Hands Off Venezuela! What Has Been Happening Since February and Why It Matters

[Judi Lynn]

Hands Off Venezuela! What Has Been Happening Since February and Why It Matters

Written by Susan Spronk
Wednesday, 07 May 2014 06:31

Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro announces new initiatives to address current economic problems, arguing that population's universal welfare is a key aim behind policymaking.Source: New Socialist

The recent destabilization campaign waged by the right-wing opposition has yet again made Venezuela a darling of the international media. While there is always a deafening media silence when the Bolivarian government wins an electoral mandate, throughout the month of February 2014 viewers were assailed with images of “innocent” student protesters—mostly from the academic bastion of the Venezuelan elite, the Central University of Venezuela—being brutalized by state security forces.

Apparently the ax that has chopped budgets for investigative journalism has fallen heavily on Venezuela. Mainstream media outlets re-broadcast images from twitter without bothering to fact-check, not realizing that they were actually from places like Egypt and Syria or that they depicted Venezuelan state security forces that had been disbanded two years ago. The February traumas were almost another “media coup” in the making.

The mainstream media’s attempts to manufacture consent and condone the opposition-sponsored violence against the Maduro government should ring alarm bells for anyone on the left. While we can have legitimate debates about how anti-capitalist the Bolivarian revolution has truly been, since Hugo Chávez took office in 1999 “the process” (as it is known in Venezuela) has achieved the greatest redistribution of social wealth since the Cuban Revolution in 1959. As well, “twenty-first century socialism” should be distinguished from earlier historical versions because of its commitment to democratic forms of decision-making. By fostering forms of democratic control over the economy through systems such as workers collectives and community councils, Venezuela is experimenting with what may be the most radical attempts to decentralize decision-making to the local level.

More:
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/venezuela-archives-35/4830--hands-off-venezuela-what-has-been-happening-since-february-and-why-it-matters

[pscot]

1. What's our involvement?

We always seem to have our thumb on the scale down there.











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[newfie11]

2. +1

[jtuck004]

3. Just spreading Democracy, thick and gooey. Like oil...

...
In the summer of 2007, the vehemently pro–Hugo Chávez journalist and lawyer Eva Golinger got on Venezuelan state TV and, with the help of a flow chart hand-drawn on flimsy poster board, called out several fellow journalists who had allegedly accepted US funding to help bring down the country's famously left-wing, anti-American president.
,,,
The incident did cause the US Embassy in Caracas some concern, however. In a cable released by Wikileaks titled “IV Participants and USAID Partners Outed, Again” that describes Golinger's TV appearance and the aftermath, an embassy official wrote that people were becoming wary of getting involved with any enterprise funded by the US. “It is particularly hard to persuade Chávez supporters to participate in a program they perceived as potentially career-ending,” the official wrote. In other words, though Golinger embarrassed herself with her shit-stirring, the US was really trying to bring down Chávez by funneling money to his opponents.
...
These programs have several names and objectives. Some have clearly benevolent goals; one is targeted at discouraging violence against women, for instance. But other US efforts in Venezuela are unabashedly political, such as a 2004 USAID program that, according to a Wikileaks cable, would spend $450,000 to “provide training to political parties on the design, planning, and execution of electoral campaigns.” The program would also create “campaign training schools” that would recruit campaign managers and emphasize “the development of viable campaign strategies and effectively communicating party platforms to voters.”

Interestingly, it's illegal for a US political party or candidate to accept funding from any “foreign national,” which includes individuals, corporations, and governments. Venezuela passed a similar law in 2010, but this is easily circumvented by channeling the money through NGOs.
...

here.

[Zorra]

4. The fascists are desperate to kill democracy in Venezuela before it multiplies.

Governments of, by, and for the people are the antithesis of fascists and the fascist agenda.

But neoliberalism does not merely fragment the world which it claims to be unifying; it also produces the political and economic centre which directs this war. It is urgent that we embark on a discussion of this mega-politics. Mega-politics globalises national politics - in other words it ties them to a centre which has world interests and which operates on the logic of the market. It is in the name of the market that wars, credits, buying and selling of commodities, diplomatic recognition, trade blocs, political support, laws on immigration, breakdowns of relationships between countries and investment - in short, the survival of entire nations - are decided.

The world-wide power of the financial markets is such that they are not concerned about the political complexion of the leaders of individual countries: what counts in their eyes is a country’s respect for the economic programme. Financial disciplines are imposed on all alike. These masters of the world can even tolerate the existence of left-wing governments, on condition that they adopt no measure likely to harm the interests of the market. However, they will never accept policies that tend to break with the dominant model.

In the eyes of mega-politics, national politics are conducted by dwarfs who are expected to comply with the dictates of the financial giant. And this is the way it will always be - until the dwarfs revolt.

http://www.elkilombo.org/documents/sevenpiecesmarcos.html

[Perseus]

14. The fascists are desperate to kill democracy....well, make up your mind...

Are you people going to support "Socialism" or "Democracy" in Venezuela? There seems to be some confusion in this post, and that is because there is plenty of ignorance in regards to the real situation in Venezuela. For your information, there is NO SOCIALISM and NO DEMOCRACY in Venezuela, it is all a scam for the people on the regime to become some of the richest families in the World. The Chavez family's fortune is estimated at $1.9 billion, Diosdado Cabello's is estimated at over $2 billion...do your research and stop supporting fantasies.

If Miss Spronk is a real socialist, as she claims to be, she would understand that the regime in Venezuela is nothing but a farce, where those linked to the regime have amassed incredible amounts of $$$, yes that money coming from the country they pretend to hate, and not only that but have made huge investments in the USA, and you will all see that when the US government finally freezes those assets, if it does.

What you should be complaining about is the lack of news in the USA about the situation in Venezuela, I wonder every day why the media is so silent about it, what interests are there between the US Government and the Maduro regime that keeps both the US government and the media so silent.

Does anyone know why the protests started? Miss Spronk doesn't seem to know. A student was raped in a University located in the west of the country, students went out on the streets to complain about the lack of security that Venezuelan citizens live with everyday, 250,000 known people killed by petty thefts since Chavez took office (many more get killed in the Barrios and are never accounted for), and as soon as the students went out, the regime started their chain of violence against them.

Why don't you take the time to research before praising a regime like the one in Venezuela? You will find that the regime has "tortured" students, which is something that people at DU criticize so much from the Iraq era, and with reason, but do not seem to care that the same is happening in Venezuela. The regime in Venezuela obeys to the Castro-Communist ideals, the Castros send the orders to Venezuela, Maduro is just a puppet carrying out their orders.

Does anyone here know that Maduro was not born in Venezuela? He is from Colombia, that he completed his high-school in Cuba and was trained to serve the wishes of the Castro? Would anyone here like to go and live in Cuba? Would anyone here like to go and live in Venezuela? Put your money where your mouth is.

Do your research and stop supporting a regime that is nothing but a farce. It seems that people in DU won't think beyond when they feel the USA is intervening, their reaction is to criticize the USA without any effort to find out beyond an article by a socialist fanatic who shows very little knowledge of the real situation in Venezuela. Miss Spronk has demonstrated with her article that she is not only a fanatic of a failed political ideology, and I am not supporting the full capitalism system because I believe the two have to coexist, but pure socialist ideologists have only served the people in power, but anyway I was talking about Miss Spronk, who also doesn't seem to have done any research on Venezuela but is acting on pure ideology and sentimentality.

Maduro DID NOT win fair elections, he lost to Capriles who never had the guts to demand a recount. There are photos showing the GN burning ballots...please, stop the ignorance and do your research Mrs Spronk.

[Scuba]

5. Cool magic trick: Nationalize your oil industry and watch the dirty tricks appear.

[joshcryer]

6. History lesson, it was already nationalized.

[Scuba]

7. Not until 2007.

[joshcryer]

8. PDVSA has existed since 1976.

Most of the programs it was able to inact in the past decade were due to the spike in oil prices.

[Scuba]

9. I don't know what your point is.

Mine is that when a country nationalizes an extraction industry, the US seems inclined to meddle.

[Marksman_91]

10. The point is it's been nationalized way before Chavez came in

And there weren't the kinds of problems that the country faces today due to an incompetent and corrupt government, at least not at the scale that one sees today.

[Scuba]

11. Or so the American media would have us believe.

[Marksman_91]

12. Nah, I'm actually Venezuelan myself and still have friends and family there

I read up on news sources from Venezuela and follow social media of people who live there. Things are bad. And Maduro's approval rating is in the toilet at this point. Most polls say 8 out of 10 Venezuelans think the country is in bad shape, and more than half of them sure as hell don't blame US interference, but the government itself.

[Scuba]

13. Thanks, I appreciate your insights.

[Perseus]

17. Marksman_91, you are being too nice in reporting the situation in Venezuela

Things ARE REALLY BAD there, the regime is trying to scrape the coffers of the country, the people in the regime are already some of the wealthiest in the World, all from robbing the country.

There is no security on the streets, the criminals that the regime gave weapons to will kill you for a pair of shoes, and sometimes will kill you because you did not have anything worth taking.

There is no food, no medicine, the brains of the country have left and are continuously trying to get out, many have gone to Spain and many more to USA in Florida...take a stroll down Miami and you will find many Venezuelans who can talk to you about the real situation, not what Mrs Spronk so ignorantly writes about. You don't even have to go to Venezuela to find out, all you need is a vacation trip to Miami.

Students are being tortured by the regime, the students go out to protest, which is their constitutional right to hold peaceful protests, the GN (Guardia Nacional) picks them up, beats them up, jails them, then the Cubans who have infiltrated all levels of the GN, the Army, etc. tortures the students. YOU CALL THAT DEMOCRACY, OR SOCIALISM? bull....

I too have family and friends in Venezuela who report on a daily basis what is going on...

I would like to know if Mrs Spronk considers "Socialism" the fact that the regime wants to tattoo people with numbers so that they can be "scanned" when they buy, and now if you bought soap this week, which they know after they scan you, you cannot buy this week, etc, etc.

[Perseus]

15. Scuba, do some research, what you are being told is true...

The oil industry was nationalized during Carlos Andres Perez (who was a thief) first mandate, the entire strategy was crafted by Rafael Caldera who was Perez predecessor, and when Perez came to power all he had to do was put his signature on the mandate and take all credit for it, but the oil industry WAS nationalized in 1976.

Instead of arguing the facts, Google the information and you will find that it is a fact what you are being told.

Anyway, the current regime in Venezuela is a Castro-Communist regime, the Castro brothers give the orders and Maduro (the puppet), does his best to execute them, he is just very incompetent, but he tries.

Just in case you decide not to Google it, I have taken the time to find it for you, just so that you stop arguing the facts:

Nationalization
Petroleum map of Venezuela, 1972

Well before 1976, Venezuela had taken several steps in the direction of nationalization of its oil industry. In August 1971, under the presidency of Rafael Caldera, a law was passed that nationalized the country's natural gas industry. Also in 1971 the law of reversion was passed which stated that all the assets, plant, and equipment belonging to concessionaires within or outside the concession areas would revert to the nation without compensation upon the expiration of the concession.[4] The movement towards nationalism was experienced once again under decree 832. Decree 832 stipulated that all exploration, production, refining, and sales programs of the oil companies had to be approved in advance by the Ministry of Mines and Hydrocarbons.[4] So for all practical purposes, Venezuela was already well on its way to nationalization by 1972.

It did not become official however until the presidency of Carlos Andrés Pérez, whose economic plan, "La Gran Venezuela", called for the nationalization of the oil industry and diversification of the economy via import substitution. The country officially nationalized its oil industry on 1 January 1976 at site of Zumaque 1 oilwell (Mene Grande), and along with it came the birth of Petróleos de Venezuela S.A. (PDVSA) which is the Venezuelan state-owned petroleum company. All foreign oil companies that once did business in Venezuela were replaced by Venezuelan companies. PDVSA controls activity involving oil and natural gas in Venezuela. In 1980, in an aggressive internationalization plan, PDVSA bought refineries in USA and Europe as the American Citgo that catapultated it to the third-largest oil company in the world.[9]

[Scuba]

16. I have no argument about when the nationalization occurred.