Venezuela – Page 25 – The Pull Of The Land

Nationalization and Military Dissent

August 25, 2019August 25, 2019 Richard Barnes

In the late 1970’s, I took an extended leave to visit the country of my birth. During that most memorable trip, I had the joyful pleasure of meeting countless individuals and families, who, in true Venezuelan fashion were not shy in sharing their opinions about the direction the country was taking at the time.

That direction was, in a word, “nationalization” or forced divestment, principally of the iron ore and petroleum industries. This phenomenon was worldwide at the time, especially in Africa and Latin America, and it had devastating consequences.

What I saw — gargantuan enterprises with protean manufacturing plants, power centers, chemical processors, and assorted buildings and dormitories, accompanied by massive hirings of blue and white collar workforces and countless foreign workers, some of whom were housed on cruise ships docked on the Orinoco — did not “pass the sniff test”.

I had a number of vigorous but mostly friendly debates on the merits of government-run versus privately run operations. Already the mining camp where I was born had shown deterioration. One lady expressed sincere surprise at this, “How is it that now that this belongs to us, we haven’t managed to maintain it, let alone improve it?”

“Could it be that when something belongs to ‘us all’ it actually belongs to no one?” was one refrain I found myself repeating throughout the trip.

At my expressed concern about the immense power and wealth being concentrated in the Venezuelan government, something usually seen in Communist or Socialist regimes, the usual reply by those who disagreed with my concerns, was along the lines of, ‘it’s about time that “our” wealth remained here instead of being transferred to the United States.'”

Conversely, the reply by those who somewhat agreed with my concerns was along the lines of, “the Venezuelan military would never allow the government to devolve into outright Socialism or Communism.”

Interestingly, neither camp was concerned about what all this nationalization activity would lead to. In one heated and less friendly exchange, a more recent acquaintance at the time ridiculed my concerns, expressing disdain that I would question the massive wealth now owned by the Venezuelan people. He mocked my assertion that the people actually “owned” nothing. It was all owned by the state.

According to a scholarly analysis by the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City in 2013, “Nationalization brought considerable declines in productivity in the oil industries of the sample countries. Productivity fell by more than 70 percent in the Venezuelan oil industry. Despite enormous efforts put into expansion, it took Venezuelan’s nationalized industry about 20 years to return to its early 1960’s productivity levels.”

Sadly, shortly after the 20 years, another, more serious wave of nationalization was launched with even more catastrophic results. To take just one example, the enormous Venezuelan steelworks, Sidor, the crown of Venezuelan heavy industry, saw its production go from 4 million tons of steel in 2007, the year before its nationalization by the Chavez Socialist government, to 1.5 million in 2014, with triple the number of employees. Between late October, 2013 and August 2014, it had operated for only 90 days. I have no access to more recent figures nor would I trust them if I did.

Well, the wealth is gone for the most part; other than the billions in the private foreign bank accounts of a relative handful of Socialists. As for the massive mineral and petroleum reserves, those await the capital and the expertise to extract it. That explains the intense interest and activity in Venezuela on the part of both China and Russia.

As to the military, in later trips, friends were more subdued as they told me of the heavy Cuban influence in the Venezuelan forces. Why was this not being reported, they wondered.

Fidel Castro ruthlessly applied the tactic of buying or otherwise coopting the military. A tactic he taught Hugo Chavez and Nicolás Maduro. Hence, the failure of the Venezuelan military to “never allow the government to devolve into outright Socialism or Communism.”

To read more about the emasculation of the Venezuelan military, refer to the Reuters article linked below, “How Cuba Taught Venezuela to Quash Military Dissent”. The article is appreciated, but why did it not appear a decade ago when it might have made a difference?

https://editorialexpress.com/cgi-bin/conference/download.cgi?db_name=CEF2014&paper_id=90
The macroeconomic analysis of the negative impact of nationalization on productivity

https://www.yahoo.com/news/special-report-cuba-taught-venezuela-121454933.html

Clouds of DDT

August 17, 2019August 17, 2019 Richard Barnes

In the 1950’s and early 60’s we (the boys in the camp) enjoyed an occasional treat: DDT spraying. On such days, we’d mischievously run behind the company pick-up as it pulled a powerful pump throughout the camp, spraying clouds of DDT, enveloping us as we ran and zigzagged behind it like crazy banshees following some loud piped piper billowing thick clouds of sweet smelling mist which protected the camps from outbreaks of malaria.

There’s something about clouds. When flying to and from the U.S. on annual leave, I’d always hope we’d fly into clouds. I would wonder how it would be to jump off the airplane, into the clouds. Clouds! Beautiful, soft, memorable clouds. Whether fog just above the ground, or mist rolling off the river, or high, cumulus clouds above, clouds pointed to the heavens, to freedom, to action, to beauty, to adventure, to … being a boy. And the white foamy mist the sprayer poured forth was close enough to real clouds!

Our parents did not like us getting anywhere near the stuff, but, like moths drawn to light, we simply refused to resist the temptation and once we heard the unique sound of the pump and saw the clouds coming down the road, we ran to it and followed it like athletes running a marathon; only these El Pao athletes screamed, waved their arms like butterflies, or held them straight out from their sides like airplanes and breathed the stuff deeply into our lungs. We competed to see who could get the closest to the pump. The driver would stick his head out and yell at us to keep away from the truck and pump, not because of the insecticide, but for fear he’d run us over. We’d laugh and he, well, he eventually had to laugh right back at us. But he would still shake his fist!

I don’t recall how often the DDT was sprayed: twice a year? Twice a month? But I do well remember how much fun it was and my bewilderment when I learned that DDT was banned worldwide because of concerns. It was hard for a boy to figure out what could be more of a concern than death by malaria and I do remember adults expressing worries about that.

Without getting into the controversies, which, incredibly, are still “hot” despite so many years of world-wide prohibition, for our purposes we’ll just point out some facts which help illuminate the history and one of the great successes of Venezuela.

The country had the highest number of human malaria cases in Latin America before 1936. During 1891-1920, malaria was endemic to over 600,000 squared kilometers of Venezuela; deaths from malaria substantially reduced the population during that period. No pathogen, including the influenza virus that caused the 1918 pandemic, caused more deaths than malaria during 1905-1945.

Venezuela’s efforts to eradicate this scourge sparked the world’s interest in global eradication. She developed an efficient control program, but, undeniably, it was the introduction of DDT in 1945 which did the lion’s share. I recall visiting my family in San Félix on the banks of the Orinoco and, every night at bedtime, my aunt or my cousins would manually pump insecticide in all rooms, shutting the doors as they finished. This reflects the extent of the malaria eradication campaign. All homes knew what to do and what processes to take.

“Success of DDT spraying was startling. Malaria disappeared after 3-5 years without additional measures beyond occasional quinacrine use in areas….” (Source: National Institutes of Health). Before DDT use, most municipalities in affected areas … had mortality rates of 20 – 50 / 1000 persons. This rather rapidly precipitated to near zero after the introduction of DDT.

It wasn’t all insecticide, of course. Looking back, I am still startled at the cleanliness in the humblest homes in the country; how all things were picked up right away and spills were mopped up immediately. Etc. Visitors wrote that the poorest Venezuelan homes were greater examples of cleanliness and neatness than many northern European dwellings at the time.

Venezuelan doctors, including the influential Arnoldo Gabaldón, insisted on eradication, and actively opposed the World Health Organization’s (WHO) approach of “control”. “In 1968, a WHO report found that ‘the concept of malaria eradication adopted by the national [Venezuelan] authorities’ has … and is … at variance with the [experts].”

But even before Gabaldón, other Venezuelan doctors were leading the way to eradication. In 1894, Dr. Santos Anibal Dominici (1869-1954) identified the malaria parasite in patients in Caracas. But he was more inclined to involvement in politics and upon return from exile in 1936, he named Dr. Enrique Tejera (1889-1980) to lead malaria efforts. However, Dr. Tejera resigned in disgust because global efforts did not address whether malaria could be eradicated or merely controlled.

His dissatisfaction presaged issues highlighted decades later by Dr. Gabaldón which eventually resulted in a split between Gabaldón and WHO, which is a story that continues to be repeated in many disciplines: “developing” countries resent it when fully developed ones seek to tell them what’s good for them, even when it comes to life or death matters, such as the eradication of malaria.

Sadly, “once a beacon of malaria eradication”, Venezuela is again being buffeted by the disease.

But those controversies were the farthest things from the minds of boys running after the clouds.

Images of trucks spraying of DDT, 1950’s and early 1960’s.

Similar to the manual pump used by my Aunt and cousins in San Félix every night at bedtime.

Dr. Santos Anibal Dominici (1869-1954), Medical Doctor, Writer, Diplomat. His involvement in politics limited his subsequent impact on malaria control.

Dr. Enrique Tejera (1889-1980), a brilliant medical doctor and scientist. He continued his work against malaria until his death in 1980.

Dr. Arnoldo Gabaldón (1909-1990), a great visionary who desired eradication of malaria. His success was extraordinary.

Distribution of malaria (red area) in 1937, on the left. Distribution of malaria in 1980, on the right.
Source: National Institutes of Health with GIMP

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4193164/ For readers interested in more technical medical analysis see link.

Universities: 1960’s

July 14, 2019July 14, 2019 Richard Barnes

John Gunther’s Inside South America gives a concise overview of universities in South America in the 1960’s. Gunther had a gimlet eye towards those who were slightly to the right of Franklin Roosevelt, whom he would debrief after his trips to the continent. I say this only to note that his perspective was left-of-center. As far as education, he was a Deweyite. So his comments on universities in South America — comments which apply to Venezuela — are “friendly” — he did not think they were controversial in that day, the day of Kennedy’s Alliance for Progress, and Johnson’s Great Society:

“South American universities differ markedly from ours in many respects. Students in some schools have such freedom that they do not even have to attend classes, and scholastic discipline is lax. (Of course, this is true in England and much of Western Europe too.) … Education is a serious matter. A student is apt to take himself much more seriously than ours do; to be a student is practically to be a member of a profession. Most students are passionately political, and many are Communists or Communist-inspired. Student councils are powerful, and actively assist in the running of most hemisphere universities and … have an official voice in appointing faculty members to positions of tenure. This has been a rule for a long time in several South American institutions.

“[T]he national university is theoretically exempt from search or seizure by army, police, or other government authorities; students have, in a word, immunity from arrest.

“….[Students feel] liberated all over the continent. Their political self-consciousness and assurance have increased ever since [the early 20th century]. Having the right of refuge, they have more temptation to defy authority. Moreover, the universities became convenient asylums for bogus students, semi-students, and the like….

“Students make demonstrations, cripple the continuity of teaching by prolonged strikes, and take political sides…it is part of the profession of being a student. As to Communism it is undeniable that there are strong Communist or extreme left-wing elements today in almost all the national universities, both in the faculties and student bodies….

“Student violence should be taken with a certain perspective…. When a student throws a rock at a window this is not an example of mere hooliganism, but part of an essential revolutionary mood and mentality. The student has no other way of expressing immediate effective protest [sic!].”

Again, the above is from a friendly source. The schizophrenic nature of intellectuals’ rationalization of indefensible behavior is succinctly captured: students are fully in control, they launch prolonged strikes, yet they have no way of “immediate effective protest.” Glad he cleared that up.

In Venezuela student strikes would often turn violent. To take one example from the mid-60’s: stopping taxis, turning them over, setting them on fire. All for the purpose of supporting a transportation strike.

This problem was not new in Venezuela. In 1896, Richard Harding Davis in Three Gringos in Venezuela told of an American photographer stoned by students and concluded with these remarks: “And I am sure that the Venezuelan fathers would do much better by their sons if they would cease to speak of the University in awe-stricken tones, but would rather take away the boys’ revolvers, teach them football, and thrash them soundly whenever they caught them soiling the walls of their alma mater with nasty verses.”

When news outlets were quick to “report” that the mob who attacked Vice-President Nixon and his wife in 1958 were angry students, many, if not most, throughout the country knew that those mobs were instigated by Communist agitators and such was later confirmed. As recently as 2005, during my visit, a government organ celebrated that event and praised the Communist Youth for their actions and leadership in the mob attack.

In mid-1960’s United States (the time of Gunther’s visit in Venezuela) most institutions still saw the university’s purpose as the transmission of culture, of civilization. John Henry Newman put it this way, “…a habit of mind is formed which lasts through a life, of which the attributes are freedom, equitableness, calmness, moderation, and wisdom; of what… I have ventured to call the philosophical habit of mind.”

Russell Kirk expands further, “…genuine education is something higher than an instrument of public policy. True education is meant to develop the individual human being, the person, rather than to serve the state. We tend to ignore the fact that schooling was not originated by the modern nation-state. Formal schooling actually commenced as an endeavor to acquaint the rising generation with religious knowledge: with awareness of the transcendent and with moral truths. Its purpose was not to indoctrinate a young person in civics, but rather to teach what it is to be a true human being, living within a moral order….”

Too many fail to grasp that student protest behavior in an otherwise civilized society significantly increases the power of the state, which ostensibly is contrary to what students want. However, notice to whom the students appeal in such disruptions. Is it not to the state? Is it not to compel or urge the state to take such and such an action or to prohibit this or that speech or behavior, even to the criminalization of thought and belief? How many such major student protests appeal to the Triune God? None come to mind.

Some insist that such protests merely promote anarchy. That is obviously true in many cases; however, anarchy also ends up increasing the power of the state, which will restore immediate order and then see to it that it is ever-present to prevent a repetition of such actions.

A few years after Mr. Gunther’s visit to Venezuela, Columbia University in New York City was “occupied” by student protesters. Their actions included defecating into the college president’s office wastebaskets.

And a year after that, Berkeley riots were dealt with by then California Governor Ronald Reagan, who had no patience with the intellectuals’ justification of such behavior.

A measure of the effectiveness of anarchic actions can be seen in the number of pages in the federal register. The register had 14,479 pages in 1960 compared to 97,110 in 2016. In that span of time, there were only two years with significant reductions from the previous year: from 87,012 pages in 1980 to 63,554 pages in 1981; and from 97,110 pages in 2016 to 61,949 pages in 2017. Other than those two years, the numbers have skyrocketed since 1960. And this doesn’t even consider state and local regulations.

Educational institutions bear a major responsibility for this increase in the intrusiveness of the state, as they produce our leaders in thought, politics, and morality.

I am in great sympathy with the students in Venezuela who today protest at the tyranny under which they struggle. I want them to “win.” Many have been killed.

However, do they realize that they were not well served by their predecessors, who, in effect, rioted and struck and protested in favor of a system akin to that which rules there now? That’s a harsh thing to write and it hurts to write it. But sometimes the truth is harsh. May we learn to pause in order to ponder what brought us to this point. As we’ve seen in prior posts and will continue to see in future posts, Venezuelan, and much of South American history is more reflective of the French Revolution than of the American. This helps explain, at least in part, what has brought us to this pass.

Pray for Venezuela.

Mr. and Mrs. Richard Nixon attacked by student mob in Venezuela in 1958

Génesis Carmona, former Venezuelan beauty queen shot dead at a student protest in 2014

Miguel Castillo shot at point blank with smoke grenade by “security police” who then rode away (2017)

Students “liberate” Columbia University in 1968 (New York City)

Berkley University riots in 1969. The actions of the “students” were beyond filthy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y2j4ndg51BQ

Gov. Ronald Reagan rebukes the students and the faculty of Berkeley University

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fx6_9z3ujik

In the same press conference Governor Reagan accuses a professor, “You are a liar,” to his face. This, at a time when words meant something. The sound is not the best.

Venezuelan Navy Captain Dies After Signs of Torture

July 5, 2019July 6, 2019 Richard Barnes

If memory serves, this is only the second post where I address current events in Venezuela. As readers know, I am avoiding, as much as possible, the reporting of present-day polemics, preferring to focus on helping to increase understanding of Venezuela by consulting her history (including early links with the United States), portraying her people and culture, alluding to the way we were. That will help us understand, in as irenic an approach as possible, how we got to where we are, and, perhaps, the way forward.

However, sometimes it is necessary to pause and look around at today’s scene. If we know about folks being drawn to death unjustly, let alone cruelly, and say nothing, we will be held to account: “If thou forbear to deliver them that are drawn unto death, and those that are ready to be slain; if thou sayest, ‘Behold, we knew it not; doth not He that pondereth the heart consider it? and He that keepeth thy soul, doth not He know it? and shall not He render to every man according to his works?”

Although this blog’s purpose generally excludes reporting on contemporary incidents, it does mean to help explain how we got to where we are; and to know where we are, it is at times necessary to not assume folks “know”, especially when the media’s reporting of terrible events is so muddled.

The below link is to the New York Times, not known for its fiery right wing reporting. There’s plenty of other reporting on what is happening in Venezuela: hundreds, if not thousands, drowning on their desperate journey to ever-elusive freedom in Aruba or Curazao; multiple reports of disappearances and tortures; threats to wives and children of anyone suspected to be opposed to the regime; corpses exploding in morgues for lack of electricity and, consequently, no controlled temperatures; the purposeful collapse of criminal law and the consequent explosion of savage wickedness; hunger; and much, much more.

I’ve refrained from posting or commenting on such. Those who wish to know more, are able to find it. But you will have to search beyond the mainstream media enthralled with noisome dingbats who, most recently, tell us that we run concentration camps along our southern border. Mercifully, such pronouncements have been strongly rebuked by a few, including Holocaust survivors who point out, reasonably, that those in real concentration camps were herded there by Nazis or Soviets. Nothing of the sort is happening here, where folks are coming on their own accord. And there are no survivors of the Boer War to tell about the first concentration camps in modern history. They too would be aghast at the comparison. The media should help here, but it seems interested in reporting only invective, not facts.

The article linked below is so low key it’s almost pathetic. It’s as if it’s written to blunt any criticism of its having ignored what’s happening on the ground in Venezuela. They can now say, “Oh, but we have indeed reported on these things.” Spare me. However, I’ve selected it because, for many people, the Times is a credible source that you can point to, should you be asked.

If you prefer reading a more-to-the point summary, this, from the Caracas Chronicles might suffice:

“Navy captain Rafael Acosta Arévalo, arrested by the Military Counterintelligence Directorate (DGCIM), was missing since June 21st until, five days later, regime Communication Minister, Jorge Rodriguez, accused him on TV of being involved in an alleged coup. He was publicly seen two days later, when he was taken to his preliminary hearing in a military court with obvious signs of violence, in a wheelchair and with poor mobility. The captain’s wife, Waleska Pérez, denounced his serious physical condition by torture and requested protection from the Inter American Commission of Human Rights, because her husband’s life was in danger. Hour later, early on Saturday, June 29th, Acosta Arévalo died. Everything happened under State custody. This Saturday night, the regime confirmed the death through statements; none deny the torture, or the reports that torture was the likely cause of death.”

A Scripture verse that was quoted often in the days leading up to and following the Declaration of Independence of July 4, 1776, was II Corinthians 3:17: “Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.” Our rights are God-given, “endowed by our Creator.” If we value liberty we must be a people who values a love for God in Jesus Christ. We must be a people who grasps, however inchoately, that a state pretending to be God is a crass violation of the First Commandment. It is an abomination which eventually brings judgement.

Those of you who pray, please pray for the family of Captain Acosta. Pray for the people of Venezuela. Pray for the restoration of liberty and a decent civil order in that stricken land.

And, most importantly, be sure to thank the Triune God for the liberties we continue to enjoy in this great land of America.

As for the New York Times report, it’s below the photo. Read it and weep.

Navy Captain Rafael Acosta Arévalo. Witnesses report that when he appeared before court on Friday, “he looked barely alive. He couldn’t move his feet or hands. He had excoriations on his arms, traces of blood on his nails, signs of blows in the torso, and he was almost unable to speak.” Upon seeing him, the judge ordered his immediate hospitalization and postponed the hearing. He died hours later in the hospital.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/29/world/americas/venezuela-torture.html

Source: New York Times, June 29, 2019

CARACAS — A Venezuelan Navy captain accused by the government of plotting a rebellion has died in custody a week after his arrest, underlining President Nicolás Maduro’s increasingly ferocious repression campaign amid a spiraling economic crisis.

The captain, Rafael Acosta, is the first of more than 100 active and retired Venezuelan officers jailed by the government on treason charges to die in custody after allegations of torture.

A military judge told Captain Acosta’s legal team on Saturday that the officer had died in a military hospital the previous night, said his lawyer, Alonso Medina Roa. Captain Acosta was detained on June 21 and charged with treason and conspiring to rebel. He denied the charges.Mr. Medina Roa said the captain had been detained in good health but was in a wheelchair when he was brought into a courthouse on Friday. The lawyer said his client was struggling to speak or move, showed visible signs of beatings, and kept repeating the word “help” to his legal team.

Friday. The lawyer said his client was struggling to speak or move, showed visible signs of beatings, and kept repeating the word “help” to his legal team.

He was taken to a hospital from the courthouse and died hours later, the lawyer said.

Venezuela’s information minister, Jorge Rodríguez, a close adviser to Mr. Maduro, confirmed Captain Acosta’s death on Saturday night and asked the country’s attorney general to investigate the “unfortunate event,” without providing details.The head of the Organization of American States, Luis Almagro, condemned the captain’s death, adding in a message on Twitter that “the crimes of Nicolás Maduro won’t be left unpunished.”

Captain Acosta was one of half a dozen former and active officers who have been detained in the past week over allegations of plotting to overthrow Mr. Maduro. On Wednesday, Mr. Rodríguez presented a video purporting to show Captain Acosta discussing coup plans on a conference call. The video could not be independently confirmed.

Mr. Maduro has survived one coup and one assassination attempt in the past two years, as the country’s economic collapse has weakened his grip on power. His government, however, has also repeatedly used unconfirmed coup accusations to jail and repress political opponents and instill fear in the armed forces.Last year, a detained opposition City Council member in Caracas, Fernando Albán Salazar, fell to his death from a window during his interrogation by intelligence officers. The government claimed it was a suicide.

Mr. Acosta was detained on the day that Mr. Maduro met with Michelle Bachelet, the United Nations human rights commissioner, in Caracas. After the meeting, Ms. Bachelet said she had agreed with the government to evaluate its anti-torture policies.

Her office did not immediately respond to a request for comment following news of Captain Acosta’s death.His wife, Waleswka Pérez, told local reporters that her husband had done nothing beyond discussing in family circles Venezuela’s economic crisis and chronic corruption. She said she had not seen or heard from her husband since his detention.

Playa Hicacos, 1966

June 15, 2019June 15, 2019 Richard Barnes

Towards the end of my childhood life in Venezuela, my father took us to Puerto la Cruz. Back then, this was a 5 or 6-hour drive but Puerto la Cruz was the closest city with an American consulate. She sits on the northeast coast of Venezuela, east of Caracas, west of Cumaná.

We always looked forward to trips there because such trips would invariably include at least one visit to the spectacular beaches on the coast of Sucre to the east of the city. That trip, in 1966, marked the last time I ever visited a beach in Venezuela, not counting those in Canaima, which are river beaches.

Childhood memories are notoriously unreliable. However, over the years I’ve had the pleasure of meeting a few “round-the-world” sailors who agree that this area of Venezuela contains some of the world’s most picturesque, but unknown, ocean spots.

On that visit, my father drove us for what seemed like hours snaking our way through the high coastal mountain ranges over some unpaved roads affording us breathtaking vistas of this striking cordillera and crystalline seas far below. We eventually arrived at Playa Hicacos. We had it all to ourselves. The water was cold (not cool but cold). However, we quickly warmed up and enjoyed our day at the beach. That last beach outing has remained indelible in my memory and I’ve judged all other beaches by that standard. Most others fall short — unfair, I know, to judge the rest by a childhood memory, but indulge me on this, please.

I had little idea that year was a tumultuous one for South America. Signs of political agitation were almost everywhere, not only in Venezuela but in practically all large cities of the continent. Scrawlings on walls — this I do recall — ranged from “Castro is a traitor!” to “Vote Communist!” and, of course the ubiquitous, “Yanqui go home!”

That was the year of The Beatles’ Rubber Soul and I remember hearing “Michelle” here and there at stops during this and other trips — including the one to Maracay alluded to in an earlier post (“Coffee”). That was also the year the same Beatles released an album cover posing as butchers with mutilated dolls and cut meat. It was later pulled, which reflects the fact that, even in 1966, an anteroom year for the Hippies and Woodstock shenanigans, sensibilities were more respectful than today.

I also recall lots of ruckus about a gal named Peggy Fleming who skated on ice, spectacularly. I now understand that she was a key figure (no pun intended) envisaging the return of the USA to figure skating dominance after the entire 18-member team was killed in a plane crash in 1961.

And large scale anti-Vietnam War protests also began to take shape that year.

But news from South America was sparse. You had to be living there to hear about Communist guerrilla bands attacking landowners in Peru or the rumors of Juan Peron’s return to Argentina and the upheavals that led to the military coup, with labor support (!), which deposed its president.

In Chile, Eduardo Frei was president. He downplayed the Communist threat and, like many South American intellectuals, would chide the Americans for being so “childishly afraid” of a non-threat. It was a turbulent year in Chile culminating 4 years later with the election of Salvador Allende with 36% of the vote; an election which had to be decided by the legislature who voted him in, after receiving assurances by Allende that he would not go full Communist. Assurances which went promptly out the window. Such was the shock and such was the disaster, that Eduardo Frei himself came to support Allende’s ouster by a military coup in 1973. The Chile situation did get press in the United States in the 1970’s, but as usual it was very incomplete and much too colored by Hollywood.

In Colombia, lawlessness had its own peculiar name: La Violencia. In 1966, as in prior years, President Guillermo Valencia sought to explain to US diplomats and legislators and dubious journalists that the violent guerrillas causing havoc in the country were Communist-inspired and supported (there was plenty of evidence for this, including Cubans embedded with the guerillas and pamphlets espousing the Communist line).

Perhaps La Violencia’s most despicable exponent was Pedro Antonio Marín, known as Tiro Fijo (Sure Shot). The prior year he had waylaid a bus, and killed thirteen of its passengers (including two nuns). This was followed by an attack on a nearby village. He and his men murdered the mayor and police chief and then preached revolution to the stunned villagers. Marín was the chief leader of the Communist FARC, which he founded in 1966. His toll of known murders exceeded 200 by the end of the 1960’s, then grew exponentially thereafter.

In Venezuela President Betancourt, a former Communist who had been betrayed by Castro (here, besides written propaganda, the evidence included weapons, explosives, and ammunition smuggled in from Cuba), had denounced Castro to the Organization of American States (OAS) and demanded sanctions, thereby earning the eternal hatred of his erstwhile comrades. The FALN (a Communist group akin to Colombia’s FARC) was active, but Betancourt clamped down, hard, in the early 60’s including outlawing the Communist Party. The damage to infrastructure and commerce, including oil pipelines, was great; however, by 1966, things were somewhat calm, business was good, travel was open, and the National Guard checkpoints along critical highways gave us a sense of security. Acts of violence still occurred, but not as seriously as earlier in the decade.

It was an intense year. But as a child, I knew little of all that and certainly had no premonition of the storms which were about to burst in the few short years that followed.

My only concern (whenever I would think of it, butterflies would fly in my gut) was that this would be my last year living at home. That day in Playa Hicacos was fun and peaceful and strikingly beautiful; sort of an oasis, a recreational rest midst the gathering storms. Looking back, I now suspect my father’s desire was to provide opportunities to create memories to cherish in the years ahead. Not only for me, but for him as well.

In September of 1966, at the end of annual family leave in Miami, I bid farewell to my mother and father and siblings as they boarded the Pan American jet which would transport them back to Venezuela. I remained in Miami, Florida for schooling, as did most of my cousins.

As for Playa Hicacos, I later learned that, in 1973, the entire area was designated a national park, Mochima, and I hear it’s as beautiful now as it was back in the day when I visited.

There are some things that never change.