Latin America
Related: About this forumHow Severe Is Venezuela’s Crisis?
How Severe Is Venezuelas Crisis?
Its deep but not cataclysmic, and mainstream US media have consistently exaggerated the extent of it.
By Gabriel Hetland
June 22, 2016
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People buy food at a market in Caracas, Venezuela on June 21, 2016. (Mariana Bazo / Reuters)
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CaracasAccording to The New York Times, Venezuela is a country that is in a state of total collapse, with shuttered government offices, widespread hunger, and failing hospitals that resemble hell on earth. There is reportedly often little traffic in Caracas simply because so few people, either for lack of money or work, are going out. The Washington Post, which has repeatedly called for foreign intervention against Venezuela, describes the country using similar, at times identical, language of collapse, catastrophe, complete disaster, and failed state. A recent Post article describes a McDonalds, empty of customers because runaway inflation means a Happy Meal costs nearly a third of an average monthly wage. NPR reports Venezuela is Running Out of Beer Amid Severe Economic Crisis. When Coca-Cola announced plans to halt production due to a lack of sugar, Forbes dubbed Venezuela the Country With No Coke. The Wall Street Journal reports on fears that people will die of hunger.
Is Venezuela descending into a nightmarish scenario, as these stories suggest? To answer this question Ive spent the last three weeks talking to dozens of peoplerich and poor, Chavista and opposition, urban and ruralacross Venezuela. My investigation leaves little doubt that Venezuela is in the midst of a severe crisis, characterized by triple-digit inflation, scarcities of basic goods, widespread changes in food-consumption patterns, and mounting social and political discontent. Yet mainstream media have consistently misrepresented and significantly exaggerated the severity of the crisis. Its real and should by no means be minimized, but Venezuela is not in a state of cataclysmic collapse.
Accounts suggesting otherwise are not only inaccurate but also dangerous, insofar as they prepare the ground for foreign intervention. This week the Permanent Council of the Organization of American States is holding an emergency meeting to consider OAS Secretary General Luis Almagros invocation of the Inter-American Democratic Charter against Venezuela. This action is taken against countries that have experienced an unconstitutional alteration of the constitutional regime that seriously impairs the democratic order in a member state, and can lead to a countrys suspension from the OAS. The Venezuelan government, which despite some foot-dragging has allowed steps toward holding a recall referendum against President Nicolás Maduro, vigorously rejects this charge, as do many OAS member states. It is worth noting that the OAS has not invoked the Democratic Charter against Brazil, which recently experienced what many OAS member states and prominent Latin American observers see as a coup.
Accounts suggesting otherwise are not only inaccurate but also dangerous, insofar as they prepare the ground for foreign intervention. This week the Permanent Council of the Organization of American States is holding an emergency meeting to consider OAS Secretary General Luis Almagros invocation of the Inter-American Democratic Charter against Venezuela. This action is taken against countries that have experienced an unconstitutional alteration of the constitutional regime that seriously impairs the democratic order in a member state, and can lead to a countrys suspension from the OAS. The Venezuelan government, which despite some foot-dragging has allowed steps toward holding a recall referendum against President Nicolás Maduro, vigorously rejects this charge, as do many OAS member states. It is worth noting that the OAS has not invoked the Democratic Charter against Brazil, which recently experienced what many OAS member states and prominent Latin American observers see as a coup.
More:
https://www.thenation.com/article/how-severe-is-venezuelas-crisis/
Good Reads:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/1016162310
Marksman_91
(2,035 posts)All these websites and articles you post up give you a perspective of someone who doesn't actually live the day-to-day life of Venezuelans, especially poor ones, in the country. Try using sources that directly report from Venezuela for once. I actually follow the Twitter feed from hundreds of prominent Venezuelan sources, and they tend to report the truth more accurately than all the bs sites like VenAnalysis, Counterpunch, even The Nation, which I actually kinda respect.
COLGATE4
(14,732 posts)actually seeing the facts on the ground. Instead, they prefer to quote from sources that conform to their own pre-set ideology, even when there is so much information actually available about the tragic situation in Venezuela today.