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<div class="header reader-header reader-show-element" dir="ltr"> <font
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<h1 class="reader-title">A Day in a Venezuelan Chavista
Stronghold: Communal Resistance in Caracas</h1>
<div class="credits reader-credits">By Marco Teruggi - Pagina 12
- May 20, 2019<br>
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<p>Caracas a city made up of several cities.
They oppose each other; sometimes they are
afraid of each other. The east side bursts
with news about Juan Guaido and the
opposition. The west side is the territory
of Chavista majorities, Miraflores
Presidential Palace, the core of power. The
division is about class but about names too:
people in the east live in hills, while in
the west they live in barrios. One of those
barrios is the 23 de Enero neighborhood,
which had a tradition of popular resistance
even before Hugo Chavez came onto the scene
and where several <em>colectivos</em>
exist. <em>Colectivos</em> are one of the
forms of Chavista organization.</p>
<p>The word <em>colectivo</em> has been used
to embody the myths of the right wing to
demonize the Bolivarian Revolution. They are
described as criminal gangs used to carry
out the dirty work of state security forces,
such as preventing the opposition from
holding their demonstrations. Republican
Senator Marco Rubio has affirmed they should
be described as terrorist organizations by
the United States.</p>
<p>One of these colectivos in the 23 de Enero
is the Alexis Vive Patriotic Force. The
presence of the organization can be felt as
soon as you enter the neighborhood, where
you can see a banner in a tall arch that
reads: “Welcome. Socialist Commune El Panal
2021.” Once inside the commune, you find a
communal bakery, the daily life of a popular
sector in Caracas with children wearing
their school uniforms, newsstands, murals,
motorcycles, music, and people trying to
find shelter from the Caribbean sun.</p>
<p>“<em>Colectivos</em> are grassroots social
organizations that work in political,
social, communal, productive creations,”
says Robert Longa, a reference in Alexis
Vive. He’s sitting at Arsenal radio station,
which they built in front of the communal
sports facilities. Longa estimates that
there are about thirty colectivos at the 23
de Enero.</p>
<p>“We are above all a communal movement. We
think we must be immersed with the masses.
This is about being a collective vanguard
and that collective vanguard is the commune.
We are part of the insurgent subject in the
neighborhood,” Longa says. Alexis Gonzalez
[after whom Alexis Vive is named] was
murdered during the first years of the
Bolivarian Revolution, during one of the
coup attempts undertaken by the right-wing.</p>
<p>There are about 13 thousand people living
in the communal territory, while the
commune, together with the Alexis Vive
Patriotic Force, has set up self-government
agencies and is focused on economic and
social development, including a sugar
refinery, a bakery, a textile company, a
food collection center, a blacksmith’s
workshop, its own currency, a dance school,
a sports club, and a pool for children
during the weekends.</p>
<p>Alexis Vive, just like the other <em>colectivos</em>,
is the target of media and political attacks
of the right. “They see the <em>colectivos</em>
in neighborhoods as pockets of resistance
and containment walls, the same as the Cuban
Committees for the Defense of the Revolution
(CDR). We are the center of media and
material attacks that try to implode the
system of our communities. On February 27,
1989 we came down from our slums; we did the
same on April 11, 2002. We played a crucial
role to seize and maintain power. And I
guess they see the <em>colectivos</em> as
an obstacle that will not let them generate
the social unrest they are looking for.</p>
<p>There is calm in the 23 de Enero area,
where the Patriotic Force and the Panal 2021
Commune exist. The organization manages to
find solutions to problems of insecurity and
it fights the economic situation every day.
There is a complex situation in the poor
areas of Caracas and it is even worse in
cities far from the capital city. It is the
result of the economic, financial blockade
imposed by the U.S. but also due
to mistakes: “The Revolution has made its
own mistakes but we think we must solve them
ourselves. Changes must be made inside the
Revolution, not outside of it,” Longa says.</p>
<p>An activity is being carried out in the
sports club; the Ministry of People’s Power
for Communes is handing over tools for
production. Communes from around Caracas’s
western area came to the activity; people
debate about the economic situation,
difficulties and the need to produce, about
prices, the meetings between the United
States and Russia; about what could happen
in such an unstable scenario where people’s
organization is a major part within
Chavismo's architecture.</p>
<p>“We always knew this moment would come,
that we would see the empire’s face sooner
rather than later,” Longa says. “We expect
anything could happen from them. They bet on
precise operations that may include
murdering the President or imprisoning him.
They try to create troubles within the
Bolivarian National Armed Force to achieve a
split leading us to a civil war, bringing
U.S. mercenaries with Colombian paramilitary
soldiers to generate scenarios like
Syria’s.”</p>
<p>Few moments of calm can be expected in
Venezuela’s politics. Though here, as in the
majority of Caracas western areas, Guaido’s
emergence did not translate into
demonstrations of support. Chavismo has deep
roots, with identity, culture, organization:
“the rank-and-file is evidence that Chavismo
exists, as well as the resistance we’ve had
during this time. There is a consolidated
Chavismo, convinced that the strategic line
drawn up by Chavez is the correct line,
communes, people’s power, regardless of the
mistakes committed by leaders who seem to
hold back the Revolution. That’s part of the
contradictions in the process,” Longa says.</p>
<p>Political time can speed up suddenly at any
moment. The Alexis Vive Patriotic Force know
it. As many other people’s organizations,
they have been declared the target of a
strategy aimed not only at overthrowing
Maduro but at reshaping society, which means
erasing the Chavista grassroots that learned
to lead in politics. Longa is among
thousands of people who are convinced that
they won’t be able to achieve this: He
reminds us that, “Venezuela is a country
inherited from a liberator and with blood of
indigenous leaders.”</p>
<p><em>The views expressed in this article are
the author's own and do not necessarily
reflect those of the Venezuelanalysis
editorial staff.</em></p>
<p><em>Translation by Resumen Latinoamericano,
North America bureau</em></p>
<p><em>Edited by Venezuelanalysis.com</em></p>
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<div class="moz-signature">-- <br>
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