A Revolution of Santeros
Armando.info publishes an excerpt from the extended edition of “Los brujos de Chávez” (Chávez’s warlocks and witches), the lauded book by David Placer, a Venezuelan journalist based in Spain, published in Venezuela by the publishing company Editorial Dahbar. The chronicle shows what could be the highlight of the Chavista Santeria, the exhumation of the remains of Simón Bolívar, ordered by the late president commander because he was determined to prove that the Liberator had been poisoned in San Pedro Alejandrino. From there, Placer cites episodes and talks with witnesses in Miami and Caracas, who claim that Chávez became a santero (practitioner of Santeria) before assuming the presidency for the first time in 1999. With his research, Placer completed a deliberately hidden aspect of the volcanic life of the leader of the Bolivarian process.
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Bolivar's
face was behind him, shadowing him, as was often the case. He wore a red shirt
and a dark blue jacket, which looked black before the intense spotlights of the
cameras. His voice was not the usual, because it seemed calmer. He breathed each
syllable softly, as if he were trying not to wake someone who sleeps. Despite
his intimate communication, he was addressing the entire
country.
Father
Bolívar. Bolívar. We have seen Bolívar. His rests. (The camera made close up of
the face of the Liberator, which the painter wanted to capture tousled from the
wind). I have had some doubts, of course. I am not the first throughout these
years. But last night, when seeing the remains of Bolívar, my heart said "yes,
it is me". And I remembered Neruda, looking at the skeleton, looking at the
skull, looking at the space where the eyes were. And I asked him in silence,
praying, that question of Neruda, of the great Pablo Neruda. I asked him:
«Father, are you, or are not you, or who are you?» And Neruda himself answered
me from the heart: "Yes, it is me, but I wake up every hundred years when the
people wake up."
The
Ayacucho hall, in the Presidential Palace of Miraflores, burst into applause. At
that moment, his ceremonial ended, almost in a prayerful tone. And he returned
to his facet as a battler, to the attack before the
cameras.
Of
course, since last night when I made public the information via @chavezcandanga,
and later on when I told the ministers to broadcast live as at around two to
three in the morning (...)on Twitter and some media started to say «Chávez is
leading an act of witchcraft». They are sick. It's a disease they have.
«Witchcraft, it is witchcraft». However, 80% to 90% of the messages where mostly
from people spiritually touched, who were saying, "¡Viva Bolívar!" and
"retweeting" the message that I had the idea to send, because men like Bolívar
do not die. Those remains that are there are not dead. It is something like that
work by the great Venezuelan writer Isaac J. Pardo called “Fuego bajo el agua”,
they are fire under water, or that work by Miguel Otero Silva, “La piedra que
era Cristo” (The stone that was Christ). That stone is Bolívar alive, alive in
us, and alive in those we are fighting today because men like Bolívar
transcended time.
He
said it himself, my anguish will live in the future.
That
night Hugo Chávez had met the bones of Simón Bolívar during a visit with a
delegation that lasted more than three hours, according to a forensic expert who
participated in the team. The professionals could see at all times what was
happening in the main room through screens, but Chávez's visit was private. The
screens were dyed black. The president wanted an intimate moment with the
remains of Bolívar.
The
whole skeleton was joined by silver and lead threads and protected with varnish,
a careful work prepared by Dr. José María Vargas in 1843. At first glance, it
could be observed that the father of the country had its teeth separated
(diastemas, according to the forensic reports) and bowed
legs.
From
the reports it was learned that Bolivar ground his teeth and that the right
centerpiece was suffering wear and tear, probably because the Liberator had the
habit of placing a straw between his teeth. Two frontal teeth, one canine and
one premolar were removed for the investigations. A part of a phalanx of the
left hand, a rib and a sample of the left coxal was also
extracted.
The
samples would go to the Public Prosecutor's Office and the laboratories of the
Venezuelan Institute of Scientific Research (IVIC) for DNA tests, as reported by
the government. But doubts about the correct custody of the pieces began to
emerge in the team of professionals. Would someone be able to keep a piece of
bone to use it in a Palero ritual?
The
rumor that Hugo Chávez practiced acts of santeria and witchcraft in the
Miraflores Palace persecuted him during the last years of his life. Despite the
criticism aimed at those who accused him of these acts, the scenario, the words
used and the images of the exhumation that had been transmitted the previous day
by national television at three in the morning, expanded the belief that the
president was looking for something more than scientific
explanations.
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-It
was a moment of public confession, an allout Palo rite (a santeria
branch that practices rituals with human bones), the climax of the worship of
the ancestors, the natives. Night belongs to the dead. All the santeros
know this and Chavez also knew it. That is why he does it at dawn. It is part of
the common of Venezuelans, talking to the dead. And he followed the archetype
—explains Santos López, a renowned Venezuelan santero, who received
financial support from local and regional Chavez governments for the celebration
of FITA, an international event of African-American traditions organized between
2003 and 2008.
The
main attraction of the celebration was the visit of some 500 public figures from
around the world, santeria priests (babalawos), voodoos and witch
doctors, who made spiritual consultations. And he received support from the
mayor’s office of Maracay and the state government of Aragua, both under the
chavista control. The injection of public money for the organization of
this type of activity evidenced, at least, sympathy on the part of the
government.
But
rites and consultations can also be an excellent tool of political strategy. The
military and security personnel close to the presidential circle attended the
appointments of international santeros, attended their dances as public,
but secret consultations were also held. From a hotel in the city of Maracay, in
the center of the country, santeria priests gave political messages,
interpreted the new national reality and dared to predict the future of the
president. One of the predictions assumed that Chávez "would be very
insecure."
The
consequences were not long in coming. The close circle of the president asked
López to explain that prediction and demanded clarification on the meaning of
the term "insecurity." "Was it a coup, a conspiracy under way or security
problems in the environment of the President?" López, a well-known
santero even outside the borders of Venezuela, had to explain that it was
simply a revelation of Ifa, the ancestral oracle of the Nigerian tribes to
predict the future.
Hugo
Chávez always knew how to join his personal life with that of the ancestors.
After winning his first elections, on December 6, 1998, he decided that before
the investiture, on February 2, 1999, he should start in Freemasonry. The great
transformations that he had prepared for the country not only required all his
effort and work, but spiritual help that, as he had heard, had also been used by
Simón Bolívar.
The
Santeros that were already in contact with Chávez had told him an
extended historical version in the world of Santeria. According to this
interpretation, when Simón Bolívar was in Haiti, hero Alexandre Pétion, ally of
Bolívar and defender of the fundamental rights of slaves in America, initiated
him in voodoo. There is no document or proof, only the oral tradition that
Bolívar was bathed in the blood of a bull, an act that would have given him the
strength to win in his battles. Many santeros rely on this
story.
A
few weeks before Hugo Chávez investiture ceremony, a group of soldiers
approached a lodge of freemasons in area of Altamira, in Caracas. It was a small
group headed by Hernán Grüber Odremán, emissary of the president elect and
maximum leader of the second coup d'état against Carlos Andrés Pérez, on
November 27, 1992. Grüber Odremán had made an appointment with the "venerable
master" Fermín Vale, the spiritual leader of the lodge, to transmit a verbal
request. "Hugo Chávez wants to start in Freemasonry and has chosen this lodge to
carry it out."
Vale,
a cousin of Chávez's former vice president and confidant, José Vicente Rangel,
was "a master of early masonry" and had preserved the rules and rituals of the
independence heroes. They were the first American leaders who had entered the
spiritual paths to ask for help in their earthly wars. Hugo wanted to start in
Freemasonry as similar as possible to how the liberators did it -according to
that oral traditional story.
-Usually,
the members of the lodge discuss the convenience or not of accepting a new
member. But because of the investiture of the character, in that case there was
little to discuss. The entrance was immediately accepted, says one of the former
members of the lodge who prefers to remain anonymous.
But
the group had strict rules to accept the applicant. And, among the conditions
communicated to Grüber Odremán, was the isolation for a few hours of the
president-elect from the military house guard who guarded him day and night. The
rear admiral communicated the condition of the lodge but it was rejected by
those who watched over the security of the future president. The surveillance
ring was not willing to leave Hugo Chavez alone in the hands of four strangers.
The lodge refused to allow the ritual to be witnessed by the military, so Chávez
sought another option for initiation. The veteran masons are convinced that the
chosen lodge was Sol de América, in the center of Caracas, to which the former
mayor of Caracas and leader of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela, PSUV,
Freddy Bernal belongs.
Bernal,
ex-policeman and for many years a strong man of chavism, has left the
front line of politics. Introverted, usually wears casual clothing: flannel and
jeans. His body built shows that he participates in some sport or uses weight
machines in gyms. He carries two cell phones attached to the belt and repeatedly
checks for new messages or calls. Bernal's diction is peculiar. He pronounces
the “s” in a similar way as the “c” and “z” is pronounced in Spain, which can
confer him an innocent image that has little to do with the reality.
Bernal
is a tough man, who shouldered the responsibility of organizing the Bolivarian
circles during the years of greatest political tension in Venezuela, at the
beginning of the last decade. Those groups were attributed the street handling
of weapons, the intimidation of the opposition.
I
approached Bernal in an act of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela, created
as a support platform for Hugo Chávez. He accepted the questions. He does not
place barriers, although he listens and observes with a cautious, almost of
distrustful gesture. He does not deny his membership in the Mason group but does
not confirm that Hugo Chávez requested an initiation ritual. Apart from the
important decisions of the party, he avoids giving more information than
necessary.
-I
cannot assure or deny it. I do not know if he went there or not. I am a member
of that lodge and what I can confirm is that we do not deal with political or
religious matters, only philosophical issues -Bernal
explains.
Since
Hugo Chávez came into power in 1999, relations between Venezuela and Cuba began
to strengthen. The military frequently travels to Havana to be trained and
qualified, and trade and passenger numbers grow. The defunct Venezuelan airline
Aeropostal had inaugurated two weekly flights to Havana on those days, Tuesdays
and Thursdays. And since then, the airline management began receiving requests
from high-ranking military.
-They
wanted to travel to Havana for free. All received some type of training course:
military intelligence and internal security, among many others. They asked me
for free passages every time. And to avoid having problems with the government,
we had to give them - explains Ramón Barrios, former vice president of
Aeropostal , who accompanied Hugo Chávez during his first trips to
Havana.
Helpful,
respectful and even fearful of Santeria's reach, Barrios knew very well
the operation of the air terminal and the government itself. He had also been
one of the observers of Hugo Chávez's first party, Movimiento Quinta República
(Fifth Republic Movement), MVR, in the 1998 presidential elections.
With
the first years of Chávez in power, the boom in passenger traffic caused the
airline to open an office in Cuba with six workers; three of them were
practitioners of Santeria. When establishing a relationship of trust with the
team, Barrios began to discover that the supposed training courses of the
Venezuelan senior military had, in fact, a hidden purpose.
-I
was told that the Venezuelan delegations were going to Pinar del Río for
spiritual cleansing and to get start in santeria. Then they returned to
Caracas with their necklaces and did not hide them; quite the opposite. The
belief that if you had the Babalu Ayé bracelet (deity of the Yoruba religion)
you were more attached to the revolution and you were better considered by your
superiors spread, he explains.
When
Hugo Chávez faced the first months of government, Aeropostal organized a meeting
of businessmen in Cuba attended by the president. The event was held at the El
Nacional hotel, next to the Habana Libre hotel. Barrios, a lawyer, criminologist
and doctor of Law, assures that this trip was the one that tended the bridges
between the Cuban santeros and Hugo Chávez and that it would transform
the way of doing politics in the country.
-Six
military men went there to became santeros (get started in
santeria. I could say that Luis Miquilena and José Vicente Rangel also
went there because the head of the Military House at that time had told me they
were going to a secret meeting -he adds.
In
a short time, a rumor permanently and insistently circulated among the elite as
well as among popular classes. Hugo Chávez had become a santero, i.e. he
started in santeria in Cuba. The Cuban santero Carlos Valdés, who
fled in 1994 in a raft to Miami, claims to have witnessed the ceremony that
initiated Chávez in Santeria in Cojimar, a town seven kilometers from
Havana. He says he attended as an assistant in the ritual in which Chávez fed
the saints, i.e. he made animal sacrifices for the
Orishas.
The
first approach of Hugo Chávez to the Cuban santeros occurred in a visit
of the then candidate to the hotel Habana Libre where, according to Valdés, Hugo
was invited to a meal.
-
He loved the chicken that was served and asked to speak with the cook, named
Apito, who was a homosexual and extremely gago (difficulty to articulate
consonants). They had a connection and went from talking about food to spiritual
topics. Apito, son of Eleguá, was babalawo -explains Valdés in a telephone
interview from Miami.
The
santero, known in South Florida among the Cuban community, explains that
Chávez's initiation into that religion is no secret among the priests of
Santeria from Eastern Havana. "It's an open secret," he
says.
But
another Cuban babalawo, residing in Miami, who was related to the
chavism, says that the commander was initiated in the Palo branch
(rituals with human bones) in the Military Academy of Caracas. «A goat was
sacrificed for Eleguá, a goat for Obatalá, a goat for Ochún and also a ram, a
hen and a duck», explains José Medina, Cuban babalawo who shows the first
campaign poster of 1998 signed by Hugo Chávez, who referred to him as "a
compatriot and a friend".
Medina
agrees that the Babalawo Apito was the one who initiated Chavez in
Santeria and assures that, after him, other senior leaders of Venezuelan
politics like General Manuel Rosendo, former Defense Minister Lucas Rincon, and
former Vice President Luis Miquilena followed.
In
those days Aeropostal had 400 workers at the Simón Bolívar airport, and in less
than a year, half began to wear completely white clothes and show without shame
santero necklaces. It was the attire of initiation in this religion,
inherited from the African slaves, but transformed in Cuba after five centuries
of colonization and miscegenation. Employees began to refuse to wear the
company's uniform and claimed to be able to dress according to their new
beliefs. It was a religious subversion, or maybe a
revolution.
Then
Barrios, who had also practiced santeria years ago, showed his
necklaces.
-If
they see that you are a santero, they respect you much more as a
boss.
It
did not matter when and where. For the followers of the new religion that was
powerfully spreading in Venezuela, there was no doubt about it. No refutation or
official version was able to deny the forcefulness of the metamessages, the
evidence of clothing and speech. It was irrelevant whether it was in Caracas or
Havana, whether it was in 1994 or 1999. Everyone was convinced that Hugo Chávez
had already become a santero.
