Millions of people in Latin America and beyond grieved with Venezuelans as their much loved president Commandante Hugo Chavez died on Tuesday night. Despite being vilified by Western media and corporate lobbyists for the 15 years he ruled Venezuela, Chavez was the foremost among a band of social reformers that swept to power in Brazil, Argentina, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia and Uruguay since the 1990's. All of them tried - to varying degree of success - to chart a path of economic development that laid emphasis on social justice and participatory politics, rejecting the corporate led growth model of the earlier decades. The charismatic Hugo Chavez was perhaps the most successful of them all.
In very simple terms, what Chavez did was to use the natural resources of the country - mainly oil - for improving the lives of the Venezuelan people, and also helping people in other Latin American countries. Venezuela has estimated oil reserves of 500 billion barrels of which 300 billion are proven. Chavez nationalized the oil industry leading to the exit of such giants as Exxon and used the export earnings to finance a series of 'Missiones' for poverty eradication, healthcare, education, pensions etc.
As a result, the share of poor people in Venezuela dramatically dropped from 61% in 1997 to 33% in 2011, while the share of extremely poor dropped from 30% to 9%. China and Brazil too have reduced poverty substantially in the past two decades, but in both, inequality has grown. In Venezuela, the Gini coefficient, which is a measure of inequality, actually fell from 0.487 to 0.39 in this period. This is the real basis of the 'Bolivarian Revolution' as Chavez named his policies after the 19 thcentury nationalist leader Simon Bolivar.
Education has been made free from pre-primary to university. As a result, one in three Venezuelans is currently enrolled in higher education, the fifth highest ratio in the world. UNESCO has recognized that illiteracy has been eliminated in the country.
Over 21% of the population was suffering from malnutrition in 1998. This has dropped to just 5% currently, on the back of massive food programs for children as also adults, easy credit to farmers and a boost to food production that has reduced food imports from 90% of total requirement in 1980 to 30% in 2011.
Infant mortality has dropped from 25 per 1000 in 1990 to only 13 in 2010. The number of doctors per 10,000 inhabitants has risen from 18 in 1998 to 58. Venezuela has benefitted from Cuban medical and healthcare expertise through a program designed to give oil to Cuba in exchange for 44,000 Cuban doctors working among the poor in Caracas and other cities. An estimated 96% of the population now has access to clean drinking water.
Not that everything is rosy with the economy. Inflation and unemployment are persisting problems. Inflation is down to about 14% from 39% in 2008. It has averaged 22% in Chavez's rule. Unemployment too has come down from about 12% in 2004 to 8 in 2012. Yet both remain issues that cause fear and uncertainty. And, they cause discontent among a politically energized population.
Will the Chavismo survive after Chavez? One of the features of "21 stcentury socialism" that Chavez said was being built in Venezuela was deep democratic institutions - some 30,000 community councils that plan and monitor local policies. Another was the politics of mass mobilization on issues of state. This has ensured some depth of support. But with many eyeing the lucrative oil reserves and 45% opposition as reflected in the elections that Chavez won last year, it is not going to be easy.
