UNTIL recently the term "information superhighway" was an unknown to me, but then I was introduced to the marvels of the Internet and became aware at first hand of the huge potential for use and misuse which it represents. I was intrigued, for example, to learn that the disgraced former President of Venezuela, Carlos Andres Perez, enjoys using it to answer queries concerning his impeachment: he has the opportunity to, being under house arrest, for Venezuelan law does not allow for the imprisonment of persons aged 70 years or over, no matter what their crime. It is just one of the many injustices that characterise Venezuelan society - and I do not speak idly, having just returned from a short fact finding mission there.
For Venezuela is a country not at peace with itself. Each evening, before the television news, viewers are treated to a spectacular aerial panorama of the country's landscapes - Venezuela boasts the world's highest waterfall, South America's largest lake and the longest coastline in the Caribbean. But as the camera pans the futuristic high rise skyline of the country's capital city, Caracas, the viewer is reminded that Venezuela is no longer the sparsely populated "Little Venice" discovered by the Spanish conquistador Alonso di Ojeda in 1499, but is a country which accommodates more immigrants than" any - other country in the subcontinent and, furthermore, one in which class structure has become firmly entrenched: the very rich and the very poor sandwich an extremely small middle class.
The poorest 40 per cent of households bring home only 14 per cent of the national household income, while the richest 20 per cent bring home 51 per cent - and this despite the fact that Venezuela still possesses one of the world's largest deposits of oil.
The current president is Rafael Caldera and his 1993 election on an anti corruption ticket following the impeachment of Perez should have ushered in a new era for corruption weary Venezuelans. But the country is now in deep crisis. A fall in oil prices, soaring interest rates and a drastic depreciation of the country's bolivar currency have intensified an already deep rooted recession. The country is being pauperised. It has the highest inflation in Latin America, increasing unemployment and more than 40 per cent of the population lives in extreme poverty.
WITH the army discredited in the aftermath of two attempted coups, the major political parties and the judicial system racked by corruption scandals, and the business sector seen as profiting from neo liberal policies that have devastated the ordinary Venezuelans, only a very small number of social activists have the respect of the people. These sisters, priests and lay workers, Venezuelan and foreign, working with the local communities in education, health and different forms of self help, have become key players in the search for social peace, the development of a human rights movement and the provision of basic social services for the poor.
There is a growing awareness among the poor that social change will only come about if they organise themselves to work for it. But although rapid, the growth of such neighbourhood organisations has highlighted a lack in co ordinated leadership and direction. Many working class women have found themselves trying to fill this gap. In the few days that I was there, I had the opportunity to meet with some of these women and was struck by their dedication, fervour and the way in which they are hoping to harness the energies of their communities in the battle against escalating food prices and decreasing health and education provision.
They are also seriously concerned about the human rights violations in the barrios, where many innocent slum dwellers are being victimised because of where they live. It is claimed that the poor inhabitants of the slums are routinely arrested, tortured and even murdered by the security forces.
Between October 1994 and September 1995, security forces killed 126 people, 46 in extra judicial executions, and 28 while they were in police or military custody. Authoritarianism and repression are growing. Of 13,941 arbitrary detentions, 94 per cent occurred during anti crime operations mainly in poor neighbourhoods. Amnesty International has detailed many examples of miscarriages of justice and claims that the main perpetrators of human rights violations are agents of the state. It is not that the country is lawless. On the contrary. There is, for example, a Vagrancy Act in operation which allows the police to arrest and detain without charge, and for up to three months, anyone considered "vagrant". As the local police stations cannot cope with so many detainees it has become common practice to "sell" them to the bigger prisons where the most horrible and horrifying abuse is meted out to them. It is hardly surprising, that AIDS has become rampant within the prison system; hardly surprising that up to four prisoners die each day in captivity.
The prison system itself is under enormous pressure, with overcrowding, corruption and staff morale at critical levels. The prison in Caracas, for example, was built to house 400 prisoners, but currently holds 2,000 most of whom have never been tried. Many prisoners will, therefore, have already served their time by the time their sentence is handed down, and yet they will be required to serve it again. Violent protests by prisoners are met with an even more violent response from security forces.
Violent death has become a feature of Venezuelan life. On Monday mornings the newspapers carry a grim roll call of those killed in stabbings and shootings in the city's slums. The figure often reaches 40 or 50, mostly young, male and poor. These barrio killings are caused by rising cocaine and basuco - a cheap cocaine derivative - consumption in poor areas and a struggle for control of the trade. But the real money to be made from the international drug industry is not to be found in the barrios but among the higher echelons of Venezuelan society for while the country does not produce cocaine it acts as a broker or transhipment point for the drug to reach the US or Europe from the Andean countries of Colombia or Peru.
All this makes Venezuela one of the important economic stories in the Americas at the moment. To date, however, there has been no sign of a happy ending. It is as if, in social and political terms, Venezuela is being visited by its own worst nightmare.
THERE have been frequent riots since Caldera's inauguration and some constitutional rights on freedom of movement and protection against arbitrary search have been suspended. Security forces conduct daily sweeps in poor shanty towns to root out alleged subversives. Rising street crime and violence in Caracas threatens to affect whatever tourist trade remains. Possibly the lure of a country which has a Caribbean coast and an Amazonian jungle, a perfect climate and its own brand of food and music may yet be enough to outweigh all these odds. For the sake of its people, and for all those who call Venezuela home, I hope it is.
