Venezuela right-wing opposition wins control of National Assembly by a landslide

Actually I'm not that thrilled about Maduro personally.

Never have been.

What you don't seem to get is that this isn't about Maduro and it's not really about elections. 

Or that elections simply can't lead to anything getting better.  

It's about the wealthy wanting the old order back, and the wealthy have created much of the crisis(and virtually all of the shortages that caused) that led to the popular support (now largely vanished, judging by the last regional election results) for the recall, by a mass campaign to hoard goods and deliberate create shortages.

And I don't want Maduro to be president-for-life, but actually nothing any of the anti-PSUV parties have proposed would be an improvement.  The parties trying to bring the PSUV down don't have any concern for the needs or wishes of the people-conservative parties never do.  They simply want to exempt corporations from taxes, privatize both the oil and every other part of the economy, cut social benefits down to nothing again and restore the wealthy to the arrogant dominance of the past.

Nothing they propose will put food in the stores, unless its too expensive for anyone but the wealthy to buy(and there's no difference between a grocery being low on food and a grocery being full of food no one is able to buy), nothing they propose will bring economic gain to the people-the people took no benefit from high oil prices when the oil was privately owned and therefore no benefits from it even reachd them-and it would be a tragedy to get rid of or even partially disempower the community councils because they were the only forms of democracy that included the non-wealthy.

It's not that Maduro's all that great, it's just that getting him out isn't going to lead to anything better for anyone but the 10% of Venezuela's population that is white and wealthy-the ones who are basically gringos and should just admit it and move to Miami.

Mr. Magoo wrote:

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It's about the wealthy wanting the old order back, and the wealthy have created much of the crisis(and virtually all of the shortages that caused)

I disagree.  I think the shortages were caused by:

1.  Venezuela choosing a production model in which they import nearly everything except oil.

2.  Venezuela allowing its oil exports to flounder due to mismanagement.

3.  Venezuela having few other options to obtain hard currency for those imports.

How could either the Venezualan wealthy, or the United States (or the NDP shadow critic for Foreign Affairs) MAKE Venezuela dependent on imports of pretty much everything but gunky oil??  SRSLY.  How was this car wreck the fault of anyone other than whoever held the steering wheel?

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It's not that Maduro's all that great, it's just that getting him out isn't going to lead to anything better for anyone but the 10% of Venezuela's population that is white and wealthy-the ones who are basically gringos and should just admit it and move to Miami.

Then neither the recall referendum (and yes, that ship has sailed) nor free and fair elections should be any kind of concern for Maduro or his party or his supreme court.  Any mathematician anywhere will tell you that 90% > 10%.  Always has been.

 

 

 

 

1.  It's not as though Venezuela stopped making goods for its domestic markets under Chavez and switched to depending on imports.  Pretty sure the country had always been import-dependent.  If it had been making its own goods before Chavez, there was little the Bolivarians could have done to singlehandedly stop that-they couldn't have caused a country that made its own goods to STOP making them, for God's sakes.  

2.  Not sure Venezuela's oil industry was ever managed well-when it was privately-owned, it was managed solely for the good of the owners of the oil companies.  There's no evidence that privatizing it would lead to any forms of management that benefited the people.  Increased profits would be useless if most of the profits were pocketed by foreign corporations.  What part of "trickle-down has never worked" did you miss in the last thirty-six years?  

It could improve management to put the industry under full worker management, but I doubt that's what you want.

3) I seriously doubt that the Bolivarians actually REFUSED to diversify the economy.  There had to be other factors causing lack of diversification.  For that matter, if the economy wasn't diversified under the PSUV then logically it wasn't diversified BEFORE Chavez came to power.  There's no such thing as de-diversification.

Basically, the implicit argument you're making is a complaint about Venezuela under the PSUV not stripping the country of its dignity by offering things like low corporate taxes and not making it easy for foreign corporations-entities whose interests are always going to be against the greater good of any country in which they operate-to dominate the economy.

Besides which, it's the people who ran Venezuela before Chavez that the U.S. and Justin want back in power, so why assume they'd diversify when they never did in the past?  

Peru: Venezuela Not Welcome At Americas Summit

https://venezuelanalysis.com/News/13660

"Peru's announcement comes as the US ramps up its rhetoric against Venezuela, with Secretary of State Rex Tillerson [T-REXXON!] recently concluding an unprecedented tour of Latin American countries to assess the possibility of a regional oil embargo on the country.

Just days prior to the beginning of the tour on Feb 1, Tillerson told press that the Venezuelan army could act to remove the Venezuelan government, while Maduro could be exiled to Cuba. 'In the history of Venezuela and South American countries, it is often times that the military is the agent of change when things are so bad, and the leadership can no longer serve the people,' the former ExxonMobil CEO told an audience at the University of Texas-Austin..."

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I'm with Magoo, if the Venezuelans don't want their countries oiligarchy to rule them they are just being progressive NIMBY's.

If Venezuelans are given a genuine choice and they make that choice then I certainly wouldn't call it NIMBYism.  I'm not telling them who to vote for; I just think they should have (had) the opportunity to vote, freely and fairly.

Honestly, I'd even overlook the government using state media for electioneering, and overlook polling stations painted with government symbols again, if that's all the trickery there is. 

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And guess what...it turns out the PSUV had been TRYING to diversify the economy all along

In Chavez' heyday, the opposition had to get up before they went to bed, and work a 25 hour day, just to attain the status of "symbolic".  The country was still bathing in oil money, and Chavez could have ordered every citizen to get a mohawk, if he wanted to.

So what happened to this diversification?

Oligarchs, right?  Usurping the powers of the government?  Or Americans!   But certainly not the usual mismanagement and corruption that the traitors talk about.  

What ever happened to that grand plan to yank workers out of their offices and put them to work on The People's Farms?  How's that workin' out?  Remember that?

Ken Burch wrote:

Why should Chavez have been able to diversify when the pre-Chavez governments were never able to do so?  Isn't it possible that diversification simply isn't possible in Venezuela if nobody has managed it yet?​

There are countries with few natural resources. Diversification is always possible. Chavez and Maduro are better than right wingers but that isn't saying much.

https://venezuelanalysis.com/News/13643

Merida, February 6, 2018 (venezuelanalysis.com). Venezuelan workers' organizations have denounced illegal arrests, firings, and persecution in the Lacteos Los Andes state-run dairy company and private Venevision TV station this week, while campesino leaders in Barinas state were freed and authorized to return to their land following persecution by an ex-land owner.

Trade union leaders of the Lacteos Los Andes “Hugo Chavez” plant in Cabudare, Lara state, were arrested this past Thursday following peaceful protests by its workforce aimed at drawing attention to what they decried as inefficient and unproductive policies on the part of the current management.

Protesters denounced that the plant, which produces a range of dairy and fruit products, is operating at around only 20% capacity. It was nationalised by President Hugo Chavez in 2008.

Workers explained that this low productive turnout is also due to its “lack of raw materials”. Workers explained that of the 45,000 tonnes which this firm once produced, output has dropped to 5,000 tonnes, a situation which contributes to shortages in basic foodstuffs across Venezuela. Workers also denounced that they suffered from “an expired collective contract,”which they say was voided 20 months ago.

Workers at the picket lines of the protest drew attention to the fact that private firms in the same industry, such as Polar, El Tunal, and Procter & Gamble enjoy preferential access to state dollars for raw material imports, whilst state-run productive units such as the Cabudare plant, struggled to find enough raw materials for thier production. Workers linked what they described as a lack of commitment from the authorities to fears of a possible re-privatization of the plant, which would put thier jobs in jeopardy.

Yes, Ireland "diversified"-and that resulted in debt created by, essentially, government tax giveways to the corporations which ended up producing massive, crippling austerity, cuts in social benefits that have essentially left Ireland with virtually no remaining social services and put them through years of mass unemployment.

How would replicating the Irish model have led to anything good for the people of Venezuela?  There's no way any of it would have been compatible with the social values of Bolivarianism or with Venezuela retaining any common humanity.  There are a lot of issues with Chavez and Maduro as people, but there was simply nothing that was going to be improved by a snap election that would have been rigged by U.S. pressure to put something like a Venezuelan version of the right-wing UNO coalition that stole Nicaragua for the rich in 1990.   It wouldn't have been an election where there'd have been parties fighting for the workers and the poor, parties working for an improved form of socialism.  And like Bush in 1990, Obama wouldn't have allowed any result but a right-wing victory.

So don't be naive.

Canada vs Venezuela: Have the Koch Brothers Captured Canada's Left?   -   by Joyce Nelson

https://www.counterpunch.org/2018/02/16/canada-vs-venezuela-have-the-koc...

"...So when Chrystia Freeland acts to target Venezuela because 'This is our hemisphere', she is acting in concert with the Koch brothers' (and oil patch) desires - of course, without ever mentioning the tar sands. Is this the reason why the NDP's foreign affairs critic Helen Laverdiere has also been so reactionary towards the Venezuelan government? It's hard to know, but these days politically (and wherever you look) it's usually always about the oil..."

Venezuela Decides To Hold Presidential Elections, The Opposition Chooses To Boycott Democracy

https://www.counterpunch.org/2018/02/19/venezuela-decides-to-hold-presid...

"...To the question of what will happen to the opposition, Maduro said, 'Now the opposition does not know what to do because it depends on its foreign masters.' More explicitly he stated, 'Only Washington knows. That's the truth."

Venezuelan Charge D'Affairs: 'Opposition Don't Really Know What To Do.'

https://venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/13663

"Well, it's very telling that there is an option under consideration that has to do with regime change, when you basically do an open invitation for anybody in the Venezuelan military to take over the government..."

Perhaps an American Secretary of State threatening regime-change?

The Venezuelan people could take down Maduro anytime they wished to. But not the ones that you and Washington wish to...

Venezuela: Revenge of the Mad-Dog Empire

https://dissidentvoice.org/2018/02/venezuela-revenge-of-the-mad-dog-empire/

"The courageous struggle of the Venezuelan people to defend their national sovereignty and dignity in the face of the murderous intentions of their North American neighbors and the racist obsequious Venezuelan oligarchy deserves the support of all true anti-imperialists...especially when a nation is in the crosshairs of the greatest gangster nation on the planet."

US Efforts To Sabotage Venezuelan Election Intensify (and vid)

https://twitter.com/rosendo_joe/status/969461962290745345

TRNN: UN Rapporteur: US Sanctions Cause Deaths in Venezuela (and vid)

http://therealnews.com/t2/story:21343:UN-Rapporteur%3A-US-Sanctions-Caus...

"Over 150 intellectuals and activists signed an open letter urging the US and Canada to stop their economic sanctions in Venezuela, which are making the country's economic problems worse. Special UN Rapporteur Alfred de Zayas is a signer and visited Venezuela late last year."

'I can say that the sanctions against Venezuela entail a crime against humanity which could be brought before the International Criminal Court as a violation of Article 7 of the Statute of Rome.'

 Canada participates in heinous criminal actions and the trashing of international law in furtherance of a US regime change agenda and regrettably once again, as with Libya, Ukraine and Syria, some  so-called progressives support it.

 The words are accurate and as stated in the interview by the UN Special Rapporteur himself, not ( 'the realnews letting their fertile imaginations take the wheel'). Perhaps you should actually listen to the interview. You might learn something. Clearly you need to.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred-Maurice_de_Zayas

Does international law require me to do business with all countries? Am I committing a crime against humanity by boycotting Saudi and Israeli goods, for example?

And if it's a crime for the US not to do business with (a few) Venezuelans, is Venezuela similarly obligated to do business with Donald Trump? Who knew the International Criminal Court was an even-more-aggressive version of the WTO?

The UN also urges the Venezuelan government to smarten up.  Do you also applaud them when they say that?

Same people.  Same Venezuela.

Ottawa is Trying To Interfere in Venezuela's Election

http://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/yves-englers-blog/2018/04/ottawa-trying-...

"The Trudeau government is engaged in a wide-ranging campaign to weaken Venezuela's elected government. Last week the UN HRC passed a resolution condemning the economic sanctions the US, Canada and EU have adopted against Venezuela. When Russia has been accused of a much more mild form of intervention every party in Parliament is quick to condemn them. Is there no party in Parliament willing to denounce Canadian interference in another country's electoral process?"

Communes and Workers’ Control in Venezuela – interview with Dario Azzellini

To discuss the Venezuelan communes and the new forms of participation, as well as its successes, difficulties and contradictions, we have interviewed Dario Azzellini*. He has investigated and documented theses issues throughout the Bolivarian Revolution. His book Communes and Workers’ Control in Venezuela has recently been released in paperback by Haymarket Books.

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Let us make a little detour. Whenever Venezuela is discussed in the media, or even within leftist circles, the focus is never on these struggles, or the new models of participation that we will get to, but always on the supposed shortcomings from the perspective of “liberal democracy”. But in the book you argue that this is not the proper, or the more relevant, “yardstick”. Why is that?

The Bolivarian Revolution is a result of the failure of liberal democracy. This is not specific to Venezuela, liberal democracy has been a failure everywhere. We have seen in the recent past millions of people out on the streets because they think that liberal democracy is not democratic. All the new movements, progressive or leftist, that we have seen emerging, are a result of the non-democratic nature and the failures of liberal democracy. And the same is true for the right-wing populist movements we see in Europe, or in the US with Trump.

Even the term “liberal democracy” is a contradiction in itself, because we should remember that liberalism and democracy were two opposites. They had been fighting each other for hundreds of years. Liberal democracy came to be when the liberals managed to exclude from the democratic process the economic and social spheres, thus reducing participation to the political sphere through the act of voting for representation. Therefore liberal democracy has in fact very little to do with democracy.

The starting point for Venezuela and most of the movements in Latin America is the failure of liberal democracy, the failure of allowing for social advances, the failure of improving people’s lives, the failure of being democratic, the failure of making people feel that they have a say. If this is the starting point, we cannot be criticising or measuring what is happening with liberal democracy as the yardstick. Liberal democracy is what has to be overcome.

Who is Afraid of Venezuelan Democracy

https://www.counterpunch.org/2018/05/07/who-is-afraid-of-venezuelan-demo...

"It, of course, is all about the largest deposit of oil reserves in the world that lie in Venezuela and which is coveted by all and sundry..."

Can you buy corn flour and sugar with it, though?  Or only Mystical Swords of Power?

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Fearing a Maduro victory, the US - which on May 7 announced a new round of sanctions on Venezuela - and the EU are threatening to not recognise the results.

I won't be shocked if Maduro wins.  Some part of that I'll likely attribute to the government ensuring that some candidates are ineligible to run.  And, to be fair, some part of that I'll attribute to some eligible candidates choosing to "sit it out" in protest.  But given the margins, how could he not win with both of those happening at the same time?

That said, are the actors in Venezuela perhaps following the lead of the Koreas, a little?  Doing the unthinkable, and shaking hands?  I'd be 100% ok with that.  If they can put their disagreement in second place, behind the welfare of the people, then there's hope.