Venezuela: Does an increase in poverty signal threat to government?

[Bacchus4.0]

http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Americas/2015/0325/Venezuela-Does-an-increase-in-poverty-signal-threat-to-government
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Amid soaring inflation and shortages of basic goods and medicine, Venezuela is seeing a steady increase in the number of people who struggle to meet their basic needs. Anywhere from about one-third to nearly half of the population now lives in poverty, according to studies released in recent weeks. And greater hardship for Venezuela's working class could mean trouble down the road for its government.

Two years after President Hugo Chávez’s death, his allies are struggling to keep the country together in the face of protests and falling approval ratings. Mr. Chávez fashioned himself a champion of the poor during his 14 years in office, funneling billions of dollars of Venezuela’s oil wealth into social programs. As poverty fell during his rule, loyalty from this long-ignored sector of the population grew. But Chávez’s handpicked successor, President Nicolás Maduro, inherited a stalling economy, made worse by plummeting international oil prices.

Now, public approval for government leadership has fallen from around 60 percent for Chávez in 2013 to only 23 percent for President Maduro as of March. With poverty on the rise, many are starting to question what it could mean for the fate of Chavismo, as the former president's political project is called.

“If the situation gets worse, the government will have to face a population with very few opportunities, including its own political base,” says Dimitris Pantoulas, a Caracas-based political analyst.

[Hydra]

1. I hope they go left instead of right

But it's quite possible that it's back to the Poppy Bush program there soon...

[Bacchus4.0]

2. they need better policies and leaders than the current failure, left or right nt

[Fred Sanders]

3. Since poverty was triple under the military/industrial regime before fair and democratic elections, the answer is:

"This is hilarious stuff".

Pining for a return to days of yore, hoping no one notices the days of yore were a nightmare for the people of Venezuela, is always good for a chuckle.

[Marksman_91]

4. Poverty rates were starting to decrease in the last years of the Caldera presidency

What I don't understand is how you can still keep supporting a regime that is doing absolutely everything wrong, especially now under Maduro, when it comes to economic policies. All the other leftist governments in Lat Am are handling things completely differently compared to the Chavista government, hence why they haven't experienced such a harsh downturn like how it's happening in Venezuela. The PSUV and its leadership have shown to be the most vile, corrupt, incompetent batch of delinquents in the entire continent, and it's showing. Right now the inflation rate is so bad, the central bank of Venezuela has refused to publish the inflation rate numbers from like the last 6 months. They don't want to admit how bad it is, because the government knows it's the cause of it. But like any good ol' autocracy, they shift the blame on everybody but themselves on the problems the country has. I just find it astounding that so many in this forum still can't manage to see that and keep believing all the bullshit propaganda spewed out by sites that are either paid shills of the Venezuelan government (like Eva Golinger, TeleSur, VenezuelaAnalysis, etc) or are run by a bunch of left-wing extremists who lack any journalistic credibility, such as Absence... sorry, Axis of Logic.

[COLGATE4]

5. During the last years of the Caldera presidency the government

had put together a massive restructuring plan which would have reinvigorated the entire electric grid in Venezuela as well as modernizing the generation and distribution facilities. In fact the plan actually started, with a project to provide the first-ever reliable electric service to Margarita island (an important tourist destination and $$$ generator), an area which had only spotty electric service from an old and deteriorating undersea cable from the mainland and some old, ineffective and costly diesel generators. The change was a complete success.

One of Chavez's first actions as President was to annul the contract under which this change took place and service was provided and expropriate all the physical assets.

That is what is known as "progress" under Chavismo.

[Marksman_91]

6. Ah! Don't come in here with your stinking FACTS!

You know very well that Chavistas hate those. They can only accept as truth what they hear from VTV, TeleSur, Absence of Logic, Eva Golinger, RT, etc.

[COLGATE4]

7. Yeah. I forgot. My Bad. nt