It is a mistake for the US to try to overthrow the democratic government in Venezuela.

We know the mainstream narrative. Venezuela was a nice peaceful country with lots of free speech until that socialist Chavez got in and started depriving the citizens of their democratic rights and ruined the country.

In reality here is how it was before. How come we don't before it. Why don't we hear about the massacre in the square by the government before Chavez?
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So let's have some context. Before Hugo Chavez was elected President in 1998, Venezuela was ruled by various neo-liberal administrations. In 1975, 15 per cent of Venezuelans lived in poverty; two decades later, it had surged to 45 per cent. When Venezuelans protested against the then President Pérez - who U-turned on election pledges to abandon neo-liberalism in 1989 - the full might of the state was unleashed on them in the so-called “Caracazo”, a Tiananmen Square-style massacre in which hundreds of protesters were slaughtered.
http://www.independent.co.uk/voices...e-told-you-so-but-they-are-wrong-9155295.html
Repulsed by the traditional political elite, Venezuelans delivered Chavez a landslide victory in 1998. At the time, he advocated the Third Way approach championed by Tony Blair, but his key strategy was to use oil riches to fund social programmes. Poverty rates collapsed from 50 per cent to around 25 per cent; extreme poverty was reduced by two-thirds. According to the UN, this represents the second-biggest percentage-point drop in poverty in Latin America. The traditional bastion of neo-liberal dogma, the World Bank, reveals that, while Venezuela's gross national per capita income languished below the continent's average before Chavez came to power, it is now $13,120, higher than Brazil or Argentina, and against an average of $8,981. Despite recent economic troubles, the UN revealed that Venezuela enjoyed the region's biggest drop in poverty in 2012.

Does this mean that Venezuela is some sort of paradise? No. Inflation runs at over 50 per cent: but it is a disease the country is long familiar with. Under Chavez's neo-liberal predecessor Rafael Caldera in the 1990s, it topped 100 per cent. And yet this was not presented as a failure of free-market capitalism

 

80% of the Venezuelan people want to engage in the peace dialogue President Maduro has initiated. 72% disapprove of the boycott of the process by Capriles the defeated Prsidential candidate or Lopez the rightist leader of street demonstrations and the 2002 coup. They don't approve of the folks barricading streets in their middle class neighborhoods, burning modern buses, health clinics and other symbols of social spending they disprove of.

Essentially it would be like the Tea Party Ted Cruz types did the same things here and demanded the resignation of President Obama or they would keep closing streets, burning food stamp offices and sabotaging clinics cooperating with Obamacare. Fortunately we do not have those folks in the US acting like that yet.

polling data and an article in spanish.
http://www.aporrea.org/oposicion/n246220.html

 

jdhu,

Just more ad hominem attacks but your lack of self awareness can't let you see it.

I will post more resources in time.

 

This is part of a much longer piece on how to deal with problems in Venezuelan society such as crime, productivity and shortages. It is written by Michael Alpert who holds a PhD from MIT in economics and is sympathetic to Chavismo and their attempts to create more equality in what used to be one of the most unequal societies in Latin America. I tis an example of avoiding the simple leave it to the market model which history shows leads to great inequality.
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What about shortages? They owe, as indicated earlier, largely to subsidized prices on some goods leading to sales abroad, and to sabotage. But another issue is productivity. So, first, regarding low prices, what to do? Well, simply raising the prices, for example of milk, removes the incentive to export or smuggle, but it also hurts low income people. However if you keep the price down, the incentive to export or smuggle is huge. There may be other choices, but one that I can imagine is to have the price rise — but then directly aid the poor.

How? Their price, and only their price for milk, for example, could be reduced by their receiving some government subsidy beyond their income — or, for that matter, by their getting a dramatic increase in their income that more than offsets the added costs for their milk.

But then what about prices, they could be frozen – risking the corruption dynamic, again – or they could rise, but there could be a major tax on profits, with the revenues used, in turn, for working people.

These are possible routes out of this conundrum to look for. Or take oil and automobile gas. Again, in Venezuela oil is hugely subsidized. The price, that is, is nearly zero. The incentive, therefore, to buy or produce inside Venezuela and sell in Columbia, say, is intense. What to do? Again as long as that price difference exists violations will occur.

But also again, raising the price would have horrible repercussions for those of the poor who drive, or even use public transit if those prices were to rise. Solution – raise the price, but tax profits and then return the revenues to the poor in diverse ways. Free greatly improved public transport would be one example. A reverse income tax for low income people would be another. One can think of other options.

http://venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/10440

 

Deckard, I assume you did not approve of all the interventions beforehand.

 

By refusing to work through democratic means and accept defeat in fair elections it seems very possible that the opposition in Venezuela might have actually helped President Maduro and the Bolivarians. Capriles their recent presidential candidate who came close to winning has had to move in the direction of the violent demonstrators with their barricades, Molotov cocktails, and burning of public buses and clinics etc. Capriles has done this to maintain his leadership with the opposition base.

http://www.theguardian.com/commenti...pposition-nicolas-maduro-chavez-poor-outreach
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Venezuela's Opposition Has Played into Nicolás Maduro's Hands

A year after Chávez's death, the opposition – by failing to reach out to the poor – has missed a golden opportunity to weaken his successor

.....

 

Well the mainstream media is starting to be a bit fairer in their reporting. The violent demonstrations are starting to be reported as violent rather than just the case of peaceful demonstrators being repressed by those dictatorial Chavistas. FYI virtually all the deaths have been due to the violent protests, either the protesters killing security or the protesters being killed during the attempts to control the violence.



From Reuters.

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(Reuters) - As violent protests in Venezuela alienate moderates in the opposition and show no signs of toppling President Nicolas Maduro, the socialist leader's call for talks is deepening divisions between his rivals.

The country's worst civil unrest in a decade has killed at least 20 people, including supporters of both sides and members of the security forces, since early last month.

Day after day, thousands of opposition supporters march peacefully in cities around the nation, demanding political change and an end to high inflation, shortages of basic foods in stores, and one of the highest murder rates in the world.

Then every night, hooded opposition militants emerge around a square in eastern Caracas brandishing rocks and Molotov cocktails, clashing with riot police and turning one of the capital's most affluent neighborhoods into a battlefield.

The violence is fueling tensions inside the opposition, with moderates scared it could spin further out of control and tarnish the cause of peaceful political change in the future.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/03/10/us-venezuela-protests-opposition-idUSBREA2907820140310

 

The new tribute movie to Hugo Chavez just released by Oliver Stone.

See the whole 50 minute movie for free.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WD4CIOh73VY