Free train rides, free rock concerts, free baseball games, December bonuses in November: Christmas has come early to Venezuela. Or, to put it another way, an election is due. The government is striving for a feelgood atmosphere by unleashing a torrent of cash and promising more to come in the run-up to a poll in which President Hugo Chávez is seeking another term.
It is a ruse common to incumbents around the world, but few have the oil-funded treasure chest and discretionary power of Chávez, making a resemblance to Santa Claus extend beyond his fondness for red.
A new opinion poll by Zogby International suggests that the president will coast to victory on December 3 with 59% support, compared with 24% for his main rival, Manuel Rosales (53). A separate poll last month gave a smaller, but still commanding, lead.
Chávez (52) not only wants to win, but to do so with a massive majority to endorse what he calls a 21st-century socialist revolution. In recent weeks the government has inaugurated a blizzard of infrastructure projects and finance schemes to fund housing and education for the poor and middle class. A new rail line opened this month from the capital, Caracas, to an outlying suburb was jammed with passengers after Chávez said all journeys would be free until the end of the year.
Civil servants were told that their Christmas bonus would be paid a month early, and the municipality of Caracas said it would pay for an all-star baseball game next month. A series of free concerts neared a climax in the city last weekend when tens of thousands jammed Plaza Venezuela to hear Manu Chao, a left-wing rock star hugely popular in Latin America. He drew cheers when he denounced Chávez’s arch-foe, George W Bush.
With Chávez’s re-election almost assured, the government was attempting to mobilise voters who were undecided or tempted to abstain, said Carlos Romero, director of graduate studies in international affairs at the Central University of Venezuela.
The finance ministry confirmed a steep increase in spending, but declined to say by how much. Angel Eniro Vera, the political director of Rosales’s campaign, said state funds were bankrolling the president’s campaign with no control. — Â