Chávez used to say that being chavista is being a true Venezuelan. Now Maduro is relaunching the patriotic rhetoric blackmail around the “recovery”.
By Caracas Chronicles – Luis González Morales
Aug 16, 2022
On October 12th, 2020, Nicolás Maduro announced that the main highway in Caracas would undergo a name change from “Francisco Fajardo”, a conquistador born to a Spanish father and a Waikerí mother in present-day Isla de Margarita, to “Autopista Gran Cacique Guaicaipuro Jefe de Jefes,” a famous chief of the Caracas Indigenous tribe.
That decision wasn’t unimaginable. In power since 1999, chavismo has worked on the “reclamation” of national symbols, imagery, and culture. This process has allowed the bolivarian movement to carve out a political trace on the landscape of Venezuela’s cultural identity, to align themselves with the core of what is supposed to be a national purity.
It’s become difficult not to spot their label on something: they declared October 12th Indigenous Resistance Day; they redesigned the country’s flag and the national coat of arms; they created a new state and renamed another; and they renamed El Ávila National Park to “Waraira Repano”, as well as many streets and places across the country. I mean, chavismo even decided how Simon Bolívar must have looked, despite numerous portraits of his time, and imposed the national hero’s fabricated image.
More recently, they’ve ramped things up. In the last two years, on top of renaming Caracas’ main highway (and installing a massive statue of Guaicaipuro in case you forget), they’ve also successfully changed the city’s flag and its coat of arms. If that wasn’t enough, PSUV also removed traces of the Caracas lion that could be found across the city. The new Caracas flag can be seen on lampposts on the high-traffic Avenida Libertador, as well as the small plaza at Paseo Los Ilustres, which has been redecorated with a large LED screen displaying the Venezuelan flag, draped in crossed cloths colored yellow, blue and red.
Of course, we have reasons to question how much the government really cares about the country’s symbols and its Indigenous population, but the PSUV achieved its goal when it projected an image of strong patriotism. Chavismo has carefully cultivated an incredibly recognizable brand, one that’s hard for people to ignore.
Ripe Soil for Nationalism
In the meantime, due to the country’s collapse, Venezuela became an international pariah. Villains in TV and film have slowly become Venezuelan, and Latin and North American nations have increased the visa requirements for our migrants, making it harder for them to reach Chile or the US.
These collective tragedies and the international backlash are what make countries in crisis fertile soil for the rise of what Florian Bieber identified as “virulent nationalism”. For Bieber, virulent nationalism differs from its ethnic and civic variants because it can be used to artificially craft and establish a new culture.
While civic nationalism tends to try and unify people behind national pride, virulent nationalism is exclusionary. The “you’re either with us or against us” style of nationalism, if you will.
It’s easy to recall when chavismo leaned heavily into this narrative, claiming that those who weren’t with Chávez and his values weren’t even Venezuelan at all. That sort of discourse has toned down in recent years, but we’re likely to see it make a comeback soon enough as recent economic liberalization makes Venezuela a more attractive place to live and do business in.
However, they probably won’t be talking about Chávez and chavismo explicitly. We’re more likely to see them claim that there are two sides in Venezuela: those who want to see the country progress, and those who wish to see it stagnate. They’ll claim they’re on the side of growth and recovery, while their opponents will be painted as traitors who support the sanctions “against the motherland”.
…
Read More: Caracas Chronicles – Madurismo buried classic chavista nationalism
…