Venezuela Has Oil Money, And Chavez Sings His Tune

Persistent Poverty

Thousands of shoppers shouldered their way through the streets of Petare, a gritty neighborhood in eastern Caracas, dodging rain-filled potholes. Vendors under grimy umbrellas hawked virtually everything from diapers to rat traps.

Almost all the buyers and sellers were poor, or close to it. But few of them blamed Chavez for their plight.

"He's done what no other president has done before," said Carlos Romero, 49, a truck driver in a torn T-shirt and jeans. "He helps poor people."

"And he's keeping Venezuela independent," interjected Rafael Villalba, 42, who sells herbs from a street-side table. "Venezuela is the most democratic country in Latin America. You can do whatever you want here. You can say anything you want about anyone."

A crowd gathered, eager to debate. Two men, drinking beer at an open-air stand, complained that Chavez had not done anything to help them find jobs.

"It's not Chavez's fault!" yelled Viviana Caciani, 33, jumping into the fray. "Long live the revolution!"

Politics is never far from the surface in Chavez's Venezuela, even at a weekend market. On a bag of rice, an article of the Venezuelan constitution had been printed to remind buyers that the government was subsidizing such products.

An accompanying illustration showed a cartoon hero kicking a devil in a business suit -- an imperialist villain chased by a government representative who, the caption said, was guaranteeing the public's "nutritional security."

But other forms of security are harder to come by in Caracas. Despite the flowing oil revenue, crime is rampant and destitution is never far off. Some Venezuelans wonder whether Chavez will be able to sustain his current popularity level if the atmosphere doesn't change soon.

"The question everyone asks is, 'If Venezuela is so rich, why am I so poor?' " said Alfredo Keller, a pollster and analyst. "Chavez is trying to introduce profound ideological changes with the inspiration of Castro, and he has begun to advance a debate that says to be rich is bad. But that isn't an opinion many people here share."

Although Chavez rhetorically invokes such communist icons as Karl Marx and Che Guevara, Venezuela is a long way from becoming another Cuba. Billboards for products such as Pepsi and Nescafe help shape the skyline of Caracas, despite Chavez's insistence that Venezuela should free itself from the influence of global capitalism. This month, the government hosted more than 200 U.S. companies at a trade fair intended to expand and diversify bilateral business ties.

So far, the economic trends since Chavez took office in 1998 have been mixed. Unemployment in May was at 12.6 percent, 3 points lower than the same time last year, but 53 percent of households lived in poverty in 2004, compared to 49 percent six years ago, according to government data.