Venezuela

2021-01-03T21:16:51Z

CCPSHILL11:

The '''Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela''' (abbreviated '''BRV''') is an ideologically socialist<ref>{{safesubst:cite web|title=Leftist Debunks John Oliver’s Venezuela Episode|url=https://invidious.snopyta.org/embed/_fV-C1Ag5sI|date=2018-06-07}}</ref> republic in South America that has existed since the late 1990s.<ref>{{safesubst:cite web|last=Shupak|first=Gregory|title=US Media Erase Years of Chavismo’s Gains|url=https://fair.org/?p=8930901|date=2019-02-20|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20190221085402/https://fair.org/home/us-media-erase-years-of-chavismos-gains|archivedate=2019-02-21|accessdate=2020-01-22}}</ref> On May 2019, the White House prohibited all flights to the BRV indefinitely.<ref>{{safesubst:cite web|last=Romano|first=Andrea|title=The U.S. Has Banned All Flights to Venezuela Due to Civil Unrest|url=https://www.travelandleisure.com/travel-news/us-bans-all-flights-to-venezuela|date=2019-05-17}}</ref>

==History==
{{see also|American intervention in Venezuela}}

Hugo Chávez and other leftists attempted to an overthrow in the [[Republic of Venezuela]] in 1992, but it was unsuccessful. Chávez nevertheless became President in 1998.

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.<ref>{{safesubst:cite web|last1=Immel|first1=David|last2=Marshall|first2=Licia|last3=Frazier|first3=Scott|last4=Trejo|first4=Effren|last5=Grant|first5=Sherry|last6=Sisco|first6=Josh|editors=Carol Tremmel M.A., Robert Manning, Andrew Botterell Ph.D.,
Tamara Falicov M.A., Sally Hurtado Ph.D., Elizabeth Martinez Ph.D.|title=Bush Administration Behind Failed Military Coup in Venezuela|url=https://www.projectcensored.org/?p=4148|year=2003|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20161107051121/http://projectcensored.org/12-bush-administration-behind-failed-military-coup-in-venezuela|archivedate=2016-11-07}}</ref>

==Politics==
Although some have argued that the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela is a ''de facto'' [[social democracy]],<ref>{{safesubst:cite web|last=Hetland|first=Gabriel|title=Why Is Venezuela in Crisis?|url=https://www.thenation.com/?p=221853|date=2016-08-17|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20180113063307/https://www.thenation.com/article/why-is-venezuela-in-crisis|archivedate=2018-01-13|accessdate=2020-01-12}}</ref> others have argued that the administration is not merely looking to dull the side-effects of capitalism but actually let the proletariat empower itself.<ref>{{safesubst:cite web|last=Dobson|first=Paul|title=Venezuelan Constituent Assembly Approves Workers' Councils Law|url=https://venezuelanalysis.com/No3p|date=2018-02-03|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20180203235351/https://venezuelanalysis.com/News/13638|archivedate=2018-02-03}}</ref> <ref>{{safesubst:cite book|last=Buxton|first=Julia|editors=Doctor Steve Ludlam, Doctor Geraldine Lievesley|title=Venezuela: the political evolution of Bolivarianism|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3IVjDgAAQBAJ|publisher=Zed Books Ltd.|year=2013|page=69|pageurl=https://books.google.com/books?id=3IVjDgAAQBAJ&pg=PT69|ISBN=978 1 84813 764 6}}</ref> <ref>{{safesubst:cite book|last1=Sitrin|first1=Marina|last2=Azzellini|first2=Dario|coauthors=David Harvey|chapter=seven|title=They Can't Represent Us!: Reinventing Democracy From Greece To Occupy|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=w8ZNBAAAQBAJ|publisher=Verso Books|year=2014|page=255|pageurl=https://books.google.com/books?id=w8ZNBAAAQBAJ&pg=PT255|ISBN=978-1-78168-237-1}}</ref>

A poll from 2017 indicated that 75% of Venezuelans support [[socialism]].<ref>{{safesubst:cite web|last=Mallett-Outtrim|first=Ryan|title=75% of Venezuelans Support Socialism: Poll|url=https://venezuelanalysis.com/Nooj|date=2017-07-19|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20191112082844/https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/13251|archivedate=2019-11-12}}</ref> Support for PSUV itself increased in 2017 from 27% to 35%, perhaps a humble number but also the highest one among the electoral options.<ref>{{safesubst:cite web|last=Boothroyd-Rojas|first=Rachael|title=Support for Chavismo Climbs in Venezuela|url=https://venezuelanalysis.com/Nozh|date=2017-04-13|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20190905073139/https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/13053|archivedate=2019-09-05}}
</ref> 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.<ref>{{safesubst:cite web|last=MacLeod|first=Alan|title=‘Resistance’ Media Side With Trump to Promote Coup in Venezuela|url=https://fair.org/?p=8930487|date=2019-01-25|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20191231162109/https://fair.org/home/resistance-media-side-with-trump-to-promote-coup-in-venezuela|archivedate=2019-12-31}}</ref> The slight deficiency of candidates was because the antisocialist opposition deliberately boycotted the process.<ref>{{safesubst:cite web|last=Curcio|first=Pascualina|title=Venezuela: Is President Maduro “illegitimate”? 10 facts to counter the lies|url=https://www.greenleft.org.au/node/66997|date=2019-01-25|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20190126040603/https://www.greenleft.org.au/content/venezuela-president-maduro-illegitimate-10-facts-counter-lies|archivedate=2019-01-26}}</ref>

==Economy==
The Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela is a [[market]] economy with a significantly regulated private sector, but in some rare cases the proletariat seized the means of production.<ref>{{safesubst:cite web|last=|first=|title=(VIDEO) Aragua: Trabajadores asumieron riendas de la empresa Alimentos Kellogg's|url=https://www.aporrea.org/endogeno/n325150.html|date=2018-05-15|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20190419171130/https://www.aporrea.org/endogeno/n325150.html|archivedate=2019-04-19}}</ref> 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.<ref name=Menéndez>{{safesubst:cite web|title=Empire Files: Venezuela Economy Minister—Sabotage, Not Socialism, is the Problem|url=https://invidious.snopyta.org/embed/rk1qlKu_RJo|date=2017-06-17 }}</ref> Nevertheless, agricultural communes hold an important position in the economy,<ref>{{safesubst:cite web|last=Vaz|first=Ricardo|title=Interview with Angel Prado (Part II): “The commune holds the solution to the crisis”|url=https://venezuelanalysis.com/NJxr|date=2018-08-22|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20180822230330/https://venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/14016|archivedate=2018-08-22}}</ref> with Venezuelan communes expanding small-scale urban agriculture,<ref>{{safesubst:cite web|last=Dobson|first=Paul|title=Venezuela to Expand Small-Scale Urban Agriculture|url=https://venezuelanalysis.com/NoJS|date=2018-03-19|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20190903154901/https://venezuelanalysis.com/News/13727|archivedate=2019-09-03}}</ref> and 70% of the food consumed in Venezuelan houses today is a product of small-scale family agriculture.<ref>{{safesubst:cite web|last=|first=|title=The State of the Campesino Struggle in Venezuela|url=https://venezuelanalysis.com/NJ5u|date=2018-05-28|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20190902160849/https://venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/13839|archivedate=2019-09-02}}</ref> Sometimes anti-communists physically attack these communes and their members however.<ref>{{safesubst:cite web|last=Dutka|first=Z.C.|title=Attacks on Venezuelan Commune and Farmland Reported, Crops Destroyed|url=https://venezuelanalysis.com/N3QX|date=2015-08-19|accessdate=2020-02-10}}</ref>

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.<ref name=Menéndez/>

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.<ref>{{safesubst:cite web|title=Is Venezuelan Socialism A Disaster?|url=https://wp.me/p8zBok-Ik|date=2017-04-09|accessdate=2020-01-12}}</ref>
===Impact of Sanctions===
Since at least the early 2010s,<ref>{{safesubst:cite web|last=Mahjar-Barducci|first=Anna|title=U.S. Sanctions Against Venezuela|url=https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/2170|date=2011-06-03|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20120612091957/http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/2170/us-sanctions-against-venezuela|archivedate=2012-06-12}}</ref> <ref>{{safesubst:cite book|last=Buxton|first=Julia|editors=Doctor Steve Ludlam, Doctor Geraldine Lievesley|title=Venezuela: the political evolution of Bolivarianism|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3IVjDgAAQBAJ|publisher=Zed Books Ltd.|year=2013|page=82|pageurl=https://books.google.com/books?id=3IVjDgAAQBAJ&pg=PT82|ISBN=978 1 84813 764 6}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{safesubst:cite web|last=Singh|first=Ajit|title=How Venezuela’s US-backed opposition distorts ‘human rights’ to push regime change|url=https://wp.me/p9MxL0-2Jt|date=2019-06-12|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20190616141428/https://thegrayzone.com/2019/06/12/venezuela-opposition-human-rights-regime-change|archivedate=2019-06-16}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{safesubst:cite web|last=Vaz|first=Ricardo|title=Report: US Sanctions Have Cost 40,000 Venezuelan Lives|url=https://venezuelanalysis.com/YUfP|date=2019-04-26|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20190902233243/https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/14446|archivedate=2019-09-02}}</ref>

The BRV legislated price controls in order to make food more accessible to the poor, but many shopowners retaliated by hiding their goods<ref>{{safesubst:cite web|last=Fischer-Hoffman|first=Cory|title=Venezuelan Officials Seize Warehouse with Enormous Cache of Hoarded Items as Opposition Calls for Strike|url=https://venezuelanalysis.com/N4yL|date=2015-01-14|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20191002082615/https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/11158|archivedate=2019-10-02}}</ref> to vend them in the black market for higher prices.<ref>{{safesubst:cite web|title=Smuggled Crisis: Who’s crashing Venezuela’s economy?|url=https://invidious.snopyta.org/embed/YqHzDLSl8U4|date=2017-12-24}}</ref> Speculation is a serious problem in the economy, causing hyperinflation and making many commodities more difficult for the poor to access.<ref>{{safesubst:cite web|title=Investigating Venezuela’s ‘humanitarian crisis’: Max Blumenthal tours a supermarket in Caracas|url=https://invidious.snopyta.org/embed/mbXqGiNlWWw|date=2019-02-21}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{safesubst:cite web|last=Fox|first=Mike|title=Venezuelan Families Build Solidarity Amid Crisis|url=https://therealnews.com/?p=183704|date=2019-06-07|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20190608182616/https://therealnews.com/stories/venezuelan-families-build-solidarity-amid-crisis|archivedate=2019-06-08}}</ref>
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.<ref>{{safesubst:cite web|last=Salas|first=Luis|title=One Year After the Dollarisation of the Petro: What Happened and What’s Next?|url=https://venezuelanalysis.com/YUj5|accessdate=2020-01-17}}</ref> Since late 2019, oil prices have steadily been restabilizing,<ref>{{safesubst:cite web|last=Vaz|first=Ricardo|title=Venezuela Oil Production Continues Slow Recovery|url=https://venezuelanalysis.com/YUKN|date=2019-12-11|accessdate=2020-01-17}}</ref> <ref>{{safesubst:cite web|last=Vaz|first=Ricardo|title=Venezuela: Oil Output Stabilizes as Government Eyes Foreign Investment|url=https://venezuelanalysis.com/YU9P|date=2020-01-15|accessdate=2020-01-17}}</ref> but the BRV had also returned some enterprises to the private sector in 2019.<ref>{{safesubst:cite web|last=Rondon|first=Jesus|title=Looming Privatisation|url=https://venezuelanalysis.com/YUjR|date=2019-12-12|accessdate=2020-01-17}}</ref> Similarly, in December 2019 the Presidency granted six months of tax privileges to importing businesses, subsequently angering some Latin leftists.<ref>{{safesubst:cite web|last=|first=|title=Maduro Hands Six Months of Tax Privileges to Importing Businesses|url=https://venezuelanalysis.com/YU9M|date=2020-01-14|accessdate=2020-01-17}}</ref>

==Further reading==
* https://docs.google.com/document/d/1KT49YmNq-s46V_YYTWSnFvnXLKTjVmYc5IBx0GCAzEo

==References==

Conservapedia - User contributions [en]

Venezuela