Venezuela’s Communes: Not as Radical as You Might Think
Under President Hugo Chávez, Venezuela has been no stranger to controversy. However, one of Chávez’s proposals has evoked particularly strong emotions – the establishment of socialist communes (comunas socialistas) throughout the country. The proposed commune law (ley orgánica de las comunas) would further expand and institutionalize Venezuela’s system of communal councils – local municipal governing bodies that are ruled by neighborhood leaders using state funds to finance social projects in their communities. The new law would merge the smaller bodies into larger councils called communes that would exercise jurisdiction throughout the area formerly covered by the councils (somewhat confusingly, both these councils and the areas over which they wield jurisdiction are referred to as communes). These new bodies would be given limited autonomy to establish new rules for their respective areas of authority. The law would also establish a series of municipal institutions, such as a communal parliament and a communal bank, which would pertain only to the communes and enhance public participation in the decision making process.
This proposal has been widely criticized by the Venezuelan opposition as a bid by Chávez to circumvent Venezuela’s existing democratic institutions and transform Venezuela into a de facto communist state. This fear has arisen because “according to the legislation, councils should now promote new forms of ‘social property, based on the potentialities of their community,’ through a tax-exempt ‘social, popular, and alternative economy,’”1 which the opposition has chosen to interpret as a call for the establishment of de facto communism within the communes.
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