Caracas – The Pull Of The Land

Motorcade 1958

July 4, 2024July 4, 2024 Richard Barnes

The President of the United States, Dwight Eisenhower, had commissioned his vice president to embark on a “Goodwill Tour” of South America. This was public and widespread knowledge and a highly anticipated visit by the continent’s governments as well as the great majority of “common citizens” of South America, as became clear after the dust had settled and cooler heads had had an opportunity to investigate and do some independent research and interviews in later years.

But in 1958, the message to foment agitation was very similar throughout the countries he visited: the Yankee Imperialist has hired puppet regimes in [fill-in-the-country] for long enough! It is imperative for the communist parties, on behalf of “the people”, to stop any inroads the United States might make into Latin America.

In the case of Venezuela, such propaganda was especially effective, having recently overthrown the Perez Jimenez government. The agitators added incredible tales of torture and unending horrors, tying the United States to such. They also took the credit for the overthrow of Jimenez (and, thereby, the simultaneous defeat of the Imperialist Giant from the North), although he was in fact deposed by a left-wing military coup. Nevertheless, and more importantly, as all successful agitators, they were effective propagandists and knew how to “personalize” whatever they identified as the obstacles to their objectives.

There was much opposition to their dream of a Venezuelan Communist utopia – whether the conservative elements within Venezuela itself, or the inherent desire of a majority of Venezuelans to live in peace, with a measure of liberty, or the generally anti-communist foreign policy of the United States, etc. But they easily personalized all of that, and more, in Richard Milhous Nixon.

Beginning with a trickle months before, and culminating in torrents of pamphlets, speeches, lectures, and harangues, the message was clear and consistent:

[To] send the “truculent” vice president of the United States to this land is an “imperialist abuse” and evidence of their intention to continue running Venezuela via puppet regimes. Richard Nixon is the one who most pushed for “sword diplomacy” against the countries of South America, installing and maintaining dictators who governed and tortured at the Yanqui’sbeck and call; whose strings were pulled directly from the Yanqui embassies in the capitals of South America.

Richard Nixon wants to increase his filthy, blood-soaked riches by taking control over all our natural resources and to do so he will order the imprisonment, torture, exile, and execution of all who oppose such self-serving policies. Etc.

Clearly such crassly personalized propaganda would not move the great majority of Venezuelans or South Americans. But the objective was not to move the majority; only the dedicated, combative, and disciplined minority. In this, it succeeded. Wildly.

Nixon’s plane landed shortly after 11AM on Tuesday, May 13^th, 1958.

As he and his wife came to the door of the Air Force prop plane, they were met with the requisite dignitaries and the usual security apparatus.

However, all that was overwhelmed by the jeering, shouting, blowing whistles and horns, and clanging steel. As the Nixons, whose security detail was no more than 12 secret service officers, walked to their waiting limousine they found themselves not only attacked by “death-to-Nixon” chants and banners and all manner of vulgar vituperations, whistles, and jeers, but also hit by trash and spittle.

It was quite a sight. Professional agitators and organizers had bused down hundreds and had stationed most on the balcony above where the Nixons and the official party had to pass. So the American party had to walk towards those angry mobs wishing them ill and spitting on them and Mrs. Nixon.

In the Cadillac limousine, the danger did not abate, but intensified, as the mob easily overwhelmed the minimal local police force and surrounded the car, hitting it with pipes and rods, and began to rock the car, seeking to overturn it and burn it, all the while loudly chanting “death to Nixon”. The secret service, did not once use their fists, but with open palms, even when injured, continued to move insistently between the attackers and the vice-president. Inside the car, one agent did pull his gun when windows were broken and it seemed the crowds would gain entrance.

Miraculously, though, the car was able to break through and then proceed towards the city, only to encounter blockades along the way. By then, the Venezuela military had sent a large flatbed truck which was used to clear blockades and allow passage to Caracas, where more rioters were ready for action; including a mob desecrating the Simon Bolivar pantheon. As witnesses wryly observed later, the “defenders of Venezuelan virtue did not mind desecrating their own flag that day, as they tore and destroyed it.”

Vice President Nixon was persuaded to cancel the scheduled wreath-laying ceremony at the tomb of Simón Bolívar, which cancellation was clearly not anticipated by the rioters.

The behavior of the mobs was precisely as had been instructed and promoted by the omniscient leaders, who had not anticipated that the “truculent” vice-president would have actually acceded to cancelling the scheduled public ceremonies. As was ascertained later, this act short-circuited the preparations for further violence by the Juventud comunista, including the use of Molotov cocktails at the site.

Decades later, Allen Hansen, posted to the American embassy during this event, wrote:

There was such a well-organized mob around the Pantheon, that it was decided on the spot the Nixon party would not stop there but would go directly to the American Ambassador’s residence. Well, they made it safely. Some felt concern, even, that the embassy residence might be attacked, but that was never a real likelihood. There was a question as to whether the VP should give a press conference; this he did, and he conducted himself with great dignity. He’s never been higher in my esteem than he was at that moment, speaking with such reserve and calm about it not being easy to see one’s wife being spit upon, and that kind of thing, but still statesmanlike in his reaction although he was obviously seething beneath it all. So I gained some respect for the political leadership of Richard M. Nixon that day.

A day later, upon arrival in Washington, D.C., the vice president and his wife were met by President Dwight Eisenhower and 15,000 well-wishers.

The events above took place over 65 years ago; however, the strategies and tactics used by the perpetrators ought to be familiar to us today. They continue to be used with varying degrees of success because we continue to refuse to see and teach the tie between godlessness, anarchy, and totalitarianism.

Transparency International Corruption Perceptions Index

March 7, 2023March 7, 2023 Richard Barnes

In the mid 1980s I had the privilege of working with the Gideon’s organization. Every Saturday, rain snow or shine, a group of us would meet for breakfast in downtown Kalamazoo, Michigan, to review assignments and plan the upcoming weeks. Although our conversations covered just about everything under the sun, I’d often hear these men, all of whom were older than I, express gratitude for God, family, and country. In that order.

However, they were also realistic enough to gently tamp down my younger-man’s exuberance about America. In my naiveté I still believed that, if one would scratch beneath the surface across the country, one would tap into a vast reservoir of appreciation for our roots, both colonial and early republic. By that I meant, surely, the great majority of Americans understood that the truths we regard as “self-evident” are so because of the religious tradition undergirding our beliefs and our very lives and that to reject that heritage would lead to tyranny and ruin.

My colleagues would point to Scripture, which has plenty of examples of nations whose names now gather dust in forgotten manuscripts and unvisited libraries. Nations that knew the Triune God but did not honor him. The words of Daniel to Belshazzar come to mind. Even the nation of Israel was judged for her betrayal. Sadly, it is the nature of men and women to forget, to deny, to dishonor.

John Stuart Mill, the great relativistic thinker, assumed that Christian ethics are permanent and hence we can take them for granted. He provides yet another example proving that “great thinkers” are not often wise.

I recalled my friends from Kalamazoo when I read the 2022 Transparency International Corruptions Perceptions Index comments on Venezuela.

Venezuela’s foundations differed widely from colonial and early republic America. However, she did have a basis for understanding the source of her prosperity in the first half of the 20th Century, a time when she enjoyed high levels of economic freedom which produced an environment of numberless voluntary transactions and unprecedented years of well-being with high growth rates. In 1960, Venezuela’s per capita income, at 45% of the US per capita income, was the highest in South America while her growth rate was higher than even Germany’s.

Her great economic success fueled the transition to democracy in 1959. However, her democratically elected officials immediately began to curtail her economic freedoms in favor of Socialistic policies which eventually led to contractions and, by the end of the century, ushered in an authoritarian Socialist regime that, like a protean, angry octopus, has its tentacles in every nook and cranny of Venezuelan’s lives. By 2013, even the Carter Center, albeit belatedly, acknowledged the Venezuelan “elections” to be a sham (my word, not theirs; I don’t have to be diplomatic). By then the damage was done and the fix was in, and continues to be in, to this day.

Oh, but there’s more.

Transparency International’s 2022 report ranks Venezuela as the most corrupt country in the Americas. That’s “most corrupt”, as in more corrupt than Haiti, Cuba, and Nicaragua. Her rulers are reliably accused of leading massive drug cartels and having extensive ties to major international criminal organizations. Incredibly, illegal businesses account for 21% of Venezuela’s GDP. And her mining, especially gold and diamonds, are controlled by criminal groups who, with impunity, extort, enslave, prostitute, and murder the inhabitants, mostly defenseless indigenous peoples.

In other words, Socialists are grossly guilty of what they delight in accusing Capitalists and Christians (they purposefully interchange the two).

In my youth, I would often hear the older generation’s assurances that Venezuela would not go the way of Cuba or Allende’s Chile. That she understood very well that liberty created her prosperity. As for her dalliances with Socialistic policies since 1960, those were very limited and did were not slippery slopes. I wanted to believe such assurances, even though my own family history said otherwise. Cuba, where my father was born, was also an economic miracle which went the way of all flesh practically overnight. At the time I did not know enough to ask my elders what made Venezuela any different; what would keep her from doing likewise.

And I certainly was not aware of Venezuela’s deeply infiltrated military, in cahoots with Castro and determined to rule Venezuela in Communist fashion, tyranny and all.

Venezuela “understood” where her prosperity came from. However, she ditched it nonetheless.

The United States appears to be doing the same, with even less excuse.

Mourning the death of a child. In addition to the griefs which are the common lot of all, these peoples have been abused, murdered, displaced, and enslaved. Countless have fled to unknown destinies in Brazil.

Mother and children in Brazil after fleeing criminal attacks in Venezuela’s mining arc.

Plaza Colon in Caracas, Venezuela, circa 1950

Caracas boy, circa 1950

I Remember

January 13, 2022January 13, 2022 Richard Barnes

A friend sent me a note this week which I’d like to share with you as encouragement as well as challenge. If you have children or grandchildren, do your best to inspire them to love God and country.

That is easier said than done, of course. But reminiscences like those of my friend are a good starting point.

He alludes to the “shacks around Caracas”. For more on that, see my series on “ranchitos” beginning here: Ranchitos I.

Here is his letter:

Dear Richard,

Thanks for the info about Venezuela. It’s sad to see a beautiful country taken down by evil men. The people are the ones who suffer. I remember all the shacks in the area around Caracas and that the city was noted as the pick pocket capital. I know I lost all the Upjohn travel money I had to a gang of pickpockets. It makes me worry about the US and the direction we are headed.

I remember life in Kalamazoo when I would walk to school and to church, about 6 city blocks; we had no car. We would see the little flags with the blue and gold stars in the homes of individuals with sons in the war. But I still remember Sundays as a day of rest: no lawn mowers, no sports, no car washing. But the sound of church bells announcing the start of church services. There were 3 large churches in our neighborhood, and we attended the farthest away. We walked there 3 times a Sunday, rain or shine, seeing all our friends on the way.

Now, no church bells; they may offend someone. It’s all about sports, baseball, golf, basketball, football, and only one church service on Sunday.

And political corruption.

Are we headed in the same direction?

God bless you and yours.

J.V.

Looking north on Burdick St., Kalamazoo, Michigan, 1950s

Looking east on Michigan Ave., Kalamazoo, Michigan, 1950s.

(Although I found photos of individual Kalamazoo churches in the 50s, I was unable to find any panoramic prints that showed at least several of them in one photo)

“Are They Natural?” — Charles Lindbergh in Venezuela

August 6, 2020August 6, 2020 Richard Barnes

On May 21, 1927, not far from Paris, France, the first modern traffic jam developed.

Colonel Charles Lindbergh, having flown for 33 hours and 30 minutes, and not having slept for 55 hours, touched down and was instantly swarmed by tens of thousands (some estimates range up to a million) of men, women, and children, all seeking to see, touch, embrace, and take mementos from the man and his plane. Incredibly, only 10 people were hospitalized. Parisians feted Mr. Lindbergh like no one else before. By the end of the week, millions (no debate on this estimate) had seen or greeted him as he was driven from ceremonies, to banquets, to historical sites, such as the Champs-Élysées. Throughout, the twenty-five-year-old pilot behaved with modest aplomb and his speeches were gems of diplomacy.

The adulation and joy followed Mr. Lindbergh to Brussels and London, where the behavior and lionization exhibited by the phlegmatic British could not be distinguished from that of the exuberant French.

By mid-June, Charles Lindbergh was back in his own country, where New York City feted him with a ticker tape parade in which several millions joined in the celebration.

President Coolidge, whose July 4th, 1926 speech on the 150th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence (see here) evinced a disquietude with the spiritual reality of the country, and who urged a return to eternal verities, apparently saw in the young pilot something of a personification of what he had in mind. Below is the transcript of President Coolidge’s welcome and Charles Lindbergh’s response before a large crowd in Washington, D.C.:

Calvin Coolidge: On behalf of his own people, who have a deep affection for him, and have been thrilled by his splendid achievements, and as President of the United States, I bestow the distinguished Flying Cross, as a symbol of appreciation for what he is and what he has done, upon Colonel Charles A. Lindbergh.

[Applause]

Intelligent, industrious, energetic, dependable, purposeful, alert, quick of reaction, serious, deliberate, stable, efficient, kind, modest, congenial, a man of good moral habits and regular in his business transactions.

[Applause]

Charles Lindbergh: When I landed at le Bourget, a few weeks ago, I landed with the expectancy, and the hope, of being able to see Europe. [Laughter and applause]. It was the first time I had ever been abroad [Laughter], and I wasn’t in any hurry to get back [Laughter and applause]. And I was informed, that while it wasn’t an order to come back home [laughter], that there’d be a battleship waiting for me next week. [Laughter and applause].

President Coolidge requested Lindbergh, who the world saw as an embodiment of America, to fly to South America as a goodwill ambassador for the United States. Lindbergh did so, taking off on December 1, 1927, on the famed Spirit of St. Louis, the same plane he flew across the Atlantic Ocean. His itinerary took him to Mexico City, Guatemala, Belize, El Salvador, Tegucigalpa, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panamá, Cartagena, Bogota, and Maracay (Venezuela), where he touched ground on January 29, 1928.

Although Caracas was the capital of Venezuela, the president, General Juan Vicente Gómez (see here and here) had made his home in Maracay, about 75 miles west. And that is where Lindbergh landed and where he was met by Gómez. But, first, he had flown over the capital city where enormous crowds had gathered in plazas, streets, and balconies, cheering loudly and waving frantically. In this, Venezuelans behaved like Parisians, Londoners, and New Yorkers.

Along with the crowds from Maracay and multitudes from Valencia, Puerto Cabello, and Caracas, innumerable automobiles invaded the roads converging towards the airport, creating Venezuela’s first massive traffic jam, immovable since the early afternoon. Many of the cars’ hoods displayed the national colors of Venezuela and the United States. By the time the plane landed, the airport was encircled by vast and loud multitudes, who gave the Águila Solitaria (Lone Eagle) an apotheotic reception.

The president himself walked to the hangars urging the crowds to give distance to the plane. Colonel Lindbergh had stayed a few minutes in the hangar, checking his plane’s fuselage and engine. The president’s entourage, seeking favor (a common phenomenon in all countries), expressed “concern” to the chief of staff that the American was being rude. But the chief brushed them aside, reminding them that President Gómez respected a man who “first took care of his horse”. This was true of Gómez. He was known to enjoy and to converse and seek good counsel on ranching and cattle breeding.

Two of Gómez’s daughters came forward and handed a magnificent bouquet of tropical flowers to the the famous aviator. “Are they natural?”, he asked. The president replied, “Yes, they are, but they are recognized and come from good families.”

This anecdote quickly made the rounds throughout the country, as the president had 74 children from numerous concubines. Lindbergh was referring to the flowers; however, depending on context, natural also refers to the status of children, in which case the word alludes to offspring of an unmarried couple. These become “legitimate” once the couple marries. It was in this sense that Gómez had understood the question, and he wanted to make clear that he “recognized” his daughters, having given them his name. But Gómez genuinely liked Lindbergh and no offense was taken, as none was intended.

The next day had been declared a national holiday, with Lindbergh being feted and honored in Maracay and Caracas, where he laid flowers adorned with Venezuelan and US flags at Simon Bolivar’s grave. Upon exiting the National Pantheon, he was instantly greeted with deafening ovations by the thousands who had gathered to see the American hero. The festivities culminated in a sumptuous banquet and dance in Caracas. Lindbergh did not dance, but, as in Paris and London, he was a gracious guest.

On January 31, 1928, the third day after having arrived, he took flight again and, after visits to St. Thomas, Puerto Rico, Santo Domingo, Port-au-Prince, Havana, he flew back to St. Louis.

Upon Lindbergh’s departure, Presidents Coolidge and Gómez exchanged warm greetings by diplomatic cable and Lindbergh himself wrote the following farewell:

I wish to give my thanks to President Gómez, to the officials of the army, to the functionaries of the government, and to the people of Venezuela, for the heartfelt reception they have so graciously given me during my visit and I also wish to express my gratitude to the press for their cooperation.

I am very impressed with the efficient manner in which the Corps of Venezuelan Aviation prepared the landing field and for the warm manners and gracious behavior of the people of Venezuela towards me.

Colonel Lindbergh returned to Venezuela in September of 1929, inaugurating the first experimental flight of Pan American Airways on a Sikorsky S-38.

The Spirit of St. Louis was donated by Charles Lindbergh and is displayed in the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C. The aluminum exterior of the plane reflects the national ensigns of all the countries visited by the young man. Among those ensigns is the flag of Venezuela.

With the President of Venezuela, General Juan Vicente Gómez, January 29, 1928

Charles A. Lindbergh posing with the *Spirit of St. Louis*

Locusts

July 30, 2020July 30, 2020 Richard Barnes

I recently read a fascinating book, Vida de Hacienda en Venezuela (Hacienda Life in Venezuela), by José Rafael Lovera. The author performed meticulous research into the lives, customs, and mores of Venezuelans from the early days of her colonial era to the mid 20th century, when haciendas had largely disappeared (see the series on ranchitos, here, here, here, here, here, and here.). I found it to be an absorbing study.

A section of the book focuses on the wars, earthquakes, plagues, heartbreaks, and deaths that ravaged Venezuela. They were events which, added to the hard work, would seem to have made life unbearable, if not impossible.

As an example, this post addresses one of the many disasters that the haciendas, their owners, laborers, and slaves confronted for about a decade in the latter half of the 19th century. Locusts may be something we read about in the Bible, but it is a plague most of us know little about experientially.

The first extract is from a letter written by the English Baroness, Lady Annie Brassey, who made a brief visit to the port of La Guaira and Caracas in 1883 and who, on her way from the port to the capital, encountered a locust invasion. Let us see how she described this:

At each step, the landscape changed, till we finally came to an open space, sown with sugar cane, bananas, sweet potatoes, and other crops. Here we discovered the source of some extraordinary noises which, mixed with the far more harmonious birdsong, we had been hearing during our ascent. A vast cloud of locusts was fluttering, and, as is also done by the peoples of Chile and Peru — actually in all of South America where these plagues ravage the land — the inhabitants were beating drums, tin trays, pots, pans, and any other like objects they might have at hand, besides screaming and calling out and blowing horns and firing weapons, to drive away the swarms of these cruel devastators, whose brightly transparent wings trembled agitatedly in the sunlight reflected thereon, like silver snow caps.

As beautiful as it might be to see them so, the damage that these insects cause is terrible to behold. At that moment the traces of their visit were very obvious in the great banana leaves, reduced to their naked veins; the sugar canes and other crops slashed to the ground, and all trees stripped of their leaves, sprouts, and small branches.

Even the robust plantain … with her glossy yellow stalk and her scarlet flowers — like to an ancient galleon — were reduced to naked trunks and branches.

Elizabeth Gross, the wife of a German businessman, was in Venezuela in 1883 and 1896, and in a letter to her friend, told of her travel by mule back to the interior regions:

It was almost impenetrable, since the trees were very near to one another, covered with vines, parasitic plants, and others which hung picturesquely from them. The vegetation beneath the trees consisted of palms and other magnificent tropical plants, within and between which slid snakes, lizards, and perhaps also, towards the deeper interior, monkeys and tigers.

We observed as an interesting fact how the lower plants were covered with small, brown creatures, like grasshoppers. It was a depressing discovery, because as these grow and lift flight, they can travel as far as Maracaibo where, about seven years ago, they caused a total devastation.

[Mrs. Gross, now back in Maracaibo, writes her friend a few months later]….

… the locusts that we had seen in … the jungle are already here. A while ago I wanted to go shopping in the afternoon, with Mrs. Lüdert and her husband told us to not delay because it looked very dark over the lake [Lake Maracaibo], as if rain was threatening, even though we are not in the rainy season.

We had visited two stores when, suddenly, it became night and nothing could be seen. Clouds of locusts obscured the daylight. They came with such density that we had to defend ourselves with our umbrellas in order to advance. It was somewhat disgusting how these frightful critters slapped against our faces. They demolished absolutely everything.

After a half hour, the beautiful coconut trees had become brooms. The locusts had devoured all the greenery in the gardens. Despite our having closed all shutters and windows, two men had to dedicate three hours to kill the locusts which had slipped into our house. They got into everything: in closets, in the seat backs, and in the smallest corners. Five of them penetrated through my mosquito screen and were on my bed in the morning. They had also begun to eat the socks that were on the chair in front of my bed, as also the hairdresser cushion. They eat everything that has any starch whatsoever. They got into my dresses.

It was something truly disgusting. When it becomes dark, they fall where they are, thereby dirtying our roof. Tens of thousands of them were swimming on the lake….

The repulsive spectacle described by Mrs. Gross during her stay in Maracaibo was seen across other cities in Venezuela. We’ll conclude by citing a French traveler in Caracas in 1886. He writes of resting near a window of Hotel St. Amand where he was residing:

Suddenly, an infernal noise compels us to rush outside. Gunshots sound from all sides. In this country of endless revolutions, were we about to witness yet another? No, we see a cloud of locusts. It comes bleakly, threateningly, darkening the daylight, and stinking the air.

Everyone immediately arms himself. Some with wire plates, others with iron pots or cauldrons, or whatever might be at hand, metal or not, to make the most noise as possible. They also fire weapons into the air, they light fires everywhere and all this is done to somehow prevent the cloud from falling over Caracas.

For more than two hours this cloud has overflown the city which is submerged in a grey darkness. The amount of locusts was such that, the cloud having passed, there were three centimeters of excrements on the streets. In certain points outside the city, where the tail of cloud fell, we have walked over a thickness of two to three centimeters of dead locusts.

In a twinkling of an eye, the yellow ground has turned black. We could hear a horrible crunching sound of insects as they moved their jaws. All vegetation had disappeared in a few minutes. Not even a leaf remained on the trees. The branches bent down under the weight of the mass of insects. It was a lamentable spectacle, a ravaging even worse than our hail.

Such eloquent descriptions require no further commentary. They transmit the horror that the inhabitants of major cities fought against and the ravages that the numerous conucos, small farms, and haciendas endured. The losses were immense.

The United States has also had its share of this plague in the mid 19th century, perhaps the most (in)famous being the Rocky Mountain Locust Invasion of 1874 of which Laura Ingalls Wilder would write in terms similar to those used by the travelers cited above, including descriptions of the critters invading the houses and the horrible sound of “millions of jaws biting and chewing….”

And the desperate defense measures taken by the Americans mirrored those of the Venezuelans, including fires, shotgun blasts, and beating of metal plates or anything that would make noise.

As Job tells us, “Yet man is born unto trouble, as the sparks fly upward.” So, Venezuelans and Americans, like folks around the world have done throughout history, arose, shook the pests and dust off, and carried on.

Plaza Baralt, Maracaibo, Venezuela, mid-19th century

Plaza Mayor in Caracas, mid-19th century

Aftermath of the Jerusalem Locust Plague of 1915

The Rocky Mountain 1874-1875 Locust Invasion

Short video for interested readers