Left in Latin America – Crisis in Venezuela: Utopia in ruins

When Hugo Chávez won the Venezuelan presidential election in 1998, no one imagined that the South American oil state could become a beacon of hope for the global left within just a few years. That only changed when the Chavista reform project gained momentum after two right-wing coup attempts. Under the label of “socialism of the 21st century,” the charismatic revolutionary leader launched social programs in poor neighborhoods, financed cooperatives and self-managed businesses, and oriented his country’s foreign policy toward south-south cooperation, as was most recently the case with the Non-Aligned Movement had given. Leftists all over the world started talking about Venezuela.

But the project’s problems were already apparent. Although the Chavista social policy temporarily lifted millions of people out of poverty, the economic programs fizzled out. Agricultural cooperatives collapsed as quickly as they were founded, and the self-managed companies became self-service shops for the union bureaucracy. Above all, Venezuela was unable to free itself from its dependence on oil. The rapid development of the gross domestic product from 84 to 482 billion US dollars between 2003 and 2014 was based solely on oil revenues, imports and debts. With the death of Chávez in 2013 and the collapse of world oil prices a year later, these problems could no longer be hidden. The country plunged into a terrible poverty crisis, and President Maduro only saved himself by turning Venezuela into an authoritarian oligarchic system.

The author Tobias Lambert, born in 1981, who can be described without exaggeration as one of the most competent German-speaking authors on Latin America, traces this development clearly and knowledgeably in “Failed Utopia?” Even though the subtitle focuses on the period under President Maduro, the book is actually a general introduction to Venezuelan history. Lambert traces how the first nationalization of oil in 1976 did not lead to the hoped-for “second independence,” but rather to the expansion of power of political elites. He presents the left-wing countermovements of the 60s and 70s and explains how the mass uprising in 1989 came about, which became the starting point for Hugo Chávez’s “Bolivarian movement”.

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Lambert also devotes himself to the years of the Chavista government in an equally clearly structured manner. The book analyzes how domestic political power struggles developed and which reform programs helped “Bolivarism” gain recognition even among political opponents. With this presentation, Lambert sets himself apart from the Venezuela reporting that one otherwise often encounters. He neither adopts the narratives of the right-wing opposition nor adopts the pseudo-socialist rhetoric of the Maduro camp.

If one objection can be raised against “Failed Utopia?”, it is that the actual topic is neglected. By the time Lambert gets to his main question – namely, how the project developed after Chávez’s death – 130 of 220 pages have already passed. This part is undoubtedly the most interesting in the book. Lambert primarily develops a political explanation for the Venezuelan tragedy: He explains that self-government in neighborhoods and companies was co-opted by the state and that grassroots democracy was immediately undermined again. There is nothing left but to once again build on the grassroots organization that already existed in the poor neighborhoods before Chávez, but which gained enormous momentum under the non-white president.

Lambert’s explanation is certainly not wrong, but it is insufficient in that the economic aspects are given far too little attention here. Contrary to what one might expect, the wealth of raw materials has proven to be more of a curse than a blessing for Venezuela. Thanks to oil income, a “rentier economy” has emerged over the past century, in which access to oil revenues was the focus of all activities, not the production of goods. This has proven to be a real poison for Venezuelan society. The Venezuelan masses supported their president in the redistribution of export earnings, but not in the transformation towards a more productive society characterized by collective responsibility.

Aside from this gap, however, Lambert’s book is an excellent introduction to the country. And there is hardly anything to add to his assessment of the current situation. “There is a threat,” he summarizes at the end of the book, “of an increased turn towards authoritarian regimes and a repressive course against voices critical of the government within the country. (…) In addition, Maduro is strengthening both the military and economically liberal sectors as part of the government change. The Chavista utopia appears to be in ruins, at least at the government level.”

Tobias Lambert: Failed utopia? Venezuela a decade after Hugo Chávez. Mandelbaum-Verlag 238 pages, br., 23 €.
Book launch in Berlin: January 21st, 7 p.m., nd-Salon in FMP1, Franz-Mehring-Platz 1.