Venezuela

After 16 days here in La Vega barrio and many hours in central Caracas I have so many impressions and it is difficult to even begin to sort stuff out .

I went to Antimano on Friday, a beautiful barrio way up in the hills surrounding Caracas. I had to take a jeep up through the winding roads. This barrio is much less organized with only one communal council that very rarely meets, maybe 3 times a year. this is a real contrast from La Vega.

Antimano does have a barrio adentro (primary health care clinic). Not many children in school. It seems that the most established and comprehensive reforms are in health care . The infrastructure generally is very undeveloped. roads terrible, sidewalks in the city absolutely full of potholes etc. Water is off and on and in it seems every where undrinkable. Education seems uneven depending again on the organization of the communal councils. Houses built on top of one another in the hills everywhere. It seems that in some barrios many comparatively better off people who can afford more stay in the barrios and build on top because 60% of the housing is privately owned and property closer to the city is too expensive. When I asked how when even the very poor own their own place , they have to pay their utilities, it seems often they cannot and then they have to apply to the communal councils for assistance and will be selected based on need. It seems that the communal councils make a lot of decisions and have a lot of power re who gets what.

There is an ideology of self help that prevails. Unfortunately this very often gets obstructed by the bureaucracy.
I may be missing something here but it seems the principle and method is organize, demonstrate that you have put work into this yourselves as a community and then you will get assistance and funding from the state. No comprehensive organized infrastructure programs that I can observe. Definitely not much organization/involvement re basic reforms coming from the trade unions , dependent on community leaders again and women predominate in this area.
Almost discourages a correct sense of entitlement in way sometimes which seems maybe to let the state off the hook a bit. Hard to analyze it a bit more and any comments would be helpful but I see this as a way to avoid instituting massive programs re housing and infrastructure etc.

Squatting is done on a major scale/ huge sometimes 12 story office buildings are squats . This network is extensive and organized in central Caracas. Organizers use an article of the constitution to justify and try to maintain but it is dangerous work and they are always vulnerable to the police coming in, not just for homeless but for families and refugees etc.
Squatting is extensive in central Caracas. more on that later. Much reliance on constitution to achieve reforms. Of course this bogs things down a lot and is limited in potential ultimately.

On the way to a relaxing day at the beach we saw an impromptu, small and angry barricade of tires and wood and mattresses being thrown into the centre of a major roadway. Breif but huge blockade of traffic. From what I could see it was an expression of anger and impatience at the lack of progress and concrete change in that section of a very poor barrio.

Many many left wing social organizations and movements thrown up everywhere, seems to be very little co-ordination among them . very interesting. The barrio Adentro dental pod I visited was very limited re equipment. A 12 year old boy had dental extraction by Cuban dentist -no root canal etc. at the level of the dental care given to someone on social assistance in Ontario.
The Cuban doctors are very serious and very dedicated and down to business. Each barrio Adentro has a picture/poster of Simon Bolivar/Castro/Che/Chavez/ and some other dude.
Murals and si propaganda everywhere-happened to go through opposition wealth area on the bus yesterday on way back to Le Vega. Some difference and very little propaganda murals and graffity-a few neon signs.

This is a very superficial piece on my impressions and not too deep but i am here and my blog time is very limited so caio for now. I will be on the road in the provinces for several days so will get another perspective other than the urban. Probabaly no e-mail availability so no blog for a bit.