Analysis of the Venezuelan opposition--epic fail!
Basically, it looks like the rightwing opposition in Venezuela--despite a fawning corporate media, lots of their own money and lots of our money (through the USAID-NED and other agencies)--can't muster enough enthusiasm among voters to hold a primary election. Their candidates for president and other offices will likely be decided in the "smoke-filled rooms" of rightwing party leaders "by consensus."
I have long complained of the opposition in Venezuela, who have long struck me as corrupt greedbags (just want to get control of the oil revenues again), fascist coupsters and Tea Partyish clowns. This analysis confirms that State Department/CIA tutoring has not improved them as viable critics of the Chavez government (every government needs viable critics) nor as a force with the ideas and leaders that could defeat the Chavista government. (They made some gains in the National Assembly in the last by-elections but that "surge" looks like it will be short-lived.)
I actually hope that this analyst is wrong but I don't think he is. It's not that I want to see the Chavez government defeated. It is a very good government, akin to our "New Deal" government. But I would like to see a robust political dialogue--which Venezuelans are certainly capable of--there, not to mention here--on critical questions of "fair" vs "free" trade, types of marketplaces (the good, the bad and the ugly), strong central government vs. local government, big business vs small business, saving the planet vs. growth/development, and so on. The "clowns" on the right, here and there (and their corporate media sponsors), are making real political dialogue nearly impossible.
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The Opposition Primaries - Playing Democracy
By ARTURO ROSALES- AXIS OF LOGIC, January 16th 2012
Venezuela's opposition once again appears to be withering on a vine that has not taken root since President Chavez was first elected 12 years ago. The men who would be president this year are little more than plastic media candidates, reading scripts written by their funding source in the U.S. State Department. They offer no real challenge to the Chavez administration for several reasons. The first is due to the success of the Bolivarian Revolution or in a word, socialism.
The country has been moving forward on all fronts over the last decade. Venezuelans have been empowered. They are proud of their standing in the international community and their prosperity at home. Venezuela had a 4% increase in GDP last year and the people are reaping the benefits with 144,000 families receiviing new homes in 2011; with Mission Agro delivering food sovereignty; shelves in the local markets consistently filled with a rich variety of nutritious food produced inside the country; affordable electric and cooking gas; no increase in unemployment (6% at year's end); a massive reduction in poverty; quality university education at no cost and an excellent health care system; new small businesses established and growing; improvements with highways and other infrastructure including dramatic visible advancement with the new nationwide railway system ... and much more.
How is it possible for a capitalist system that reflects the failed economies, lost jobs, wages, benefits and homes and rising prices of the United States and Europe to compete with this in a truly democratic election? Even nominal members of the opposition with their businesses thriving and their bank accounts flush will have to think twice when entering the election booths in October, 2012. Arturo Rosales presents two disastrous scenarios in which the opposition find themselves as they approach their February 12, 2012 primaries in this succinct report.
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http://venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/6752
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