Venezuela's students lead anti-Chávez charge

Venezuelans vote Sunday on President Hugo Chávez's plan to scrap term limits on his rule.

from the November 28, 2007 edition

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Students, as they have across Latin America, have played important roles in Venezuela, protesting its dictatorships, first in 1928 and then again 30 years later. But during the Chávez regime they had remained quiet – until the shutdown of an opposition television station in late May that was widely watched by Venezuelans of all economic backgrounds.

This is the first time they emerged in force during his rule, and analysts say it caught the country off-guard. "This went after something that really touched a nerve," says Michael Shifter, vice president for policy at the Inter-American Dialogue in Washington. "It was the first egregious example of overreaching [by Chávez]."

While the student movement stems largely from private universities or more elite ones like the public Central University of Venezuela, students resent the fact that Chávez has linked them to the so-called oligarchy – at one point calling them "rich bourgeois brats."

"I'm not the daughter of rich parents, like the president says," says Mela, who voted for Chávez during his first election because the country needed a change, she says, and put herself through school with a scholarship and job.

To be sure, there are also tens of thousands of students on Chávez's side.

Doors and walls at the Bolivarian University of Venezuela, opened by Chávez in 2003 to give access to scores of students who otherwise might not have a chance to attend university, are plastered with red stickers reading "Sí," a call to vote "Yes" on the amendment changes.

César Trompiz, a member of the President's Student Commission for Popular Power, says that it is ironic that some students are protesting of the "revolution." "The opposition has lost everything in this country but private companies and universities; this is all they have left," he says. "[The opposition students] have kidnapped the symbols of student protest. No student in the world would protest to defend a company, or a [university] rector."

Still, some say that Chávez should be more concerned about former allies who have come out against him – most notably his former Defense Minister Gen. Raul Baduel, who recently called the reform package a "coup."

Mr. Lander says such discontent among Chávez supporters will be the new challenge for the government in the coming years. "There are a lot of [discontented] people who will vote 'yes,' because they don't want the opposition to win and don't want to weaken the government," says Lander. "It won't have that much impact on this referendum, but it is a new part of the political situation."

• Daniel Cancel contributed from Caracas.

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