Inside the Revolution: A Journey into the Heart of Venezuela

(Director Pablo Navarrete, 65mins, Alborada Films, 2009)

March 2010, by Tim Potter - Socialist Lawyer

Recent research conducted by the University of the West of England on the BBC's reporting on Venezuela over the last 10 years has pointed toward the larger issue of an imbalanced picture of Venezuela emerging from mainstream news sources. As the research suggests, this reportage rarely focuses on social progress within Venezuela under Chavez. Re-addressing some of this imbalance is Pablo Navarrete's thoughtful documentary 'Inside the Revolution'.

The film was shot in November 2008 on the eve of regional elections. By February 2009 Hugo Chavez had been in power for 10 years. The director does not shy away from criticism. The film opens by stating that '...Chavez's revolution has been unable to deal with some of Venezuela's long standing problems such as poor public services, corruption and crime which has caused increasing frustration amongst his supporters and those sympathetic to his government.' Institutional corruption is a point repeated later in the film through footage of a hip-hop concert screened on the weekly Presidential broadcast 'Aló Presidente.'

The film charts the rise of Chavez to power including the failed army coup attempt in 1992 in which Chavez was one of the leaders. The interview Chavez gave following the failed coup attempt was broadcast by the Venezuelan national media at his behest. It lasted only a minute but coined the phrase 'por ahora', 'for now', which is credited with giving impetus to Venezuela's left to mobilise for change in a country debilitated by harsh economic reforms. Chavez was imprisoned from 1992 - 1994 for his part in the coup. He emerged with a commitment to social progress through the electoral process. When he was elected as President in 1998 just 3% of Venezuela's landowners controlled 70% of the country's agricultural land.

By the end of 2006 Chavez had survived a failed coup attempt in 2002, been re-elected as President and won a referendum triggered by the opposition in 2004. The intention of the 2004 referendum was to oust him from office via the ballot box. As the film points out, the 2004 vote was his seventh consecutive election victory since coming to power in 1998.

The film raises the pertinent question as to whether the Bolivarian revolution can survive once Chavez departs from government. Javier Biardeau, Professor of Sociology at the Central University of Venezuela, is interviewed in the film and emphasises the need to prevent any shift to authoritarianism: 'When a process of transition to socialism implies a greater level of democratisation in the movement, or in classic terms, in the vanguard driving the process of change, this vanguard should be far more democratic than it has been historically because that was one of the mistakes that one can identify from an evaluation of socialism in the 20th century.'

Navarrete first screened the film earlier in 2009 to packed audiences at SOAS. Since then the director has taken the film on tour around the UK and most recently to the US. 'Inside the Revolution' is a fascinating addition to the discourse on Venezuelan politics. It is a valuable companion to two other recent documentaries on Venezuela - 'The Revolution Will Not be Televised' (2002) and John Pilger's 'The War on Democracy' (2008). For those interested, the film can be purchased direct from www.alborada.net/alboradafilms

ORIGINAL SOURCE:
http://www.haldane.org/socialistlawyer/54/