CARACAS LIFE UNDER THE ‘PARO’
Monday 30, December 2002

Christmas came and went and Chavez is holding. The best is to describe what was a typical day of my vacation, because as it turns out I am on vacation until January 12...

I am staying at my parents who are both past 70. They are in fairly good health and thus I hope that there will be no emergency on this side since hospitals and private clinics are running low on personnel and supplies. For that matter I hope I will not get a cold or anything, even though I have taken precautions and I have some common medications. Supplies of medicines have lowered and the news was that most urban centers have run out of tranquilizers and assorted anti anxiety medication... We are also out of beer as the three national manufacturers stopped production since the first week of December. Interesting, a "new" beer was briefly circulating. It turned out that it was a promotion and test for a new form of beer and all the labels were marked X since the final name had not been approved by marketing. Well, before the product got spoiled they just went ahead and sold it, creating a brief sensation. I think the name will remain X.... Other anti anxiety such as scotch and rum are still available because supplies were huge for the holidays and devaluation and inflation have somehow diminished consumption.

How do we start the day? We have three cars, one almost brand new and unleaded fuel is in the garage untouched with its full reservoir. For the ultimate emergency. Mine, a two year old SUV gas guzzler is down to half a reservoir. I use it for brief distances, no AC of course. I hope that if I find gas it will not be spoiled by leaded gas and that I will not need to replace the catalytic converter. Buy stock in catalytic converter companies: they will have a sales boom in Venezuela. And my father old Renault who can take any gas, so who cares what it does to the motor.... Thus the first decision of the day is to coordinate schedule to use only one car, preferably the clunky Renault. With me on vacation and my retired parents with all their doctors on vacation, this is not too hard fortunately.

Errands must be done in the morning since grocery stores open until noon only. Other possible errands are to pay bills, banks, post office. They all close early anyway, the last ones by 2 PM. Many offices now open partially during the day with only essential people, so there is some traffic in the morning, but by late afternoon Caracas seems to be on January first around 9 AM......

Some stores, particularly in downtown Caracas might be open but since many close after Christmas for their annual holiday shopping is limited, not that people that support the "paro" would go shopping. In the country side the ethnic Muslim and Chinese probably did not fare very well and probably will face low sales when this is over. People supporting the "paro" and taking big financial hits will remember who remained open through the first two weeks.

After lunch, well, you watch TV news or propaganda on the state TV. Those fortunate to have cable TV can of course watch something else. Papers are thin and like TV carry no advertisement. Movie theaters are closed except for those associated with museums who remain open since they are government supervised. I suppose that Extraverted people try to walk to visit friends and neighbors. The Introverted like me read magazines, surfs the Internet and writes reports.... Or goes to the office to check out things for an hour....

On some days the big excitement is a "marcha", or march along the city. The opposition has them alternating between the province and Caracas. Yesterday we had another big one in Caracas and I gathered with some friends and we went. I did walk for about three hours, met a friend who lives downtown, and took the subway to visit other friends. Then I came back to the closest subway station from home and my Mom came to pick me up. Just as a teenager coming back from a party.

Yesterday marcha was pretty good. We made it to one of the erstwhile emblematic avenues close to downtown where Chavez did a big rally a few years ago. I can say that it was pretty impressive. Routes keep changing so that keeps motivating people to go. This time we took the central highway and it took about one hour to walk the distance. At some point we were above a big and long ramp and I could see a mile ahead of me and more than a mile behind me a huge sea of flags. It was stirring, and beautiful. This one was not as big but I think that we must have reached the half a million mark. I was sorry I did not take my camera. Yet we do not care much how many people go now. For the last two weeks chavistas have not even attempted to make marches, knowing that in spite of buses and free booze they cannot garner the numbers. Instead, in some cities that are starting to move, they send squads to scare people away. Saturday it was Barquisimeto, the capital of one of the most pro Chavez state. Well, the opposition has met some success in its marches and they are growing every time. Saturday the route took them close to "calle 20" which for some reasons chavistas claim as theirs. What was clearly a couple of hundred of ruffians started throwing stones on the several thousand people marching. Guess what? The state police dispersed the march with tear gas alleging that some were throwing stones back... But this is becoming everyday happenings now....

Today was scheduled as rest day in Caracas. And tomorrow supposedly after midnight we are together on the highway at the Altamira exchange, taking the highway, to listen to the most celebrated salsa group in Venezuela that has taken position against Chavez (Billo's Caracas Boys if any of you is into Salsa, I am not). But today was not as restful: one dissident general was arrested and nobody knows where he has been taken. A small group of supporters and his lawyers went to the FBI equivalent. Only to be refused access and to be threatened by the director that Chavez people were going to take them out. Sure enough 20 minutes after a horde of what can be charitably qualified as hoodlums came down with sacks full of stones (they watch Intifada on TV) and even tear gas grenades. Civilians with tear gas grenades, now you figure how they get them... This made me remind of that freelance article that a friend gave me yesterday, where the guy wrote that the "people" were not in fear anymore of the state police. Well, that freelance should come today to see what the state police did. Nobody died but a few were injured. In total only a few hundred people were involved, but put a few thousands and god knows what will happen....

In the evening we rest from the marcha, or we read and talk over the phone. Some stand in line for hours at gas stations. The military that have taken control of the distribution are sending almost no trucks to the Eastern side of Caracas, the most anti Chavez. Imagine that.... So people figure out which gas stations have been served and they take a best guess. They take position on a line and sometime are able to stay up to 15 hours until they give up, or the truck arrives. All this for a meager maximum of 6 gallons.... But in line they organize themselves. People bring food, tables to play cards and domino, the national past time, etc... Quite folksy and feisty. What is less folksy and feisty are the long lines of people trying to get cooking gas, the traditional way here... This could become a much graver problem than gasoline.

The baseball league shut down, two weeks after the soccer league. The teams that were ahead have been classified in case the play offs can open on January 15, play off that lead to the Caribbean series. This is important as baseball is the national sport, perhaps even more than in the US if possible where football, hockey and basketball give it some competition.

So far food is still OK. The paro caught us with the Xmas stocks, particularly voluminous as many production facilities close for at least two weeks. We do not know what is going to happen next year. The big question now is "will schools start in January?" I doubt it in spite of all the government efforts. Another big question is "will the partial reactivation of some food plants be enough to maintain food levels?" Effectively to avoid criticism the major food plants have reopened the facilities to produce only the staples that are included in the "cesta basica", a pool of products that are considered the basic staples of Venezuelans. This include rice, corn flour, mayonnaise and a few more items up to 15 I think.

But what is the government doing you may ask? All the energies are spent in propaganda to try to put the blame of the shortages on the bad business people and capitalist pro foreign oil workers accused now routinely of traitors and threatened to be sued for crimes against humanity for starving people. But does the government negotiate? The National Assembly closed and went on holiday. The negotiation table was suspended until the 2 because the government had stopped attending alleging too much work because of the paro. The OAS secretary got tired and left to spend New Year in New York. However it has become dangerous for public officials to travel. The chief of staff went to Miami on a brief vacation and a fistfight started in the plane... The chairman of the foreign relations committee and his family were booed out of the plane that was taking them to visit some relatives. It is not pretty. Meanwhile, an alleged corrupt officer put in charge by Chavez to supervise the Aluminium industry and the Orinoco development agency threw a wedding party for his daughter bringing by plane the most famous caterer of Caracas...... And you wonder why people boo out officials from planes... But this last one might have been a gossip, common currency these days.

So there is my little reporter notebook. Christmas was fine, and since my brother in laws are sick with the flu, they are coming back again the 31 to spend New Year with us. I might actually walk to Altamira after midnight even if I do not like Salsa. It would be fun I suppose. I plan to relax as much as possible because the real trials are going to come after New Year. My mother has decided to splurge again since we do not know when imported delicacies will be available again, so we might as well spend money now. After all the government has announced today new budget changes (blamed on the oil strikers of course) and the immediate reaction was the prediction of another devaluation next year since this is the only way the government will be able to pay for its workers.

Apparently magnum wedding parties will be funded.....