If Chávez Were Alive Today, Would the Situation in Venezuela be Different?If Chávez Were Alive Today

[Judi Lynn]

July 6, 2016
If Chávez Were Alive Today, Would the Situation in Venezuela be Different?

by Roger Harris

US policy since Hugo Chávez was elected president of Venezuela in 1998 has been regime change to return the oil-rich South American nation to the neo-liberal fold. After 17 years of Chávista polices, the US wants nothing more than for poor Venezuelans to suffer as much as possible – to make their economy scream – so that the popular movement will grow dissatisfied with the socialist inclined leadership.

Current Situation in Venezuela

If imposition of misery in Venezuela can be counted as a US policy victory, than the hegemon to the north has been supremely successful. Daily the likes of the New York Times and the Washington Post report on the “collapse” of Venezuela and call for outside intervention into the “humanitarian crisis.”

In a more objective reporting from Venezuela, Gabriel Hetland cautions “the crisis” in Venezuela is “deep but not cataclysmic, and mainstream US media have consistently exaggerated the extent of it.” Hetland found mounting inflation, serious shortages of food and medicines, and growing popular discontent.

Hetland also noted that commerce is still thriving and in affluent areas the restaurants are booming and supermarket shelves are overflowing with consumer products. While public hospitals are having problems, private health care for the rich and free public clinics for the poor are functioning well. Overall, though, the poor are hard hit.

More:
http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/07/06/if-chavez-were-alive-today-would-the-situation-in-venezuela-be-different/

[Warpy]

1. Chavez had a gift, he could charm the birds out of the trees

and that would go a long way to keeping things a lot more peaceful down there.

Unfortunately, they'd still have gotten hammered by that huge drop in oil prices and everything would still be in short supply.

[MADem]

2. Venezuela IS a mess, and the press south of the border acknowledges that--even

if Counterpunch refuses.

It was falling apart under Hugo, because he was relying on expensive oil to stay afloat. When the bottom fell out of the market, his sour, heavy crude -- the last oil bought on a good day -- can't command prices decent enough to fund his ambitious programs AND pay the graft and corruption fees.

Public hospitals aren't "having probems" -- there's NO MEDICINE. There are no band aids, there are no needles, there are no swabs, tongue depressors--very basic stuff. The situation is DIRE. To pretend otherwise is to make a mockery of how serious the problems are. People are dying because the government of Venezuela is dysfunctional.

Gabriel Hetland doesn't understand that his stupid pictorial illustration of that article is likely BLACK MARKETEERS who have helped those eggs march out the back door of a supermercado. This is a country where you can't find baby diapers, dishwashing liquid, bars of soap, and TOILET PAPER. And while acting all happy-happy-glad-glad (who showed him around, I wonder?) about how swell things are, he buried the real 'lede':

 Workers and the poor are the hardest hit. Jesus Rojas says, “There are lines to buy price-controlled goods up to a kilometer long, and you don’t know if you’ll get anything if you’re at the end of the line. Some people are eating only once a day or not at all. It’s happened to me,” says Rojas, who estimates that this has affected “twenty or thirty percent” of Río Tocuyo’s residents. In the last year, Rojas has lost 7 kilos. Many others say they and their loved ones have also lost weight recently. Atenea Jimenez says, “A majority of people in the barrios and [her rural hometown in Aragua] are eating just twice a day.” Residents of Petare say the same thing. In addition to an overall reduction in caloric intake, less-affluent sectors of the population are suffering from marked reductions in protein consumption. Jimenez says, “The situation with meat is dramatic.”

Venezuelans are not experiencing mass starvation, though a small but growing number of families are in critical situations of chronic hunger. Lalo Paez, the director of the Office of Citizenship Participation in Torres municipality, where Carora is based, says five of the 503 families living in his hometown of Los Arangues (20 minutes outside Carora), “are in a critical situation.” Paez recounts seeing “people gnawing on sugar cane” because they have nothing else to eat. He estimates that half the town’s population eats just twice a day. A teenager from Los Arangues told me five of the roughly 50 students in his high school class regularly complain to the teacher about being hungry. Paez links residents’ suffering to scarce employment and little water, which inhibits gardening.

It's a complete disaster, and Maduro and his senseless policies own the lion's share of the blame.

[Judi Lynn]

3. Chile was a real mess, too, when its economy was screaming, as Nixon demanded the CIA to arrange.n/t

[MADem]

5. We don't have to do a doggone thing to VZ.

We don't have to touch it with a forty foot pole. We don't fly in there any more, because Maduro won't pay the bills.

VZ is doing this to THEMSELVES--with a corrupt, disgusting government of "Boligarchs" who are robbing the country blind.

Hell, half of Maduro's relatives have businesses and homes in Florida--they've got their escapes all planned.

smh.

[Judi Lynn]

6. Oh. n/t

[geek tragedy]

4. it undoubtedly would be in better economic and political shape than it is now

but that's not saying much.

He had a skill at governing, dealing with the democratic process, and remaining flexible on the economy, whereas his successor is utterly inept.

Venezuela's fundamental problem transcends who the leader is or even which party is in charge. the failure to develop their economy beyond oil extraction has been their downfall