The wave of conservative movements in Venezuela has been ignited by gunpowder from misinformation and conspiracy theories. A huge gay march that brought together more than 30,000 people in Caracas earlier this month has been followed by a series of protests and mobilizations by evangelical churches and other groups who have found a way in the government to defend what they call “the original concept” of the family.
A few days ago they gathered in the center of Caracas. There were buses bringing protesters from the interior of the country, sound trucks, dance groups and a huge stage waiting for them in front of the National Assembly, in the square connecting the Palace of Justice to the National Electoral Council. “We’re making history,” said a woman, who climbed onto a truck to encourage the participants, most of whom were members of evangelical churches, to walk. A group of deputies from the United Socialist Party of Venezuela and the head of government of Caracas, Nahum Fernández, received the representatives and accepted one of their demands without further discussion. From now on, religious groups will be consulted on any legislative initiative affecting the family, even though the Venezuelan state is constitutionally secular.
A woman shouts in defense of the traditional family during a demonstration. gaby oraa
For Johana Ruiz, a 35-year-old teacher and member of an evangelical church, the Bible is just another constitution. “There is an established biblical principle. God created man and woman to bring about the family. We want to leave this vision as a legacy for the next generation and make sure that the original design is not lost because it is our duty to remain so,” he commented while walking down Mexico Avenue towards the Legislative Palace. Along the same lines, Pastor Joel Prieto shared with several of his faithful: “We hope that this message can reach great heights, to respect that what God decreed at the beginning must endure to the end.”
This debate overlaps with comprehensive sex education (ESI), which one group is now calling for schools to scrap. For the pastor, “a deviation from the original plan of husband and wife will lead to confusion and perversion, which will end in chaos.” For this reason he says that the subjects taught must be “right”. They also rejected in the march a bill against any kind of discrimination, which emerged from the chavismo itself and was approved in March in the first discussion.
There are also two messages in this polarization mush that are repeated again and again in WhatsApp chains and social networks. The first is the rejection of the so-called “gender ideology,” which these groups describe as “contrary to biology,” and which they have used to argue against demands for equal rights for women and LGBT communities. Second, the rejection of the so-called 2030 Agenda, which refers to the United Nations’ 17 Sustainable Development Goals and which they accuse of promoting morally contradictory ideas such as sex education.
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For her part, the pastor and political scientist Linda de Márquez carries the flag of the organization For the Venezuelan Family, which has joined forces with delegates in each state of the country and aims to build a community network. The woman got up in front of the Ministry of Education and also managed to meet with deputies of the family commission of the national parliament. In videos, he said, “It’s perverted and it’s already part of our education system,” while showing a page from an official textbook in which pink silhouettes represent different types of couples. “You will tell me if that sociologically represents what the Venezuelan family is.” His organization has opposed initiatives like equal marriage and the decriminalization of abortion, demands that the state has left in limbo, for more than five years.
recoil
In recent months, Chavismo has been building bridges with evangelical churches as part of a political strategy for 2024, a year that could be crucial given the presidential election. Nicolás Maduro Guerra, the president’s son, has strengthened his relationships with pastors to the point of offering endowments for their churches, bonuses for his faithful and radio stations to increase his preaching activity. But there are also opposition leaders, including pre-candidates for the October 22 primary like conservative Catholic Roberto Enríquez, who have taken up these speeches and called for the creation of a “national front against gender ideology”.
A banner against the LGBT community during the rally in Caracas, Venezuela. gaby oraa
The growth of these groups is worrying those working to defend sexual and reproductive rights in Venezuela. They think it’s at least dangerous to abolish sex education in a country that has the third-highest rate of teenage pregnancy in Latin America: 97.7 per 1,000 young people.
“This is in a political and electoral context in Venezuela that must be rejected because of the wounds left by these attempts at polarization, which are very serious when it comes to child exploitation,” says Suzany González, executive director of the Center for the Study of Sexual and Reproductive Rights. “But it seems that our political class counts more on votes than on rights,” he adds. González points out that the countries that have been teaching ESI content for decades have significantly improved their sexual and reproductive health indicators.
Mercedes Muñoz, researcher and founder of the Venezuelan Association for Alternative Sex Education, warns that they will not be solved and young people will not learn that “it is their right to demand accessible methods of contraception and that women do not die in childbirth like in the Middle Ages.” He adds that it is pornography that ultimately teaches young people what is not talked about at school or at home.
For doctor Lila Vega, who has been teaching sex education in schools for more than a decade, it’s a matter open to teachers as well. “The resistance will always exist, otherwise the flat earth electrodes wouldn’t exist,” says the activist. An additional challenge, however, is the educational deficit in Venezuela, where many students only attended two or three days of classes last year due to difficulties in keeping schools running. “We need inclusive schools and more quality education and information so that boys don’t continue to confine their worldview to that of their parents and often that of their grandparents,” he says.
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