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

[icetypejim]

How is it inaccurate when the US is openly discussing the fact that it funnels money to forces opposing Maduro in Venezuela and deliberately trying to undermine its economy, just like it's done to Latin American countries for years? I would think the consistent self-serving involvement of the US in Venezuela specifically and Latin American politics generally for decades upon decades through similar tactics would be more offensive and insulting to a Venezuelan sense of autonomy than me pointing that fact out? Like, is your argument that the US is not an imperialist country with a history of interfering in Latin America, that they're not financing the opposition because it suits their interests, or that said financing and other meddling has had no impact at all on the opposition?

Also and correct me if I'm wrong, but neither Petkoff or Márquez founded the Venezuelan Communist Party, a party that has backed Chávez multiple times. Do you mean the MAS? Anyway, the presence of prominent Marxist and socialist thinkers on the opposition doesn't prevent the opposition from tending towards right-wing beliefs. Even outlets which support the opposition or take a more even-handed stance on the political conflict acknowledge that the opposition is right-wing and heavily made-up of monied people with neoliberal politics.

[ishumy]

You are doing what every US-centrist person who has some sympathy for the Venezuelan government does: go to the simplistic explanation of pushing the narrative that US interventionism is the main player in the Venezuelan crisis. It IS dismissing our autonomy and it is a huge contradiction, considering how US intervention was probably at its lowest during the Chávez government past the failed coup d'etat. You are ignoring the political corruption, the effects of the currency control and the governmental disinterest in investing in any industry other than the oil sector - because as far as I know, the US wasn't to blame for that mess. Blaming the formely overt US interventionism in the continent for every current problem is myopic and infantilizing.

And it IS a falacy to label the opposition as "US-backed" unless you mention a specific party, and it is equally obtuse to say it is "leaning towards right-wing beliefs." If you have any historical knowledge about Venezuela as a country, you would know that most political parties are either left-leaning (the main party before Chávez came, AD, is affialited to the Socialist International and at most acts as center-left) or centrist, like Copei, but there's not some "right-wing" collective as there is in many other countries, even within Latin America. That is a lie perpetrated by Chávez during the early years of his presidency, when the scarce and vocal opposition was mostly rich and conservative. Who are these "outlets which support the opposition or take a more even-handed stance on the political conflict acknowledge that the opposition is right-wing and heavily made-up of monied people with neoliberal politics"? Telesur and RT? Are you reading non-government sponsored Venezuelan media or are you sticking to biased media from the non-Venezuelan left, who have been ignoring the human rights violations the government has been committing for decades now?

And I misspoke and it was MAS (althoug Pompeyo was a member of the board of the Communist Party when the country came back to democracy). Teodoro Petkoff and Pompeyo Márquez founded the MAS (Movement Towards Socialism) party, and in fact, they left their own party when MAS as a group, decided to back Chávez up in his first election, because they never agreed with Chávez military background. And talking about media, if you know Spanish, you should try and read Tal Cual, a newspaper founded by Petkoff, very critical and left-wing, which has been a government target for years now because they openly criticize the people in power.

[icetypejim]

Hi, sorry for the late response. You say I'm ignoring several things and overstating US intervention, but then neglect to mention the US' deliberate sabotaging of the Venezuelan economy by having Saudi Arabia flood oil markets? I don't disagree with the need to diversify, but that presumes that it would be possible to respond in a way that wouldn't be met with further attempts at sabotage. The US' efforts becoming less overtly aggressively militaristic doesn't mean their investment in manipulating the region has stopped and again, I don't understand how it undermines the autonomy of the Venezuelan people to state that this has happened and is still happening? They are not the source of every problem and I never said anything to that effect. I'm not arguing that the US is singularly responsible for every bad thing in Venezuela and that they've succeeded in stealing away the will of every person there, I'm arguing that a powerful empire is doing what it has done for decades: try to manipulate state politics in a foreign country to its material benefit. The West still hasn't stopped punishing Haiti for their revolution, but I'm supposed to believe that the US has backed off from Venezuela?

Anyway, as a "US-centrist" person, the most common exposure to news about Venezuela is from outlets which are explicitly against Maduro's government, so it's weird that you would act like my only possible exposure to info about this is from left-leaning Maduro sympathizing media when that stuff is in the severe minority here even among many left-leaning outlets. I would hope my original post made it clear that I also have skepticism of Maduro as much as I do some of the opposition.

I'll definitely check out Tal Cual though, thanks for the recommendation.