Pray for Venezuela

Tomorrow, Venezuela is holding presidential elections.  While I can't call myself an expert, my month in Venezuela was fascinating and eye opening.  Maybe just because there were recently elections and their elected leader was in critical condition outside the country, or maybe because political beliefs are so strongly held in Venezuela, I heard many people's opinions on Chavez and his government.

A car outside a restaurant "Chavez, heart of my homeland"

I heard the good stories- The Chavez government was building a house for my friend's mom (and I saw it with my own eyes, had a cook out on the front porch, helped clean the dust from finishing the walls). They were providing school books for the kids (those were taken out and showed to me too. And, this is a bigger deal than it sounds.  In much of Latin America a "free" public education isn't so free since parents typically pay for school books and 2 different uniforms, costs that can be difficult for families struggling to get by).  One cousin of my friends is as pro-Chavez as they come, involved in a government position of some sort.  And I saw the popular support Chavez had.  His image was plastered everywhere, homes had posters of him on their walls, cars had messages written on them in support of him.

Chavez's face is ubiquitous on billboards 

But I also heard the bad stories.  The way trash pick up was always a problem now that the local government wasn't Chavista.  Funds from the state no longer funneled down to the local level since their political parties weren't the same, with the goal being to make the opposition party look bad and drive votes back to Chavez.

"Faith in Father God for Chavez" sign on a car in a small town.

 There were also stories about the new parallel university system.  It was churning out graduates in 3 year programs.  You want to be a doctor or a teacher?  Just go to the new boliviariano universities, and after graduation you had a guaranteed job.  Maybe it sounds good on the face of it- higher education for more citizens at a low personal cost, a booming job market.  And those are the facts that the government manipulates to show success.  But the truth isn't always so pretty.  A school teacher told me how she had a student teacher in her class who was barely literate, but who schools would be forced to hire since all graduates from these state supported universities are mandated to be hired by state run institutions.  The doctors can be just as bad- I heard one horror study about a "doctor" who graduated from one of these institutions who didn't recognize symptoms of heart attack in an elderly patient and sent her outside to wait to feel better after administering a muscle relaxant shot.  When she didn't feel better the doctor gave her an echocardiogram, but apparently didn't know how to read it, because still seeing nothing wrong she was told to wait outside again.  Only when the cardiologist arrived in the morning was the problem identified and she was attended to.

"Forward, forward, commander.  The people are with you.  Love is payed with love"

 But one thing everyone had in common, those who loved Chavez, those who had voted for him despite not supporting him in all his policies, and those who opposed him, was the acknowledgement that he was a strong and charismatic leader.  They worried about the vacuum of power their country would fall into when he died.  And now he has died.  And Venezuela is holding elections.  Chavez's hand-picked successor and former vice president, Nicolas Maduro, is not seen as a very strong leader.  Henrique Capriles, the opposition candidate, actually had a fair amount of support in the last election, and I have friends in Venezuela who strongly support him.

"Chavez with Alexis"- campaign slogan for the Chavista governor Alexis of Mérida state.

All I know is Venezuela is a beautiful country, full of wonderful people and rich in resources.  There is so much potential and I don't want things to spiral into chaos.  I have friends there.  So please, join me in praying for their elections tomorrow.  Pray for a government that will be honest and not corrupt.  A government that will care for the poor, but not neglect liberties.  A government that will wisely use the resources that they have.  Pray that God's kingdom will come and his will be done, in Venezuela as it is in heaven.

The king’s heart is a stream of water in the hand of the LORD; he turns it wherever he will. Proverbs 21:1