A Starving Revolution: ID Cards and Food Rationing in Bolivarian Venezuela

Abstract

In this essay, I examine the controversy around the "Carnet de la Patria," a national identity card issued in Venezuela in December 2016. I argue that this ID card belongs to a larger project of surveillance and regulation of identity developed by the Bolivarian Revolution and implemented by the late Hugo Chavez, and continued by current president Nicolas Maduro. Amid its worst economic crisis, the government claims that the new ID card will allow citizens better access to goods from supermarkets, replacing the fingerprint system ("captahuella") that provoked massive protests in 2014. Opponents to this document have highlighted the parallel with the cards that exist in Cuba ("ration books"), and the manipulation of the database system to benefit only those who support the government and are already registered in previous official databases. The Venezuelan case provides an intriguing scenario that defies the regional region addressed to provide personal cards to undocumented groups. It also provides valuable comparative lessons about the re-emergence of surveillance technology and identity cards in modern authoritarian regimes.

¿Apertura truncada? el fallido intento de reinstitucionalización democrática en Venezuela 2021

“…Por un lado, la profundización de la crisis económica, social y sanitaria ha permitido al gobierno aumentar sus mecanismos de control social sobre la población. La masificación del Carnet de la Patria, el uso de dispositivos capta-huellas para registrar la compra de alimentos o medicinas (Ragas 2017), el uso de los Conejos Locales de Abastecimiento y Producción (CLAP) han sido mecanismos clientelares y de coacción sobre todo momentos electorales. Por otro lado, en el plano económico, la desregulación y dolarización informal de la economía han permitido mejorar los indicadores económicos, luego de siete años de recesión económica y altos niveles de inflación.…”

Turning Big Brother upside down: Revisiting surveillance from Latin America

“…Despite having acquired their current design in the second half of the 20th century, similar artifacts have circulated since the Wars of Independence to fixate the identity of individuals and regulate spatial mobility, like the internal passports studied by Sartorius (2021) and Ragas (2021). We should also pay attention to personal papers granted to conscripts (Ablard, 2020; Shesko, 2020) as well as those devices employed to prove political allegiance under authoritarian regimes like the Bolivarian Revolution (Ragas, 2017). Hence, we can gain much by observing the ways people have embraced artifacts such as ID cards and have turned them into weapons of citizenship to combat segregation and demand political rights.…”

Uncovering the 5 Major Causes of the Food Crisis in Venezuela

“…Despite Maduro's proposed premise that Carnet del la Patria and the CLAP policy would alleviate scarcity and starvation, many news and academic articles have condemned these policies as weaponizing hunger and prioritizing a political agenda of power maintenance. Researchers and news writers have labeled ID cards as government surveillance (Ragas, 2017). Because CLAP boxes are only given to people who vote for the government through their ID cards, it becomes an ultimatum that restricts their liberty to vote in place of receiving food.…”