Invisible No More

George Ciccariello-Maher, The Jacobin

Geographically, Caracas, Venezuela consists of a relatively short, narrow valley just over twenty miles in length, sheltered from the Caribbean Sea by a mountain range to the north, with population seams radiating southward in a series of smaller valleys.

The old city center lies to the west of the valley, with growth historically moving ever eastward: first in verdant suburbs, then elite urbanizations, and finally — the valley’s easternmost limitations reached — the massive informal barrio settlements that precariously ring the hilltops of nearly the entire city.

Negotiating Transformation in a Leftist State: An urban social movement and constructing a new agent of social transformation

by Jennifer Martinez, 2010

The Venezuelan 'Bolivarian Revolution', as the period since Hugo Chávez's election in 1998 is often  referred to, at first glance appears to be the counter-argument to John Holloway's (2002) encouragement to 'change the world without taking power'. It was, after all, an electoral uprising and the taking of state power that birthed this self-proclaimed socialist government, which has the support of a highly mobilized population for its project of 'Twenty-First Century Socialism'. Despite appearances, within Venezuela, even among supporters of the revolution, the desired role for the state in transforming the country remains undecided. The debate about power and 'anti-power', as Holloway has called it – or in the language of Venezuelans, about the relationship between the state and poder popular – is intense and growing, and is made even more complex because the division between the two is anything but clear.