Venezuela’s Political Crisis Is Coming to a Head

[amw]

This Sunday, Venezuelans will vote to elect a constituent assembly that will be charged with rewriting the country’s constitution, which President Nicolás Maduro claims is the only way to restore stability to the troubled country after months - well, years - of unrest. The Venezuelan opposition, however, and much of the international community have

Comments

[soleiltropiques]

I agree that Maduro has done a lot of things that just aren't acceptable. OTOH the Bolivarian movement did achieve some important reductions in poverty under Chavez (for instance achieving a large reduction in infant mortality rate(1,2)). I'll concede however that it's doubtful that improvements in poverty are purely a result of his policies (especially given the fact that oil prices increased drastically in the early 2000s (4-6)).

There are a lot of valid criticisms which can be offered regarding both sides, IMO. And the US needs to learn to stay THE HELL OUT of Latin American politics.(3) And Venezuela needs to reduce its reliance on oil (i.e. which apparently represent 95% of export earnings.(7))

References
(1) This was 26.5 deaths/1,000 live births (1995 est. -see here: http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/571) and was reduced to 12.5 deaths/1,000 live births (2016 est. -see here: https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/ve.html).
(2) https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/mar/05/hugo-chavez-people-venezuelan-president
(3) https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2016/10/13/the-long-history-of-the-u-s-interfering-with-elections-elsewhere/?utm_term=.9e492a29fffe
(4) http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7387203.stm
(5) http://money.cnn.com/2000/09/11/worldbiz/oil/index.htm
(6) http://www.businessinsider.com/timeline-155-year-history-of-oil-prices-2016-12
(7) http://www.opec.org/opec_web/en/about_us/171.htm

[ishumy]

Chávez improved life for the poorest people will simultaneosly caging and bringing down what used to be a strong middle class. His contributions to wellfare and the fight against extreme poverty were commandable but ultimately failed to hold due to the same corruption and mismanagement of resources that brought the country to the current crisis. Sad to say, but true. However, he did redistribute resources amongst the poor in a better way than the governments before him, so there was that.

I do agree that US intervention is something we don't need, and I cringe at the bunch of dumbasses who want the US to sanction the country. Sanction the corrupt politicians in your territory by freezing their accounts, but the US has no right to apply any other kind of punishment to the country itself.