Oh! Ah! Chavez is not going!

And the reasons are obvious – the majority of the Venezuelan people support him!! And not just him but also their socialist revolution - they understand that the deep transformations of the country's social, economic, cultural, civil and political systems will take several decades to attain and consolidate, and that this requires a committed and capable head of state. In the last ten years Chavez has proved himself to be both, and so earned the trust of the majority.

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Most media concentrate their attention on Venezuela's cities and industries, where both the gains, and the remaining needs, are most obvious Nationalisations, the myriad of new health centres, educational facilities, social and cultural projects on the one hand and housing, sanitation, public security and environmental challenges have all come under the mediascope. But Venezuela is more than just an urban 'dream' or 'nightmare' - depending on which media you are reading - and is far more diverse and complex than such limited observations allow, something which Chavez at least appreciates and which goes some way to explaining the depth and breadth of his support nationally.

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Take San Martin de Turumbang, a small indigenous community of several hundred families in the "reclamation zone", on the riverbank of Venezuela's border with Guyana, and four hours mostly 4-wheel drive from the nearest city. San Martin has a health clinic with one doctor, a school, and a spattering of small general stores serving the population composed of various indigenous groups with distinct cultures, languages and traditions. Kariña, Warao, and Akawayo are amongst the groups living here, and unlike remote indigenous communities in many other countries, there is full employment in the area thanks to the abundance of natural resources such as gold, making mining the most common occupation. There is a total ban on alcohol and drugs, and until recently it was never necessary to fence or even lock the houses.

I accompanied members of the Venezuelan Indigenous Parliament on a visit to San Martin in December to find out what the people here want and need, because although the Chavez government has made available considerable funds for community development projects, no applications had been received from this area. They wanted to find out why.

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Our visit coincided with that of several teams of health workers and government officials on one of their regular visits. Their quarterly trips integrate the registration of births, deaths, marriages, and voters with the provision of higher-level health care than ordinarily available at the one-doctor clinic. The army was also on hand, providing a dentist as well as transport, as people from the neighbouring jungle communities often face three or four days walk, or must travel long distances by boat, to reach San Martin. The army's assistance enables people from these far-flung communities both to participate in community meetings, as well as to avail themselves of health and registration services which would otherwise be inaccessible, especially to pregnant women and small children.

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Dentist treating a patient

Daniel Chancellor, the newly-elected mayor of the region, also turned up to the community meeting – although not a Chavista, he took up Chavez's challenge to all elected officials after the November municipal and regional elections to maintain a presence in the communities they represent so they can genuinely understand and meet the needs of their electorates.

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Health Clinic and Medical Team vehicle

While some queued at the school for registration procedures others queued at the health clinic to be vaccinated, see the doctor, be weighed and measured, consult the nutritionist, or have blood or other samples taken by the mobile pathology and laboratory service, while across the road the army dentist treated patients as community consultations began adjacent, and the first of the army trucks arrived with a group of Kariña from upriver.

During the two days of activities over two hundred medical consultations and more than a hundred dental treatments were performed, as well as scores of registrations. Not everyone went away happy – the history of the area means that establishing citizenship can be very complicated. Lesley Brown told me how he was actually born in Guyana and went to school there but as a young man he, along with many other young indigenous men, was offered free land by the Guyana Government in what is now the "Reclamation Zone". It was an unashamed land-grab by Guyana of Venezuelan land, but worse still was the fact that the Guyana government then armed many of these men to defend themselves against the true owners of the land, also indigenous, who were trying to prevent the theft, thus using young indigenous men as cannon fodder in what became a "civil" war.

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Height and weight measuring

Lesley survived and now has Venezuelan citizenship, having lived and worked in the Zone for 30 years, but others such as the man pictured, have yet to provide sufficient evidence to get Venezuelan citizenship. Because the river is the border, and people have been crossing for centuries to work, socialise, seek food and medical care, many families have members from both countries, or members living in both. Distance from cities and lack of transport means lack of identity documentation is widespread, and determining citizenship can be an extremely lengthy and difficult process – but one which the Chavez government is addressing determinedly in one of its lesser-known, but much-needed and highly appreciated, initiatives.

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Mayor Daniel Chancellor (standing) and Indigenous Council President Juan Jose Gonzalez (seated in red shirt)

Over the many hours of meetings that went on into the night, the communities raised several important issues with the Mayor and the indigenous parliamentarians, such as the need for an inpatient service for patients that come to the clinic by the launch-ambulance, foot, or boat and who are too sick to return immediately to their community but not sick enough to warrant transfer to hospital. They also want to do something to address the fact that although there is virtually full employment, their nutritional status is poor. There was considerable concern voiced about the entry of alcohol and drugs into the community from 'across the river' and the social problems that are resulting from this, such as domestic violence, burglaries and theft. A very complex problem raised was the environmental effects of mining, by which most people earn their living but which is polluting the water, poisoning the fish and according to some, the people. While communities had many ideas about how to address some of these problems, they informed the parliamentarians that they have not applied for funding for projects to do so because they lack the skills, knowledge and experience of how to develop and manage the sorts of community projects that will be necessary over many years, and identified this as their major obstacle. The communities and parliamentarians agreed to have a further meeting in February, to nut out a programme of action to meet this need.

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Mining activities on the river like this...

This is a classic example of participatory democracy, whereby the indigenous communities themselves are setting the parameters, determining the agenda, and taking control of their lives and environment - and being adequately resourced with both the money and the skills to do so. Listening to what the people want, taking the services to the people and if necessary taking the people to the services, stands in stark contrast to the laissez-faire service provision of decades of previous Venezuelan governments which resulted in the marginalisation of indigenous peoples and their under-servicing and underdevelopment – and of many first world countries, whose governments leave the hard yards to NGOs and international development organisations. No wonder the indigenous people, and those in Venezuela's rural and remote areas, responded positively to an amendment that will guarantee the presence of politicians who deliver, and for as long as they keep doing so.

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The boats are on the Venezuelan side of the border, the houses in Guyana

It is also a classic example of proactive democracy, of politicians going to remote communities themselves and at their own initiative, not for photo opportunities or because it has been demanded of them, but because they are on the ball enough to be aware that something is amiss, and to make the effort to find out what it is, why, and what the people themselves want to do about it. The communities are willing to do the work, and the Government is willing and able to listen to, and support them. No wonder the people responded so positively to a proposal to enable them to retain such committed representatives for the long haul – and it will be a long haul, as the problems identified in San Martin de Turumbang alone indicate.

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Three different Indigenous peoples - Tito Pollo (Karina), Lesley Brown (Akawayo) and Rosanna Beria (Warao)

Chavez and his socialist project continue to garner majority support because what they are doing is what the majority of the Venezuelan people want – to construct a better world. Whether indigenous or non, whether urban, rural or remote, Venezuelans last Sunday not only made a vote endorsing a constitutional amendment, but also made a vote of confidence – in themselves, and their ability to do so.

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