A former paratrooper who led an aborted coup 1992 but achieved the goal of becoming president by democratic means, Hugo Chávez has split the country into Chavistas and anti-Chavistas.

Rather than a confrontation of ideological or political differences, however, it is trust that differentiates the two sides.

While the literati, political observers, economists, investors and Venezuelans in general are racking their brains trying to answer the Shakespearean “to believe or not to believe” in Chávez, the country, and more so the media, are enjoying something almost forgotten in this supposedly evolved nation: total freedom of expression.

This is quite a surprise coming from a self-proclaimed aggressive revolutionary whom many Venezuelans fear will end up establishing an authoritarian regime or even a dictatorship.

Paradoxically, at least four out of the eight governments of the last 40 years of democracy subjected the Venezuelan media to restrictions, antagonism and freedom of expression of varying degrees.

Another Chávez surprise is the flood of newsworthy material he has generated, as if Venezuelan journalists had suffered from a news shortage for years. According to one Caracas television station, the loquacious president, whose speeches are surpassed in length only by those of Fidel Castro in his hay day, has held seven press conferences and has spoken or appeared on TV no less than 21 times in his first 100 days in office.

What keeps this impressive volume of verbosity from appearing overabundant is the unpredictability of the presidential arguments and the contradicting signals Chávez sends, which keeps everybody guessing, trying to plot in which direction he is heading.

Chávez, for example, has repeatedly attacked private sector leaders for failing to distribute a larger share of profits to workers and employees. Yet the government has decreed only a modest 20 percent salary increase for public workers and has courteously invited the private sector to do likewise.

As another example, Chávez acceptance of the fact that squatters invaded private property sent a very scary signal to property and business owners. Yet he has repeatedly assured local and foreign investors that he is working on an investment protection law that he has promised to produce before the end of summer.

Another reason why the media and Venezuelans pay attention to Chávez’s speeches and TV appearances is his mixture of impassioned populist rhetoric and his rough, unconventional style, off-the-wall expressions and colorful anecdotes. In more than two occasions Chávez has woken up journalists caught dozing during boring and repetitious parts of his TV speeches by calling out to his press secretary: “Martín, serve these people some more coffee/”

A lover of baseball, a sport he used to practice, Chávez recently invited the Chicago Cubs’ Sammy Sosa to Venezuela and organized a TV show in a Caracas stadium in which he pitched to the homerun hitter so he could display his skill to the whole nation. Chávez also resorts to baseball to explain to the nation what he is up to, using expressions such as “I am going to go to bat from the very first inning,” to indicate that he is going to play an active role from the very beginning, or “I am pitching Congress a slow ball in the center of the plate,” to indicate that he is going to make life easy for congressmen.

His repertoire of anecdotes can often be quite folkloric, going as far as describing how as a corporal he and his platoon of soldiers looked after a bunch of pigs eventually destined to feed the troops.

The volume of news, interest and the color, however, would not be half as appreciated were it not that the journalistic community enjoys an absolute freedom of expression and of speech. At first, it was believed that this was influenced by Presidential Secretariat Minister Alfredo Peña and Foreign Minister José Vicente Rangel, two veteran journalists well acquainted with past press difficulties and restrictions.

But then, as leading newspapers increased their criticism of the administration, Chávez repeatedly shrugged off their attacks, claiming that he does not fear negative press opinion and cares only about what the people say. Chávez is now the subject of an even more serious opinionated challenge from the Caracas afternoon newspaper El Mundo, under the new editorial management of popular socialist politician Teodoro Petkoff, a former revolutionary himself. But so far, two well-documented Petkoff attacks against the military and the National Electoral Council have been respectfully rejected by Chávez and his government, leading the Venezuela media to hope that after several decades of relative liberties, freedom of the expression may finally be back to stay.

(June 8, 1999)