Chavez’s base, the poor, wobbles as election looms
Published: Sep 7, 2010 00:01 Updated: Sep 7, 2010 00:01
CARACAS: On a hilltop overlooking Caracas, dozens of shacks made of wood scraps and corrugated zinc have risen among tall weeds — a new slum tacked on to an old one as the poor face harder times in Venezuela.
Gloria Luna moved here believing President Hugo Chavez's brand of socialism would make life better for her family. Four years later her husband works occasional construction jobs and she sells lottery tickets. The couple and their four children, one of them 13 and pregnant, have no running water, their electricity comes through an improvised, illegal hookup, and rain turns the dirt roads to mud.
"We've been forgotten here," she said. "I feel so disillusioned."
Ever since Chavez took office 11 years ago, the poor have been his base, and they were encouraged by five years of oil-fueled economic growth that lifted millions above the poverty line from 2004 to 2008. The poorest are still his biggest supporters, but Luna says she won't vote in congressional elections on Sept. 26 because she doesn't believe in either pro- or anti-Chavez politicians.
Her disenchantment reflects an erosion of support for Chavez in the past two years as more Venezuelans grow frustrated with recession, 30-percent annual inflation, bad public services and rampant crime.
Chavez is fighting to maintain his United Socialist Party of Venezuela's dominance of the National Assembly in the approaching elections and keep his "Bolivarian Revolution" going. His own job isn't at stake, but his popularity hit a seven-year low of 36 percent in July, according to the Venezuelan polling firm Consultores 21. The survey also found his support shrinking in the barrios that have long underpinned his political survival.
Seeing an opportunity, opposition politicians are increasingly campaigning in slums once considered solid Chavez territory.
In about three dozen interviews in Caracas' poorest slums, many people reeled off a litany of grievances including crime, inflation and lack of sewers and running water. Only a few of those who identified themselves as traditional Chavez supporters expressed an intent to vote against his party, but many suggested they are feeling so disillusioned that they might not bother to cast ballots.
