Chavez's star fades in violent Venezuelan slums
By Frank Jack Daniel
CARACAS, Jan 17 (Reuters) - A shock referendum defeat has woken Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez up to an unpleasant truth: an epidemic of violence and failing services threaten his support in slums at the heart of his socialist revolution.
Shantytown residents brought Chavez to power almost a decade ago and have kept him there at elections and by rallying behind him during a failed coup in 2002 as reward for health centers, subsidized food markets and other social programs.
But when the OPEC nation's voters last month rejected proposals to expand Chavez's powers and enshrine socialism as a state goal, he lost even in former strongholds such as La Vega, a tough neighborhood on a Caracas hillside.
Chavez faces important regional elections late this year and he needs to win back traditional supporters whohave grown increasingly frustrated with trash-strewn alleyways that echo every day with the clap of gunfire.
"He needs to improve things right now, because people are getting angry with so many unfulfilled promises," said America Colina, a Chavez backer buying subsidized meat at a La Vega market, where shortages mean long lines for milk.
In response to the referendum defeat, his first at the ballot box, Chavez announced a tactical retreat and slammed the brakes on ambitious changes to the constitution in favor of emergency meetings on garbage collection and road repairs.
After a year of lofty ideological speeches, the close friend and ally of Cuban leader Fidel Castro overhauled his cabinet this month and told his ministers to go out and get their hands dirty working among the poor.
With elections in November, they have little time to make a difference if Chavez is to win and get back to his long-term plan to turn the No. 4 oil exporter to the United States into a socialist state.
For years, opinion polls have shown Venezuelans are worried about bread-and-butter issues such as crime. But poor voters had generally been willing to give Chavez more time to solve their problems, especially as he lavished record oil income on subsidies and wage hikes.
The opposition says Chavez's centralized management style is inefficient and will continue to prevent programs working properly despite his pledges to refocus on basic issues.
TOO LITTLE ON CRIME
In places like La Vega, patience may now be running out.
Housewife Ingrid Guzman thanks Chavez for a clinic where Cuban doctors treat her son's asthma and she voted for him in the referendum, but also complains that crime is out of hand and that residents in her pot-holed street have to coerce workers to collect trash.
"The government sends help, but it doesn't arrive," Guzman said through the half-open door of her home. "It's not Chavez, it's the people around him," she added, echoing a commonly expressed view that Chavez is surrounded by corrupt officials.
"I used to sit here on my doorstep until 11 or 12 at night. Not any more," Guzman said.
Seconds later, she dived inside as two youths ran up the street firing a hand gun at a third youngster.
Ninety percent of Venezuelans believe Chavez is doing too little to catch criminals, according to a report by pollster Datanalisis in the El Nacional newspaper this month.
Half the population was a victim of crime between 2006 and 2007, making Venezuela the most crime-ridden nation in the Americas, the Latinobarometro survey group says.
"The government is in a severely tight spot," said Edgardo Lander, a sociologist at the Venezuelan Central University. "It could face an electoral catastrophe if there aren't signs of change by the middle of the year."
Chavez's approval ratings are still higher than most presidents in Latin America, with even opposition surveys generally giving him more than 50 percent popularity.
But the former paratrooper knows there is not enough to show for years of big government spending.
"Wherever I go, there are roads that can't be used," an exasperated Chavez said during his weekly television show on Sunday. "I would understand if we had no money, but we do." (Reporting by Frank Jack Daniel; Editing by Saul Hudson and Kieran Murray)
CARACAS, Jan 17 (Reuters) - A shock referendum defeat has woken Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez up to an unpleasant truth: an epidemic of violence and failing services threaten his support in slums at the heart of his socialist revolution.
Shantytown residents brought Chavez to power almost a decade ago and have kept him there at elections and by rallying behind him during a failed coup in 2002 as reward for health centers, subsidized food markets and other social programs.
But when the OPEC nation's voters last month rejected proposals to expand Chavez's powers and enshrine socialism as a state goal, he lost even in former strongholds such as La Vega, a tough neighborhood on a Caracas hillside.
Chavez faces important regional elections late this year and he needs to win back traditional supporters whohave grown increasingly frustrated with trash-strewn alleyways that echo every day with the clap of gunfire.
"He needs to improve things right now, because people are getting angry with so many unfulfilled promises," said America Colina, a Chavez backer buying subsidized meat at a La Vega market, where shortages mean long lines for milk.
In response to the referendum defeat, his first at the ballot box, Chavez announced a tactical retreat and slammed the brakes on ambitious changes to the constitution in favor of emergency meetings on garbage collection and road repairs.
After a year of lofty ideological speeches, the close friend and ally of Cuban leader Fidel Castro overhauled his cabinet this month and told his ministers to go out and get their hands dirty working among the poor.
With elections in November, they have little time to make a difference if Chavez is to win and get back to his long-term plan to turn the No. 4 oil exporter to the United States into a socialist state.
For years, opinion polls have shown Venezuelans are worried about bread-and-butter issues such as crime. But poor voters had generally been willing to give Chavez more time to solve their problems, especially as he lavished record oil income on subsidies and wage hikes.
The opposition says Chavez's centralized management style is inefficient and will continue to prevent programs working properly despite his pledges to refocus on basic issues.
TOO LITTLE ON CRIME
In places like La Vega, patience may now be running out.
Housewife Ingrid Guzman thanks Chavez for a clinic where Cuban doctors treat her son's asthma and she voted for him in the referendum, but also complains that crime is out of hand and that residents in her pot-holed street have to coerce workers to collect trash.
"The government sends help, but it doesn't arrive," Guzman said through the half-open door of her home. "It's not Chavez, it's the people around him," she added, echoing a commonly expressed view that Chavez is surrounded by corrupt officials.
"I used to sit here on my doorstep until 11 or 12 at night. Not any more," Guzman said.
Seconds later, she dived inside as two youths ran up the street firing a hand gun at a third youngster.
Ninety percent of Venezuelans believe Chavez is doing too little to catch criminals, according to a report by pollster Datanalisis in the El Nacional newspaper this month.
Half the population was a victim of crime between 2006 and 2007, making Venezuela the most crime-ridden nation in the Americas, the Latinobarometro survey group says.
"The government is in a severely tight spot," said Edgardo Lander, a sociologist at the Venezuelan Central University. "It could face an electoral catastrophe if there aren't signs of change by the middle of the year."
Chavez's approval ratings are still higher than most presidents in Latin America, with even opposition surveys generally giving him more than 50 percent popularity.
But the former paratrooper knows there is not enough to show for years of big government spending.
"Wherever I go, there are roads that can't be used," an exasperated Chavez said during his weekly television show on Sunday. "I would understand if we had no money, but we do." (Reporting by Frank Jack Daniel; Editing by Saul Hudson and Kieran Murray)
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