candidates of their right to compete in elections with no charges whatsoever. I mean the guy has been in power forever, don´t tell me he "just " discovered these 300 give or take were corrupt. Still, no proof whatsoever, no trial, nothing. He has gone after Maracaibo´s Mayor Rosales, because he is corrupt but there is nothing to prove this either. As there was nothing to prove Simonovis and the other had really incurred in criminal deeds for April 11. Still, they got 30 years, something really unheard of. And this is democracy? Tell me, do you live in Venezuela? I then do not believe you when you say you would denounce Chavez when he would stray from democracy. Then, maybe, just maybe, you have it all wrong and don´t know what this is.
An admirable study. Where can I find the Spanish version of this article?
An admirable study. Where can I find the Spanish version of this article?
JC is right - this is damn-via-association journalism at its worst. Come on - the masses of Venezuelans suffer under years of neoliberalism, and someone tries to do something about it through democratic means and then what...smears of anti-semitism and fascism. How embarrassing and predictable from The New Republic. Too bad Chavez isn't a Muslim - that would complete the picture, wouldn't it?
As for all these Venezuelans on this board complaining about JC - well, most of them, I'd bet, are wealthy expats angry about the loss of their former kleptocracy, living in places like Houston and Miami. Good riddance!
JC is right - this is damn-via-association journalism at its worst. Come on - the masses of Venezuelans suffer under years of neoliberalism, and someone tries to do something about it through democratic means and then what...smears of anti-semitism and fascism. How embarrassing and predictable from The New Republic. Too bad Chavez isn't a Muslim - that would complete the picture, wouldn't it?
As for all these Venezuelans on this board complaining about JC - well, most of them, I'd bet, are wealthy expats angry about the loss of their former kleptocracy, living in places like Houston and Miami. Good riddance!
This is one of the most brilliant articles TNR has ever printed. Enrique Krauze writes beautifully and his references, historically, philosophically and politically are superb. The attacks on him are typically moronic and totally predictable. They are completely refuted by the very contents of the article.
This is one of the most brilliant articles TNR has ever printed. Enrique Krauze writes beautifully and his references, historically, philosophically and politically are superb. The attacks on him are typically moronic and totally predictable. They are completely refuted by the very contents of the article.
A wonderful article that explains the ideological pedigree of a power-hungry demagouge. I especially enjoy the outraged rebuttals by JC and "Voice of Reason," who attempt to rationalise Chavez's patient destruction of Venezuelan democracy. I only hope one day they have the opportunity to live under their hero's rule.
A wonderful article that explains the ideological pedigree of a power-hungry demagouge. I especially enjoy the outraged rebuttals by JC and "Voice of Reason," who attempt to rationalise Chavez's patient destruction of Venezuelan democracy. I only hope one day they have the opportunity to live under their hero's rule.