POPULATION
28,047,938 (July 2012 est.)
GDP PER CAPITA
$12,700 (2011 est.)
RELIGIONS
nominally Roman Catholic 96%, Protestant 2%, other 2%
> source
ALSO IN LATIN AMERICA
Argentina
Brazil
Mexico
Venezuela
Venezuela is a predominantly Catholic country with a complex history of church-state relations. Catholicism arrived with the Spanish conquest in the 16th century but, despite holding a virtual monopoly on religion, the Venezuelan church remained weak until the 1900s. In the mid-20th century, it became embroiled in a series of conflicts with the expanding secular state, particularly during the brief period of democratic government known as the trienio (1945-8). Following the second transition to democracy in 1957, relations between church and state remained largely amicable until the election of Hugo Chavez in 1998. The Constitution of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, written during Chavez's presidency, guarantees religious freedom and the autonomy of religious bodies. These clauses, however, have not prevented numerous clashes between political and religious leaders over issues ranging from education to presidential term limits.
ESSAYS ON VENEZUELA
Colonial and Early Republican Period
The territory of what is now Venezuela remained a peripheral part of the Spanish dominions during the first century of the colonial period. Not until the mid-eighteenth century did it achieve recognition as a coherent administrative unit within the Empire. This early political marginalization resulted in a relatively weak organizational presence by the Roman Catholic Church. Still, the combination of immigration and missionary work succeeded in establishing Catholicism as the predominant faith throughout the territory. Catholicism was often blended with indigenous beliefs, allowing a variety of syncretistic traditions to flourish, again thanks in large part to the organizational weakness of the Church. The economic boom brought about by the cacao trade raised the profile of Caracas by the late eighteenth century, but it also led to the growth of liberalism inspired by the American and French Revolutions. The Church thus retained a low profile during the struggle for independence. As was the case in most of Latin America, the post-independence period was marked by a struggle for power between Conservatives and Liberals; the former were centralist and pro-clerical, while the latter supported federalism and anti-clericalism. In the tumultuous stretch between 1829 and 1899, Venezuela had over 40 different presidents. Infrastructure remained underdeveloped, and the authorities of both the government and the Church were largely limited to Caracas. While the weak position of the Church guaranteed that the federalist-centralist cleavage would dominate political struggles, the eventual victory of the Liberal-Federalist camp ensured that the Church would remain on the margins of national politics for the next century.
Dictatorship and Democracy
The Liberal dictatorships that ruled the country starting in 1870 expanded the capacity of the state and its involvement in social service provision, thus competing with the Church in the social realm. A series of conflicts further diminished the position of the Church, as the government passed a series of laws that included the seizure of Church assets and property as well as the implementation of tight controls over the stipends that were the Church’s primary source of revenue. When the long period of dictatorship came to an end in 1945-1946, the primary beneficiaries were moderate leftist movements, which came together to form the Acción Democrática (AD) party. The conservative opposition organized itself around the Christian Democratic platform of the Comité de Organización Política Electoral Independiente (COPEI). Attempts by the AD government to strengthen secular public education and regulate private schools prompted the Church to ally with the opposition and, finally, to support the military coup that deposed the AD. General Marcos Perez Jimenez formally took over the presidency in 1953. As the repressive brutality of his government increased, so did criticism from the Church. With the overthrow of the dictator in 1957, the Church became a firm supporter of the new AD-COPEI coalition government. Though it suffered attrition during the 1960s as some radical clergy and laity supported a short-lived guerrilla movement, on the whole the Church did not experience the pressures for radicalization felt in neighboring countries. However, the Church did increase its social involvement, providing free education and other social assistance for the poor.
Recent Developments
The 1980s were a turbulent time in Venezuela. Economic crisis combined with extensive corruption contributed to rising public discontent and significantly weakened the major parties, ultimately contributing to two failed coup attempts in 1992. During this period, the Church, along with most civil society organizations and the media, adopted a strong stance against military intervention. Eventually, popular discontent with the traditional parties led to the election of Hugo Chávez, the leader of the first 1992 coup, in the 1998 presidential election. Subsequently, church-state relations have been strained. Church leaders have accused Chávez of abusing his authority, and Chávez has condemned their criticisms of his government as interference. These conflicts spilled onto the streets in early 2002, when Chávez and his supporters accused the Church of supporting a failed coup attempt against him. Violent clashes between pro- and anti-Chávez demonstrators marred the 2003 funeral of Cardinal Ignacio Velasco, a prominent critic of the Venezuelan president. Most recently, conflicts between the Chávez government and the Church have focused on freedom of the press as well as on the constitutional reforms that would have allowed indefinite presidential reelections; these reforms were narrowly defeated in a 2007 constitutional referendum. In 2005, Chávez expelled New Tribes Mission (NTM), an international evangelical missionary movement, from the country for alleged “imperialism,” alleged collaboration with the CIA, and exploitation of the native population, among other charges. Indigenous groups demonstrated against the government to protest the expulsion of NTM from Venezuela.
Contemporary Affairs
The Catholic Church has been historically influential in Venezuelan politics, and since the election of Hugo Chávez in 1998, it has publicly feuded with the government over the direction of Venezuelan democracy. In January 2009, a group of pro-Chávez Catholic and Anglican priests known as the “Reformed Catholic Church” opened a seminary to train priests in what prominent Venezuelan Bishop Roberto Luckert called an attempt to “destroy the Catholic Church, paid for by the government.” In September 2010, Archbishop of Caracas Jorge Uroso directly criticized the economic policies of the Chávez government ahead of parliamentary elections, calling Chávez’s approach “totally negative for the country.” He stopped short of openly endorsing the opposition. Chávez publicly rebuked Uroso’s foray into the political arena. Bishop Luckert, who serves as Vice President of Venezuela’s Conference of Bishops, explicitly called on Venezuelan Catholics to vote against Chávez’s movement in the September 2010 elections. He accused the Chávez government of causing the “moral deterioration of public structures and institutions.” However, in preparation for Venezuela’s October 2012 presidential election, Chávez has attempted to patch relations with the Catholic Church. In July 2012, Chávez issued a statement calling for better relations with the Church and specifically with Archbishop Uroso. Chávez has also clashed with Venezuela’s Jewish community following his decision to suspend diplomatic relations with Israel in 2009 in the wake of the Gaza Flotilla incident. In September 2010, Chavez met with Salomon Cohen, the president of the Venezuelan Confederation of Israelite Associations, who alerted Chávez to anti-Semitic statements made in Venezuela’s media as well as an uptick in anti-Semitic incidents and attacks on Jewish synagogues.
Religious Freedom in Venezuela
The Venezuelan Constitution, drafted after a popular referendum in 1998, guarantees freedom of religious expression and safeguards the rights of indigenous populations to practice their own traditional religions. The majority of Venezuelans are Catholic, but there are prominent Protestant, Muslim, Jewish, and indigenous populations, and these minority religions are generally able to practice freely. Despite these provisions, Venezuela was placed on the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom’s watch list in 2011 for the third time. The report cites the Venezuelan government’s failure to prosecute acts of vandalism on various mosques, synagogues, and churches. Although a 1964 agreement between the Venezuelan government and the Catholic Church established special government subsidies for Catholic schools and institutions, high-profile disputes between the Chávez government and leaders of the Catholic Church have led to church-state tension. Chávez has publicly criticized high-profile Catholic clergy for meddling in politics, including Archbishop Jorge Uroso, who claimed that the Chavez agenda represents a threat to Catholics, and has even allegedly begun wiretapping the phones of Catholic leaders and expropriating Church property. Anti-Semitism is also prevalent in Venezuela, as demonstrated by the political cartoons put forth by Chávez’s campaign that mocked his opponent’s Jewish ancestry. This and other incidents, coupled with increased diplomatic tensions between Israel and Venezuela, have led the Jewish community to petition the Chávez government to take a more aggressive approach towards anti-Semitism in public discourse. Responding to these calls, Chávez, who suspended relations with Israel in 2009, has met with prominent Jewish leaders and publicly denounced the proliferation of anti-Semitism.
Religion in the Venezuelan Constitution
The 1998 Constitution of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, written in the period immediately following the first election of Hugo Chávez to the presidency, guarantees religious freedom and does not favor a particular religious tradition. It secures rights of conscience and worship, establishes the autonomy of religious bodies, and explicitly acknowledges the right to a religious education. It forbids discrimination based on religious beliefs. While not directly referencing religion, the article on marriage declares it equivalent to a stable union between a man and a woman. Notably, and in contrast to earlier efforts to promote the adoption of Christianity among the indigenous peoples, the current Constitution guarantees the right of indigenous communities to their own religious traditions and to keep their own places of worship.
Preamble
The people of Venezuela, exercising their powers of creation and invoking the protection of God, the historic example of our Liberator Simon Bolivar and the heroism and sacrifice of our aboriginal ancestors and the forerunners and founders of a free and sovereign nation; to the supreme end of reshaping the Republic to establish a democratic, participatory and self-reliant, multiethnic and multicultural society in a just, federal and decentralized State that embodies the values of freedom, independence, peace, solidarity, the common good, the nation's territorial integrity, comity and the rule of law for this and future generations; guarantees the right to life, work, learning, education, social justice and equality, without discrimination or subordination of any kind; promotes peaceful cooperation among nations and furthers and strengthens Latin American integration in accordance with the principle of nonintervention and national self-determination of the people, the universal and indivisible guarantee of human rights, the democratization of imitational society, nuclear disarmament, ecological balance and environmental resources as the common and inalienable heritage of humanity; exercising their innate power through their representatives comprising the National Constituent Assembly, by their freely cast vote and in a democratic Referendum, hereby ordain the following:
Article 6: Values of the Government
The government of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela and of the political organs comprising the same, is and shall always be democratic, participatory, elective, decentralized, alternative, responsible and pluralist, with revocable mandates.
Article 21: Equality
Al persons are equal before the law, and, consequently: 1. No discrimination based on race, sex, creed or social standing shall be permitted, nor, in general, any discrimination with the intent or effect of nullifying or encroaching upon the recognition, enjoyment or exercise, on equal terms, of the rights and liberties of every individual. 2. The law shall guarantee legal and administrative conditions such as to make equality before the law real and effective manner; shall adopt affirmative measures for the benefit of any group that is discriminated against, marginalized or vulnerable; shall protect in particular those persons who, because of any of the aforementioned circumstances, are in a manifestly weak position; and shall punish those who abuse or mistreat such persons. 3. People will only be officially addressed as Citizens, except for diplomatic forms. 4. No titles of nobility or hereditary distinctions shall be recognized.
Article 59: Freedom of Religion
The State guarantees the freedom of cult and religion. All persons have the right to profess their religious faith and cults, and express their beliefs in private or in public, by teaching and other practices, provided such beliefs are not contrary to moral, good customs and public order. The autonomy and independence of religious confessions and churches is likewise guaranteed, subject only to such limitations as may derive from this Constitution and the law. Father and Mother are entitled to have their sons and daughters receive religious education in accordance with their convictions. No one shall invoke religious beliefs or discipline as a means of evading compliance with law or preventing another person from exercising his or her rights.
Article 61: Freedom of Conscience
All persons have the right to freedom of conscience, and to express the same except those practices affecting personality or constituting criminal offense. Objections of conscience may not be invoked in order to evade compliance with law or prevent others from complying with law or exercising their rights.
Article 77: Marriage
Marriage, which is based on free consent and absolute equality of rights and obligations of the spouses, is protected. A stable de facto union between a man and a woman which meets the requirements established by law shall have the same effects as marriage.
