IPS-English SOUTH AMERICA: Under the Bolivarian Umbrella Date: Mon, 27 Aug 2007 15:13:35 -0700 SOUTH AMERICA: Under the Bolivarian Umbrella Raúl Pierri* MONTEVIDEO, Aug 27 (IPS) - A broad range of social groups in South America have hoisted the Bolivarian banner of Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez. However, they tend to act independently of each other, and say they receive no financial support from Caracas. Chávez's ”Bolivarian revolution”, which is named after Caracas-born Latin American independence hero Simón Bolivar, is seen by many as the road left open to the Latin American left after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. Civil society organisations that support Chávez organise rallies to welcome him when he visits their countries, while Círculos Bolivarianos (Bolivarian Circles) have cropped up in various countries since 2002, with the aim of extending the example of the changes being wrought in Venezuela. In Venezuela itself, the Bolivarian Circles, which often clashed with the opposition between 2001 and 2004, when political polarisation in the country reached its height, gradually disappeared a few years ago. Although Venezuela's opposition parties accuse the grassroots groups of being ”violent” and dubs them ”terrorists”, no evidence has been provided to support such claims. Members of Bolivarian Circles interviewed by IPS in different countries eschew violence and say they do not receive any support from the Venezuelan government. The leader of an Argentine movement of unemployed workers, Luis D'Elía, a sympathiser of the Venezuelan government, said ”Chavista money” has financed demonstrations in Argentina, but added that he had no idea whether Caracas supports specific organisations. Groups of ”piqueteros” -- organisations of unemployed workers whose main tactic is to block roads to draw public attention to their demands -- that now support the centre-left government of Néstor Kirchner organise rallies when the Venezuelan president visits Argentina. Several former piqueteros who hold posts in the Kirchner administration created the Movimiento Libres del Sur (The Free of the South Movement). IPS sought an interview with one of them, Isaac Rudnik, an adviser to the Foreign Ministry's under-secretariat of Latin American affairs. In a brief telephone conversation, Rudnik said the question about how the movement is financed was ”hostile,” ”irrelevant,” ”rude” and ”disrespectful,” before hanging up. Juan González, a leader of the Confederación de Trabajadores de la Argentina (CTA) trade union federation, who has helped organise several pro-Chávez rallies, told IPS that many groups work in coordination with ”social movements in Venezuela.” But he clarified that the CTA is autonomous and does not receive funds from Caracas. He also said he was unaware of allegations that the Venezuelan government had provided funds to the organisers of a rally held last year in Buenos Aires, which was addressed by Chávez, while U.S. President George W. Bush was on a visit to neighbouring Uruguay. ”We participate in missions (as the Venezuelan government's numerous social programmes are known) like ‘Yes I can' (a literacy drive) and ‘Operation Miracle' (a Cuban-Venezuelan initiative that provides free eye operations to low-income people from around the region), and now we are working on productive projects involving cooperatives,” he said. In Bolivia, the leftist administration of Evo Morales receives substantial support from the Venezuelan government, which has now surpassed the 120 million dollars that the country receives in average annual financial assistance from the United States. Morales himself administers and distributes the donations from Venezuela, which unlike funds from other sources are unencumbered by red tape. This flexibility has enabled Morales to distribute around 30 million dollars in funds from Venezuela, which do not figure in the Bolivian government's annual public spending budget, to municipal governments in impoverished indigenous areas. A source with the Morales administration told IPS that the 30 million dollars were an initial allotment, and that after new projects are presented by the municipal governments, Caracas will approve another disbursement of what is known among local authorities in Bolivia as ”the checks from Venezuela.” ”The aid is unconditional,” and arises from ”the solidarity and diplomacy of the people, while recognising the political formats of each country, their democratic systems,” parliamentarian César Navarro of the governing Movement to Socialism (MAS) remarked to IPS. In Chile there are more than 30 Bolivarian ”circles,” ”committees” and ”movements,” Roberto Muñoz, who heads the Chilean chapter of the Bolivarian Congress of the Peoples, told IPS. These groups emerged as neighbourhood associations around three years ago to organise and coordinate the trips of Chilean beneficiaries of Operation Miracle, through which Venezuela and Cuba offer free cataract operations to people from around Latin America and the Caribbean who could not otherwise afford the surgery. In time, each group created its own structure and began to organise its own cultural activities and actions in solidarity with the Venezuelan government and other leftist administrations in the region. The groups, which have no ties to the centre-left government of President Michelle Bachelet, also back social movements in Chile, like the struggle of the Mapuche indigenous people. Their political objective is to achieve the Bolivarian dream of integration among the countries of Latin America, said Muñoz. Luis Vega, coordinator of the Arce de La Serena Bolivarian Circle in the Chilean capital, said the groups are ”instruments of struggle.” The activist said he saw Latin America as a future ”confederation of republics” joined together through a political, economic, social and cultural integration process that respects differences. Vega said the groups do not receive any funds from the Venezuelan government, and that their only contact with the Venezuelan embassy is to coordinate the free trips of the Operation Miracle beneficiaries and the university scholarships for low-income Chilean students. In Uruguay there are at least seven Bolivarian Circles, which are independent of each other. The ”objective is to carry out an in-depth analysis of and to have close contact with the Bolivarian revolutionary process, to gain ideas from it and to promote democratic participation” in Uruguay, trade unionist Otto Radiccioni of the José Gervasio Artigas Bolivarian Circle told IPS. ”We are apprentices, and our aim is to learn from different experiences,” he said. The Uruguayan Bolivarian Circles maintain contact with the Venezuelan embassy, but are independent in financial and organisational terms, said Radiccioni. ”There are no rules governing the Circles and we have a horizontal, very participative, organisational structure. Sometimes there is even a certain lack of coordination because of that,” he said. Uruguay's ”Bolivarian” activists put an emphasis on citizen participation ”at a time when many instances of traditional socialism have become obsolete,” said Radiccioni. ”We have to create unity at the grassroots level. There are no specific solutions for each country. Although the conditions, timeframes and rates of each Latin American nation differ, they share common problems like debt, dependency and hurdles to development,” Raúl Campanella, of the Bolivarian Circle of Uruguay, remarked to IPS. ”We have no ties to armed struggles or conspiracies or plans to throw obstacles in the way of relations between countries,” he added. ”We do not take part in any provocations. We have shown ourselves to be a responsible, serious groupàand are completely transparent.” * With additional reporting by Marcela Valente in Argentina, Franz Chávez in Bolivia, Daniela Estrada in Chile and Humberto Márquez in Venezuela. ***** + Congreso Bolivariano de los Pueblos, Chilean chapter - in Spanish (http://www.congresobolivarianochile.cl) (END/IPS/LA IP CS/TRASP-SW/RP-DCL/07) = 08280001 ORP001 NNNN