Venezuela

From Leftypedia
Jump to navigation Jump to search

The Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela (abbreviated BRV) is a republic in South America that superseded the Republic of Venezuela on 20 December 1999, following the approval of a new constitution by referendum on the 15th.[1][2] Venezuela's ruling party since 2010, the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV), espouses a socialist or social democratic ideology based on the thought of Hugo Chávez called Bolivarianism.[3]

History

See also: American intervention in Venezuela and Llaguno overpass incident

Hugo Chávez and other leftists attempted to overthrow the Republic of Venezuela in 1992 but were unsuccessful. Chávez nevertheless became president in 1998 after being elected with a 56.2% majority. The Bolivarian Revolution was launched in early 1999, being a populist sociopolitical movement and process that seeks to build a mass movement to implement Bolivarianism, a combination of popular democracy, economic independence, equitable distribution of revenues, and an end to political corruption. A new constitution was drawn up and voted on in a referendum on 15 December that same year, becoming approved by 71.8% of voters though with a turnout of only 44.4%.[4]

In 2002, the United States launched a coup against the BRV, and kidnapped Hugo Chávez. Due to the Venezuelan proletariat's overwhelming opposition to this, the coup failed, and President Chávez was soon restored to power.[5] Following Chávez' death in 2013, Nicolás Maduro became interim President and was later elected that year, becoming re-elected in 2018 though the legitimacy of that election came under dispute.

Politics

Although some[clarification needed] have argued that the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela is a de facto social democracy,[6] others have argued that the administration is not merely looking to dull the side-effects of capitalism but actually let the proletariat empower itself.[7][8][9]

A poll from 2017 indicated that 75% of Venezuelans support socialism.[10] Support for PSUV itself increased in 2017 from 27% to 35%, perhaps a humble number but also the highest one among the electoral options.[11] While it is likely that the majority of Venezuelans, even lower-class ones, are disappointed with President Nicolás Maduro, several political organizations have monitored the elections and have confirmed that they these elections reasonable in many ways, and that Maduro did not cheat in the election.[12] The slight deficiency of candidates was because the antisocialist opposition deliberately boycotted the process.[13]

Relations with the United States are poor and the two are ideological enemies, with the US further seeking control of Venezuela's oil market as well as its reserves, which are the largest in the world. The US has imposed various sanctions on Venezuela, supported its opposition, and has attempted multiple coups on it. In May 2019, the White House prohibited all flights to the BRV indefinitely.[14]

Foreign policy

Relations with Colombia

The government of Colombia has been ideologically and militarily opposed to the Venezuelan government. The differences between the two are the products of leftist militants supported by the Venezuelan government coming into conflict with the Colombian government and American imperialist interests. Colombian support for the Venezuelan opposition has taken many forms. For one it has recognized Juan Guiado and the Venezuelan opposition as the legitimate leaders of Venezuela, further having sent large sums of money and attempted to bring trucks full of military equipment to the opposition.[15][16] Colombia has accepted opposition figures fleeing arrest from the Venezuelan government, and Venezuelan opposition operatives have in turn mounted invasions from within Colombia. The Venezuelan opposition is publicly connected to Colombian drug dealing paramilitaries through regional anti-communist organizations supported by the United States, with direct connections between the two parties being more clandestine but still evident. Relations started to improve when Colombia elected Social Democratic Gustavo Petro was elected.[1]

Economy

Despite Socialists taking power, The Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela has so far remained a market economy with a significantly regulated private sector, but in some rare cases the proletariat seized the means of production.[17] In 2018 economic minister Ricardo Menéndez has said that the greater percentage, from the point of view of companies that exist in Venezuela, are privately owned, and that Venezuelans do not yet live in socialism.[18] Nevertheless, agricultural communes hold an important position in the economy,[19] with Venezuelan communes expanding small-scale urban agriculture,[20] and 70% of the food consumed in Venezuelan houses today is a product of small-scale family agriculture.[21] Sometimes anti-communists physically attack these communes and their members however.[22]

Over 95% of the economy has been based on oil. The BRV decided to use the oil revenue to invest in the productive economic apparatus to generate value chains in iron and steel, to generate value chains in aluminium, in the glass industry, in the cement industry. However, the economic minister Ricardo Menéndez understood that it is necessary to broaden the national economic system; the population's purchasing power is higher than it was in the past. He says that they have the obligation to multiply the production levels to satisfy that democratization of consumption potential that they have had, and that they decided that those values linked to oil revenue will be destined to investment in the productive economic apparatus, and that apparatus exists in the republic.[18]

The BRV reduced poverty from 70.8% in 1996 to 21% in 2010; extreme poverty 40% in 1996 to 7.3% in 2010. It benefited approximately twenty million people from their anti-poverty programs called Misiones. The BRV raised the number of elders on old-age pensions from 387,000 in the 1990s to 2.1 million in the 2010s.[23]

Impact of Sanctions

Since at least the early 2010s,[24][25] the White House has repeatedly burdened the republic of numerous sanctions in hopes of encouraging Venezuelans to overthrow their own government. In 2014 the American bourgeoisie imposed sanctions specifically on their oil industry and their bank.[26] Western economists Mark Weisbrot and Jeffrey Sachs have estimated that at least 40,000 Venezuelan deaths between 2017 and 2018 can be directly attributed to the sanctions.[27]

The BRV legislated price controls in order to make food more accessible to the poor, but many shopowners retaliated by hiding their goods[28] to vend them in the black market for higher prices.[29] Speculation is a serious problem in the economy, causing hyperinflation and making many commodities more difficult for the poor to access.[30] Families in Caracas collectively purchase tons of produce directly from a cooperative in Lara state five hours away, because if they had to buy these items in the market or in the street they would be almost impossible to afford.[31] Supplementary food relief was delivered by the governments local CLAP (Comité Local de Abastecimiento y Producción) program.

In 2018, the BRV initiated a new cryptocurrency called the Petro in response to Northern economic warfare.[32] Since late 2019, oil prices have steadily been restabilizing,[33][34] but the BRV had also returned some enterprises to the private sector in 2019.[35] Similarly, in December 2019 the Presidency granted six months of tax privileges to importing businesses, subsequently angering some Latin leftists.[36]

Further reading

References

  1. ↑ Venezuela (Bolivarian Republic of)'s Constitution of 1999 with Amendments through 2009. constituteproject.org.
  2. ↑ Shupak, Gregory (2019-02-20). "US Media Erase Years of Chavismo's Gains". Archived from the original on 2019-02-21. Retrieved 2020-01-22.
  3. ↑ "Leftist Debunks John Oliver's Venezuela Episode". 2018-06-07.
  4. ↑ Nohlen, D (2005) Elections in the Americas: A data handbook, Volume II, page 567
  5. ↑ Immel, David; Marshall, Licia; Frazier, Scott; Trejo, Effren; Grant, Sherry; Sisco, Josh (2003). "Bush Administration Behind Failed Military Coup in Venezuela". Archived from the original on 2016-11-07. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |editors= ignored (|editor= suggested) (help); line feed character in |editors= at position 60 (help)
  6. ↑ Hetland, Gabriel (2016-08-17). "Why Is Venezuela in Crisis?". Archived from the original on 2018-01-13. Retrieved 2020-01-12.
  7. ↑ Dobson, Paul (2018-02-03). "Venezuelan Constituent Assembly Approves Workers' Councils Law". Archived from the original on 2018-02-03.
  8. ↑ Buxton, Julia (2013). Venezuela: the political evolution of Bolivarianism. Zed Books Ltd. p. 69. ISBN 978 1 84813 764 6. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |editors= ignored (|editor= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |pageurl= ignored (help)
  9. ↑ Sitrin, Marina; Azzellini, Dario (2014). "seven". They Can't Represent Us!: Reinventing Democracy From Greece To Occupy. Verso Books. p. 255. ISBN 978-1-78168-237-1. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |pageurl= ignored (help)
  10. ↑ Mallett-Outtrim, Ryan (2017-07-19). "75% of Venezuelans Support Socialism: Poll". Archived from the original on 2019-11-12.
  11. ↑ Boothroyd-Rojas, Rachael (2017-04-13). "Support for Chavismo Climbs in Venezuela". Archived from the original on 2019-09-05.
  12. ↑ MacLeod, Alan (2019-01-25). "'Resistance' Media Side With Trump to Promote Coup in Venezuela". Archived from the original on 2019-12-31.
  13. ↑ Curcio, Pascualina (2019-01-25). "Venezuela: Is President Maduro "illegitimate"? 10 facts to counter the lies". Archived from the original on 2019-01-26.
  14. ↑ Romano, Andrea (2019-05-17). "The U.S. Has Banned All Flights to Venezuela Due to Civil Unrest".
  15. ↑ Footage Contradicts U.S. Claim That Nicolás Maduro Burned Aid Convoy. The New York Times.
  16. ↑ Elliott Abrams, Trump’s Pick to Bring “Democracy” to Venezuela, Has Spent His Life Crushing Democracy. The Intercept.
  17. ↑ "(VIDEO) Aragua: Trabajadores asumieron riendas de la empresa Alimentos Kellogg's". 2018-05-15. Archived from the original on 2019-04-19.
  18. ↑ 18.0 18.1 "Empire Files: Venezuela Economy Minister—Sabotage, Not Socialism, is the Problem". 2017-06-17.
  19. ↑ Vaz, Ricardo (2018-08-22). "Interview with Angel Prado (Part II): "The commune holds the solution to the crisis"". Archived from the original on 2018-08-22.
  20. ↑ Dobson, Paul (2018-03-19). "Venezuela to Expand Small-Scale Urban Agriculture". Archived from the original on 2019-09-03.
  21. ↑ "The State of the Campesino Struggle in Venezuela". 2018-05-28. Archived from the original on 2019-09-02.
  22. ↑ Dutka, Z.C. (2015-08-19). "Attacks on Venezuelan Commune and Farmland Reported, Crops Destroyed". Retrieved 2020-02-10.
  23. ↑ "Is Venezuelan Socialism A Disaster?". 2017-04-09. Retrieved 2020-01-12.
  24. ↑ Mahjar-Barducci, Anna (2011-06-03). "U.S. Sanctions Against Venezuela". Archived from the original on 2012-06-12.
  25. ↑ Buxton, Julia (2013). Venezuela: the political evolution of Bolivarianism. Zed Books Ltd. p. 82. ISBN 978 1 84813 764 6. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |editors= ignored (|editor= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |pageurl= ignored (help)
  26. ↑ Singh, Ajit (2019-06-12). "How Venezuela's US-backed opposition distorts 'human rights' to push regime change". Archived from the original on 2019-06-16.
  27. ↑ Vaz, Ricardo (2019-04-26). "Report: US Sanctions Have Cost 40,000 Venezuelan Lives". Archived from the original on 2019-09-02.
  28. ↑ Fischer-Hoffman, Cory (2015-01-14). "Venezuelan Officials Seize Warehouse with Enormous Cache of Hoarded Items as Opposition Calls for Strike". Archived from the original on 2019-10-02.
  29. ↑ "Smuggled Crisis: Who's crashing Venezuela's economy?". 2017-12-24.
  30. ↑ "Investigating Venezuela's 'humanitarian crisis': Max Blumenthal tours a supermarket in Caracas". 2019-02-21.
  31. ↑ Fox, Mike (2019-06-07). "Venezuelan Families Build Solidarity Amid Crisis". Archived from the original on 2019-06-08.
  32. ↑ Salas, Luis. "One Year After the Dollarisation of the Petro: What Happened and What's Next?". Retrieved 2020-01-17.
  33. ↑ Vaz, Ricardo (2019-12-11). "Venezuela Oil Production Continues Slow Recovery". Retrieved 2020-01-17.
  34. ↑ Vaz, Ricardo (2020-01-15). "Venezuela: Oil Output Stabilizes as Government Eyes Foreign Investment". Retrieved 2020-01-17.
  35. ↑ Rondon, Jesus (2019-12-12). "Looming Privatisation". Retrieved 2020-01-17.
  36. ↑ "Maduro Hands Six Months of Tax Privileges to Importing Businesses". 2020-01-14. Retrieved 2020-01-17.
Retrieved from "https://wiki.leftypol.org/index.php?title=Venezuela&oldid=18796"