By Margaret Janelle R. Hutchinson
Impunity Watch Reporter, South America

 CARACAS, Venezuela – Hugo Chávez, 58, won his third six-year term as president of Venezuela last week.  Yesterday he swore in a new vice president and replaced six senior Cabinet ministers.  Many of the replaced government officials announced their plans to run in gubernatorial races in states currently controlled by the opposition.

It appears Chávez is wasting no time strengthening his party’s influence throughout the nation as part of his strategy to achieve his stated intention of remaining in power until 2031.

The race up to the election last Sunday October 7, 2012, was the tightest Chávez has faced since he first gained power in 1996.  The obvious inequity in campaigning has lead some to declare that the election was “free, but not fair.”  Nevertheless, Chávez won 55 percent of the vote in the election, beating the opposition candidate, Henrique Capriles Radnski, by 11 percentage points.

Chávez’s win may prompt a reexamination of relations between the government and the opposition, which, up until now, have been so polarized that neither side has recognized the other’s legitimacy. During the campaign, Capriles even refused to pledge himself to accept the official results announced by the National Electoral Council.

Signs immediately following the elections indicate that the mutual distrust may be easing.  Keeping a promise he made on election day, Chávez phoned Capriles and for the first time refrained from using derogatory language against his former rival.  More important, Chávez committed himself to “extending a hand” to his opponents and made a call for “national reconciliation,” which would even include business interests of all sizes.

All major opposition leaders firmly resist the use of massive government expenditures to finance ambitious goals.  Up until now, the programs that Chávez claims create the conditions for “socialism” have been financed by windfall oil revenue.  Thus, for instance, expropriations to bolster the nation’s mixed economy are designed to allow state companies to compete with private ones in hopes of controlling inflation, which at over 20 percent is the highest in the continent.  Another costly and ambitious area of investment has been community councils, which receive financing to carry out their own public works projects and to form what the government calls “communes.”  The main opposition parties may be divided with regard to the role of the state, but none of them go along with the type of transformation to which Chávez is committed.

Perhaps the knowledge that he couldn’t move forward with many of his plans with opposition leaders in power is what prompted Chávez to shake up his Cabinet yesterday.

Former Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro, 49, replaced Elias Jaua as Chávez’s vice president. Maduro, a burly former bus driver, is considered the member of Chávez’s government with the closest ties to Cuba’s Fidel and Raul Castro.

The vice presidential job has assumed new importance because of Chávez’s recent struggle with cancer and rumors have circulated that Maduro is being groomed as his successor.

Jaua will be the ruling United Socialist Party’s candidate for the governorship of Miranda, Venezuela’s second largest state, which is the power base of Capriles.

Among the Cabinet changes was the appointment of General Nestor Reverol as the new minister of the interior and justice, replacing Tareck El Aissami, who will run to be governor of Aragua. Reverol had led Venezuela’s anti-drug body.

Admiral Carmen Melendez is the new head of the Office of the Presidency, replacing Erika Farias, who will seek the governorship of the west-central state of Cojedes.

Chavez also named journalist Ernesto Villegas to run the ministry of communications and public affairs; Aloha Nunez to the head of the ministry of indigenous affairs and Cristobal Francisco to the top post at the environment ministry.

In the swearing-in ceremony aired on state television, Chávez called on his new ministers to continue “the fight to transform the old capitalist and bourgeoisie state … into a socialist state.”

He also called for greater government efficiency.

Years of inadequate maintenance, corruption and perceived incompetence have left Venezuela’s infrastructure in a sorry state.  A blast in the Amuay oil refinery in late August killed 42 people (six are still missing).  Across the country, roads and bridges have collapsed or been washed away by rains, severing main transport arteries.

Citizens complain of crime, unemployment and poor public services.

Over the past year or so, the president has begun to spend his war chest. Calculations are that public spending has expanded by 30% in real terms over the 12 months prior to August.  Some of this has gone on new “grand missions”, as Mr. Chávez calls his social programs, the most important of which promised in 2010 to provide over 350,000 new homes by the end of 2012. That compares with under 600,000 new homes (by official estimates) in the previous 11 years.

Notably, over 3 million people are registered for the new program, providing the government with valuable electoral data.  The government insisted up to the election that an opposition victory would dash the hopes of the homeless, even though Mr. Capriles promised to keep that program going.

Chávez is at a strategy crossroads.  The continuation of far-reaching programs that invigorate the rank and file will meet resistance from opposition leaders who claim they are not sustainable over the long run.  On the other hand, major concessions to the opposition would run the risk of dampening the enthusiasm of his followers.  While the strategies of change and national reconciliation may not be mutually exclusive, it will take considerable political skill to combine the two in ways that overcome the intense political schisms that have divided Venezuela in recent years.

For further information, please see:

The Auburn Plainsman – Venezuela election reminder of how bad it could be – 14 October 2012

iFocus – Venezuela’s Chavez names new cabinet ministers – 14 October 2012

Fox News – Venezuela’s Chavez swears in vice president, 6 other ministers in post-election shake up – 13 October 2012

Reuters – Venezuela’s Chavez shuffles cabinet, then tweets about it – 13 October 2012

venezuelanalysis – Venezuela Reelects Hugo Chavez. What’s Next? – 12 October 2012

The Economist – The autocrat and the ballot box – 29 September 2012