Caracas shantytowns: Decades of bad, indifferent and insensitive administrations
VHeadline guest commentarist Antonio Padrino writes: It only takes a few glances at Caracas to realize the heritage left by 40 years of AD and COPEI governments. They were truly insensitive and immoral ... they left lots of the mountain slopes populated informally by poor generated by a capitalist model imposed and without consultation ... they did the same with the 1961 Constitution: they imposed it!
Worrying only about the concentration of easy money and to guarantee votes for their parties, bureaucrats of the time allowed the invasion of the hills by poor people. Today those hills are filled with a terrible mix of neighborhoods that have no formal means to resolve many of their problems ... in spite of their situation, they continue to show solidarity.
There was a background to all of this: Admiral Wolfgang Larrazabal's "emergency plan" established during his provisional presidency (January-November 1958) initiated waste and embezzlement and ... corruption in Venezuela.
Fourth Republic governments did not worry about improving life conditions for the peasants and/or to stop the exodus to the big cities. They stimulated the abandonment of the countryside by encouraging the growth of Caracas' informal build-up of shantytowns on the hills. Later, Betancourt, Leoni, Caldera, Herrera, Lusinchi, Perez II, Velazquez and Caldera II ... which had more resources ... did nothing to prevent the ecologic damage being caused by the invasion of the hills in Caracas. Caracas did not inspire their respect ... even as the birthplace of Bolivar, the Liberator.
A fair, responsible and sensitive government would have encouraged life in the countryside by improving its quality. They made a lot of noise with Betancourt's Agricultural Reform. History has shown that it was not really reform and that it was not really agricultural either, because it stimulated the exodus to the cities given the lack of opportunities in the countryside. Tractors were given as payment for new cars.
I write this as someone who was born and raised in a Caracas shantytown... I hold many fond memories ... children in the shantytowns are the children of all the neighbors. Men and women in the shantytowns are usually humble, hard-working, responsible people. Shantytown people are patient and never forget! Criminals in the shantytowns are a minority ... they are a consequence of the insensitive character of a social system imposed by the Fourth Republic. Let's not forget this!
Several of my childhood friends quit elementary school, and saw them slowly turn into weird and aggressive people thanks to drug abuse. No one is born a criminal and not all criminals are born in shantytowns. There are many criminals who, dressed-up, merge and change party allegiances to get close to power. Those are, in my opinion, the most dangerous!
Constitution of the
