In the USA a moment called the Justice Democrats has inspired electoral victories for a number of left-wing politicians, such as Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, Rashida Tlaib, and Ilhan Omar. (1) They regard themselves as ‘democratic socialists,’ advocating what are considered socialist policies like free health care and free tuition at universities. (2)
Those opposing this leftward shift, often do not engage in detailed critiques of these policies or socialism in general. For them, one word is sufficient to evoke it in it’s horrors – Venezuela. (3) For graphic effect they might add “rats.” (4)
It’s not only right wing commentators that are critical of the south American state. Progressive commentator David Pakman is among those who regards not only current president Nicolas Maduro but also his widely regarded predecessor Hugo Chavez as “authoritarian kleptocrats” and “domestic imperialists.” (5) Venezuela is now seen as a nation on the brink:
“On 6 December 1998, Hugo Chávez proclaimed a new dawn of social justice and people power. “Venezuela’s resurrection is under way and nothing and nobody can stop it,” the leftwing populist told a sea of euphoric supporters after his landslide election victory. Two decades on, those dreams are in tatters. The comandante is dead and his revolution in intensive care as economic, political and social chaos engulf what was once one of Latin America’s most prosperous societies. Almost 10% of Venezuela’s 31 million-strong population have fled overseas; of those who remain, nearly 90% live in poverty.” (6)
The Presidency of incumbent Nicolas Maduro is currently under threat amid accusations that his 2018 electoral victory was “illegitimate, due to alleged widespread irregularities,” in addition to presiding over extreme economic hardships evidenced by scarcity in basic provisions. (7) On the back of this Venezuela’s National Assembly speaker Juan Guaidó swore himself in as the country’s interim president on January 23 after massive protests against Maduro’s administration. (8) Guaidó’s move has garnered the support of the whole European Axis (USA, Europe, Australia) and eleven out of the fourteen countries in the regional Lima Group (Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, Panama, Paraguay and Peru), as has his call for fresh “free and fair ” elections. Meanwhile China, Russia, Turkey and Iran continue to back Maduro. (9)
Supporters of the government assert that the roots of this crisis go much deeper Maduro or Chavez, who for their part tried to reverse centuries old pattern unequal wealth distribution.. In fact to fully understand the trajectory of Venezuelan history it is necessary to go back to the birth of that nation and its founder Simon Bolivar. Seeking to gain independence from European colonisers, he sought the assistance from newly established Empire of Haiti. Haitian journalist Dady Chery offers an invaluable overview:
“Bolivar left Haiti on March 31, 1816 with plans to take Venezuela. He had with him about 250 men, most of them officers, and he was outfitted by Petion with a small fleet, a printing press for propaganda, and weapons for 6,000 men, including 4,000 muskets and 15,000 pounds of gunpowder, plus money and food. After a disastrous six-month campaign, some of which was blamed on Bolivar’s tactical mistakes due to a reckless appetite for women even in the midst of his battles, he returned to Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Petion, who had just been elected President of Haiti for Life, helped Bolivar once again to recover and organize his most loyal officers. This time he supplied Bolivar not only with materials but also with Haitian soldiers. According to Bolivar’s later writings, “This group of Haitians that faced down 10,000 European tyrants numbered 300 men.” This second expedition left for Venezuela on December 21, 1816. Bolivar’s campaign would be tortuous, but ultimately he would win independence for an area that includes modern-day north-west Brazil, Guyana, Venezuela, Ecuador, Colombia, Panama, northern Peru, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, and Bolivia. As promised to Petion, Simon Bolivar declared slavery to be abolished in his territories.” (10)
A disturbing postscript to this account is that Bolivar, never formally recognized the Republic of Haiti and never sent any diplomatic representative of his new government to our island republic. In 1826, for the first meeting of the independent states of the Americas, i.e. the Congress of the American States in Panama, Bolivar invited United States President John Quincy Adams, a proponent of the Monroe Doctrine and supporter of the slave trade, but he excluded Haiti. (11)
In 1918, about a century after Bolivar’s triumph, oil was discovered in Venezuela. USA big oil got involved and the country essentially became their colony. This, as much (if not more) than anything else set the tone for the country’s socio-economic profile since then. Even after the supposed nationalisation of oil 1975, the profits still ended up private hands. (12)
The same year a major study commissioned by the Minister of Planning that highlighted the level of deprivation .
“More than 70 percent of the Venezuelan population did not meet minimum calorie and protein requirements, while approximately 45 percent were suffering from extreme undernourishment.
More than half of Venezuelan children suffered from some degree of malnutrition.
Infant mortality was exceedingly high.
23 percent of the Venezuelan population was illiterate. The rate of functional illiteracy was of the order of 42%.
One child in four was totally marginalized from the educational system (not even registered in the first grade of primary school).
More than half the children of school age never entered high school.
A majority of the population had little or no access to health care services.
Half the urban population had no access to an adequate system of running water within their home.
Unemployment was rampant.
More than 30 percent of the total workforce was unemployed or underemployed, while 67 percent of those employed in non-agricultural activities received a salary which did not enable them to meet basic human needs (food, health, housing, clothing, etc.).
Three-quarters of the labor force were receiving revenues below the minimum subsistence wage.” (13)
The country was also stratified racially in ways not dissimilar to its American benefactor. According to the most recent census 0.7 per cent of the total population identified themselves as Afro-descendant and 2.9 per cent as black, compared to 51.6 per cent as brown and 43.6 per cent as white. However, given the historical stigma attached to Afrikan heritage, some studies suggest that the reported Afro-Venezuelan figure were far lower than the likely actual proportion with estimates ranging from seven to sixty per cent of the total population. (14)
These were the conditions that Hugo Chavez through the Bolivarian Revolution from 1998 sought to arrest. “The ultimate goal of this revolution was to build a 21st-century socialism from below that would be led by the poor, women, Indigenous people and Afro-Venezuelans,” thereby redressing the historical legacy of racism against these groups. (15):
“By 2010, government programs had cut poverty in half and extreme poverty was reduced by two-thirds. In 2005, the UN declared the country illiteracy free, after 1.5 million Venezuelans were taught to read and write. Thousands of Cuban doctors and health professionals were brought in to the country’s poor and rural communities, providing millions of citizens with unprecedented access to free health care. Through this program, more than 6,000 community health clinics have been built and millions of free consultations conducted. Other achievements include a massive public housing program that has built over a million housing units since its inception; the redistribution of thousands of communal land titles to Indigenous communities; and a democratization of the media through an explosion of community radio and television stations.” (16)
Some observers say that neither Chavez, or his successor were able to do was establish a fully socialist economy. The Misiones (social missions), where many of the health, poverty and social uplift programmes were delivered, were, say he likes of Prof. Michel Chossudovsky, established through parallel structures due, to the challenges entailed in reforming the existing state structures, which remained essentially capitalist. (17)
Nevertheless, while oil prices were high the state’s oil wealth was sufficient to fund the Misiones during the early days of the Chavez government. But an economy so dominated by oil was bound to be affected by a fall in oil prices.
“Insufficient investments, payment delays to suppliers, U.S. sanctions, and a brain drain have hammered Venezuela’s oil industry.” (18)
Some commentators have argued that the impact of the oil crisis was exacerbated by the USA imposed sanctions and other economic war policies such as hoarding of basic necessities like cooking oil, flour, toothpaste and toilet paper, while meat, fruit, vegetables, paper towels and napkins are readily available, albeit at steep prices. This impacted on Maduro’s base, said to be drawn largely from the non-white (Mestizo, Afro-Venezuelan) poor, more acutely. Certainly more so than opposition supporters reportedly mainly white and better off. (19)
Successive USA regimes funding Venezuelan opposition parties and lobby groups to the tune of $50m is also arguably evidence of an external regime change agenda. On the face of it this strongly echoing the “Mugabe Must Go!” playbook applied to Zimbabwe. In this case, The Westminster Foundation for Democracy (now active in Venezuela. https://www.wfd.org/network/venezuela/), funded by the main political parties in the UK, bankrolled the opposition MDC. Sanctions designed to sabotage the gains of the land reform programme and cripple the economy were used to devastating (if ultimately unsuccessful) ends and President Robert Mugabe was presented as an international pariah that steals elections and brutalises “his own people.” All of these elements are currently ostensibly at play in Venezuela. (20)
One area of clear divergence around Venezuela is the status of last year’s elections. As mentioned above, the dominant narrative is of a fraudulent process. Yet there are reports of opposition co-ordination (from the USA) not to contest the poll so as to discredit the outcome. However, they did not hold their nerve, ended up participating and were soundly defeated by Maduro. (21) Once again, we saw this discrediting method used in Zimbabwe during the 2008 election. Opposition leader Morgan Tvangirai decamped to the Dutch Embassy (of all places) to announce his pulling out of the presidential run-off, citing violence and intimidation. (22)
To some, like national organizer of the Black Alliance for Peace editor and contributing columnist for the Black Agenda Report, Ajamu Baraka however, the electoral process is not the most pressing issue:
“The people of Venezuela have made a choice. We will not debate the merits of their process, its contradictions or problems. Our responsibility as citizens/captors of empire is to put a brake on the U.S. state’s ability to foist death and destruction on the peoples of the world. However, as it is has been stated in other places, it is imperative that the Black working class is separated from this naked imperialist move on Venezuela and all imperialist assaults. African/Black people must be clear on the issue of U.S. and European capitalist/imperialist interventions. The war and militarism being waged against Africans/Black people in the U.S. by the domestic military we call “the police” – embodied by mass incarceration – is part of the global Pan-European axis of domination that is now conspiring against the Bolivarian revolutionary process in Venezuela.” (23)
(1) A.B. Stoddard (14/02/19) Could AOC, Tlaib and Omar Be Dems’ Blessing in Disguise?. https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2019/02/14/could_aoc_tlaib_and_omar_be_dems_blessing_in_disguise.html
(2) Teresa Ghilarducci (09/08/18) Who Are Democratic Socialists And What Do They Want? https://www.forbes.com/sites/teresaghilarducci/2018/08/09/who-are-democratic-socialists-and-what-do-they-want-a-primer/#764de52a1520
(3) Charlie Kirk (01/02/19) Venezuela is the socialist-wasteland that Ocasio-Cortez and fellow Democrats are leading the US toward. https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/venezuela-is-the-socialist-wasteland-that-ocasio-cortez-and-fellow-democrats-are-leading-the-u-s-toward
(4) Julia Symmes Cobb, Anggy Polanco & Gavin Allen (28/02/18) Eating dead rats raw in Venezuela’s hunger games as economic crisis threatens vast new migrant exodus.. https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/eating-dead-rats-raw-venezuelas-12103519
(5) David Pakman (04/02/19) “The Left” is Getting Venezuela Really Wrong. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QX7eBUkBTuE
(6) Tom Phillips (06/12/18) ‘’A slow-motion catastrophe’: on the road in Venezuela, 20 years after Chávez’s rise https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/dec/06/on-the-road-venezuela-20-years-after-hugo-chavez-rise
(7) Tom Phillips (21/05/18) Venezuela elections: Maduro wins second term. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/may/21/venezuela-elections-nicolas-maduro-wins-second-term
(8) Ana Campoy J(23/01/19) Who is the opposition leader who just declared himself interim president of Venezuela? https://qz.com/1531475/who-is-juan-guaido-us-recognizes-him-as-venezuelas-new-leader/
(9) BBC News (05/02/19) Venezuela crisis: Juan Guaidó backed by Lima Group. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-47126434
(10) Dady Chery (18/10/14) Et Tu, Brute? Haiti’s Betrayal By Latin America. http://newsjunkiepost.com/2014/10/18/et-tu-brute-haitis-betrayal-by-latin-america/
(11) Ibid.
(12) Prof Michel Chossudovsky and Bonnie Faulkner (10/02/19) Venezuela: From Oil Proxy to the Bolivarian Movement and Sabotage. Abysmal Poverty under US Proxy Rule (1918-1998). https://www.globalresearch.ca/venezuela-from-oil-proxy-to-the-bolivarian-movement-and-sabotage/5667366
(13) Ibid.
(14) Minority Rights Group International (2017) Afro-Venezuelans. hhttps://minorityrights.org/minorities/afro-venezuelans/
(15) Andrew King (21/06/17) Venezuela Is Under Attack for Asserting That Black Lives Matter. https://truthout.org/articles/venezuela-is-under-attack-for-asserting-that-black-lives-matter/
(16) Ibid.
(17) Chossudovsky and Faulkner . Op cit.
(18) Marianna Parraga & Alexandra Ulmer (18/01/18) Crisis-hit Venezuela’s oil output plummets in 2017 to decades low. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-opec-venezuela/crisis-hit-venezuelas-oil-output-plummets-in-2017-to-decades-low-idUSKBN1F720C
(19) Abby Martin (21/06/18) What You’re Not Being Told About Venezuela Crisis. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lMeli0BA3UA
(20) Olatunji Heru (2007) Zimbabwe: The Search For Truth. The Whirlwind Edition 4, p. 20-1
(21) Martin. Op. cit.
(22) Baffour Ankomah (23/11/09) A Tale Of Two Sham Elections. https://newafricanmagazine.com/opinions/a-tale-of-two-sham-elections/
(23) Ajamu Baraka (13/02/19) Confronting the U.S./EU/NATO Axis of Domination. https://www.blackagendareport.com/confronting-useunato-axis-domination
We ask the question:
Why does Venezuela matter?
1) Why is Venezuela now seen as the worst example of socialism?
2) Are Chavez and Maduro really “authoritarian kleptocrats”?
3) Who does the opposition in Venezuela represent?
4) How do we determine what are “free and fair” elections?
5) Is the Bolivarian Revolution a success or failure?
Our Special Guest:
Marcos Garcia: has just completed his term as the First Secretary and the Venezuelan Embassy.