Grassroots Politics and Oil Culture in Venezuela by Iselin Åsedotter Strønen

Author:Iselin Åsedotter Strønen
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Publisher: Springer International Publishing, Cham

Drawing on Networks

It is not my intention to suggest that the political and state institutions did not initiate and carry out projects and policies in shantytown communities on their own account or that the communal councils did not have their project approved unless they were able to hunt down significant politicians or state bureaucrats. However, what I want to highlight is that the ability to push the right “state buttons” is a central factor for explaining why bottom-up initiated community politics unfolded in such a heterogeneous manner in different areas. As we will learn more in the following chapter, a community council’s ability to push their project through depended to a certain extent on the capacity and conscientiousness of the public official that had been assigned to help them in the process. The community’s own organizational strength and “social capital” was also shaping their ability to access state funds and strengthen their political momentum. Moreover, the state institutions also at times identified “priority areas” that were assigned particular attention.

To illustrate this point, I’ll use the example of a meeting with a colectivo in 23 de Enero. The colectivo was having a meeting to organize a gran mega jornada integral. Jornada is a term describing a fair where different government services and products are present. For example, jornadas of large-scale sales of food, through the distribution chain Mercal, are occasionally organized in open public spaces, especially before Christmas. This gives people the opportunity to do their Christmas shopping (a major cost for lower-income families) at discounted prices. For this local mega jornada, they were planning on having military enrollment opportunities arranged, free vaccines, sale of the new government-produced mobile telephone, Vergatario, a stall where people could issue new cedulas (identity cards) and sale of food through Mercal. They also wanted to arrange a salsa concert in the evening, and had invited one of the musicians from Grupo Madera (a famous band that has also made “jingles” for the government) to join the meeting. The musician present from Grupo Madera said that the group would be happy to participate and that they were always in favor of working with the communities. Personally, he didn’t work for the government, but he had friends that did and that could get a hold of the equipment for the event. “This is the political work that the government workers have to assume,” the musician said. The group started to discuss whom they could use as a connection. “Deputy Chino Jose Khan is responsible for this area,” the musician said. Giorgio, the leader of the local colectivo, answered that he had his telephone number. He had tried calling him, but the deputy had not answered. He had also tried to call Valentin, the influential leader for the colectivo La Piedrita, for two months, but he hadn’t picked up either. The musician mentioned that he knew the deputy’s assistant, Carmencita, to which Giorgio responded that they knew her as well, but that “she has forgotten one’s face.” They

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