Unconventional Warfare: The Political Destabilization Campaign continues in Venezuela

[Judi Lynn]

Unconventional Warfare: The Political Destabilization Campaign continues in Venezuela
By Asad Ismi
Global Research, June 30, 2014
Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives 1 June 2014

Since February, continuing protests, many of them violent, against the socialist government of President Nicolás Maduro have claimed more than 40 lives in Venezuela and injured more than 800 people. Most were victims of opposition supporters who have also set fire to universities, public buildings and bus stations – even the buses themselves have been burned. The scale of the protests has decreased since the start of April when the government and opposition leaders held talks to end the conflict. Much of the unrest had until then taken place in richer neighbourhoods, led by students attending private schools. But recently demonstrations have been restricted to opposition strongholds, such as Táchira state on the Colombian border. The protestors cite high inflation, and shortages of food and other goods as the source of their frustration. The latter is almost certainly the result of hording by opposition-owned and controlled distribution chains.


The demonstrations have been carried out by right wing political parties opposed to the Maduro government’s progressive program. Backing these parties, and several of the NGOs organizing protests, is the United States, which has been trying to overthrow the Venezuelan government since 2002 – the year former President Hugo Chavez, now deceased, was briefly removed in a CIA-orchestrated military coup. Since 1998, Chavez’s Bolivarian Revolution has significantly redistributed wealth from the rich to the poor majority in Venezuela, bringing them free medical care and education, as well as subsidized food and housing, land reform and grassroots participatory democracy in the form of communal councils.

On the continental level, Chavez was the most prominent leader of the Latin American Revolution, or Pink Tide, which integrated and united left-leaning countries economically and politically, and substantially weakened U.S. influence in the region. For example, the former Venezuelan leader helped create several new Pan-American political, economic and development agencies, including the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC), the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR), the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our Americas (ALBA), Bank of the South (Banco del sur), Telesur (Television network of the South) and PetroSur, a co-operative energy venture between several Latin American states. The idea behind all of these is to develop an entirely new socialist-oriented continental economy, one that does not function according to capitalist market rules but rather responds to the development needs of the Latin American people.

Such revolutionary domestic and regional policies have incurred the wrath of Washington and the Venezuelan elite, which has lost 18 out of 19 elections since the very popular Chavez first took office. The Venezuelan electoral process under Chavez and Maduro has been called “the best in the world” by ex-U.S. President Jimmy Carter after observing the 2013 presidential elections. Chavez’s death that year transferred his popularity to Maduro, his chosen successor, who continues to win elections, compelling the opposition to resort once again to widespread violence to try to overthrow the government. At stake for the U.S. is control of Venezuela’s enormous mineral wealth. The country is estimated to have the world’s largest oil reserves.

President Maduro calls the protests “the revolt of the rich.” Asked by a Guardian U.K. reporter in April whether his government should accept responsibility for some of the killings, he proposed that 95 per cent of protest-related deaths were the fault of “right wing extremist groups” at the barricades. Maduro mentioned three motorcyclists who were beheaded by a wire strung across the road by protesters. In the same exclusive Guardian interview, Maduro, a former bus driver and unionist, emphasized the considerable increases in social services and reduction in inequality over the last 15 years.

“When I was a union leader there wasn’t a single programme to protect the education, health, housing and salaries of the workers,” he said. “It was the reign of savage capitalism. Today in Venezuela, the working class is in power: it’s the country where the rich protest and the poor celebrate their social well-being.”

More:
http://www.globalresearch.ca/unconventional-warfare-the-political-destabilization-campaign-continues-in-venezuela/5389127

[kg4jxt]

1. although Chavez made some improvements . . .

Venezuela was and remains a society of haves and have-nots and even a decade of active social programs has not leveled the field. The initial steps were easiest in some ways - more obvious I suppose. However Socialism is weak in the area of making economies function efficiently, I think - the State can operate major industries, but it is hard to micro-manage retail sales and commercial distribution. And these latter are some of the last major holdouts of the wealthy in Venezuela. The course of severe inflation that has run in Venezuela this decade can be considered yet another tool of the government against the wealthy: rendering their local-currency-savings valueless. But they have been able to resist by transferring wealth into dollars and getting capital out of the country. Still, when they cannot function in the traditional way (capitalistically) the government blames them instead of itself. That is often incorrect. Shortages arise for real economic causes created by the government (willfully or accidentally?)

It is interesting to see how the Venezuela experiment is playing out. Elevating the poor is a heavy lift! I hope we can learn from it because the USA has a rapidly increasing mass of poor that want lifting some day.

[Oele]

2. Again?

This is a repost of http://www.democraticunderground.com/110831071

Carter did NOT call the Venezuelan electoral proces “the best in the world” after the 2013 elections.

Shortages are "almost certainly the result of hording by opposition-owned and controlled distribution chains" ?? Mercal and PDVAL have empty shelves too.

"Chavez’s death that year transferred his popularity to Maduro" ... ?? right.

[Marksman_91]

3. It's obvious Judy is merely functioning as a parrot repeating the same BS that propaganda sites show

The fact that she doesn't speak Spanish and doesn't bother using a multitude of other news sources outside of the typical propagandists and conspiracy nut sites only shows how blatantly ignorant she is on the issue.

[Al Carroll]

4. The source is unreliable, but still manages to get it right

Global Research are conspiracy theorists, esp 9-11 truthers.

But the US trying to overthrow the Bolivarians, both Chavez and Maduro, is a matter of public record.

So are the great successes of the Bolivarians in reducing poverty, along with their failures to do much about crime or shortages.

[Marksman_91]

5. Right, successes that, thanks to Maduro's administration, are going to hell

Or have you not being paying attention to the runaway inflation rate? Some weeks ago there was a study conducted which concluded that poverty has actually risen in the last year. The US doesn't need to do jack shit to get of the current regime, Maduro and his incompetence are doing that just fine. Of course, you'd know this if you'd have been paying attention to what is actually going on in Venezuela, especially in the last few weeks regarding the fracturing that's happening now within the PSUV. Maduro is hated by a lot of people in his own party, especially those in the military. If anyone's gonna take him out, it'll be someone from the PSUV.