Imported doctors a hit in Venezuela

CARACAS, Venezuela - Just as opposition leaders petition for a recall referendum to oust him, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is bouncing back in the polls.

Analysts credit a series of new government social initiatives, including a controversial yet effective program to import Cuban doctors to work in the nations' slums. An adult literacy campaign, based upon a Cuban education model, is also proving popular.

Chavez has called the Cuban-staffed free neighborhood clinics a cornerstone of his so-called "Bolivarian" revolution, named after Simon Bolivar, Latin America's independence hero.

Although a court declared the Cuban clinics illegal in late August, the government is refusing the send the doctors home.

"Nothing is going to stop my government's humanitarian action," Chavez responded.

Critics say the 6-month-old Barrio Adentro (Inside the Barrio) program is politically timed to reinforce Chavez's base among the poor in the face of the opposition referendum drive. They add that the Cubans - now numbering more than 1,500 - are part of a sinister effort to "Cubanize" the country and indoctrinate the poor with communist ideas.

Chavez denies he is a communist, or that he is seeking to introduce communism in this nation of 24-million, a capitalist, oil-rich country mired in poverty. Rather, he says it would be foolish to ignore Cuba's internationally recognized achievements in the fields of health and literacy.

Some local media reports have whipped up antigovernment sentiment by publishing unsubstantiated allegations that the Cubans are military personnel.

"They gave them jobs without even checking if they were doctors," said Douglas Natera, head of the Venezuelan Medical Federation. "There is no doubt this program is being used by the president on behalf of a Marxist program."

The federation argues that the presence of the Cubans violates regulations governing foreign medical practitioners. As in most countries, foreign doctors wishing to work in Venezuela must first have their overseas degrees validated by one of the country's nine medical schools.

But when the program was ruled illegal, the administrative court that issued the decision was closed and the judges fired.

Chavez insists the country needed the Cubans to rebuild Venezuela's primary health care system, which all but collapsed under previous corrupt governments. He says the Cubans are only filling jobs that Venezuela's predominantly middle class doctors spurn.

The program is clearly popular in the working class barrio "January 23," a mass of low-income high-rises that climbs the side of a hill overlooking downtown Caracas.

"Hugo Chavez is not a dictator or a communist," said Nilo Salas, 48, a volunteer plastering the offices of Simon Bolivar Coordinator, a left-wing popular organization that does social work in the barrio. "He's just concerned for the poor."

Nearby, patients stood in line outside the makeshift consulting office of her neighborhood Cuban doctor. "I come here a lot," said Yolimar Rey, a 19-year-old mother. "He's very good. It's great for the community."

Holding her 10-month-old son, Angel, in her arms, she said the boy was suffering from diarrhea and vomiting.

"Before, to get to see a doctor you had to go far away, and they charged a lot," she said. "Venezuelan doctors don't have a concept of doing social good. All they think about is opening their own practice and making money."

This summer the government also introduced several education schemes designed for adults, including one modeled on a successful Cuban literacy program that is targeting an estimated 1-million illiterate Venezuelans.

Classes are held every afternoon and evening at the library of Simon Bolivar Coordinator. The program is named Mission Robinson, after Simon Bolivar's teacher.

About 10 students attend the two-hour classes, mostly older women seeking to improve reading and writing skills. Priscila Decarerro, 73, was 10 when she left school to work at a textile factory.

"All my life was work," she said.

Now that her seven children are grown - several are university graduates - she wants to make up for her lost education. "In the short time I was in school I only learned the first letters," she said.

Freddy Parra, a 38-year-old middle school teacher, volunteers two hours every afternoon to lead one of the classes.

"I believe this is the best thing the president has done to help people leave the darkness where they have been for years," he said. "Volunteering to help is the most noble thing we can do."

It's early to judge the impact the new health and education programs will have on Chavez's popularity. After enjoying 70 percent support in 1999 during his first year in power, he has seen ratings plummet in the last two years.

Later this week opposition leaders are due to launch a petition drive seeking a referendum to remove Chavez from power. Organizers need the signatures of 20 percent of the electorate.

This summer Chavez's popularity fell to 31 percent, according to Juan Vicente Leon, director of the country's leading polling firm, Datanalisis. But the company found it has since recovered to 36 percent. "The government has launched a very aggressive publicity campaign around its public spending on these social programs," Leon said.

Even so, analysts point out Chavez is still opposed by a majority of Venezuelans and could lose a referendum. Polls show most Venezuelans are less concerned with political disputes between the government and opposition than the country's dire economic situation.

The nation's gross domestic product is expected to drop by 12 percent this year, after a 9 percent drop in 2002, economists say. Inflation is calculated to end the year at 33 percent.

On the other hand, opposition criticism of the government's social programs, coupled with growing poverty, plays right into Chavez's hands, according to Francisco Rivera, an outspoken philosophy professor at one of the capital's private universities.

"Chavez's strength is the opposition's blindness," he said. "The opposition fails to see the human and social problem."

The presence of Cuban doctors is unlikely to solve the country's health care problems, he said.

"But it reinforces a bond of love with the people. People see in Chavez a light. All of a sudden they matter."

- David Adams is the Times Latin America correspondent. Phil Gunson is a freelance reporter based in Caracas.

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