Chuao, Aragua State: modern slavery

At the entrance to the cocoa drying patio in Chuao, Aragua State, the following verse by Fray Jacinto Nubiano can be read (from whom I could not obtain any other information than that writing), dated February 1968:

tell me chuao

ink color

who writes your story

The Indians baptized you

The whites possessed you,

The blacks inherited you.

And there in Chuao, under a huge sign that says “Here no one speaks ill of Chávez”, they are still waiting for the promises made by the eternal in Aló, president number 309 of April 27, 2008. Chávez spent five hours in wow. Although at one point he confused the cocoa mucilage with the seeds, as was usual for him, he ended up looking like an expert in the field. He offered villas and castles… Here are some quotes from the long spiel:

“The same thing is happening here as in Barlovento: the production spike”… He asks Elías (Jaua) for the figures but he, for a change, doesn’t have them… “It’s about socialism, not only about increasing production, but to change the model. Because here this fruit (takes a cocoa) they open it here and take out the seeds, ferment them and then dry them”…

“What percentage are we exporting, Elías?”… “Here in Chuao 90%, in the rest of the country, 60%”, answers Jaua. “You realize? That is still the colonial model! They take them to Europe and there our cocoa, product of the sweat of our workers, of centuries of struggle, of culture, of knowledge, the product of our mother earth there they turn into delicacies… chocolates, filled with I don’t know what else… And They sell them three times more expensive, five times more expensive… And the capitalists are filled with wealth! Those transnational corporations of capitalism! And it turns out that here, the people who work, are born in poverty, live in poverty and die in poverty… and leave their children as an inheritance poverty and their plantation and the drum, and joy, but poverty… That has to change! It’s like oil, then! They took it very cheaply and turned it into wealth for themselves… This is over here and it will never come back!”

That “more never” of Chavez did not last 15 years. I have just been in Chuao and I left sad to find the same town frozen in time, where the girls who welcomed Chávez on that occasion are now the women who are still waiting for the centuries of struggle, of knowledge and the product of Mother Earth give them a decent way of living… but nothing. The only thing that apparently changed is that the European capitalists were exchanged for a “Japanese capitalist” who exploits them the same or worse…

I approached a group of women to ask them why they accepted this abuse. They all saw each other’s faces and none dared to answer. At one point, one pointed to some men who were next to the church, and told me “if you want to know, talk to them… they are the ones who know how the production is sold to the “Japanese”, you know”.

No no I dont know. And seeing them so frightened and unprotected made me even more angry. “How much do you earn?” I asked them. “One hundred and twenty,” said one of them. And another she added, in a whisper: “sovereign bolivars”. And isn’t that slavery pure and simple? The only thing that changed is that they went from one exploiter to another! The poor blacks, as Gallegos said, inherited the land to remain slaves.

Later, I was approached by a woman on the beach. “Lady, you better not get involved, this is never going to change. We are afraid. “They” are powerful, they are with the “Japanese”. They don’t pay taxes, we can’t sell cocoa to anyone else…”

That story reminded me of when the Spaniards had a monopoly on cocoa, that the white Creoles allied themselves with the smugglers, especially the Corsicans, to sell them the cocoa at a more favorable price for them and even less than the one the Spaniards sold it for. . But more than 200 years have passed…

“Have you seen the Japanese?” I asked him. “No, but he is the owner.” That is what is called faith: believing in what has never been seen. “And you don’t think that if the Japanese, if he exists, doesn’t pay taxes, is it because he must have a member of the military or a high-ranking official?” With that question I chased her away. Maybe they know more than they say they know, but they don’t admit it because they’re terrified.

I arrived in Caracas writing to the women’s groups that can help them. Hopefully we can achieve that they can be the ones who export, directly, even if it is part of the cocoa they produce. What a disgrace that in this madurista Chavista Venezuela, savage capitalism continues to be in the hands of the hierarchs of the regime!

@cjaimesb