You might want to check this documentary out:
You know, people talk about state controlled media like it is fundamentally undemocratic, but never extend that criticism to how no one elects our corporate media owners.
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No-one. Unlike a conflict between vampire werewolves and killbots, we as observers don’t win. I’m just hoping it doesn’t turn into a Syrian-style tinderbox involving U.S. and Russian troops.
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I doubt US troops would get involved here. US advised/supported Colombian troops however seem far more likely
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You nailed all the key points for me. I estimate the 30% of the poorest Venezuelans still support Chavismo. Why wouldn’t they? I think they were and are better off under Chavismo.
Most Venes no longer support Maduro. But the idea that its corrupt and therefore disqualified is absurd. If that were true the opposition would not be allowed to stand either.
Yes Vene is mismanaged. But I doubt there is massive electoral fraud. Maduro might just lose a fair election. But its the splintering of the opposition which has kept him in power. Hence Guaido’s partys refusal to participate in elections.
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If Il Douche is feeling too much pressure from the domestic investigations, he’ll go for it as a distraction. At the moment, though, the Dem establishment seems to be laying off him. If the conflict continues into the next year and his polling numbers are looking bad, though, he’ll have no qualms about getting the U.S. military involved as part of a “stay the course” jingoist campaign (and the GOP will support him due to the shock doctrine goodies they’ll reap).
Putin doesn’t have to worry about such things, of course. If keeping an incompetent boob like Maduro in power pokes the U.S. in the eye, the autocrat of all Russias can do what he wants to make that happen.
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Indeed.
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all he has to do is hold an election after that we’ll see what happens
Even that idiot knows better. How to guarantee socialists are seen as the patriots all over Latin America.
Still it would be in line with the joke.Socialism is all very well in theory, but in practice it just results in a US military intervention.
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I don’t think he does. He only cares about himself, and he’s surrounded himself with people like Bolton who’ll support the case for war and with enablers like McConnell who’d love to create some bidness opportunities for their corporate masters.
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I believe his anti-immigrant policies serve that purpose and with a lot less effort on his part.
As of now, the military leadership is reluctant to take his orders seriously and have been chafing at being used as political pawns at the border.
Again, I see Colombia as a likely proxy force instead. It works well with Trump’s inherent laziness, incompetence and lack of respect from the military. Advisors are easier to send without public notice and it would be likely reported as merely weapons sales. Plus Colombian troops have real combat experience in the region.
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That’s a good point. I’d feel sorry for Colombia if it got dragged into this mess.
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Maybe it is just when you’ve been fighting fascists for a while you start to recognize fascist dog whistles.
Gaining elite support, consolidating party rule and personality-cult dictatorship, and concentrating the tasks of government on repression and militarism: Privatization has historically been driven by power politics.
To the overall police / prison parts I bolded: the bread and butter of fascism is saying that crime is rampant so we need more policing. It conveniently sets up the infrastructure for imprisoning and killing the out group / controlling the voting demographic, such as the US has done / is doing with black people.
Also I don’t know if you know of the history of right wing deathsquads in Latin America, but there is no way Guaido doesn’t know about that connotation of “citizen participation in policing”.
Hell, take a look at the US paramilitary and its marriage to right wing politics: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/25/us/border-militia-mexico.html
ETA: Also privatization is a way to erode human rights, because once something is privatized you can make an argument that no one has a right to it. That makes it much easier for the in group to kinda just make life impossible for the out group, for instance denying healthcare to gay or trans people (something I’m pretty aware of as a gay trans woman).
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The concern is more that he’s going to be Venezuela’s post-Shock-Doctrine leader. That’s good for the American shareholder class, just as a victory for Maduro would be good for Russian oligarchs. In both cases, the welfare of ordinary Venezuelans is very low on the list of priorities, and political violence will remain the order of the day no matter which of them wins.
If Guaido’s position was clearly “we’ll get rid of this bumbling second-rate Chavez who’s caused so much misery, let in foreign aid, and then hold fair and monitored elections within 6 months before anyone makes any major decisions about the economy and governance structures” I think most of us would feel a little better about him. But that’s not what we’re seeing so far. Instead we see someone posing for his future equestrian monument and being cheered on by the likes of Mike Pence.
The better alternative to the Nazis during the chaos of Weimar Germany was not the Stalin-supported KPD. If Il Douche and his GOP establishment enablers are enthusiastically supporting Guaido, there’s reason for concern because their attitude towards liberal democracy is closer to that of their “friendly rival” Putin than to ours.
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They’ve been waiting at the border.
That was what all that noise and drama about who’s allowed to deliver “humanitarian aid” was about.
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(Note, I can’t cite the original where just talked about how it had ELEVEN sources and how that number is big).
Can we both agree that @anon15383236 was not arguing in good faith?
Absolutely not, because I’ve known @anon15383236 on this board for a long time and she is usually pretty on the money. Assumptions happen sometimes, it doesn’t mean they secretly know their point is bullshit and they’re just being stubborn. The assumption of that case based on one one line comment is… uh… well something else.
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The economy of Venezuela is by far majority capitalist, right in down to its financial sector. There is most assuredly private enterprise aplenty in Venezuela.
From my perch it’s obvious what they’re after- privatizing PDVSA, going after the worker co-ops and syndicates, and most likely once the IMF steps in, cutting gov services and outsourcing them to contractors.
Chavez already did this- see my aforementioned data on poverty reduction during the first decade of the revolution. What Guaído has issue with is that these profits have not gone to the upper classes. Oh the pity.
I’m sure that you can see how leftist Venezuelans might read this as replacing Maduro *paramilitary groups with Guaidó’s own. After all, we are talking about a population which is quite familiar with right wing death squads.
So yeah. Make of it what you will.
My primary take is that Guaidó is a rat, and nothing he says should be trusted.
*sources re: Maduro paramilitary units?
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It’s not like this is even original. It’s almost directly a copy and paste of Chile. It’s even being overseen by the same guy that oversaw the right wing terror campaigns in El Salvador. People that insist this all came out of left field when the right wing coup leader disassembles the state and dissolves the constitution should have a 1x1 lego superglued to the ball of their foot.
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What worries me most about Guaido is his willingness to accept help from Trump. On the other hand, Maduro accepts help from countries like Russia and Iran, who are also bad actors.
But, one problem at a time. Maduro is the problem they do have. Guaido is the problem they might have. It’s very difficult for me to get a sense what support Guaido has within Venezuela, but most of South America and Europe already recognize him as interim president.
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There is also the problem of US sanctions, which is debatably a comparable or greater a problem than Maduro, and one that requires the US’s active effort in order to maintain.
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Their economic woes started before 2014. The sanctions certainly didn’t help the people of Venezuela either, and the US has certainly had many wrong actions in Latin America.
But the more evident problems were things like putting all of the eggs in to the economic basket of oil, including massive increases in workers with out increases in output. This worked for awhile until the price tanked. Instead of adapting policies that looked for new streams of revenue, they just started printing more money, leading to run away inflation while keeping pricing controls that means no one can earn a living selling what goods they did manage to produce. This lead to huge smuggling networks between neighbors like Columbia for necessities.
All while the heads of the state are living quite well, siphoning off public funds, squirreling it away offshore, and some then fleeing to Spain or the like. The government is corrupt to the core, it just wasn’t as noticeable when the oil money kept things stable.
Will the new boss be better than the old boss? I have no idea at this point. The US should stay out of it largely except for humanitarian relief.
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