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Venezuela: The "revolution" of the rich

The myth of economic collapse and the Right-wing riot geography

Conflicts between the police/government supporters and parts of the Right-wing opposition in Venezuela, resulted to 16 dead so far. The capital, Caracas, as well as the business center and wealthy eastern parts of the city become almost every day a battlefield as protesters build trenches with building materials and tires.

The government however, arrested at least seven executives of the secret services accused for the death of protesters during protests on February 12, in an effort to minimize crisis.

These arrests produced a new round of rumours in the global media concerning the coherence of the state mechanism, especially whether secret services have moved outside government's orders in the past.

Many other incidents which indicate provocative operations remain unclear, like the assault of armed men on motorbikes against protesters.

Despite the fact that economic crisis is now effect more people, the "geography" of those who participate in violent anti-governmental protests proves that, the people in the streets are not the ones who affected most by the crisis. Riots are concentrated in areas of middle and top class layers of the population who want to oust the democratically elected government of Venezuela.

The general condition of the economy, anyway, does not justify an authentic popular riot, as the Western media present it. Country's unemployment remains at quite low level of 6% while poverty is reduced with a rate that neither country of the area has achieved in recent years. The income per capita is increasing constantly last decade at 2.7% per annum and there were cuts in wages due to the economic crisis only recently. All these when an average household in many European countries lost its purchasing power at 6-7% to 33% in the case of Greece.

At the same time, the income inequality which was the source of the authentic popular uprise in Brazil, has reduced in such a degree in Venezuela, that represents one of the lowest percentages in Latin America. Even the really big problem of inflation which exceeded 40% annually, is not comparable to the much higher rates before Hugo Chavez take the power. More accurately, Chavez administrations retained inflation at nearly half of that in most of the 80s and mainly 90s, except last year.

The return of inflationary trends is a structural problem for the country since the oil deposits detection and it is due to the distortions in economy and wages from the continuous flow of petrol dollars. More simply, it's a problem mostly related to the capitalist structure of the economy rather than the Leftist reforms promoted last decade. It should be also mentioned that the wages for a high percentage of workers (and mostly the basic wage) are adjusted automatically to inflation, something which reduces implication to the people.

Therefore, while the economy conditions do not justify the explosion of an authentic popular anger, information about the US interference appears to be verified day by day. It is now known that, the protagonists of these incidents and people of the Opposition like Leopoldo López and María Corina Machado coming from the Súmate organization, are funded for years by the US National Endowment for Democracy (NED) which was involved in nearly every colour revolution that marked Eastern Europe's regimes during the last decades.

It seems that, for the moment, Nicolás Maduro is not challenged by the army that could decisively reverse the situation and support a Coup d'état promoted by Washington. However, inside government there are some threats to its coherence, like for example the most characteristic case of José Vielma, governor of the Táchira province, who accused government for authoritarian behavior against demonstrators.

The most vehement battles took place in this province and the government was forced to send army forces, as worried about a potential interference of Right para-military forces from Colombia. Hugo Chávez accused many times the Colombian government in the past, for operations held by the Right Battalions of Death inside Venezuela, who were providing the control of the FARC organization guerrillas as an excuse.

At the same time, the Right-wing Opposition as well as Washington rejected, without further discussion, Maduro's proposals for the creation of a reconciliation committee to reduce tension. As they seek to retain conflicts, the State Department executives and their people in Caracas have stated that, negotiations for armistice in the streets cannot be started, in case that the riots will not end!

Article by Aris Chatzistefanou on infowar


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Comments

  1. Anonymous6/3/14 19:00

    The fact that you quote unemployment at 6% is testament of your cynical bias towards the Maduro-Chavista government…It’s just pointless to even read the rest of the article or take your perspective seriously. So Venezuela has lower unemployment than Germany? what a joke! Just walk around Caracas and the reality will be evident!
    Good on you for trying to infiltrate TE but very poor evidence from your side, makes further consideration a waste of time.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. http://www.tradingeconomics.com/venezuela/unemployment-rate

      Delete
  2. Anonymous7/3/14 14:32

    Unfortunately I don't think those numbers correspond to the reality of emploment conditions in the country. Remember these figures are based on the national government figures, and sadly the central bank is subservient to the government and will publish biased results that are favourable to the PSUV party. They in no way resembles the correct measure of real unemployment/employment and the deteriorating economic conditions in the country.
    Have a look and judge for yourself...

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anonymous8/3/14 07:28

    Excellent article, that it's quite adjusted to current reality in my country. We are fighting against the fascism of 5% of Venezuelan population, that claims for military intervention of USA, like in Libya. Thanks.

    ReplyDelete

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