through punk, an unconventional way of life based on a set of unconforming values, alienating them from the rest of society. At the same time, these groups sought to engage in new forms of cultural production which ranged from musical elements with both political and behavioural connotations, to aesthetic features, denouncing governmental shortcomings and abuses in a country where the ruling elite were becoming further undermined.
In this context of political turmoil, the figure of Hugo Chávez came to the fore and, after winning the presidential elections in 1998, embarked on a gradual campaign of complete transformation of the country’s politics, economic system and social spheres.
By largely undermining the previous administration, Chávez succeeded in establishing a new mentality that pervaded vast swathes of the population. Through a series of referenda and social transformations, new paradigms of society came to be introduced and adopted under the banner of the Bolivarian Revolution. These events led to a strong polarisation of the population, permeating through to the country’s punk scene.
Consequently, the government enacted a campaign of cultural co-optation also aimed at the underground punk scene, and managed to significantly weaken dissent across these spheres of influence.
Despite these setbacks, the country’s punk scene continued to exist precisely because of its countercultural features, which were maintained by a handful of bands and punks alike. Concomitantly, the punk scene suffered this cultural regression and was constantly undermined by Chavista supporters across the population and the music scenes. This situation continued throughout Chávez’s terms as president, yet, following the 2008 economic recession, support for the president and the system he had come to establish began to waver. Following El Comandante’s death in March 2013, his successor Nicolás Maduro did not enjoy the same popular backing, and thus the economic and political situation came to be increasingly weakened. The subsequent rise in protest from 2014 onwards provided Venezuelan punks with the opportunity to rise up again and intensify their musical production.
Nonetheless the increasing dissent led to a widespread campaign of governmental repression that, coupled with a vastly deteriorating economy, forced many Venezuelans to migrate to other parts of the Latin American region and the world.
Along with the population, many punks were also forced to flee, including the band Cadáveres Podridos, who, however, sought to continue their campaigns of denunciation of abuse of human rights and injustices, and the ignorance that the cult
of personality built around the deceased Chávez had caused to the country. Other bands decided to remain in Venezuela, like Tukuca Zakayama, and continued to profess their opposition to the regime and affirm their non-conformist attitude, while becoming increasingly hindered in their activity by the effects of the economic crisis on the possibility to perform at venues, and growing the chances of violent government-sanctioned repression. As a result, this led to the establishment of alternative underground networks that allowed Venezuelan punks to remain in contact with one another and continue to engage in forms of meaningful protest and association. Through this argument, the research moved into the second chapter, developing a framework to understand the first dimension of analysis based on the physical geographical migration of Venezuelan punks outside of Venezuela.
The term counterspace, as presented by Magaña (2020) allowed focussing on examples of physical spaces in which Venezuelan punks, who had migrated to Colombia, succeeded in establishing new bands and using spaces where they could engage in countercultural activities, such as Exilio and Trampa. Yet, as a result of technological advances, it is possible to understand how migrant punks in Spain have come to establish a further dimension in which they can engage in independent forms of cultural production, as exemplified by the use of various social media pages and networks by Venezuelan punk aficionados and bands. The cases of Emigrantes and the punk compilations of Rock Anti Enchufados Volumes 1 and 2 are testimony to punk’s adaptability to these online environments. The multifaceted nature of punk allows for these productions to come about following a wide array of methods and promoting these commodities via underground networks of communication in the digital realm. Allowing punks to profess anti-conformism, denounce governmental abuse and find a way to release the pressure from the monotonous daily realities they faced, punks managed to create spaces in which they could establish their own identity.
The concept of identity presents the central feature of the second chapter, which comes to be established through the processes depicted in the first dimension of analysis, and are further reinforced through the second dimension, in which the punk scene shifts from the physical to the digital realm. The various occupations in which punk engages in across these different spheres of activity foster a renewed strength of identity, which is applicable to the contexts outlined in the chapter. These include the identity of being a Venezuelan punk outside of the country, and the identity of being
a migrant Venezuelan and being criticised by for leaving the country. These instances present two distinct features that characterise the Venezuelan individuals who leaves their country in times of economic crisis, but it is precisely by engaging in punk productions that this form of identity comes to take on a concrete aspect.
Through the portrayal of this final dimension, the research moved into the final chapter, where the third dimension of analysis was identified through the description of the independent DIY practices and competences of local bands and record labels, contributing to the development of Venezuela’s punk project. By understanding how DIY came to be established as a spontaneous form of resistance to capitalist modes of production, this chapter detailed how despite the continuously changing political, economic and social structures of Venezuelan society, these techniques allowed for the punk scene to continue to exist. Notwithstanding the retrenchment of the Venezuelan punk scene until Chávez’ death (2013), modes of DIY production came to the fore once more as a result of the technological advances in musical and countercultural output. The efforts put forward by the record labels illuminate innovative and alternative paths of action through which the punk scene within the country can develop and expand.
Furthermore, the malleable nature of DIY practices has allowed for other spheres of social activity to engage in these productions, as exemplified by the NGOs Provea and Redes Ayuda in promoting and producing a number of Venezuelan punk bands.
These actions have furthered the resilience and highlighted the adaptability of punk in the context of Venezuela. It is then possible to assert that DIY practices within the country come to change in relation to the political and social context of the country in which they are established. The modus operandi demonstrates notable levels of solidarity among the practitioners of this lifestyle, thus, leading to innovative modes of community construction and creation of systems of cohesion. The range of competences listed in the third chapter are, in turn, reconciliated through the use of digital music platforms, making punk productions of the Venezuelan punk scene available across physical borders.
The theories employed in this research served as a fundamental base of operationalisation of the argument, through which the various instances presented throughout provided concrete examples of the reasoning to build the arguments. The main notion on which the research question revolved is that of counterspace, as defined by Magaña, and through this, it was possible to provide the theoretical setting
to understand the use of these spaces by Venezuelan punks. These settings, as detailed throughout, come to be established both in the physical and the digital fields of interaction, thus providing a setting in which the first two dimensions of analysis can be better understood. It is precisely by shifting to the digital realm of activity that the research presents the second dimension of analysis. The subject of the use of digital spaces by migrants is an argument developed by Amanda Alencar (2019), in which she demonstrates how, as a result of technological advancement, the possibilities for refugees’ claim-making practices have increasingly moved to the digital sphere of activity.
The exchange of online communication by refugees has allowed for the formation of a number of spaces of social interaction, in which the discourse of punks’ use of counterspaces can reasonably be applied. These environments have no fixed or established limit of use precisely as a consequence of the shift to the digital. The space considered in this particular argument cannot be conceptualised as a fixed physical locality, but shifts across online networks of interaction. It is precisely through these networks that countercultures aid in the construction of a sense of community. As argued by Jessa Lingel (2017), the development of punk practices and their diffusion across these streams have also allowed outsiders in society to come to establish their own communities. The Internet has allowed for the alienated and marginalised punks – described in the second chapter – to engage with one another through these spaces and support the creation of social ties in a manner that transcends borders and creates a sense of cohesion across these online platforms. This line of reasoning can thus be embraced as environments through which Venezuelan punks come to claim their own space of activity and foster a sense of belonging. All of this has been further substantiated through the methods devised to map the punk musical and countercultural movements during this period.
Through this reasoning, it is then possible to understand how the counterspaces considered in this research offer a perfect environment for the establishment and development of DIY and countercultural production to resist the dominant structures of society. By engaging in the various activities detailed throughout the first and second chapters, the argument shifts into the third dimension of analysis through which countercultural punks in Venezuela come to establish a number of spaces where they can express themselves freely, whilst at the same time maintaining a deep connection to global networks and movements. Through Bennett and Guerra’s
argument (2019) it is possible to comprehend how DIY practices came to be embraced and adapted to the various political, social and economic contexts of Venezuela. The abilities demonstrated by the Venezuelan punk scene granted the possibility for many local cultures established around the world to find their own voice and develop their own competences for countercultural independent production. Through the use of digital spaces, these localities have allowed for DIY cultural scenes to connect at a translocal level, sowing the seeds for new forms of community cohesion, and demonstrating how these can be maintained across generations. As a result, through these arguments, it is possible to understand the manner in which Venezuelan punks’
identities come to be created through their use of physical and digital counterspaces.
Furthermore, the discourse presented throughout this research explains the development of the Venezuelan punk scene alongside the most notable features of Venezuelan society since the movement’s incipit. These were additionally expanded and exemplified through the use of a series of statements given by exponents of the current Venezuelan punk scene during the interviews conducted with them over a period of two months. The statements made served not only to provide clear instances of the scene’s vicissitudes, but also to illuminate the conditions to which these punks are subjected from a first-person perspective. These testimonies are they key contribution to this thesis and clearly testify to the importance that punk still bears on these individuals despite the living conditions in Venezuela and in other parts of the world. The interviews grant an insight into the various developments and narrative built within the Venezuelan punk scene, and although limited in scope, have allowed for a detailed account of the circumstances that these punks come across and with which they are faced with.
As a result, the themes and values characteristic of the punk scene have encouraged Venezuelan punks to participate in new campaigns of meaningful resistance in times of social and political unrest. Instances like these will continue to repeat throughout time as long as the conditions for their development are met. The themes of punk analysis still present extremely valid arguments for future research across different social and political contexts around the world.
“[Just] as the hippie movement highlighted concerns about ecology and its own version of autonomy, so these Punk ideals remain vigorous because they remain unresolved” (Savage, 2001, p. XVI).
In sum, the framework proposed in this research presents a number of extremely relevant features of enquiry of the punk counterculture. The approach was developed from existing studies on punk and other underground music and cultural scenes to fit the case of Venezuelan punk in particular. By proposing an analysis across three dimensions, this method presents unique features for understanding the development of the Venezuelan punk scene in accordance with its distinctive features as a result of the humanitarian crisis. Although applied to the case of Venezuela, the theoretical procedures in this research can further be applied to several areas of research, including the current state of affairs of other punk scenes around the world. More particularly, I emphasise those scenes that have developed across digital networks as a result of cases of forced migration, akin to the situation in Venezuela. Consequently, this framework can lead to further research being dedicated towards those punk scenes that have developed in contexts of repressive political systems. Similarly, studies like these could also expand the scope of further research into the studies of immigration, identity and cultural shifts. In turn, these studies would contribute to understanding the various evolutions of DIY cultures and underground music scenes across the world.
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