the big lap

Several hours into a tour to Venezuela´s anaconda-infested savanna our tour guide turned down the Manu Chau and asked over his shoulder: "so when are you going to ask me about Chavez?" the lack of response made him clarify his request "everyone always asks me about Chavez at some point."

I had in fact decided to leave the potentially delicate discussion till our last day, having sensed some animosity towards El Presidente at the posada with whom we were on tour. But with the question out there, i nodded cautiously with the others "well what do you think?"

It wasn't an unusual question. Venezuelans take an interest in politics more akin to the Indian Subcontinent than Australia and Hugo Chavez Frias, with his strong anti-imperialist opinions and bombastic oratory, inspires some fairly intense views amoung his constituency. Foreigners share the fascination for the man spuriously describe as a dictator by the United States (as they describe anyone audacious enough to nationalise industries) and although some are here to watch birds, plenty of travellers are checking out this so called 21st Century Socialism in practice. Visiting worker co-operatives and entering the ´Misiones´ where the best work is happening and people are excited by the all-important "process".

Barack Obama recently suggested in a talk to Miami`s Cuban exiles that "he was elected democratically but doesn`t govern democratically", which is comically hypocritical from a country which continues to avoid the overwhelmingly popular opinions on war and healthcare. But while the US continues to manufacture an excuse for war (a la Allende`s Chile, Sandinista Nicaragua, Cuba etc), using Columbia as the front-line and funding and training opposition, Venezuela has been productively chipping away at divisions within Latin America. With such initiatives as the Bank of the South (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bank_of_the_South) and buying up Latin American debt to the IMF and World Bank, Venezuela is picking up where Simon Bolivar (who predicted as early as the 1820s that the US would bring misery to Latin America in the name of Liberty) left off almost 200 years ago.

Like many critics of Chavez, our tour guide Joelle, started with a grudging recognition of the positive changes, in this instance: the improved standard of healthcare and education and the country´s overall economic prosperity since Chavez´s 1998 election victory. He then went on to say that the universities offering free education are substandard, inflation (at 20% last year) makes it all but impossible to save and corrupt officials continue to syphon off public funds. In many ways he is right in his analysis: corruption is still rife (particularly in the police force, bureaucracies - filled with plenty of anti-chavista - and with some governors - opportunistic rather ideological chavistas) and some courses at some universities lack the necessary skills to produce the high-quality graduates that Venezuela desperately needs.

There is no national Police force, they are run at the state level and, at best, are seen as bumblingly incompetent. In the affluent areas of Caracas private militia guard the streets and prevent the police from entering whilst in the barrios Colombian organised crime groups terrorise the population. When a group of 56 delegates from Australia came to Caracas in May this year, 15 were robbed in the first three days. Of those 15, 13 were robbed by the police. Other travellers had a similar story to tell: an English couple were asked to produce their passports and when they were unable to, the police searched them and stole two hundred $US. Unfortunately i was unable to summon a first hand experience, due mostly to Gita´s refusal to spend more than the absolute minimum time in Caracas.

Speaking to people about Chavez became a major tourist activity and there were constant stories to hear. When a black-market money-changer saw i was reading a book on Eva Peron called Santa Evita he declared that in this country they had Santa (saint) Chavez. Reflecting on the conversation after he left, i believe i may have said that i wanted the president dead, in a failed attempt to explain the Vatican's canonisation policies.

A jolly self-professed fat man we met on a hike with no English and a love of everything outdoors but moving quickly, explained his admiration for Chavez but said that if anyone called him gay (as he believed people in the media were calling Chavez) he would lock them up or shoot them.

A young man who could quote J`amie from Summer Heights High with a flawless accent, said of Chavez: "yeah he`s doing some good things but we don`t have to hear about every little detail"; he much preferred the telenovellas to the chain-transmissions used to announce new initiatives or, as Fluvio would say, "to tell people he`s playing golf in Cuba or eating something different for lunch." One of our teachers described the hilarity that ensued in the country after the Spanish King, frustrated with Chavez' constant talking at an international summit, said "Why don't you just shut up?". Apparently many agreed and the jibe became a national joke for some time.

Apart from the political discussions on the tour, we rode horses, saw anteaters, birds, piranhas and most importantly got to touch a small anaconda and be within striking distance of a five meter long snake dragged unceremoniously from a pond by a local cowboy showing up the tour guide who could only find a tortoise.