[Social_Critic]

Nicolás Maduro’s Strengthened Alliance With the Castro Regime


By María Teresa Romero on Wednesday, October 2, 2013

Many analysts thought the alliance hatched between Cuba and Venezuela in the last 14 years would weaken with Chávez’s death and Maduro’s arrival. The analysts claimed that the divisions and conflicts within Chavismo, the rough economic situation in Venezuela, and the Cuban pragmatism would chill the relationship.

But what actually happened was the exact opposite. Chávez’s successor had been trained by the Cubans since the 1990s, and they chose him as the best successor for the late Bolivarian leader. Both administrations, each weakened for their own reasons, have clung to one another to better survive politically and economically the difficult current scenario.

However, there is another important reason we should not ignore. The Castro and Chavismo regimes have not worked for a simple bilateral alliance based on economic gains — almost exclusively for Cuba — and political convenience. Rather, they have formed a sort of marriage whose ultimate aim is to merge into one nation state and consolidate both regimes’ power and the neo-communist hegemonic project — now euphemistically referred to as Bolivarian Socialism for the 21st century.

Also, from the beginning they have both sought sufficiently influential power to destabilize and transform the democratic states in the hemisphere, together with their associated international institutions. In addition, they have collaborated to build strategic networks with like-minded extra-territorial governments, particularly in the Middle East, Asia, and Africa.

This is why both the Venezuelan and Cuban flags have waved for years in the public institutions and armed forces of both countries. Many of Chávez’s and now Maduro’s speeches, in unison with those by the Castro brothers, have referred to the Cuban-Venezuelan bond as the epicenter of a future “Patria Grande Americana” (grand motherland of America). During Nicolás Maduro’s visit with Fidel Castro in July, for example, he repeated what Raúl Castro had said in Caracas in 2010: “The brotherhood between Cuba and Venezuela grows stronger and stronger; every day they are more the same.”

There is no doubt that, in this marriage, it is the dictatorial Castro regime that benefits most, to the detriment of Venezuelan national interest and sovereignty. Still, Cuban support has been foundational to the whole process undergone by Chavismo. It is highly probable that the Bolivarian revolution would not have prospered for so many years without the political and military assistance and the intelligence and propaganda contributed by the Cuban revolution. Fidel and Raúl Castro were Hugo Chávez’s great trainers, and now they are Nicolás Maduro’s. Chavismo would also not have attained such international influence without the Cuban expertise. Cuba has not only been behind the destruction of Venezuela’s democratic institutions, but of the whole of Latin America’s, beginning with the OAS.

The Cuban influence on the Bolivarian regime has been essential for the rise to power and the stability of like-minded parties and governments in the region, such as Daniel Ortega’s in Nicaragua, Evo Morales’s in Bolivia, and Rafael Correa’s in Ecuador — and the creation of “alternative integration blocs,” such as Petrocaribe, Petrosur, Petroandina, and the ALBA. Since their inception in 2004 in La Habana, they have offered political and energy support not only to their members but also to governments in other regions, such as Gadafi’s in Libya and Al-Assad’s in Syria. Cuban support has also brought the formation of the so-called “strategic liberation axes” in Latin America, such as the Peoples’ Bolivarian Congress, the Bolivarian Continental Coordination, and the Bolivarian Liberation Front, to destabilize the region and establish a “Patria Grande Americana.”

http://panampost.com/maria-teresa-romer ... ro-regime/

[Soulflytribe]

An interesting article that explains why Country X, which is a country that is nearly identical to Venezuela, doesn't face the same amount of economic problems as Venezuela.

http://distortioland.blogspot.ca/2013/11/sobre-dime-con-quien-andas-y-otras.html

Venezuela and the Country X

Country X has an economy highly dependent on commodities, particularly oil. In Country X, over 85 % of the exports and more than half of the tax revenue come from commodities. In Country X, the state is, through a state monopoly and various public companies, the sole extractor of these resources. In recent years, Country X has benefited greatly from external conditions, particularly the high prices of commodities. In short, Country X is economically very similar to Venezuela.

“Formidable, no less than spectacular!”, I’ve heard a senior IMF executive saying regarding the macroeconomic performance of Country X. But this is where the similarities end. Actually, they are not so similar.

What the IMF executive was excited about is that since the beginning of the boom in commodity prices in 2004, Country X has managed to maintain year after year economic growth rates well above the average in the region, and simultaneously exhibit significant external surpluses and fiscal surpluses. And as if that were not enough, Country X was able to do it in an environment of low inflation (less than 5 % per year) and high stability in its financial system.
Today, Country X has accumulated 20 % of its GDP in tax savings, the foreign-exchange reserves are the world's highest as proportion of the GDP and the external debt is at a record low. To be precise, Country X was one of the few economies which had strong economic growth during the last international financial crisis. According to analysts, Country X wil have this year's top economic growth in its region. It's not wrong to say that in Country X there are no restrictions to buy foreign currency, there is no devaluations, no shortages, no “economic war” or a “parasitic bourgeoisie trying to demolish the legacy of a great leader”.

Since I get a little tired of the endless debate among economists about what are the policy options for an oil economy like Venezuela, the tale of Country X is always fitting. Someone always bring the “Norway case” to explain Country X. Or worse , someone else might bring into the conversation Chile, Colombia and Peru, the usual suspects of good economic conduct in the region: the countries that have a guaranteed future. But no, Country X is Bolivia. Yes, B-O-L-I-V-I-A, our closest regional political ally that has undoubted progressist credentials and is a self-declared enemy of “transnational capitalism”; Bolivia, which emerged from the ashes of "the long neoliberal sleep" thanks to an indigenous and amerindian government that is a passionate follower of Pacha Mama and darling of the global left. Bolivia, the country which has recently inaugurated a 3 meter statue of the “Eternal Giant”. Yes, Bolivia.

But to be honest, Bolivia similarities with Venezuela also emerge in other areas. In Bolivia, the commander-in-chief who enjoys and enjoyed a wide popularity and great power refounded the country through a constituent process, institutions and the name of the country were changed and re-election was approved. Since then, the ruling coalition controls with a large majority all branches of the government and the majority of elected positions. In recent years, the agenda of economic policies has included (with a fiercely anti-imperialist rhetoric) an aggressive program of nationalizations of the oil industry’s assets, which were privatized by previous governments’ liberal reforms.

So, what is peculiar about Bolivia? And we will go straight to the point in the following lines. I think it is evident that Bolivia has never dared to touch nor has even pretended to touch, at least in its basics, the economic institutions inherited from previous governments. I refer in particular to a framework composed of effective limits to fiscal deficits, along with an independent monetary authority with an autonomous mandate. And needless to say - the evidence is blatant - that such institutions have made the macroeconomic stability possible.

I'm no social psychologist, much less an expert in the “Bolivian case”. But what seems clear is that the collective memory (the remembrance of the instability and the extreme hardships of the hyperinflation of the ‘80s ingrained in everyone’s minds) forged a social consensus around the idea that a prudent economic management of the nation is needed. This consensus, which say that economic stability is a social good, proved durable and resistant, immune to any temptation or day-dream of a typical leftist government, and no one can nor will accuse the government of selling out to the enemy (capitalists) for being prudent. In spite of the radical political discourse, the management of the economy has been spared.

And it’s worth reflecting on the aforementioned because the context is relevant to our current situation in Venezuela. What is clear is that Venezuela is facing a crisis of great magnitude; from the economic point of view, a perfect storm is coming. The situation is gloomy and we have entered a downward spiral that no one knows how and where it will stop and end. When we start writing the diagnosis on what has happened to us, we will have to say that the problem, or at least a huge part of it, was that in the last years before the storm, the existing economic institutions, which by the way, were not particularly strong, feasible or effective, were dismantled and replaced by an irresponsible unfettered discretion. Economic institutions understood as the network of formal and informal rules for conducting economic policy simply ceased to exist.

Now, the not so obvious part. It may be hard to stop for a moment and look beyond the current situation, but Venezuela will have to build new economic institutions, it's inevitable. And those new Venezuelan institutions will be built for the same reason that they were built in Bolivia during the ‘80s (after the storm). Maybe it's time to openly discuss the type of economic institutions that we will want in Venezuela and what kind of economic management the country will need in this new stage. In concrete terms: what are our policy options? How do we imagine the transition? What kind of institutional architecture will we want in Venezuela when the time arrives? Because that day will come and what Bolivia proves is that it's necessary to build consensus around the minimum institutional changes needed, and that this minimum might be enough to get good results.

[Social_Critic]

I waited a while to respond to see what the others wrote, but I'm starting to sense they must be depressed watching events in Venezuela. So I guess it's up to us to "spam" the Latin American forum.

Given the huge surge in income from commodities, Venezuela could have developed as a contender for an European level per capita GDP. But the Chavez regime misgovernance led to Maduro, who is a lot worse. Now Venezuela is emerging as a Cuban colony and this means its going to head backwards into the feudalism of the 14th century.

[Bulaba Khan Jones]

I waited a while to respond to see what the others wrote, but I'm starting to sense they must be depressed watching events in Venezuela.

People in general just don't care about Venezuela. On this forum at least, some knee-jerk stories like government-approved looting will elicit responses. Otherwise, you can gauge activity to see whether people care, which is very little. In my case, I hope Venezuela's economy stabilizes, but I have no emotional investment in Venezuela at all.

[Social_Critic]

Arab refugee family had opened a store in el Tigre, a small town in Venezuela. The video is in Spanish, shows two men crying and pleading for the national guard not to have their store looted or force them to sell below cost because they will go broke. The employees, a bunch of Venezuelan women, plead that they be allowed to stay in business or they will lose their jobs.

Right now they are either forcing stores to be opened to looters, or forcing the sale of all the stock at very reduced prices, so it looks like most private commerce is being forced into bankruptcy. Many of them are being dragged to jail, where it is said the jailers demand cash in hard currency for their release. It's one of the oddest events I have said, the looting of a country ordered by authorities with total disregard for the consequences.

This has happened in the past. For example Mugabe did it in Zimbabwe, and Idi Amin did it to the Indians in Uganda. But I thought this was something one only saw when African dictators went nuts. I think Maduro is stupid but this has to be calculated by Castro to instigate a revolt and implement brutal repression. It's just too crazy to be for real.

[Social_Critic]

Yes, I'm aware of how Homo sapiens behaves. When the Hutus were committing genocide of the Tutsi pulation in Rwanda everybody was aware, but it was happening in a country nobody cared about.

When I escaped Cuba I roamed around (I was a minor and I was on my own). I landed in a UN refugee camp in Europe. In those days there were refugee camps set up for people running away from the communists, and I landed in one where they kept minors (I know it's something nobody discusses but the communists actually sold people for a fee, and quite a few were under 16, so we were put in a camp all together).

When I was in that camp I used to look at normal people walk in front of us, outside the fence. It was an odd feeling for me to see free people move around wearing nice clothes and shoes, looking well fed. And there I was, 14 years old clinging to the fence and they wouldn't even look at me. So I had a very early lesson in life about human nature. And I swore I would never look the other way when I saw people clinging to a fence.

[Rainbow Crow]

It's pretty shocking stuff. I am sad to think of what Maduro and the Chavistas must imagine the end game of all this to be, since they can't be stupid enough to believe it won't ravage their already dysfunctional economy.

[Social_Critic]

Like I wrote, since the events are surreal, it has to be planned to elicit a response. These guys are trying to goad the people into a revolt so they can have swift reprisals, kill people and jail others, force an exodus and thus get rid of any opposition. The Cubans want Venezuela to be their colony.

I'm trying to make sure people get to see this but I'm encouraging Venezuelan friends in Venezuela to be absolutely cool and avoid violence. If necessary open their business and let it be looted. Because the key is to let events roll on. Things have to get incredibly bad but resistance means patience. Eventually an overwhelming majority of the people will be against the regime, and at that time the proper response by the people will be....do nothing. Sit at home in a general strike and let the Cubans and the world u derstand everybody is willing to die sitting at home.

At this time maybe somebody around Maduro will have the sense to do what has to be done. Or maybe nothing will happen and Venezuela will be like Zimbabwe, Rwanda, Cambodia and places like that. In that case there will be a wave of boat people, and the Venezuelan navy will be shooting at those would be refugees at sea. I wonder what other countries will do, but I've seen too much death to expect much from humanity. And I'm sure the red clapping seals will cheer Maduro and the Cubans and explain its all a CIA conspiracy.

[Bulaba Khan Jones]

I don't think it's fair to compare the Rwandan genocide to economic problems in Venezuela, or to accuse someone of not caring about genocide or suffering. I have yet to see evidence of mass violence and suffering in Venezuela. Economic mismanagement and illegal activities on the part of the government, yes, but nothing remotely comparable to putting people in camps or mass murder.

[Rainbow Crow]

Well, you did make a "no one cares" post. I wonder myself why anyone in the first world would want to split rhetoric hairs in defense of Chavistas.

Bolivia is interesting. Black oil, black coca-cola. I'd like to visit some day.

[Bulaba Khan Jones]

Well, you did make a "no one cares" post.

Because people don't. There are no concentration camps, no forced-labor camps, no genocide, mass violence, mass starvation. Until Maduro, who seems like a complete moron, does anything actually violent, no one really will. Nothing has really happened beyond some isolated incidents and the threat to clean rectums everywhere in Venezuela.

[Magnetonium]

Arrests have been made!

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/1 ... 77858.html

Venezuela Arrests 100 'Bourgeois' Businessmen In Crackdown, Maduro Says

CARACAS, Nov 14 (Reuters) - Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro said on Thursday that authorities had arrested more than 100 "bourgeois" businessmen in a crackdown on alleged price-gouging since the weekend.

"We have more than 100 of the bourgeoisie behind bars at the moment," Maduro said in a speech to the nation.

The socialist leader, who won a vote to replace the late Hugo Chavez in April, said his government was preparing new regulations to limit businesses' profits to between 15 percent and 30 percent. Authorities say unscrupulous companies have been hiking prices of electronics and other goods more than 1,000 percent. (Reporting by Andrew Cawthorne and Deisy Buitrago; Editing by Bill Trott)

[Soulflytribe]

I'd like to add that the Venezuelan Government is at this point violating the UN's Universal Declaration of Human Rights unashamedly and in broad daylight:

http://www.un.org/en/documents/udhr/index.shtml

Article 17.

(1) Everyone has the right to own property alone as well as in association with others.
(2) No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his property.

Article 20.

(1) Everyone has the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association.

Article 23.

(1) Everyone has the right to work, to free choice of employment.

[Rei Murasame]

It is time for Maduro to be assassinated. Someone needs to just shoot him and get this over with, as he clearly has no idea what he is doing.

[Goldberk]

It is time for Maduro to be assassinated. Someone needs to just shoot him and get this over with, as he clearly has no idea what he is doing.

He is holding capital and liberalism at bay the best he can, he is doing it imperfectly and clumsily but that is all the international conditions will allow, those who advocate for the overthrow of the regime are the friends of international capital and liberalism.

[Rainbow Crow]

He is holding capital and liberalism at bay the best he can, he is doing it imperfectly and clumsily but that is all the international conditions will allow, those who advocate for the overthrow of the regime are the friends of international capital and liberalism.

[Eauz]

Enough with the heartbreak nonsense, let's get some real news:

Refrigerator Wars: The Revolution Goes Back in Action

The Venezuelan state is intervening in retail businesses around the country, principally those that trade in domestic appliances. This apparently modest decision, taken a week ago, has set in motion an interesting process of push and pull. Long lines outside the intervened stores and some disorder inside meet with predictable outcry about "mobs" and "communism" from the counterrevolutionary press.

The effects of this whole process -- some anticipated, others not -- make for a complicated situation. In fact, it is impossible to predict how it will play out. Yet one thing is clear: President Nicolás Maduro, after months of passivity, vacillation, and concessions has finally gone on the offensive.

The core decision is to limit the markup on certain products imported with subsidized dollars. Importers in Venezuela bring in goods with cheap dollars that they obtain through the state -- dollars that come from the petroleum rent. They then mark up the goods 200% to 1,000%. The government's idea is to limit the markup to 30%. For this reason, state institutions such as INDEPABIS are now revising these importers' books, while the army maintains order.

To some this might seem ridiculous. Whereas the Russians stormed the Winter Palace, the Venezuelans took over refrigerators, washing machines, and televisions! Yet it should be remembered that the U.S. independence process began with similar skirmishes over consumer goods. Moreover, the nature of the Venezuelan economy makes commerce rather than industrial production the key area for the distribution of wealth.

Then there is the historical moment in Venezuela. Class struggle over the past twelve years of the Bolivarian process often has taken on a leapfrog character. Every time the bourgeoisie raised prices, Hugo Chávez would respond by raising salaries. Now the government does not have funds to respond with this bonapartist tactic which leaves all social classes with something. It has to transfer wealth in another way.

The new measures are likely to define Chavism more along class lines, provoking defections of middle-class sympathizers while making more profound the allegiance of the lower classes. Already some wavering Chavists have echoed the bourgeoisie's doubts about the correctness and decency of these popular actions.

Of course their response is in part conditioned by historical memory. Nearly 25 years ago, Venezuelans reacted to a neoliberal austerity package with countrywide rebellion and looting. This became known as the Caracazo. Now it might seem that a "slow-motion Caracazo" is taking place, but it should be remembered that the problem with the Caracazo of 1989 was not the transfer of wealth through looting but its lack of direction and the severe repression that followed. An ordered Caracazo, a Caracazo with political consciousness might be . . . a revolution.

At the very least it is a profound learning process. At present the masses feel they are participating directly in the economy. Everywhere in the streets there are discussions among ordinary people about the "rate of profit," "the petroleum rent," and "the parasitic bourgeoisie." On top of that, morale has never been so high in the period following Chávez's death. The key will be directing these energies toward a deepening of the process and planning so that mass activities extend beyond the upcoming municipal elections on December 8.

In the most positive scenario, resistance from the commercial sector will lead to a domino effect in which importers of other types of goods, such as food and clothing, will be also brought under supervision. Venezuela's system of importation delivers billions of subsidized dollars every year to thousands of private importers. Then the government hopes vainly that they will actually import products and sell them at reasonable prices. This is deeply irrational and any step towards centralization, even if it simply limits the number of possibly corrupt importers, is a positive one.

Link

Time to get rid of the the parasitic bourgeoisie and their friends.

[Rei Murasame]

The dishonest element in that article is where they gloss over the situation with the words "the nature of the Venezuelan economy makes commerce rather than industrial production the key area...". That's completely ridiculous. It is actually someone's fault that industrial production is still not the key area. Where is Venezuela's light industry? Where is Venezuela's heavy industry? Saying that it is not there is not an excuse.

And then they include the hilarious line, "it should be remembered that the U.S. independence process began with similar skirmishes over consumer goods". Like if anyone gives a fuck about that. Since when is the capitalist crybaby revolution led by George Washington in 1775, a model for what should be done in the industrial era after 1870?

Let's say enough with the heartbreak nonsense, but let's also say enough with the liberal-romanticist bullshit too.

Also, how on earth is Maduro holding the forces of liberalism and capitalism at bay? Surely he's not holding it at bay, if he is choosing to do precisely those things which everyone has learned by experience result in the medium-term return to liberalism, all because he wants to give a short-term boost to his party (at the cost of wrecking the economy) at a liberal democratic election that he shouldn't even be entertaining, to carry out wealth redistribution from a sector that should not even be the key sector in his economy in the first place, because these people have oil in their back yard and could have invested the oil money in developing the fucking industrial sector.

Seriously, what the hell is this bullshit?

[Husky]

Eauz, whether one finds the petit-bourgeois praxis immoral is missing the point in analysing this situation. What kind of message does this send foreign investors, credit-lenders and financiers? If Venezuela wants to be taken seriously on a global scale, they are going to have to stop this cataclysmic 'economic war'.

I mean, ffs, Caracas Stock Exchange is down 5 percentage points today. The inflation rate in Venezuela was recorded at 46.85 percent in October of 2013. Wtf are they going to accomplish with these seizures and arrests? Economic conditions are going to deteriorate.

[Rei Murasame]

Exactly. Exactly, how are they going to build socialism atop a ruin that they refuse to develop? This whole thing makes no sense. Building socialism in Venezuela should have been so easy, yet they've just fucked it up completely because they turned Marxism into a dogma instead of a theory.