Once again the Socialist United Party of Venezuela (PSUV) won the elections in the South American country, in this case regional ones, taking all states but three (Miranda, Lara and Amazonas).
Opposition leader Enrique Capriles retained therefore his title as Governor of Miranda but that is not good news because they lost five states to the Chavistas.
Critically the opposition lost control of the key oil-producing state of Zulia (better known internationally for its capital Maracaibo), the most populated and wealthiest of all Venezuela. They also lost Carabobo, Nueva Esparta, Táchira and Bolívar.
The result, according to Radio La Primerísima[es], is the following:
So while the health of President Chávez may not be the best, the health of his political line seems quite consolidated.
Socialists? Socialists just like Aznar is a socialist. The military in Venezuela are a profoundly reactionary lot...only that now they were red berets and publicly say how much they hate the USA (never mind they keep shopping there)
ReplyDeleteThe current government won primarily because it was distributing Haier washing machines and Haier plasma screens across the country...financed with a Chinese loan that we will have to pay through under-market-price oil for over a decade.
Meanwhile, most school teachers at state schools now have to work with a salary that does not allow them to even rent a cheap flat and without permanent contract. In the private sector you need to offer a definite contract after a short time whereas the so-called "socialist" government we have now keeps employing most teachers on a temporary basis.
Meanwhile, the red barons (red because of their T-shirts) get their friends send bills to the state oil company with incredible overpricing.
Just one example: some of Ramirez's (PDVSA's boss) became intermediary to rent a drilling platform for PDVSA. The market price was around 500 million dollars. They charged PDVSA (and thus, Venezuela) 1 BILLION DOLLARS.
People found out about it because the platform sank in an accident.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aban_Pearl
But there are many many cases like that.
Meanwhile, the FONDEN - Fondo Para El Desarollo Endógeno - is mostly used for the sake of Chávez's clan.
Venezuela is now the 10th most important weapons importer.
Kundera wrote about imagologies...this doesn't have to do with ideas anymore...Chávez has sold an image and people buy it...
Mind: oil prices are about 8 times what they were in the 10 previous years to Chávez's first presidency. It was not like Venezuela was giving away oil: Norway and Britain were charging more or less as much.
Still, the plundering is so shameless that the government has had to get into a lot of debt...the Chinese are betting on our oil reserves...but if prices keep being "only" 8 times what we had during so-called 'capitalist' governments, there will be an economic crisis in 2013.
By the way: Bolívar was already ruled by military honcho Francisco Rangel Gómez from the Chávez Party. Now he is replaced by Francisco Rangel Silva, another military man.
ReplyDeleteThe one who tried to run was Andrés Velázquez, from Causa Radical, a former union worker who fought against all the previous governments but now Chavistas tell you he is part of the "Nazis, fascists" and so on, usual tirade.
As for Carabobo and Nueva Esparta: it's fine like it is now. Both governors had been for too long there and the one from Carabobo was indeed a feudal lord...just like Chavista governors but on the side of the opposition. With him gone, the opposition has much more chances in Nueva Valencia from now on.
I've always said that they are social-democrats ("radical social-democrats", like Allende or Olof Palme, not like Zapatero or Blair) but then I'm criticized because they actually are more socialist than European so-called social-democrats (Blairites, Kautskians, etc.) because they at least nationalize the oil and similar natural resources and promote grassroots Soviet-like representation structures (only to later leave them powerless maybe?)
ReplyDeleteBut I do not take Latin American "21st century socialism" too seriously because they are just social-democrats and have yet to collectivize all big companies, as any true socialism does.
They seem to do enough to seduce the trotskyists (who consider the Venezuelan process more radical than the Ecuadorean and Bolivian ones) and many others. But for me it's always got some top-to-bottom stench
But this is my sincere criticism from the Left. Instead yours and Posada-Carriles' criticism is a mere exercise of reactionary hypocrisy: they apparently are not sufficiently bourgeois and fascist as you would want them to be.
The claim that they won because of Chinese domestic appliances is ridiculous: typical bourgeois arrogance about common people not knowing what they want, which normally is to kick some arrogant bourgeois ass at leisure.
The real problem for the Reaction is that once the people realize that getting at least some of what they deserve is not as impossible as it was claimed by the vulture priests and Globovisión, they are simply not willing to go back to the old slavery.
Even if you'd be right and this is nothing but a variant form of slavery, it is at least, it seems a much more agreeable and tolerable form of slavery and the Reaction can only offer back to the same old naked oppression and brutal exploitation of the past.
"Andrés Velázquez, from Causa Radical"...
I understand that Causa Radical is legit but I do not know enough and it would not be the first time that a left-wing movement with a pretext of "radicalness" and "purity" has only served to divide the Left and ended fagocited by the bourgeois social-democrats or worse. As I don't know enough about Venezuela's politics I'll abstain from judging.
Fascist? I think the one that is fascist is you, Maju. You use that word every second sentence for everyone you dislike. But you just think you are the only person on Earth who is right, you actually live in a capitalist country and pretend you want "communism" and excuse yourself by saying you are too old to migrate...by the way: Chavismo is not even social democracy, it's simply usual military caudillismo with guys wearing red berets who happen to rule Venezuela during the longest oil boom ever.
ReplyDeleteI voted for Andrés Velázquez, also before. He was attacked by some adecos before....and actually the Capriles are a big clan and quite a lot of them are just supporting the caudillo Chávez.
Do you have a job for me in Venezuela? In Cuba? I sign now... but it's not realistic. So shut up.
DeleteAlso you seem quite uprooted and don't mind abandoning your homeland for a remote destination in Belgium. I have never asked you what's your business in Belgium and Germany but you tell me: why you abandoned your roots and migrated to the wealthy countries? Greed, desperation or a mix of both? It's not like you are (or anyone from Venezuela) a political refugee: you emigrated for personal and/or greed reasons instead of remaining in your country and helping to raise it. Because if you want Capitalism, that is in Venezuela and if you don't like that version you can choose a more nearby alternative like Colombia, Brazil, Haiti or Guyana. You don't choose "capitalism", you choose money at the expense of your roots... if you ever had any.