Hanna Katriina Rantala POLIS Journal Vol. 2, Winter 2009 University of Leeds
POLIS Journal
Vol. 2, Winter 2009
Over the past decade, from 1998 until today, Venezuela has put forth a radical programme for transformation. Under a framework of ‘equality’ and ‘liberation’, the
Bolivarian Revolution has proliferated hopes across the globe of a more just society.
Whilst holding potential for societal and gender equality, the revolutionary structures, however, have failed to replicate the intended changes within. ‘Equality’ and
‘liberation’ have remained guidelines and rather, their pursuit has remained conditioned by the revolutionary structures and the societal conditions. As such, this dissertation examines the ways in which the societal dynamics have shaped gender relations, creating and obstructing the potential for change.
1. Introduction
"Sin la verdadera liberación de la mujer sería imposible la liberación plena de los pueblos, soy un convencido de que un auténtico socialista debe ser también un auténtico feminista" [Without the true liberation of women a full liberation of the people would be impossible. I am convinced that an authentic socialist also ought to be an authentic feminist.] Hugo Chávez (Aló Presidente 2009).
Discontent with ‘democracy’ has led to a new tide for Leftist politics in Latin America.
Within the most unequal region in the world, the failure to provide economic prosperity and personal security has decreased state institutions’ legitimacy and peoples’ faith in
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Hanna Katriina Rantala POLIS Journal Vol. 2, Winter 2009 University of Leeds
‘democracy’ (Leogrande 2007: 368). Disqualifying the old democratic systems as elitist and corrupt, during the last decade the New Left
1 has had a special appeal for the poor.
By invoking aspirations of a more egalitarian and inclusive democracy the New Left governments have articulated premises of putting an end to the inequalities and exclusion ingrained in the political systems and societies (Leogrande 2007: 368;
Rodríguez Garavito and Barrett 2004: 27; Schamis 2006: 20). Amongst such changes, the case of Venezuela has evoked polemic responses.
A lot of academic debate has concentrated on the chavista element of the Bolivarian
Revolution , seeking to explain the problematic and polarising surge of Hugo Chávez as the central figure of the Revolution in Venezuela (Castañeda 2006; Ellner and Hellinger
2004; Norden 2005). Other authors have examined the societal dynamics behind the
Bolivarian Revolution rather explaining it as a continuum, shaped by the previous political systems, societal conditions, as well as by the popular insurrections and discontents (Sanoja 2009; Lander 2004; Márquez 2004; Schamis 2006; Wilpert 2007).
This tradition has allowed that the centrality of Chávez has been cast aside and rather the Bolivarian Revolution has been grasped within the global and local dynamics of power. While building upon both perspectives, my interest in the Bolivarian Revolution has been influenced by the struggles and social dynamics of the people involved in it.
Since not much has been written on the gender implications of the recent changes in
Venezuela, I wish to place the focus of my analysis on the ways in which the revolutionary structures have impacted gender relations. Maintaining that the global and local relations of power are inherently intertwined, I highlight the importance of studying the local, since, as asserted by Otto, the local make possible the global system of inequalities in power (Otto 1996: 134 cited in Townsend et al . 1997: 19). With a belief in a more equal and just world system, I built upon authors such as Diana Raby and George Wilpert who have appointed to the hopes the Bolivarian Revolution has hold for all those who believe in resistance and democratic change ( Servando García
2009; Wilpert 2007). Accordingly, while providing a critical analysis of the dilemmas
1
New Left is used to refer to the Leftist government since the 1990s (Garavito and Barrett 2004: 22).
Characteristic for the New Left is its dismissal of a universal truth and a universal struggle even if it reemerged as a reaction against the negative effects of neo-liberalism (Ibid.: 27 − 29).
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Hanna Katriina Rantala POLIS Journal Vol. 2, Winter 2009 University of Leeds inherent in the Bolivarian Revolution I wish to leave it open for everyone to decide whether it can provide a paradigm for “positive” change.
Whilst this dissertation has set out the question asking what are the gender implications of the Bolivarian Revolution, through an analysis of the Revolution and its implementation, the aim is to examine the ways in which ‘gender’ has been implicated in and by the Revolutionary structures. Gender is so set into the Revolutionary paradigm of ‘liberation’ and ‘equality’ as articulated by Hugo Chávez, refer to the quote above. While illustrating the main benefits and potential threats, the focus of this dissertation are to examine whether the Revolutionary discourse of ‘liberation’ and
‘equality’ can contribute to ‘gender equality’ or whether it in fact may prove detrimental for individual ‘empowerment’ and subsequently for ‘equality’ and ‘liberation’. As such, this dissertation examines the ways in which the societal dynamics have shaped femininities and masculinities creating and obstructing the potential for change.
Emphasising the transformation of the society on the basis of Venezuelan popular sovereignty and its own history and roots, the Bolivarian Revolution has relied on a metaphorical/symbolical
2 framework of national liberation by Simon Bolívar, Ezequiel
Zamora and Simon Rodríguez, the three roots of the Revolution (Lander 2004; Márquez
2004; Sanoja 2009). Here the preliminary symbolical status has been given for Bolívar, the liberator of South America, who has encompassed the values of ‘freedom’, ‘natural equality’ and ‘justice’ as interpreted by the Bolivarian tradition today. It has been complimented with those of Zamora, a 19 th
-century general, symbolising the unity of the peasants and the army, and Rodríguez, a former tutor of Simon Bolívar, so redeeming the value of education for the masses on the basis of its own traditions
(Sanoja 2009: 401
−
402, 405
−
406).
Given the Bolivarian discourse of ‘equality’, ‘liberation’ and ‘justice’, ‘liberation’ is understood as a process of ‘self-recovery’ (hooks 1989: 29). Drawing upon bell hooks,
‘liberation’ can so be theorised as a process on the personal, as well as on the national level whereby the subject is freed to recover his/her own history and be freed from any
2
‘Symbolical’ and ‘metaphorical’ are used here interchangeably as Bolivarianismo has drawn upon the symbolical value of Simon Bolívar, “the liberator of America”. Although Lander uses the term
‘metaphor’ (Lander 2004: 111) here ‘symbolism’ is considered more adequate.
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Hanna Katriina Rantala POLIS Journal Vol. 2, Winter 2009 University of Leeds domination or definitions of ‘who he/she is’ (Ibid.: 29
−
31). Consequently, it is inherently tied to the notion of ‘empowerment’ allowing us to look at it as a process of overcoming internalised as well as external notions of power and domination (Rowlands
1995: 102). While ‘liberation’ has been articulated through a state-led discourse, the
Bolivarian Revolution has redefined the expectations and rights of its citizens. Given the complex manner in which the state-led discourse of ‘equality’ has come to replicate a new basis for Revolutionary ‘citizenship’, it is argued that ‘citizenship’ is best grasped as a democratic articulating principle. According to Ruth Lister, ‘citizenship’ is a status which carries certain rights as well as a practice involving obligations and political participation (Lister 1997: 16
−
17, 39, 41). This way we can gain insights into the gender-specific expectations of peoples’ ability to be and act as full and equal citizens with a wide range of rights and obligations, as well as examine the factors that potentially limit the personal autonomy to determine one’s own life and to pursue one’s own life projects (Ibid.: 70). Accordingly, this dissertation maintains that in order to examine the gendered implications of the Bolivarian Revolution and its discourse of
‘liberation’ we ought to examine the ways in which the gendered relations of power have conditioned and shaped the [gendered] opportunities to be ‘equal’ and potentially advanced and/or obstructed the realisation of ‘empowerment’ and ‘liberation’. A study of the dynamics of power in the Venezuelan society can, therefore, help explain the recent political changes, on the one hand, and shed light onto the problems of executing the revolutionary ‘liberation’, on the other.
In order to achieve the aims outlined above, this paper will draw on both qualitative and quantitative sources, as well as primary and secondary evidence. Particular emphasis is given to the primary data obtained from three Venezuelan NGOs: Asociación Larense de Planificación Familiar, Alaplaf [Larense Association of Family Planning] , Frente
Nacional Campesino Ezequiel Zamora, Ezequiel Zamora [The Campesino National
Front Ezequiel Zamora] and Fundamujer.
The organisations were contacted via e-mail questionnaires containing six open questions, which asked their personal/organisational perspective about the recent changes in gender relations.
3
Alaplaf and Fundamujer are
3
I wish to express my eternal gratitude for the organisations Asociación Larense de Planificación
Familiar, Frente Nacional Campesino Ezequiel Zamora and Fundamujer for their contribution and help.
Also I would like to thank Olivia Garvey for her help and collaboration and Aurora Velasco López for her guidance with the translation. The original questionnaire and translation can be seen in the Appendix.
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Hanna Katriina Rantala POLIS Journal Vol. 2, Winter 2009 University of Leeds both independent organisations, specialising in women’s rights.
Alaplaf has been established since 1976 and its work includes providing reproductive health and other services to low-income groups of women. Aiming to raise women’s awareness, its main interest is in women’s ‘empowerment’.
Fundamujer is also an independent organisation, funded in 1992, which targets violence against women. Its principle activities include providing assistance and information for women in crisis, coordinating projects to advance women’s human rights, providing policy reports, workshops, journal articles, conferences, courses and workshops with other institutions and groups as well as providing help for the media, national surveys and companies in planning and providing protocols to assist and register the cases of violence.
Fundamujer also engages in the investigation and study of male perpetrators of violence who want to change.
Ezequiel Zamora, in turn, is not explicitly a gender organisation but rather it works in order to organise and mobilise the rural workers and population, campesinos . It draws upon values of agro-ecology with the main duties involving the collectivisation of land, work and property in the rural areas, so aiming to strengthen the different forms of collective organising as well as to secure the growth of rural communities.
This data is complemented through using secondary data from Amnesty International,
Latinobarómetro and Venezuelanalysis, as well as academic literature. Examining the multiple sources, the aim is to offer a feminist understanding of the societal transformation under the ‘liberation’ framework of the revolution. Offering a critical overview of gender, ‘equality’ and ‘liberation’ in present-day Venezuela, this dissertation contains five chapters. This introduction is followed by chapter 2 which gives an overall picture of Venezuelan politics from the democratic system of puntofijismo until the emergence of the Bolivarian Revolution from the late 1980s onwards .
Given the radical nature of the changes, some time is spent on introducing the main policies under the Chávez government. In order so to illustrate the ways in which
‘liberation’ has been advanced in economic, cultural, political and societal terms , the structural dimensions of the radical programme are put under scrutiny. So it sets out the problems within the revolutionary structures, reflecting upon the contradictory role the chavista elements have played in the Revolution. Chapter 3 explores the concepts of
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Hanna Katriina Rantala POLIS Journal Vol. 2, Winter 2009 University of Leeds
‘equality’ and ‘liberation’ as the analytical basis for the Venezuelan case. Looking at the traditions of ‘liberation’ in Latin America it introduces the [gendered] dilemma ingrained within ‘liberation’ thinking. With a particular emphasis on gender, it emphasises the notion of critical awareness as practice of ‘empowerment’, ‘equality’ and ‘liberation’. Accordingly, it illustrates the difficulty of providing transformation towards ‘equality’ and ‘liberation’, unless the democratic deficits within the Bolivarian
Revolution can be overcome. Chapter 4 studies the implementation of the revolution, highlighting the practical implications for gender relations. This part sheds light onto the problems of executing the revolutionary process, proceso, amongst the popular sectors, examining the factors which have hindered the aims of [gender] ‘equality’ and
‘liberation’. Whilst starting with an analysis of the revolutionary ‘discourse’ it proceeds on to examine the role inequality and marginalisation continue to play in Venezuela, potentially complicating the basis for transformation towards [gender] ‘equality’ and
‘liberation. Lastly Chapter 5 offers the conclusions.
2. The Bolivarian Revolution and Liberation: Defining the Sites of Struggle
”Just you wait, imperialist, Latin America will all be feminist!” Crowds of women supporting Chávez at the Vía Campesina dialogue in World Social Forum, Brazil 2009
(Osava 2009)
Ellner and Hellinger have argued that social inequality is the starting point to understand chavismo (Ellner and Hellinger 2004: 217). Over the two decades of economic downturn, from the early 1980s onwards, Venezuela was turned into one of the world’s most unequal societies with the greatest increase in the poverty rate in Latin
America (Wilpert 2007: 107 − 108). The aggravated societal divisions and inequality reflected the intensifying urban segregation which, both literally and figuratively, excluded the poorest strata from the formal political sphere.
4
The majority of
Venezuelans living in poverty were depicted as a threat to the basic values of the nation and its stability, while the ruling of the country was reserved for the few elite (Duno
Gottberg 2004: 116; Hernández 2004: 137). For the poor, Hugo Chávez was the first
Venezuelan President to take an interest in their needs.
4
Venezuela experienced massive urbanisation in the 1940s and 1950s. The structural changes made cities places in which the citizens sought a better life under the growing oil economy (Briceño 2007: 547).
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Hanna Katriina Rantala POLIS Journal Vol. 2, Winter 2009 University of Leeds
From 1958 the Venezuelan politics was dominated by a democratic system, known as puntofijismo.
It was a series of elite settlements between the dominant political parties
AD, Acción Democrática [Democratic Action], COPEI, Comité de Organización
Política Electoral [The Committee of the Electoral Politics Organisation] and economic elites that established the patterns for democratic interaction under a strongly centralised state (Friedman 2000: 121 − 123). The economic boom in the 1960s and 1970s secured benefits to the Venezuelans − such as expanded education, health care, housing and price subsidies − while access to the political sphere remained controlled by the ruling parties (Rakowski 2003: 388). Although certain class-based groups were allowed within the party-system, the civil society remained in control of a male-led and –dominated political culture and system, so “democratically” excluding women and the poor
(Friedman 1998: 90; Friedman 2000: 136). Although gender played a major role in defining political participation, the middle and higher class women, for instance, could participate confining their housework to other women (Friedman 1998: 95
−
97). Rather, both women and men faced limitations by their class and race, securing that political exclusion touched men and women alike, even if women have constituted the poorest of the poor (Wagner 2005b).
The economic downturn initiated by the ‘Black Friday’
5 in 1983 deteriorated the living conditions in the country (Lander 2004: 102). The poverty rates climbed from 17% in
1980 to 65% by 1996 so confining the majority of Venezuelans to live in poverty while a small but visible minority continued to live in wealth. Under the democratic system of puntofijismo broad societal struggles, however, remained marginalised whilst the governing bodies were mainly concerned with the interests of private property and the elite (Márquez 2004: 203; Lander 2004: 103
−
104; Wilpert 2007: 13). Only when the growing role of neoliberal policies reinforced the unequal power relations and all fantasy of endless oil wealth had shrunk to non-existent, was the popular opinion to gain more prominence. The seeds for the Bolivarian Revolution were sown (Hernández
2004: 137; Sanoja 2009: 396). During the late 1980s popular revolts exacerbated
5
‘Black Friday’, 18 th of February 1983 started the economic downturn, recession, as bolivar devaluated
( Márquez 2004: 198 − 199). Since the economic aspect is not directly relevant within the scope of this dissertation, for more detail see Márquez 2004 or Wilpert 2007: 11 − 13.
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Hanna Katriina Rantala POLIS Journal Vol. 2, Winter 2009 University of Leeds political crisis (Márquez 2004: 198
−
199; Sanoja 2009: 396, 399
−
400).
6
Fed up with the poverty and corruption, in 1989 the crowds gathered to demonstrate against new rises in oil prices and public transportation in a series of popular riots, known as the Caracazo.
Having little means to control the disillusioned protesters, the Government ordered army to the streets; with between 300 and 3000 deaths Caracazo was to have farreaching impacts in the Venezuelan political landscape. (Norden 2004: 96; Wilpert
2007: 16
−
17). Soon after a radical group of officers led by Hugo Chávez Frías and Ariel
Cárdenas led Movimiento Bolivariano Revolucionario 200 , MBR 200 [The
Revolutionary Bolivarian Movement 200]
7 against the government in two coup d’état attempts in February and November 1992 (Norden 2004: 96
−
97). Sympathetic to the people’s suffering, MBR 200 aligned against the corrupt and now oppressive democratic regime with hopes of evoking a more just and equal society (Ibid.). Despite the defeat, Chávez was turned into a folk hero (Wilpert 2007: 17).
In 1998, the newly-named Movimiento Quinta República , MVR, [the Movement of the
Fifth Republic] in a coalition with nearly all Leftist parties won a 56.20% of the vote and raised Chávez to presidency (Lander 2004: 108
−
109; Sanoja 2009: 402). With an emphasis on ‘justice’ and ‘liberation’ MVR promised to bring well-being to all
Venezuelans through extensive social programmes which were to provide the people with equal opportunities for social and spiritual development (Wilpert 2007: 189, 231).
By symbolically naming the revolution Bolivarian , after the ‘liberator of South
America’, Simon Bolívar, the transformation of Venezuela was portrayed as a struggle for ‘liberation’ (Lander 2004: 110
−
111).
With a thorough transformation within the cultural, economic, political and social spheres in mind, the newly elected government was quick to remove the old elite from power and in 1999 Venezuela received a new constitution so as to guarantee the intended changes (Wilpert 2007: 20
−
21). In order to counter the legacies of
6
In 1993 Latinobarómetro found that only 6% of Venezuelans expressed confidence in their political parties (Coppedge 2000: 131). This number is in sharp contrast with the current 47% of Venezuelans. The rate was at its highest level in 2007, with 59% satisfied (Latinobarómetro 2008: 107, 109).
7
The 200 stood for the 200 th anniversary of the birth of Simon Bolivar (Wilpert 2007: 16). The MVR 200 was originally formed in 1980 by Chávez as EBR 200. The name stood for E zequiel Zamora, Simon
B olivar and Simon R odríquez, as well as for the initials of Ejercito Bolivariano Revolucionario
[Bolivarian Revolution Army] (Wilpert 2007: 15 − 16). For more detail, see Lander 2004: 111 and Sanoja
2009: 404 − 406.
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Hanna Katriina Rantala POLIS Journal Vol. 2, Winter 2009 University of Leeds puntofijismo , which had excluded ordinary citizens from politics, the Bolivarian
Revolution aimed to ensure that ‘people’ were included in the revolutionary governance.
Consequently, the division between the executive, legislative and judicial powers was maintained, while two new powers were added to ensure citizen participation; poder ciudadano [citizens’ power] and poder electoral [elective power] (Lander 2004: 119).
8
More generally, political rights became complimented with extent cultural, economic and social rights, providing people with the rights to culture, education, employment, food, health care and shelter (Wilpert 2007: 22).
The Bolivarian cultural policy was designed to both widen access to cultural services that were previously reserved for a minority
− such as museums, galleries and theatres
− but also to support and strengthen the cultural expressions of all Venezuelan class, social and ethnic groups. The aim is that all Venezuelans recognise the value of their cultural identity (Marsh 2009).
Consequently, the new national narratives of ‘liberation’ have been articulated on the basis of Venezuela’s own history, own roots and own cultural tradition (Lander 2004:
110 − 111).
Given Venezuela’s standing as the fifth largest oil-exporting country in the world, oil revenues have enabled the radical programme (Wilpert 2007: 70, 83, 87).
9
Ensuring that the needs of the poor have been taken into account, the social programmes, known as missions, have included, for instance, Mission Barrio Adentro
− addresses the need of community health care
−
Mission Madres del Barrio
− provides 60-80 % of minimum wages a month for poor mothers
−
Mission Mercal
− establishes subsidised foodmarkets
−
Mission Negra Hipolita
− provides shelter, food, health care and drug rehabilitation for the homeless − Mission Ribas − to secure high school completion −
Mission Robinson − literacy training − and Mission Sucre − university scholarships
(Ibid.: 25, 143). Built upon the ideas of ‘equal opportunity’ the missions have aimed to guarantee that a larger proportion of Venezuelans have the capabilities to pursue their personal aims as well as to participate fully in the revolutionary governance. In order to advance the execution of such a process, the state has established programmes and plans
8
Through poder ciudadano and poder electoral the people are guaranteed power to prevent, punish and investigate deeds that go against human rights, public ethics, administrative morality, as well as to ensure that electoral procedures are ran free and fairly (Wilpert 2007: 37 − 38).
9
Venezuela’s dependence on oil has been identified as a threat for the continuity of the revolution, given the volatility of oil prices and economy’s over-all reliance on its revenues (Wilpert 2007: 83).
Consequently, the aim has been to diversify the Venezuelan economy, so far, with little success (Ibid.).
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Hanna Katriina Rantala POLIS Journal Vol. 2, Winter 2009 University of Leeds for gestión pública partipativa [participatory public management] and, for instance, decentralised public water supply for the local communities (Lander 2004: 121). The latter, Mesas Técnicas de Aqua y los Consejos Comunitarios de Aqua, [Technical
Tables for Water and Communal Councils for Water Supply] have stimulated organisational processes within the communities so aiming to convert the councils into public enterprises, controlled and supervised by the communities they serve (Ibid.).
Such redefinitions of democratic principles around the ideas of ‘equality’ and
‘participation’, has also underlined ‘citizenship’ in a new way. Enabling people more control over their own lives, ‘citizenship’ has become viewed as a status and a practice , entailing more extensive rights and participatory duties (Lister 1997: 36, 38, 41). In theory, it has come to secure that all Venezuelans can equally pursue their personal autonomy, to choose when and how to participate according to one’s own needs and situation, even though in practice, as will be discussed later on, the opportunities to do so have remained restricted.
The thematic of ‘liberation’ has appeared strongly in the Bolivarian Revolution foreign policy. While importantly, development has been promulgated via increasing the local, national and regional autonomy of Latin America and Venezuela, the figure of Chávez has risen to a central role, having increased the revolutionary label as chavista . In foreign policy, Chávez has emphasised five major objectives: multi-polarity, Latin
American integration, diversifying foreign relations, strengthening Venezuela’s position within the international economy and increasing hemispheric security (Wilpert 2007:
153
−
162). Through these objectives national ‘liberation’ has been sought in the domain of “high politics”. The underlying theme has been to seek development and ‘liberation’ through increased independency in dictating the terms of foreign policy and so challenging the hegemonic rule of the United States (Ibid.).
Such plans have held potential for democratising the terms of foreign relations.
Nonetheless, Chávez’s visible role has become a focus of negative attention while he has appeared to push for the changes on his terms, representing himself as the regional leader (Shifter 2006: 52
−
53; Wilpert 2007: 162). Contrarily to the notion of ‘liberation’ as suggested by bell hooks, ‘liberation’ has not been sought as a process of ‘selfrecovery’ of all definitions of what ‘Venezuela’ is like (1989: 29
−
31), but rather,
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Hanna Katriina Rantala POLIS Journal Vol. 2, Winter 2009 University of Leeds
Chávez’s rhetoric has reinforced an image of Venezuela as anti-USA, antipuntofijismo , hence negatively identifying vis-à-vis its earlier image. Consequently, despite the discourse of ‘liberation’, he has not enhanced internal democratisation within the domain of foreign politics but rather limited space for democratic potential. In an ambiguous manner, by taking discursive distance from the USA and the former Right parties, Chávez has been keen on forging ties with countries such as China, Iran and
Russia, disregarding their internal struggles for social justice while promoting justice around the world (Wilpert 2007: 157, 162, 178
−
179, 181). Likewise, despite the strong
‘liberation’ rhetoric, little has been done to actually change the rules of the game
(Leogrande 2007: 370
−
371; Wilpert 2007: 69, 151). Whilst this by no means suggests that countries should abandon plans for economic ‘development’ or give up democratisation of international politics, Venezuela’s reliance on turbulent political rhetoric rather than implementing such ideals has put the radical potential of the revolution under question.
10
Rightly, the Opposition has criticised Chávez for playing with a blend of “populism”, nationalism, militarism and socialism while he has circumvented democratic rules and the revolutionary ideals “in order to advance the revolutionary project” (Schamis 2006: 33; Shifter 2006: 47).
Even though the state personnel have been changed and the political ideals have spoken of ‘equality’, ‘human development’ and ‘liberation’, the institutional structures have remained nearly intact (Norden 2004: 94
−
95; Wilpert 2007: 190, 194
−
195, 232).
Consequently, the revolutionary structures have continued to centralise power, increasing the control of civil society and collaborative participants, forcing these to accept standard moulds of providing “change” (Townsend et al . 1997: 23). ‘Liberation’ has so appeared as a centralised project of transformation whereby the interpretations of what is ‘local’ and ‘popular’ have remained under the control of State ideology.
Bird has argued that the increased symbolical status given to popular and local narratives has increased people’s opportunities to construct their sense of place and cultural identity, it as any other nationalist project has built upon “selective appropriation” of facts, incidents and stories (Bird 2002: 521
−
522, 526). Then despite the potential for
10
Chávez’s rhetorical attacks on USA increased after it appeared that the Bush Administration had been involved in the coup d’état attempt against Chávez in 2002 (Hakim 2006: 44, 48, Leogrande 2007:
375 − 376).
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Hanna Katriina Rantala POLIS Journal Vol. 2, Winter 2009 University of Leeds enhancing self-proclaimed ‘empowerment’, the failure to challenge the power dynamics within the Bolivarian Revolution has threatened to limit space for diversity. With worries that interpretations of popular ‘liberation’ may prove to promote resistance of everything ‘we are not’ on government’s terms, it has carried potentially detrimental impacts for gender and social equality as well as for the over-all state of democracy
(Bird 2002: 531).
Then in order to ensure this is not the case, and the objectives of democratising the society and encouraging the people to reclaim ‘power’ over their standing are taken seriously, the existing internal hierarchies of power within the public as well as the private domain ought to be put under scrutiny (Townsend et al . 1997:
23
−
24, 27). That is to say that ‘power’ as a means of practicing control over material resources and bodies, as well as over ideologies and ideals, is to be challenged at all levels, so to resist the internalised impediments to ‘empowerment’ and ‘liberation’
(Ibid.: 27 − 28; Peterson 1996: 6).
Feminists have underlined the significance of transforming all aspects of daily lives when speaking of ‘empowerment’ (hooks 1989: 21
−
22; Wieringa 1995: 19 cited in
Townsend et al.
1997: 20). Arguing that the global systems of inequalities in power begin at the bottom, the private sphere of activities and their gendered politics come to occupy a central position in global [and local] politics (Peterson 1996: 5; Townsend et al . 1997: 19). Mapping a landscape of elite men, the domain of “high politics” has rendered the local processes including women and men to seemingly secondary place
(Enloe 1989: 1, 3
−
4). Yet, as Enloe has argued, the governing bodies have relied heavily on ‘gendered’ relations of power, requiring women, in particular, to behave in certain ways. As she continues, when they have not done so, the relations between governments have had to change (Ibid.: 198). From such a perspective the transformation of gendered relations of power rises to a pivotal role in challenging the over-all power relations, given that the concept of challenging ‘power’ is internalised at all levels, within the institutions as well as on a daily basis.
Given the scope of intended transformations, the Bolivarian Revolution has looked promising for social and gender ‘equality’ and ‘liberation’. As Rakowski points out, the
1999 constitution has met virtually all women’s demands since 1979 (Rakowski 2003:
388). Under the new government Venezuela has ratified all international human and
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Hanna Katriina Rantala POLIS Journal Vol. 2, Winter 2009 University of Leeds women’s rights treaties,
11 included extensive social programmes which cater to the specific needs of women, given the poor mothers the right to wages and drafted a gender-inclusive constitution which incorporates the masculine and feminine versions of all political action it mentions (Wilpert 2007: 31
−
32). A specific governmental women’s institution, Inamujer , has sought to raise feminist consciousness through educational programmes and workshops with aims to provide democratisation within families, to strengthen women’s active role in the Venezuelan society and to reform gender-sensitive social security laws, ensuring that feminists are included in the legislative writing (Rakowski 2003: 400
−
401). Subsequently, in 2007 an ‘Organic Law’ was implemented to provide women with the right to a life free of violence as a fundamental human right (Amnesty 2008: 6; Marl Torres et al. 2009). ‘Organic Law’ has reaffirmed the responsibility of the state and its officials to eradicate violence, setting out measures to prevent violence, to protect women at risk, as well as to punish those responsible (Amnesty 2008: 6).
However, despite high hopes and improved basic services, social inequality and violence have remained wide problems (Shifter 2006: 51). Authors have reminded us that the legal and institutional changes are only the first step towards [gender] equality
(Rakowski 2003: 399; Wagner 2005a). Indeed, gender equality has been articulated as an inseparable part of social justice and liberation (Aló Presidente 2009; Gabriel 2009), yet, from a feminist perspective, a lot remains to be done (Wagner 2005a). NGOs have stated that despite the legal changes, the social environment that feeds the problem has not been challenged but rather maintained the oppressive power structures (Ibid.;
Alaplaf 2009; Ezequiel Zamora 2009; Fundamujer 2009). ‘Organic Law’, for example, while holding great promise for eradicating the legacies of [gender] injustice, has faced obstacles in practice (Amnesty 2008: 9). A lack of public awareness, information and education, inadequate data collection, insufficient shelters for victims and a poorly resourced police and judicial infrastructure have hindered the law from being implemented (Ibid.).
While the planned transformations are a step forward, the practical problems of implementing them reveal the difficulty of overcoming the belief systems, ideology and
11
For more detail, see Amnesty 2008: 13.
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Hanna Katriina Rantala POLIS Journal Vol. 2, Winter 2009 University of Leeds culture that maintain and create [unequal] power relations. Wilpert writes that the government, itself, has failed to internally democratise its institutions, and instead, the
Chávez government has advanced a top-down management style, failing to put an end to the legacies of ‘patronage-clientelism’, corruption and the personalistic politics it has harshly criticised (Ellner and Hellinger 2004: 218
−
220; Wilpert 2007.: 195
−
196).
12
Also, in an ambiguous manner, as Fundamujer argues, the Government has raised ‘civil society’ to a position as its legitimate interlocutor while simultaneously the operational space for civil society actors has decreased. Contrary to the mantra of increasing popular management and participatory governance, the government has been implicit in expressing that all gender-programmes are to be executed within the governmental framework (Fundamujer 2009).
Whilst Wilpert expressed concerns that the social programmes have been guaranteed only by presidential decrees and can thus disappear (Wilpert 2007: 148), Alvárez from
Fundamujer maintained that, at the moment, all that is left is Mission Madres del
Barrio, the programme that guarantees housewives with a small salary (Fundamujer
2009). Although health is addressed through this mission , she continues that the funding has been prioritised for government-sympathetic organisations and communities while the funds for independent organisations have been constantly decreasing, so restricting their scope for operation. This has allowed the government-run projects better access to the communities, with attempts to “lure” the beneficiaries into the government ideology
(Ibid.). L ikewise García-Guadilla argued that there are concerns that the Bolivarian circles are replacing the pre-existing societal organisations and movements (García-
Guadilla 2004: 194). She writes that the opportunities for co-optation and political manipulation have increased in conditions in which confrontations between progovernment actors and other social forces have privileged those sympathetic towards the government-dictated revolution (Ibid.). A similar point was raised by Alaplaf , who expressed the problem of ‘political discrimination’, which has provided those in alliance with the government with more resources than those who are not (Alaplaf 2009). This,
12
Such tradition has persisted in Chávez’s manner to call and appoint ministers for new tasks, and dismissal of criticism (Wilpert 2007: 198 − 9, 203). ‘Patronage-clientelism’ was forged under the system of puntofijismo, since influence-peddling and reversed-clientelism were crucial in a strong interventionist state; the oil-centred economy relied upon a patrimonial system of clientelistic networks that served to distribute the revenues among insiders (Schamis 2006: 29).
13

Hanna Katriina Rantala POLIS Journal Vol. 2, Winter 2009 University of Leeds as the responses stated, has been possible given that the “changes” have only been realised in the legal sphere whilst the state institutions have failed to internalise and advance the proposed innovations in practice (Ibid.).
Alarmingly the Bolivarian discourse of ‘deepening democracy’ and ‘increasing the role of civil society’ has faced critiques for its failure and desire to implement the intended participatory models of democracy and ‘citizenship’ in practise. Contrary to the aims of participatory democracy, the local initiatives have remained unorganised and rather controlled by and dependent on the new political parties (Ellner and Hellinger 2004:
218
−
219; Shifter 2006: 51
−
53).
Freedomhouse maintains that, in fact, the Chávez government has made efforts to undermine the legitimacy of human rights and other civil society organizations by questioning their ties to international groups (Ibid.), a point shared by Fundamujer (Fundamujer 2009) .
While the redefined ‘citizenship’ has emphasised ‘equality’ and ‘liberation’, along the line of the critiques mentioned above, such ideals seem to be linked to the acceptance of state ideology.
Consequently, the opposition in Venezuela has maintained that the Bolivarian discourse of ‘people’ has straightforwardly excluded the privileged classes (García-Guadilla 2004:
193). All in all, the Chávez’s outspoken rhetoric and his radical policies have polarised the politics both within Venezuela and abroad as some have regarded him as a hero in service of humanitarianism and others as a power-hungry dictator (Shifter 2006:
46
−
47). Academics have accused Chávez of neo-populism and of having adopted authoritarian steps towards delegative-democracy (Casta ñeda 2006: 34; Norden 2004:
94
−
95).
13
Regardless of these difficulties, however, it seems difficult to dispute the fact that the
Bolivarian Revolution has set out a truly radical framework in order to deepen
‘democracy’. Also, counter to the critiques, amongst the popular classes and the barrios, the revolution has enjoyed support. As a woman active in council work stated,
“before him [Chávez] all we had were promises. All the stuff was for the high-up there,
13
‘Neo-populism’ as defined by Castañeda, in the context of Venezuela, refers to the model of governance in which the government has “given away” without raising taxes on middle classes, in order to ensure its popularity (Castañeda 2006: 34). ‘Delegative-democracy’ is a system whereby whoever wins the elections is entitled to govern as he/she sees fit, constrained only by the existing power relation and constitutionally limited term of office (O’Donnell 1994: 59 cited in Norden 2004: 94).
14

Hanna Katriina Rantala POLIS Journal Vol. 2, Winter 2009 University of Leeds not for us from the barrios” (Márquez 2004: 209). Although such support has not necessarily signalled uncritical devotion to Chávez and his Government, the structural inequalities have influenced and forged hopes which have been evoked by the
Bolivarian Revolution , its pro-poor policies and practical means. The difficulties of balancing the authoritarian “chavista” notions of the Bolivarian Revolution with the benefits of the revolutionary implementation, however, may be shared by the various strata of the society, even if the different sectors in the polarised society have failed to oversee their seemingly different struggles. Accordingly, the support for the revolution may be better explained by the historical and structural continuities that have provoked mistrusts amongst the Venezuelan society, dominated by the inequalities and marginalisation along the class lines (Lander 2004; Sanoja 2009).
If this is the case, the roles the Bolivarian Revolution and its chavista elements play may be a central factor towards achievement of societal cohesion, ‘equality’ and
‘liberation’. Whether the Bolivarian framework of ‘equality’ and ‘liberation’ indeed choose to advance ‘empowerment’ and transformation at all levels of society or whether the hierarchical structures come to dictate the interpretations of ‘liberation’ determines what the Bolivarian transformation will look like. The radical legal changes and propositions are then better examined through the actual implementation of the
‘liberation’ framework, concentrating on whether such ideas will be internalised across the society and reflected within the revolutionary structures. On such basis, the proceeding chapter discusses the problems within the Bolivarian thematic of
‘liberation’.
3. Theorising ‘Liberation’: What Does ‘Liberation Have to Do with ‘Citizenship’?
“It is necessary to remember that it is first the potential oppressor within that we must resist − the potential victim within that we must rescue − otherwise we cannot hope for an end to domination, for liberation.” (Hooks 1989: 21)
In Latin America the idea of ‘liberation’ has stemmed from the lived realities of exclusion, marginalisation and poverty, since many of the citizens have suffered from a concrete lack of rights (Aldunete 1994: 299). Whilst the Bolivarian Revolution has
15

Hanna Katriina Rantala POLIS Journal Vol. 2, Winter 2009 University of Leeds similarly built upon the need to ‘liberate’ the people, it has politicised the material needs of the poor with an explicit articulation of women’s ‘liberation’. In practice, however, such a project has appeared to contain problems. While illustrating the tradition in
‘liberation’ thinking, this chapter focuses on the need to reflect upon the concept of
‘liberation’ so as to ensure it entails the practice of ‘empowerment’ and ‘equality’, and can advance the ‘liberation’ of all Venezuelans. Therefore, with a feminist perspective this chapter draws upon the idea of ‘liberation’ as theorised by bell hooks, see above, who encourages us to reflect upon our own actions in order to put an end to domination.
For such practice of ‘liberation’, however, it is essential that critical awareness is raised so that we can gain more insights of our own actions as women/men and challenge our
[gendered] behaviour, whenever oppressive for others. ‘Liberation’ as feminist praxis, is then rather theorised as a practice of ‘empowerment’ and ‘equality’.
The roots of ‘liberation’ have been traced back to the discovery of the “New World” when the Spanish and Portuguese raised questions about the rights of the native people of the conquered territories (Aldunete 1994: 298). Victoria, Soto and Suárez from the
Universities of Salamanca and Coimbra developed a theory of ‘natural right’, concluding that the native people had the right to live as freely as they may chose, even if such ideas were soon forgotten amid the search for riches (Ibid.: 298 − 299). From
1960s onwards these ideas become reconstructed under ‘liberation’ theories. Six intertwined traditions of ‘liberation’
−
Critical Pedagogy, Liberation Theology,
Economic Dependency Theory, Sociology of Liberation and Participation Research,
Philosophy of Liberation as well as Psychology of Liberation
− have challenged the problems of the Latin American ‘popular majorities’ (Burton and Kagan 2005: 66
−
68).
Out of these, Liberation Theology has reached perhaps the broadest support amongst the poorer classes, with its explicit articulation of human rights as the rights of the marginalised poor (Aldunete 1994: 298).
14
Demanding ‘liberation’, it has advanced a practical approach, whereby instead of speculating about the societal problems, it has engaged with the transformation of the reality (Ibid.: 299, 301). Although within
Liberation Theology there are internal discrepancies, they have all taken concrete life
14
Within academia, Dependency Theory has been influential. However, given the practical interest of this paper, only Critical Pedagogy and Liberation Theology will be given coverage.
16

Hanna Katriina Rantala POLIS Journal Vol. 2, Winter 2009 University of Leeds situations as their starting point and applied them through the notion of human suffering
(Vuola 1997: 95).
By drawing upon Christian values, Liberation Theology has somewhat paradoxically perpetrated culturally ingrained systems of gendered relations of power, so hindering women’s ‘liberation’ and ‘empowerment’. Therefore, within the tradition of Liberation
Theology, Feminist Liberation Theology has attempted to forward ‘liberation’ as a feminist praxis, which has included both men and women, and on such basis defined human liberation as that of men and women from all oppressive economic, social and sexual structures (Vuola 1997: 100
−
101). Regardless, it too has resisted challenging the category of ‘gender’ rather refusing to see it as a formative part of the social location of the poor. Women’s struggles have been “added up” to the collective ‘poor’ with little regards for questioning the subordination of women amongst the poor and in the church
(Ibid.: 101 − 103).
Consequently, Feminist Liberation Theology has failed to question the ways in which
‘gender’ has been sustained by the locally ingrained cultures of machismo and marianismo throughout Latin America. While the former has associated masculinity around a cult of aggression, assertiveness, autonomy and virility, maintaining men as the heads of the family and community, the latter has drawn upon the religious ideals of the Virgin Mary (Molyneux 2000b: 70; Stevens 1994: 4; Zubillaga and Briceño-León
2001: 37
−
38).
15
In a complex relation with machismo , marianismo has attributed
‘femininity’ with humility, moral strength, obedience, self-abnegation and virtue, which has contributed to the expectations of what a woman should be like (López Zarzosa
1998: 190 − 191; Stevens 1994: 4, 9). Problematically Liberation Theology’s focus on a similar set of Christian values of humility, martyrdom and self-abnegation, it has reinforced the already existent gendered expectations of women while also speaking of their ‘liberation’ (Howe 2000: 93 − 94).
Machismo , in turn, has not proliferated under
‘liberation’ to a similar extent; to the contrary, the softer values propagated by
Liberation Theology has carried potential for challenging aggressive notions of masculinities. Regardless, Liberation Theology has threatened to reproduce the “natural
15
For more detail on the origin of machismo and marianismo , see Stevens 1994.
17

Hanna Katriina Rantala POLIS Journal Vol. 2, Winter 2009 University of Leeds state of things”, reinforcing the expectations of gendered division of labour, subordinating women within the public and private spheres.
Critical Pedagogy, in turn, has advanced the view of extending ‘conscientisation’ of the popular masses as an essential pre-requisite for change and ‘liberation’. Arguing
‘education as a practice of freedom’, Paulo Freire has emphasised the need to raise the critical awareness of the masses in order for them to take command over their lives
(Freire 1965: 11 − 13, 26, 94). Despite this, Critical Pedagogy has also neglected gender differences (Townsend et al . 1997: 20). Indeed, Freire’s writing has overlooked the gendered differences of ‘liberation’, while he has been consistent in universalising the notion of ‘manhood’ to apply to all people alike (Freire 1965). Although Freire’s ideals of making individuals subjects in their own lives is essential for feminist analysis of
‘liberation’, he has overlooked the ways in which ‘power’ has been distributed within the society along the intersections of age, class, gender, race and sexuality conditioning the experiences of subordination (hooks 1989: 19
−
21, 43
−
45; Rowlands 1995: 101,
103).
In order to overcome such potential shortcomings, it is suggested that critical awareness ought to address the ways in which ‘gender’ affects our actions and ideas as women/men. White has importantly appointed ‘gender identities’ to be viewed as flexible, since women and men are not oppressed in all situations alike (White 1997:
15). That way, the contradictions behind gendered identities can be revealed, shedding light onto the situations in which ‘gender’ has determined power relationships of subordination and domination (Cornwall 1997: 9
−
10) and hindered the practice of
‘empowerment’ and ‘liberation’ in concrete situations. ‘Liberation’ becomes then rather a practice ‘empowerment’ and ‘equality’. As Jo Rowlands has argued, ‘empowerment’ is about bringing people who are outside the power to it, about making individuals being able to maximise the opportunities available to them without or despite constraints of structure and the state, as well as about overcoming the dynamics of
[internalised] oppression so that all people can explore their full potential (Rowlands
1995: 102). Therefore, the practice of ‘empowerment’, inherent for any process of
‘liberation’, can no longer be separated from raising critical awareness . It as a fundamental pre-requisite to overcome internalised oppression across the multiple
18

Hanna Katriina Rantala POLIS Journal Vol. 2, Winter 2009 University of Leeds intersections of power, since it can provide the critical basis to ensure that those who are subordinated by “naturalised” relations of domination, e.g. women to men, can overcome beliefs she/he has no opinions of her/his own (Ibid.).
By viewing ‘liberation’ and ‘empowerment’ as intertwined processes, ‘liberation’ comes to entail the individual process of ‘self-recovery’, as suggested by bell hooks
(1989: 31). While ‘liberation’ from oppressive gendered identities is a fundamental tenet for ‘empowerment’, bell hooks establishes ‘liberation’ with a particular focus on critical ‘practice’. Stating that since gender inequality is the form of domination most likely encountered on an on-going basis, ‘liberation’ is to be viewed as a process of
‘self-recovery’ from and ‘empowerment’ within all relations of domination (Ibid.:
21
−
22). ‘Liberation’ in all its manifestations is then tied to ‘empowerment’, underlying the importance of questioning and challenging the power dynamics in all its articulations from the global to the local levels, entailing that it cannot obstruct the practice of ‘equality’ of any other subject in question. That way, ‘liberation’ can come to have particular implications for gender relations, conditioned by the cultural values that position men and women differently across the society. Similarly, it can be applied amongst all those who have been marginalised from sites of power.
Since the Bolivarian Revolution has advanced ‘liberation’ through government-run programmes and frameworks, the importance of incorporating the practice of
‘empowerment’ and ‘equality’ into the revolutionary institutions has become essential for attainment ‘liberation’. In the government’s approach to create participatory democracy, as indicated in Chapter 2, the aim has been to ensure that all citizens have been equally included. The redefined notions of ‘citizenship’ and ‘liberation’, however, have been left somewhat open in conditions in which the execution of participatory democracy on government’s terms has clashed with the propagated values. Although
Chávez, see quote at the start of introduction, has argued that an authentic socialist is also an authentic feminist, the practical implications have remained undefined.
Traditionally, political theorists have relied on T. K. Marshall’s definition of
‘citizenship’, who argued it is a status which belongs to the members of a political community and so guaranteed the ‘equality’ of all those who possess such status
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Hanna Katriina Rantala POLIS Journal Vol. 2, Winter 2009 University of Leeds
(Marshall 1950: 28
−
29 cited in Lister 1997: 14). However, Liberation Theories have revealed the existing problems in the suggested connections between ‘citizenship’ and
‘equality’. Similarly, political theorists have pointed out that despite the assumed
‘equality’ , ‘democratic citizenship’ has made some citizens more ‘equal’ than others because of structural differences and inequalities (Young 2001: 93
−
94). These have stated that for ‘citizenship’ to enhance ‘equality’ and ‘empowerment’, some political guarantees of ‘inclusion’ are required (Ibid.: 119; Kymlicka 1995: 3
−
4, 6).
Consequently, Ruth Lister’s reformulation of ‘citizenship’ as a status and a practice upon which citizens are required to be and act as citizens (Lister 1997: 21, 41) takes us into a theoretical terrain in which we can examine the Bolivarian notion of ‘liberation’ as a practice of ‘citizenship’, with possible limitations for ‘empowerment’ and
‘equality’.
Will Kymlicka has entangled with the problem of how best to find a morally defensible and politically viable answer to minority and majority rights (Kymlicka 1995: 1).
Concerned with ‘equality’ and ‘freedom’ he has proposed a system of minority rights for groups that have been marginalised and rendered to a ‘minority position’ so as to ensure the full and free development of all citizens (Ibid.: 6, 26
−
27).
16
Also John
Andersen and Birte Siim have argued that in order to guarantee full ‘empowerment’ and
‘inclusion’ the governments ought to recognise marginalised groups and to secure their access to equal participation (Andersen and Siim 2004: 2). Likewise the ideas of
Liberation Theories, they argue that social exclusion is best understood as a product of economic and political changes at the top and accordingly, democracies ought to create the kinds of government and governance which can integrate the multiple actors, including those at the societal bottom, and represent their interests (Ibid.: 2 − 7). On a similar basis, Iris Marion Young has proposed a model of a group-differentiated
‘citizenship’ so as to secure ‘equality’ and ‘inclusion’ of the marginalised strata of society (Young 1995: 175 − 176). Her solution is that the societies commit to represent the oppressed or disadvantaged groups and be ready to implement representation when it appears that the group’s history or social situation provides a particular perspective on the issues or when the interests of its members are at stake (Ibid.: 188
−
189, 194).
She maintains that in order to ensure political ‘equality’ and freedom from domination,
16
For more detail, see Kymlicka 1995.
20

Hanna Katriina Rantala POLIS Journal Vol. 2, Winter 2009 University of Leeds the governing institutions and practices ought to secure that all participants are equally listened to, as well as provided with opportunities to express, question and criticise
(Young 2001: 23
−
25).
Anne Phillips, however, has pointed out that despite such attempts to acknowledge the
‘difference’ from the marginalised groups, a differentiated solution threatens to reproduce the citizens’ status as second-class citizens, which was rendered to them in the first place (Phillips 1993 cited in Lister 1997: 79 − 80). Also Chantal Mouffe has directed her critique towards the essentialist notion of groups that Young builds upon
(Mouffe 1992: 380), suggesting that a group-differentiated approach may work for certain groups, such as the indigenous peoples, but that the assumption that “women” or the “elderly” identify with given interests and identities lacks substance (Ibid.). By building upon Jo Rowlands’ ideas on ‘empowerment’ as an individualised process, the difficulty of government-led processes becomes apparent. Arguing that ‘empowerment’ cannot be effective if it is either applied in a top-down and directive fashion, or if it encourages dependency (Rowlands 1995: 105), the Bolivarian notions of ‘liberation’ prove problematic.
To a certain extent, the 1999 constitution as well as the ‘Organic Law’ has guaranteed group-specific rights and regulations even if it has not entirely complied with the models indicated above. Like the propositions of Kymlicka, Andersen and Siim, and
Young, the aim has been to secure the ‘equality’ and ‘inclusion’ of the indigenous groups and women with specific legal rights, whilst the over-all representative and participatory models of the Bolivarian democracy have aimed to secure the interests of the marginalised and discriminated masses (Wilpert 2007: 32
−
36).
In the responses provided by Fundamujer concerns were expressed that despite a whole set of regulations, the indigenous people, for instance, have remained excluded in practice
(Fundamujer 2009). Indeed, García-Guadilla notes to a case in which the newly-granted rights of the indigenous groups have been circumcised by the government, which has prioritised its own economic interests. Unconstitutionally violating the land rights of the
Indigenous groups, Chávez has been persistent in constructing a gas pipeline to Brazil despite the protests of the indigenous people who live on the lands (García-Guadilla
2004: 189). Another case in point has been the ‘Organic Law’. Despite the framework
21

Hanna Katriina Rantala POLIS Journal Vol. 2, Winter 2009 University of Leeds in which the state has assumed responsibility to protect the victims of abuse and enforce the law, in addition to the problems indicated earlier, Alvárez from Fundamujer stated that it has been used to undermine the freedom of the actors of the civil society in pursuing their work and goals (Fundamujer 2009). Rather, she continues, that the government has left it very clear that the NGOs specialised in women’s rights are to follow the governmental line of ‘Organic Law’ and work with the plans they have
(Ibid.).
Therefore, although theoretical propositions for specified rights offer us models on how to disentangle the exclusionary categories within ‘democracies’, they may prove insufficient in practice.
Despite a rights-based framework, the lack of political desire to comply with the suggested changes, as argued in the responses by Fundamujer, has obstructed the actual implementation of ‘empowerment’ and ‘equality’ (Fundamujer
2009). Given the consistency of all three organisations, Alaplaf, Ezequiel Zamora and
Fundamujer , it becomes evident that the legal changes have not led to large-scale transformations in reality (Alaplaf 2009; Ezequiel Zamora 2009; Fundamujer 2009).
Rather ‘citizenship’ as a practice has undermined the freedom of the subjects to choose the route they may have wished, requiring the citizens to work within the parameters of the revolutionary structures towards ‘equality’ and ‘liberation’. Crucially, the criteria of subjects’ ability to criticise and be heard have not been met (Young 2001: 23
−
25). In fact, Alvárez from Fundamujer brought up an alarming suggestion, arguing that the
Bolivarian Revolution is not really a revolution but a legal ‘dictatorship’; despite the intended changes, many unconstitutional decrees have been passed, undermining the legitimacy of the Bolivarian democracy and the opportunities of Venezuelans to pursue their personal autonomy. The centralising notions have rather guaranteed government access to provide sources they require to “justify” its means (Fundamujer 2009).
Therefore, it appears that despite the political framework, the lack of democratic substance has rather limited the parameters of ‘empowerment’ without guarantees of practice of ‘equality’ and ‘liberation’.
Keeping such statements in mind, the substance of Venezuelan ‘democracy’ becomes a major concern. Whether there is genuine interest to advance a vision of ‘liberation’ in the Venezuelan society or whether the legal changes pay lip-service for a newly-stated
22

Hanna Katriina Rantala POLIS Journal Vol. 2, Winter 2009 University of Leeds political hegemony are distressing questions. Either case, it appears that the ideas put forth by the revolution have not been ingrained in practice. Rather the insistence upon hierarchically-led practices has limited space for critical awareness within the society, distorting the opportunities to practice ‘citizenship’ as ‘equality’.
Unless
‘empowerment’ becomes promoted as a part of the ‘citizenship’ and ‘liberation’ paradigms, we may ask, using Maxine Molyneux’s study on Cuba as a comparative paradigm, whether it is viable to expect that [Venezuela] manages to overcome its tradition of authoritarian organisation and management styles as well as the traditions of patriarchal privilege, sexual inequality, machismo [and marianismo ] (Molyneux 2000a:
312, 314). Even more importantly, is there actual desire to do so?
Whilst in Venezuela the Bolivarian Revolution has pressed for the politicisation of women’s traditional gender roles, so attempting to democratise the family and to visualise the significance of domestic work ( Boscán Leal 2008; Fernandes 2007;
Rakowski 2003) , as mentioned earlier, Ezequiel Zamora pointed out that the introduction of ‘gender’ has been an important step, even if the patriarchal culture and system have not been properly challenged in order to establish gender equality
(Ezequiel Zamora 2009). By providing examples and assistance to promulgate
‘liberation’ and transformation on an individual level, men and women have not been encouraged to question their personal practices, or the ideologies of machismo and marianismo, that these embody (White 1997: 16). Indeed, gendered ‘liberation’ has not been incorporated as a critical process of internal ‘conscientisation’ or ‘empowerment’.
Little has been done to promote the view that ‘hegemonic masculinity’ renders many men powerless as well, so complicating the processes of reflexion about how men and women have been disempowered and marginalised and how to overcome those situations in which the subordinated roles are and can be reversed (Cornwall 1997:
11 − 12). If ‘empowerment’ means expanding peoples’ power to make their choices and to be treated as equals, it is to apply equally to women and men (Ibid.).
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Hanna Katriina Rantala POLIS Journal Vol. 2, Winter 2009 University of Leeds
4. Practicing ‘Liberation’ and ‘Equality’: Gender and the Bolivarian Revolution
“From then on, half a century ago until today, I declare that my life has been signed, profoundly marked by the presence, the stimulation, the impulsion of the magical force of the Woman, the superior human being.” Hugo Chávez (Gabriel 2009)
Chapters 2 and 3 introduced the revolutionary discourse and programmes of transformation, illustrating its benefits and flaws, while the practical gender implications of ‘liberation’ and ‘equality’ have remained unexplored. Nevertheless, the actual implementation of the revolution, proceso revolucionario, proceso [the revolutionary process] has been defined as a partly distinct phenomenon from
Bolivarian Revolution . In her study on barrio-women, Sujatha Fernandes conducted field research in three barrios of Caracas interviewing and assessing the work of women
[and men] participants. On the basis of her work, she defined proceso as a social revolution which is being realised amongst the popular masses who engage with the local concerns and struggles of the poor (Fernandes 2007: 109). She continues that even if proceso has been promulgated by the government-laid programmes it has followed its own trajectory, identified outside of chavismo and has challenged the unitary notions of the Bolivarian Revolution (Ibid. 109, 120).
Contrary to the criticism of the Bolivarian Revolution as chavista and neo-populist, proceso reflects the popular support behind the Bolivarian ideas, suggesting that the recent changes in Venezuela have in fact been popularly ingrained, forged and supported, whilst Bolivarianism has embraced the popular strategies and struggles in drafting its official ideology (Sanoja 2009: 399
−
400, 403
−
404). However, Fernandes maintains that the emergence of proceso as a distinct phenomenon signals the practical shortcomings of the Bolivarian organisations which have remained male-dominated and hierarchically-led (Fernandes 2007: 109). Despite the assumedly shared hopes of the masses and the Bolivarian discourse to disentangle the unequal opportunities in the
Venezuelan society and to guarantee independence and ‘liberation’ of the Venezuelan
‘people’ (Sanoja 2009: 404), authors such as Wilpert, Ellner and Hellinger have pointed out that the strong presidential tendency has continued to undermine the prospects of participatory democracy and rather reproduced hierarchical administration models. By
24

Hanna Katriina Rantala POLIS Journal Vol. 2, Winter 2009 University of Leeds hindering local organising, the practices of clientelism, corruption and paternalism have rather been reproduced, reinforcing the unequal power relations (Ellner and Hellinger
2004: 218
−
219; Wilpert 2007: 190).
Despite the discourse of ‘liberation’,
‘empowerment’ has remained restrained.
Firstly, a set of [gendered] problems has emerged because of the alliance between the
Bolivarian Revolutionary symbolism and the actual implementation of the revolution.
Fernandes argued that by insisting upon naming all local processes according to the revolutionary rhetoric, e.g.
Bolivarian , the work put in on local levels has remained invisible (Fernandes 2007: 120). Women have been active, making up the majority of the supporters and participants at nearly all levels of the revolution (Gabriel 2009).
However, regardless of the fact that women’s participation at local levels has challenged gender roles and created alternatives to male-centred politics (Fernandes 2007: 98), the government’s failure to recognise the local incentives has centralised revolutionary hierarchies, threatening to maintain the unequal gendered relations of power.
With its power to name the newly-acclaimed popular memory and discourse, the government has reinforced the worries that women’s gendered roles as reproducers and nurturers are being recreated, relegating women to the roles in which they provide the context but not the content for popular action (Jackson 2003: 702). Functioning as an embodiment of community, women have created and maintained public spaces without receiving direct recognition for their roles (Ibid.: 693).
In a contradicting fashion, then, the sexed and locally placed bodies and minds of women [and men] are rendered voiceless while their experiences of exclusion and marginalisation have remained displaced from the sites of power (Price 2000: 139).
Consequently, writing with relation to a series of workshops in Tapalehui, Mexico,
Emma Zapata, Pilar Alberti, Janet Gabriel Townsend and Jo Rowlands ask whether
‘empowerment’ is situated within limited parameters. By this they mean that while women may reach ‘empowerment’ on individual and/or local levels, the attempts to challenge the relations of power outside their sphere of influence clash with the reigning power hierarchies (Zapata et al. 1999: 170
−
171, 178). Also a study by Kelly Ready in post-conflict El Salvador shows that targeting women within certain areas has not led to self-support since the structural conditions that create gender and class inequalities have
25

Hanna Katriina Rantala POLIS Journal Vol. 2, Winter 2009 University of Leeds remained unchallenged. Instead the local projects have grown dependent on assistance and subsidies (Ready 2000: 80
−
81). Of course, on discursive and legal levels, as demonstrated in Chapter 2, the Bolivarian Revolution has aimed for a more transformative change. Yet, in a problematic fashion it has not disentangled the societal structures that have continued to reproduce ‘gender’ as a category within the relationship between women and men but rather failed to look at the ways in which
‘gender’ has required its meaning among and between women and women, and men and men (White 1997: 15).
While women’s empowerment and gender equality have to be advanced amongst women and private relationships, it also requires the broader transformation of society to challenge the gendered conventions of ‘who does what’, as well as the overall system that has benefited men (White 1997: 15, 21).
17
For this, as White argues, men have to change too (Ibid.). Suggesting that men’s ‘consciousness-raising’ workshops have tended to be short-lived, White paraphrases R. W. Connell’s study on masculinities arguing that we ought to focus on masculinity within all forms of oppression, challenging the institutions, cultures and practices that sustain gender inequality.
Therefore, at best such changes in behaviour are achieved within the paradigm of another struggle (Connell 1995: 235 − 6 cited in White 1996: 21 − 22). In theory, then, the
Bolivarian Revolution holds potential for becoming a radical platform for change.
Sustaining its discourse in practice, however, has so far remained a dream.
The problematic parameters of ‘empowerment’, ‘equality’ and ‘liberation’ become apparent when reading Chávez’s speech (see the quote above) in which he explicitly pays homage to women and femininity, valuing the “superior” condition of women
(Gabriel 2009). Dedicating his speech to ‘the selfless, fighting Venezuela women, to the woman-mother, woman-companion, woman-daughter, woman-grandchild, to all women’ (Ibid.) women are automatically equated with faceless ‘femininity’, which by virtue claims no recognition for the “feminine” contributions. Gabriel comments that despite the fact that Chávez’s declaration of being a feminist has advanced the struggle
17
The extent to which men have benefited from the system is a contested issue. Although masculinities have been linked with power, men’s opportunities to fulfil traditional ‘masculine’ roles have shrunk as the value of the so-called masculine attributes in the labour markets has reduced (Hooper 2000: 60, 62;
Zubillaga 2007: 880).
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Hanna Katriina Rantala POLIS Journal Vol. 2, Winter 2009 University of Leeds for gender equality in Venezuela, his defying images of an ‘ideal’ woman has worked to reconstruct the source of oppression against which to judge “real women” (Ibid.).
Problematically, given Chávez’s failure to question the cultural system of marianismo he has not offered basis for deconstructing ‘womanhood’. Rather women’s ‘liberation’ is established within the existing gender relations of power and the immediate relationships “she” has in her life: women as a mother, women as a daughter, women as a companion, etc.. Indirectly, such ideas, promulgated by the culture of marianismo, have triggered further problems for women and men. In reinforcing the assumptions that have driven the image of men as human beings ‘who can’t help the way they are’
(Stevens 1994: 9), women have been pushed to subsume responsibilities. Adversely, by claiming the moral superiority of ‘women’, men are discouraged from seeking change and ‘empowerment’. Then even if women’s participation carries potential for making men more sensitive about male privileges (Fernandes 2007: 118) sustained changes require that a consistent dynamic is generated amongst men to question their personal practice and the ideologies of masculinity it embodies (White 1997: 15 − 16).
Consequently, by virtue of his further comments, Chávez’s speech of the indivisibility of feminism and socialism gains problematic insights. Due to his failure to oversee the gendered thinking it appears that feminism, after all, may not be equally important in the struggle for ‘liberation’ (Gabriel 2009). Rather, women’s ‘citizenship’ status has been attached to a gender-specific practice of ‘citizenship’ as the “natural” nurturer. So subsuming a massive proportion of the ‘citizenship’ duties women’s ‘equality’ is established through their “superior” characteristics vis-à-vis men. Such discourse, however, has problematically signalled a notion of ‘liberation’, which has not been extended into the internalised processes of ‘empowerment’ and ‘self-recovery’. Of course, culturally ingrained belief systems and practices are slow to change, yet as
Chávez has spoken of the need to break with the past in order to attain true transformation (Marl Torres et al . 2009; Wilpert 2007: 196 − 197), in terms of gender equality, he has done so within the existing cultural framework.
Then for women who have been traditionally relegated to the spaces of domesticity and community across all social classes it remains unclear whether the ‘new reality’ in which they are about to enter offers any genuine alteration. The similar case of Cuba has
27

Hanna Katriina Rantala POLIS Journal Vol. 2, Winter 2009 University of Leeds been illustrated by Maxine Molyneux, who has drawn attention to the difficulty of counteracting the male-dominated top-down models of governance which have sustained the revolutionary elites at the grip of power (Molyneux 2000a: 296
−
297).
Building upon her concern of how to have an effect on the balance of power between the sexes in the home as well as in the public realm (Ibid.: 312) we may ask whether
‘gender equality’ and women’s ‘liberation’ are attainable goals unless the structures and institutions the revolution relies on are put under scrutiny. Such worries gain prominence given the fact that women’s traditional exclusion from public politics has continued to assign them with domestic and reproductive tasks within homes and communities in Venezuela (Fernandes 2007: 111). As a female participant, interviewed by Fernandes (2007: 113), stated: “women are always at the forefront, and I think this has to do with maternity, with this necessity to look after and protect. To look after the fatherland, to look after the barrio , to look after the husband, to look after the President.
It is a feeling that is generated among us women.” While proceso has opened up spaces for local organising, the fact that it has remained unrecognised has undermined the full potential for women’s ‘empowerment’ and ‘liberation’, rather reproducing women’s gendered roles as the reproducers and the nurturers of the revolution. Such line of responses was apparent in the responses by the three organisations as well, who all held that women’s traditional gender roles continue to affect women’s participation (Alaplaf
2009; Ezequiel Zamora 2009; Fundamujer 2009). ‘Liberation’ as a process of ‘selfrecovery’ has not been extended to challenging the notions of internalised oppression.
Rather, ‘femininity’ has continued to hold its traditional attributes as the ‘superior’ human being, the carer and the nurturer.
Further concern has paradoxically been promoted by the active roles women have played in community-related activities. In having resumed the majority of the volunteering responsibilities, a new kind of triple workload has been restored for women (Fernandes 2007: 119). The gendered division of labour has kept men on the streets and ensured that they have continued to enjoy extra time for education and reflection, even more available than they had in the first place (Ibid.: 123). Along these lines, Alvárez from Fundamujer stated that women’s participation has not reached qualitative parity to men’s: even if women have been active participants, they have not risen to power positions in political parties, they do not stand for public office whilst
28

Hanna Katriina Rantala POLIS Journal Vol. 2, Winter 2009 University of Leeds they have occupied key roles in municipal councils and local planning. Although women have gained leading roles in the national assembly and supreme-court, Alvárez asserts that it does not mean that they automatically advance a gender discourse
(Fundamujer 2009). Likewise, the sole fact of being there has neither meant that women’s pursuits for ‘liberation’ have been taken seriously/with equal weight nor that the governmental structures have been supportive of critical practice of ‘empowerment’.
The concerns about women’s opportunities, however, do not paint a full picture of the societal inequality in Venezuela. The Bolivarian process to eliminate inequalities based on class is designed to address the structural impediments, faced by women and men
(Rakowski 2003: 390). Several authors writing on Venezuela have emphasised the significance of the way in which racism and classism have been intertwined with a lack of opportunities, so as to explain and understand the multiplicity of marginalisation of women’s [and men’s] lives (Duno Gottberg 2004: 122
−
124; Fernandes and Stanyek
2007: 203; Ribeiro 2008: 133).
In Venezuela the men have been equally affected by a repressive culture of machismo which has proliferated under the continuing legacies of insecurity, threat, violence and societal segregation and structural problems.
Despite the increased political space, a decade under the Bolivarian Revolution has not managed to disentangle the social inequalities, mistrusts and problems of violence in a society in which the citizens have expressed fear and insecurity as their main concern
(Latinobarómetro 2008: 22).
18
Although threat and insecurity were already central topics in the media before the
Bolivarian Revolution , the fear Venezuelans feel multiplied from 9% to a 57% between
1995 and 2008 (Latinobarómetro 2008: 27). However, in illustrating the structural problems, Briceño has pointed out that violence and insecurity have concentrated in specific urban sites, marked by exclusion (Brice ñ o 2007: 548, 555). Affecting predominantly young men whose social and labour horizons are limited, the young are pushed into a world of crime (Ferrándiz 2009: 46), conditioning their opportunities to pursue their personal goals as well as those of their communities under a reality of masculinised urban conflict. Whilst ‘femininity’ has separated women from the urban violence and provided women with the “liberty” to oppose violent solutions, machismo
18
Lander has argued that the climate of fear originated under the economic downturn after 1979 resulting in the exclusion, fragmentation and segregation of society (Lander 2004: 102 − 103).
29

Hanna Katriina Rantala POLIS Journal Vol. 2, Winter 2009 University of Leeds has demanded men hide their fear and rather encouraged notions of aggressive masculinity, provoking them to respond to violence with violence (Briceño 2007: 564;
Cockburn 2004: 38). Not surprisingly, men are twelve times more likely to die of murder than women in Venezuela, putting the marginalised young at an increased risk
(Briceño 2007: 563
−
564; Ferrándiz 2009: 47).
The culture of violence has proliferated partly as a result of the clashes between the social realities of poverty and the demands imposed by machismo, which has continued to dictate that men are the head of the family (Ferrándiz 2009: 46; Zubillaga 2007:
584
−
585 ).
Fixity to the local spaces on the one hand, and shared global values and growing global flows on the other, has exacerbated the gendered experiences of poverty
(Zubillaga 2007: 880; Zubillaga and Briceño-León 2001: 42, 46). Under global and local exclusion, ‘masculinity’ has been linked with new manifestations of power in which [masculine] honour and respect are reclaimed through the pursuit of [local] fame and the [globally] dictated ability to consume ( Zubillaga and Briceño 2001: 38 , 42).
Masculinity in the barrios has then been affected by demands to overcome the humiliation of finding oneself in ‘exclusion’ (Ibid.: 38). Acquiring ‘respect’ through the ability to offer protection in the communities, to provide for the families and the women, as well as to command and subordinate other men has perpetrated machista interpretations of masculine ‘empowerment’ (Zubillaga 2007: 580, 584
−
585).
The revolution has initiated programmes for the young to stay away from the world of crime, actively seeking those who face problems (Wilpert 2007: 141
−
143).
19
Yet, the majority of Venezuelans continue to live in the barrios marked by poverty. More alarmingly, 35% of Venezuelans argue that the poor continue to be discriminated against in labour markets and 72% of the young believe that they face discrimination on the basis of their dialect or the neighbourhood that they come from (Latinobarómetro
2008: 58, 63). Such figures of experiences of poverty and marginalisation, speak of a reality that gruesomely inhibits the opportunities to practice internalised [critical] processes of ‘empowerment’ and ‘liberation’.
19
Indirectly the poor areas have benefited from urban land reform, which provides land titles for the inhabitants of the barrios, and allows them to use their house/land as collateral (Wilpert 2007: 115, 120).
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Hanna Katriina Rantala POLIS Journal Vol. 2, Winter 2009 University of Leeds
While creating pressure to conform to the ideals of hegemonic masculinity, the inability of finding rupture with the culture of violence and the structural inequalities has had further [gender] implications. Feminists have drawn attention to the increased cases of domestic abuse and gender violence under such conditions. Patricia Price argues that conditions marked by material and spiritual poverty
− tighter budgets, rising prices, overburdened schedules
− create an environment of stress often erupting in violence
(Price 2000: 200). Amnesty reports that through gender violence a woman dies every ten days in Caracas and despite the introduction of ‘Organic Law’, 90% of cases of domestic violence go unreported (Amnesty 2008: 15). In the responses Alaplaf points out that violence against women has, in fact, increased (Alaplaf 2009).
20
Then even though women have not been implicated in the street conflict in the same way as men, they are affected by the ruptures and threat of continuing insecurity, violence and death
(Cockburn 2004: 35). In multiple ways, the ‘crisis of masculinity’, entangled with the social and structural problems, has perpetrated aggressive notions of masculinity which in order to assert ‘manhood’ has ignored and subordinated women (Boscán Leal 2008:
94, 96 − 97; Viveros Vigoya 2006: 154) with detrimental results for [gender] equality and societal cohesion.
Emblematically to the social problems, the priorities of struggles have varied according to women’s different interests (Fernandes 2007: 104
−
105). While earlier women’s interests in Venezuela remained fractioned given the party rivalries, for the poor women feminist groups have not necessarily provided a safe haven (Friedman 1999: 365).
Mistrust among groups of women as well as other social justice organisations have been further complicated by the concrete concerns of the social group in question. Then while for many feminist organisations, the [ Bolivarian ] state has become a potential enemy
( Molyneux 2000b: 65, 68) , the experiences of poverty have conditioned a different perspective for the poor women who have benefited from the social programmes .
Although, as indicated above, women’s participation has required traditionally gendered traits − women have taken over the tasks of running soup-kitchens or providing healthcare assistance
− the revolutionary proceso has ensured that these gendered “private” tasks have been collectivised, converting them into jobs which, in an increasing manner,
20
This may be explained by the slight increases in reported cases of violence.
31

Hanna Katriina Rantala POLIS Journal Vol. 2, Winter 2009 University of Leeds have become seen as responsibilities that should be subsumed by the community
(Fernandes 2007: 115, 118).
Nevertheless, through projects that may not have been explicitly feminist, the increased female participation has led women to question male privileges in Venezuela, as elsewhere in Latin America (Viveros Vigoya 2006: 142).
Despite such positive changes, within the barrios social and gender exclusion have remained intertwined, sustaining and reasserting hierarchic gender structures.
To attain gender equality, ‘liberation’ and women’s ‘empowerment’, as suggested earlier, new alternative models for masculinity and masculine ‘empowerment’ ought to be more available amongst all groups of men
(Boscán Leal 2008: 95). The traditions dictated by machismo that have made the gendered division of labour to reflect the ideas of women as fragile and submissive and men as their strong and aggressive counterpart have to be overcome, as well as those which have mediated ‘real masculinity’ according to men’s success to evoke ‘respect’ among other men, through subordination and use of violence (Ibid.: 96, 98; Zubillaga
2007: 598).
As part of overcoming the limitations set by class and gender , the Law for Equal
Opportunities for Women contains a radical Article 9 in which education reform is proposed to increase gender equality (Ley de Igualdad de Oportunidades para la Mujer
1999). The results of the reform have not been analysed and its place within a broader educational reform has not received attention, given the criticism that has concentrated on the new “socialist” content of the educational system (Freedomhouse 2009). Article
9, however, bestows the Ministry of Education with the duty to incorporate new teaching methods from preschool onwards, which are oriented to modify socio-cultural norms of behaviour for boys and girls (Wagner 2005b). In committing to remove all hidden curricula in schools that teach gender roles and seek to maintain the gender status quo, the aim is to alter the gendered lenses through which gender roles and identities are given (Ibid.). However, given the lack of analysis, there are no grounds to argue under the scope of this dissertation whether this law has become operational and
32

Hanna Katriina Rantala POLIS Journal Vol. 2, Winter 2009 University of Leeds whether it has had an impact on socialisation models. If this is the case, it may promise revolutionary progress for gender equality in the future.
21
Despite the subversive attempts to establish the ‘liberation’, the revolution as well as the proceso has continued to condition gendered and social hierarchies. To summarise, up until now, the revolutionary hierarchies have dominated the revolutionary processes, with most leaders continuing to be men. Women in turn have subsumed the genderspecific tasks, as the reproducers of the revolution.
Problematically the failure to challenge the gendered division of labour has been countered by growing notions of women’s ‘empowerment’, even if this has occurred within limited parameters. Seeking to circumvent the local male-led and –dominated hierarchies women have increasingly contacted Chávez directly, since ‘he listens and understands our worries’ (Fernandes
2007: 97
−
98; Márquez 2004: 211). Therefore, through a complex system sustained by unequal gender relations, the women participants, actively seeking to oversee the hierarchies on lower levels, have, in fact, reinforced the centralising hierarchic tendencies of the revolution.
Nevertheless, importantly Ofelia Alvárez has argued that government can and should play an important role in struggle against injustice and inequalities, since it is in a position where it can influence the stereotypes and behaviour patterns (Fundamujer
2009). For such role it, however, ought to incorporate the practice of ‘equality’ and
‘liberation’ within the governmental structures, as well as to raise critical awareness across society, so as to ensure that the transformations can have long-term reach.
Keeping this in mind, Cynthia Cockburn’s work has provided important insights. She emphasises the importance of viewing identities as something complex, ambiguous and shifting, so as to ensure that projects of power are resisted (Cockburn 1998: 213). She sustains the importance of identity processes for democratic politics so that people can develop and construct their identities in new ways when they so wish. Consequently, the political processes ought to ensure that they affirm differences, keep identities open,
21
Article 9, or the 1999 constitution for that matter, does not include clauses about sexual orientation.
Although sexual orientation has been brought up in the discourse of ‘justice’, Alaplaf and Fundamujer stated that it has continued to be treated with double standards (Alaplaf 2009; Fundamujer 2009).
Also, there have been no incentives to fraction education across the communities. The Bolivarian schools and universities are targeted for the poor while the privileged classes attend separate institutions (Wilpert
2007: 120 − 129).
33

Hanna Katriina Rantala POLIS Journal Vol. 2, Winter 2009 University of Leeds reduce polarisation by emphasising other differences, acknowledge differences, define and limit the agenda for the projects and ensure that all voices are heard, given equal weight, and that decision-making is fully shared (Ibid.: 224
−
227). ‘Equality’ and
‘liberation’ can so be established through the active processes of auto-reflexion and selfrecovery. While gender equality must be respected as an essential tenet of a just society, the achievement of it requires that co-operation and understanding be promoted across any identity differences, throughout society.
5. Conclusions
In seeking to explain the gendered implications of the Bolivarian Revolution this dissertation has reflected upon the structural aspects of the present-day Venezuela.
Through an illustration of the newly stated programmes, governmental framework, as well as the execution of the revolution, the focus has appointed towards the decreasing operational space within the Bolivarian democracy. However, whilst much of the debate has criticised the Bolivarian Revolution for polarisation, it rather appears that the societal abysms were forged far before the elections in 1998. In a problematic manner, nevertheless, the Bolivarian Venezuelan has failed to overcome societal inequalities, thus sustaining the misunderstandings between classes, and hindering the potential for the ‘equality’ and ‘liberation’ of all Venezuelans.
The Bolivarian discourse has spoken of ‘liberation’ but, as argued above, it has failed to enhance internalised processes of ‘empowerment’, despite the radical legal framework.
Consequently, it appears that the entire ‘liberation’ framework has had ambiguous implications for ‘equality’. On the one hand, the governmental programmes have increased opportunities for women’s [and men’s] ‘empowerment’, created platforms for active participation and increased the scope of human rights, whilst on the other hand, the execution of the revolution has lacked in democratic substance. The revolutionary insistence upon the acceptation of government ideology has distanced a large number of
Venezuelans, increasing the difficulty of achieving ‘equal’ citizenship, while also amongst those sympathetic to the revolution, the prospects for ‘liberation’ have been circumcised by hierarchical revolutionary structures. Paradoxically then, the pro-poor policies aiming to establish societal equality have not only fallen short in overcoming
34

Hanna Katriina Rantala POLIS Journal Vol. 2, Winter 2009 University of Leeds the existing structural inequalities and discrimination but also limited the parameters for
‘empowerment’ within the revolution. The framework for ‘equality’ and ‘liberation’ has been confined within the government-led revolutionary programmes, undermining the potential for revolutionary transformation and ‘participatory democracy’.
A gender lens has allowed us to examine ‘liberation’ as a practice of ‘self-recovery’ from all relations of domination. This way ‘empowerment’ has been theorised as an inseparable trait of any project of ‘equality’ and ‘liberation’. In Venezuela, the culturally ingrained systems of marianismo and machismo , however, have proliferated under the ‘liberation’ framework given the failure to disentangle the gender-specific expectations of both women and men. The revolutionary structures have maintained men at the grip of power whilst women have taken over the reproductive roles of executing the revolution at the local [lower] levels. Then in aiming to establish the cultural, economic, political and societal ‘liberation’ of Venezuela on the basis of its own cultural traditions, it has not ensured that the new body of popular culture is put under critical scrutiny. Subsequently, there have been no critical measures against newly articulated gendered relations of power.
Threateningly then, the Bolivarian
Revolution has not questioned the ways in which ‘gender’ has conditioned men and women’s ‘liberation’ in different ways. Whilst the laws and discourse are there
− the
1999 constitution is without a doubt one of the world’s most advanced constitutions and
Chávez has maintained that the ‘liberation’ of the people requires that women are
‘liberated’
− the institutional and practical execution of the revolution has not delivered on the standards it set. Chávez, himself, has failed to oversee the complex cultural phenomena of machismo and marianismo, rather exacerbating gender-specific expectations on both men and women, and limiting the opportunities for the
‘empowerment’ of men and women. Consequently, it is questionable whether gender equality, in fact, is an equally important struggle.
In the barrios the revolution has advanced through participation in the government-led programmes even if the people have not wholly agreed with the government ideology.
This proceso , however, while providing a basis of support for the revolution, has faced pressure under the continuing tendencies of party control, patronage-clientelism and hierarchical organising. In a problematic manner, it can be regarded as a consequence of
35

Hanna Katriina Rantala POLIS Journal Vol. 2, Winter 2009 University of Leeds the inequalities and marginalisation, which after decade under the revolution has not seen an end. Rather, within the barrios the culture of machismo has continued to proliferate under the continuing inequalities, exacerbating the societal tensions and undermining the transformation towards gender inequality. While some have appointed the positive effect women’s participation may have with men, men’s opportunities to seek autonomous notions of ‘empowerment’ and ‘liberation’ have remained restricted by the on-going masculine cultures of threat and violence. Women’s living conditions have been equally aggravated by the insecurity and inequalities, although many have sought change through active participation in the revolutionary process. Yet despite constituting the majority of the revolutionary supporters, women have failed to reach leadership positions, dominated by the male-led chavista circles. Despite having evoked hope across the world, the Bolivarian Revolution has failed to deliver a more just and equal society.
Promising great potential for ‘equality’ and ‘liberation’, the lack of democratic substance has restricted the parameters for ‘empowerment’ and ‘selfrecovery’. ‘Liberation’ has remained a dream.
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Hanna Katriina Rantala POLIS Journal Vol. 2, Winter 2009 University of Leeds
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Appendix
Por favor, describa brevemente las actividades y tareas de su organización y el papel que juega Usted en la organización.

1) ¿Qué definiría usted como la mayor aportación e inconveniente de la Revolución
Bolivariana para las relaciones entre los géneros y para la participación de las mujeres
[y hombres] en movimientos sociales?
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
POLIS Journal Vol. 2, Winter 2009 University of Leeds
2) ¿Cree que se hayan realizado en los últimos años cambios positivos hacia la igualdad [entre géneros] dentro de las familias y las comunidades?

3) ¿Piensa que el papel tradicional de la mujer define o limita la clase de participación de las mujeres en la sociedad y sociedad civil?

4) ¿Podría decirse que género, orientación sexual, edad, clase social o “raza” en general influyan/limiten participación?

5) ¿De qué manera cree Usted que la sociedad civil se ve afectada por la posible decisión de la Asamblea Nacional en recabar, administrar y distribuir todos los recursos provenientes del exterior?

6) ¿Diría que su organización tiene autonomía en dirigir el curso de sus tareas y actividades? ¿Le parece que deban ser definidas por sus participantes o por las estructuras gubernamentales?

***********
Muchas gracias por su ayuda
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Hanna Katriina Rantala POLIS Journal Vol. 2, Winter 2009 University of Leeds
Please, describe briefly the main activities of your organisation and the roles you play in it.
1. What would you define as the key benefits and costs of the Bolivarian revolution for gender relations and women’s (and men’s) participation in social movements?
2. Can you see any positive changes in recent years towards addressing gender equality within families and communities?
3. Do you think that women’s traditional role defines or limits the kind of participation women can have in society and civil society?
4. Do you feel that age, gender, race, sexual orientation or social class will generally influence or limit participation?
5. In what ways do you think civil society will be affected by the possible decision of the National Assembly to appropriate, administrate and distribute external funding for civil society?
6. Would you say that your organisation holds autonomy in directing the course of it work and activities? Do you think that this ought to be defined by the participants or by the governmental structures?
46