The Weight of 200 Years
There is another reason Venezuelans hate the Opposition. The Opposition ruled Venezuela for decades or actually since the Revolution of 1823. The Opposition represents the oligarchs and the Venezuelan rich and upper middle classes. They lived privileged lives for generations while treating the lower classes animals and refusing to share even a single Bolivar with their lessers.
The Opposition ran Venezuela as their private fiefdom. Even with huge oil riches, 90% of Venezuelans never saw even a crumb from all of it as the Opposition siphoned off every oil-generated dollar in the land. In 1989, when Chavez launched his coup, the nation was awash in oil money and yet 90% of Venezuelans lived in poverty and could afford only one meal per day. And all of this misery while the Opposition partied like the royalty they think they are.
Class Hatred in Venezuela
The class hatred in Venezuela is so thick you need a machete to slash through it, and it goes back over a century, probably from Independence itself. The poor and working classes hate the higher classes. The upper classes hate the poor. And both sides have been feeling this way for probably 200 years now.
This is no ordinary class hatred. As an American, you can’t even begin to understand it. When I say these people hate each other, I am not kidding. The working class hate the upper classes so much that they literally want to kill them. And the rich return the feelings in spades. So here we have a nation where the upper and lower classes literally want to murder each other, and they have each felt that way for almost 200 full years.
Memories Are Long
The Venezuelan people were not born yesterday. Their memories are Jungian and consist of the memories of not only their own but also their ancestors’ lives. The lower classes have not forgotten how the upper classes treated them like chattel for two centuries.
Some People Never Learn
And the people are not ready to forgive, especially since Venezuelans think that the Venezuelan upper classes are just as callous and cruel as they were from 1823-1989. The way most Venezuelans see it is that these hated rich people who treated them like untouchables forever and now call themselves the Opposition want to rule the country again. If the Opposition gets back in power, most Venezuelans think they will roll back all of Chavismo and reinstate the hated ancien regime. And honestly there is every reason to think they will do precisely that.
And the Opposition is mystified that for a decade and a half now, they get roundly defeated in every important election. You would think they would have a clue.
Nat Turner’s Ghost Returns
The people know who the Opposition people are. They remember well their painful rule. While those who know only chains often learn to love their cages, knowing nothing else, once you unlock a man, it’s hard to sell him on reinslavement.
Unshackled for the first time in nearly two centuries, the new freedmen crash into the streets. As the wave of people breaks on the pavement and the throngs begin to collapse and roll forwards along the cobblestones with increasing placidity, they begin, in unison, to sing a song, the Song of Chavismo.
