An Up Close Look at the Opposition Favorite

Se ve

Se siente

Capriles Presidente!

This evening I attended an assamblea de ciudadanos (essentially a town hall) in the district of Recreo (a middle class neighborhood located in central Caracas) for opposition presidential candidate Henrique Capriles Rodonski. Although I have seen Leopoldo López speak in Washington, DC, this was my first time seeing a presidential candidate in person in Venezuela. I wanted to get a sense not only of the candidate himself, but also of the type of crowd that attends such an event, the atmosphere that exists, the expectation of the attendees, etc. Capriles Rodonski is the presumed favorite to win the opposition primary on February 12, and based on tonight’s performance I can understand why.

The town hall was billed to begin at 6:30, so I arrived at around 5:45. At the announced location there was a large tent set up in a spacious alley with approximately 250 chairs set up in front of a stage. A bus parked at the corner had been blaring the Capriles campaign theme song since 12:00 in the afternoon. When I entered the tent, I was one of not more than 50 people there. By 6:30 the chairs had filled and people started to stake out positions surrounding the tent. By the time Capriles and his entourage showed up at around 7:25 I would say that there were close to 500 people there.

The most striking feature of the crowd for me was the fact that at least, and I mean at least, 75% of the crowd was women. I asked several people if this was normal for an event like this in Venezuela or if somehow I was seeing an anomaly. Unanimously it was agreed that this was the norm, and the consensus explanation was that Venezuela has developed a true matriarchal society. Couples are often divorced if they ever married, and women take over the care of their children and the leadership of their families. Men are prone to alcoholism, drug addiction, and crime, and one person even cited the murder rate for the fact that there simply are not as many men around. I was told that women make up the majority of numbers in just about every aspect of public life in Venezuela, including mass marches and other forms of protests.

Besides the female dominance, the crowd contained a fairly balanced mix of ages, from infants to the elderly. It was certainly younger than the typical audience for a political event in the U.S. People who I talked to came for a variety of reasons. Some were hardcore Capriles supporters, and wanted to meet the man and express their support. Others came to evaluate him compared to other opposition candidates. I did not meet anyone who was considering a vote for Chávez, though one woman said she lived nearby and attended mostly for the novelty factor.

When he arrived, Capriles entered the tent at the opposite end from the stage and then waded through the aisle, receiving hugs and kisses from anyone who wished to give them. The lack of security was noticeable and impressive, in a positive sense. Before Capriles himself spoke, various local dignitaries were given a few moments with the microphone. The most interesting revelation from any of them was that only one of the two polling stations in Recreo will be open on February 12, drawing mild groans and understanding grimaces from the audience. Then his companion on the ticket, fellow Primero Justicia party member, and candidate for Mayor of Caracas, Ismael García, gave a speech for five minutes or so. Finally it was time for the keynote.

Before Capriles said a word, five audience members, presumably chosen at random, were allowed to ask a question. Capriles responded to each in turn at length, sometimes going off on long tangents that seemed to contain his usual talking points but always making a point to give a legitimate answer to each question. He ultimately took close to an hour to do so. At that point three more attendees asked a question. Capriles responded to them with much greater brevity, making a crack about how people needed to get home in time to watch their novelas (soap operas). He then took one additional question and called it an evening, ending at almost 9:00 exactly.

I came away deeply impressed by the candidate. He is not a flowery speaker or someone who tried to win the crowd over with his charisma. But he spoke very well, made strong eye contact with his audience, and came across as extremely intelligent and well prepared without seeming arrogant or disconnected. Capriles criticized the Chávez administration often, but without attacking the president personally. He made a point in many of his answers to say that he would improve government by extending services to all regardless of their political affiliation and by generally ignoring politics completely when it comes to day-to-day administration. And he kept coming back to the statement that he wanted to be judged on his acts and not on his words, pointing repeatedly to the accomplishments of his administration in Miranda state since 2008. Ultimately he seemed trustworthy and competent, though not visionary. Nearly every opposition candidate against Chávez in the past decade has been unable to match the President’s common touch and appeal. Capriles seems to come as close as anyone has, and that is certainly one of his tactics when trying to contrast himself with the other Primary candidates. He certainly left me with the impression that he would make a capable President of Venezuela.

For those of you not interested in the nuts and bolts of Venezuelan politics, you should probably stop reading here. For those of you that are I will now provide a brief summary of each question Capriles was asked as well as his response. In most cases I am cutting large portions of both question and answer, so please take that into consideration.

Question 1: What form(s) should participación ciudadana take? Currently consejos comunales are the preferred mechanism but there have been various others in the past. How would your administration organize it?

HCR: The mechanisms of citizen participation really do not matter that much. The problem is when those mechanisms are usurped and become arms of politics, as has happened with the consejos comunales. As governor of Miranda I have worked with every consejo comunal that has brought ideas to me, even those with the reddest of shirts (the color of the PSUV party). As president I would do the same.

Question 2: What would you do to help the multitude of young people who graduate with good degrees but cannot find a job?

HCR: First of all let me say that if I am elected president, nobody’s job will be at risk. I know now it is impossible to get a public sector job without being a supporter of the president, but I will not fire anyone who is already a public employee even if they are a Chávez supporter. One of the ways I will help solve the employment problem is by ending the practice of expropriations. Show me one example of a successful expropriation. There is none! In fact, “todo que se toca se seca” (everything the government touches shrivels)… It is critical that we help not only young people find work, but also people who lose their job for one reason or another find a new one. As you all know, if you are 50 and lose your job, there is no chance you can find another.  I read somewhere that male workers are at their most productive when they are between 55-65 years old. Now they might not be at their most productive when it comes to other things… (I had to include that part for the line at the end. I’m not sure where he got that statistic, but it was the best joke of the night)…. The other way that we can help people find employment is by improving our education system. Right now our universities are turning out too many lawyers and communications majors. We need more teachers… The two biggest issues facing Venezuela are employment and education.

Question 3: What would you do to improve security?

HCR: You could put one million additional police officers on the streets and it would not solve the problem. Everything starts with family and education… There is no miracle answer or Messiah who can solve the problem in a day… In the short term the most important step we can take is to fix the justice system. Justice must be given when crimes are committed, and our jails must be transformed. Right now they are the site of the worst violence in the country.

Question 4: Given that the machines at voting booths are manned by human beings, how can we be guaranteed that our votes won’t be cheated?

HCR: We (the state governments and political parties) also help set up the voting stations. Without us there would undoubtedly be fraud, but we guarantee the security of your vote up to a point. However we need each of you to play your part as well. You will get a receipt of your vote and you need to hold everyone accountable.

Question 5: How would you resolve the electricity cuts that plague the country?

HCR: The state has a responsibility to provide certain services to its people, including electricity… There were never any electricity shortages until the government intervened in the market. Since then there has been underinvestment and corruption… In 2010 every country in Latin America experienced GDP growth except for Haiti and Venezuela.

Question 6: What would you do to attract the many, many educated professionals who have left Venezuela in recent years?

HCR: If we address the problems we have been discussing, then we will attract investment, which will create opportunity. When there is opportunity, those people will begin to return.

Question 7: How would you improve health care for the elderly?

HCR: We do not need to build new hospitals, what we need to do is the fix the ones that already exist. In Miranda I set up a pilot program with the parochial diocese in my state. This program has not received much media coverage at all, but it has been highly effective. Called casas amigas de la salud, we have converted space in some of our parishes into health clinics during certain times of the day. Last year the casas amigas received over two million visits and its doctors performed over two thousand surgeries. Common sense approaches like this work. We need to work with public and private hospitals to improve health care.

Question 8: What would you do about social programs for drug and alcohol abuse?

HCR: There are all sorts of social programs that must be improved. Most importantly each of these programs needs to be available to everybody, and not just one political party’s supporters.

Question 9: How would you work the National Assembly if it was controlled by chavistas?

HCR: Sometimes it is easier to govern when the legislature is controlled by the opposition. Plus, let's not count our chickens before they hatch.

Question 4.5, 7.5, 8.5, and maybe a couple of others: An inebriated man kept interrupting the proceedings to demand answers about the Colombian guerrillas in Táchira state. Capriles, and the crowd, took it in stride and he promised to meet with the man after the town hall was over. Of course there was never any chance it was going to happen.

What do you mean we're in Caracas?