Actually, I'd say that the US government has been promoting dissent in
Venezuela all along and is again working to support a coup as it did in
Honduras and now in Brazil.
Miriam
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Roger Loran
Bailey (Redacted sender "rogerbailey81" for DMARC)
Sent: Thursday, May 26, 2016 2:47 PM
To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blind-democracy] Washington uses crisis to push for pro-US govt,
in Venezuela
http://themilitant.com/2016/8021/802150.html
The Militant (logo)
Vol. 80/No. 21 May 30, 2016
(special feature)
Washington uses crisis to push for pro-US govt
in Venezuela
SETH GALINSKY
Growing shortages of basic goods and medicines, a drop in factory
production, out-of-control inflation and severe electrical shortages are
fueling a deepening social and political crisis in Venezuela. Meanwhile
Washington is tightening the screws, hoping to get a government there more
to the liking of U.S. imperialism.
In March President Barack Obama renewed an executive order declaring the
government of President Nicolás Maduro an unusual and extraordinary threat
to the national security and foreign policy of the United States." On April
28 the U.S. Senate approved a three-year extension of sanctions against
Venezuelan officials alleged to have violated human rights."
These measures go against the principles of non-interference in internal
affairs and the sovereign equality of states," the Bolivarian Alliance for
the Peoples of Our America (ALBA) declared May 5. The alliance, initiated by
the governments of Cuba and Venezuela, includes
13 Latin American and Caribbean countries.
The Socialist Workers Party stands in solidarity with the working people of
Venezuela," SWP presidential candidate Alyson Kennedy told the Militant May
18. We demand Washington end its sanctions and oppose any interference
against Venezuelan sovereignty."
The pro-imperialist opposition Democratic Unity Roundtable which won the
majority of seats in Venezuelas legislature in January turned in more
than a million signatures May 2 in favor of a recall of Maduro to the
National Electoral Board. The board has not yet ruled on their validity, and
Vice President Aristóbulo Istúriz said there wont be a recall vote,
accusing the opposition of fraud."
Maduro extended a state of exception and economic emergency" May 13,
charging that opposition groups were promoting hoarding, boycott, usury,
shortages and inflation to destabilize the government. He said the armed
forces would be deployed to guarantee distribution of food and other
necessities. Maduro cited Obamas executive order as an example of
imperialist intervention aiding the opposition.
Henrique Capriles, who lost the last presidential election, on May 17 called
on the armed forces to decide whether you are with the constitution or with
Maduro."
Since 1998, when Hugo Chávez was elected president, the government has said
that it was implementing a Bolivarian Revolution and 21st century socialism.
The U.S. government which was never happy about close ties between Chávez
and the revolutionary government of Cuba nor Chávezs refusal to bow to U.S.
demands backed more than one attempt to overthrow Chávez, including a 2002
coup that was reversed after thousands of working people took to the
streets.
But instead of mobilizing working people to take power out of the hands of
the capitalist class and organizing workers to control conditions on the job
as Cuban revolutionaries did Chávez put forward a course of trying to
manage the capitalist market in favor of the working classes.
Maduro has continued that course.
Cubans aid social programs
Chávez and Maduro used the nations oil profits Venezuela has the largest
oil reserves in the world to subsidize housing, food, health care and
social programs. Many of the social programs have been carried out with the
help of revolutionary Cuba, which has tens of thousands of health-care
workers, teachers and other volunteers who go to some of the most
impoverished and least accessible areas of the country.
The Venezuelan government in return has provided cheap oil to Cuba.
The world capitalist economic crisis has had a devastating affect on
Venezuela. A precipitous drop in the price of oil which accounts for
95 percent of the countrys export earnings was countered by printing
money. Policies aimed at managing the crisis, such as price controls and a
special exchange rate for dollars for companies that import and export,
fueled inflation and shortages of goods, as many capitalists found it more
profitable to speculate on the exchange rates instead of manufacturing.
The countrys oil exports fell 49 percent in 2015, according to the
Inter-American Development Bank. A drought made matters worse, bringing the
water level at the Guri hydroelectric dam, which generates 75 percent of the
countrys electricity, to a record low.
Venezuelas currency, the bolivar, has tumbled in relation to the dollar by
99.1 percent since 2012. Imports of basic foodstuffs, including sugar, flour
and eggs have declined. People have to stand in line for hours hoping to buy
products, often to find empty shelves. The inflation rate is estimated at
720 percent likely the highest in the world up from 180 percent in 2015.
Starting April 26, Maduro placed most government employees, more than 30
percent of the workforce, on a two-day workweek to conserve energy.
Public hospitals are exempt. The government has also initiated rolling
four-hour blackouts throughout the country, and pushed the clocks forward 30
minutes to increase daylight hours.
Brewery shuts its doors
Polar, Venezuelas largest food and beverage conglomerate, announced the
closure of four plants April 29, claiming it could no longer afford to
import barley, eliminating 10,000 jobs.
In response Maduro threatened to nationalize any company that does not
produce. A handful of companies have been nationalized previously, carried
out by the government without participation from workers. At the same time
Maduro said he would ease price controls on some industries to encourage
production and would eliminate middlemen in the sale of some subsidized
products.
According to the Washington Post, in recent weeks there have been incidents
of looting during electrical blackouts. AFP news agency reported May 11 that
hundreds of people broke into a market in Maracay when they were told there
were no subsidized products for sale, carrying off boxes of corn, pasta and
oil. The market was guarded by soldiers, after authorities charged that
products were being hoarded to sell later at higher prices.
You can hear the ice cracking," an unidentified U.S. official told the
Washington Post at a May 13 briefing" for selected journalists.
But the pro-imperialist opposition is itself riven by factional disputes and
Washington has little confidence in the oppositions ability to stabilize
the political situation, much less find a way out of the hole in the midst
of the capitalist economic crisis. And while workers
support for the Maduro government has eroded, the parties that make up the
Roundtable are discredited. Workers know from experience that their talk of
democracy and promises to improve the economy are a cover for defending the
wealthy capitalists.
In an indication of the U.S. governments hopes, Reuters reported after the
official briefing, that one plausible scenario would be that Maduros own
party or powerful political figures would force him out and would not rule
out the possibility of a military coup."
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