The Price of Opposing Chávez
Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez has called his domestic political opponents "fascists," American "pawns," "anti-revolutionary vipers," even "horsemen of the apocalypse." In reality, the only label that accurately describes members of Venezuela’s opposition today is "poorer." Voicing your disapproval of el presidente in Chávez’s Venezuela translates into a loss of 4 percent of your annual earnings, ...
Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez has called his domestic political opponents "fascists," American "pawns," "anti-revolutionary vipers," even "horsemen of the apocalypse." In reality, the only label that accurately describes members of Venezuela's opposition today is "poorer." Voicing your disapproval of el presidente in Chávez's Venezuela translates into a loss of 4 percent of your annual earnings, according to new research.
Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez has called his domestic political opponents "fascists," American "pawns," "anti-revolutionary vipers," even "horsemen of the apocalypse." In reality, the only label that accurately describes members of Venezuela’s opposition today is "poorer." Voicing your disapproval of el presidente in Chávez’s Venezuela translates into a loss of 4 percent of your annual earnings, according to new research.
In 2003, the Venezuelan opposition circulated a series of petitions calling for Chávez to be removed from office, twice gathering more than 3 million signatures. The bid ultimately failed, but not before the signature lists were notoriously posted on the Internet by a pro-Chávez legislator. The rolls were eventually compiled in a software database popularly known as Maisanta, which contains information on the country’s 12 million voters, including birth dates, addresses, and, crucially, whether individuals had supported Chávez’s removal in the 2003 recall bid. Today, the software can be bought on the streets of Caracas for as little as $1.50 and is used frequently by the government and Chávez allies to discriminate against opposition members.
Using the Maisanta database and the national household income survey, researchers have been able to match more than 87,000 individuals, both for and against Chávez, and track their economic well-being before and after the recall vote. They found that, between 2003 and 2006, "signing [against Chávez] cost you 4 percent of your income," says Francisco Rodríguez, a Venezuelan economist at Wesleyan University and a coauthor of the study. "There was a very clear message that there was a cost to signing against the government." The research also revealed that since the recall, firms with pro-opposition board members have been forced to pay significantly higher taxes than firms with government ties, often as a result of selective tax audits. Freedom may not be free, but in Venezuela, it’s speaking out against Chávez that really hurts your wallet.
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