--- Begin Message ---Greetings from the Center for an Informed America! Please forward this message widely. If this message was forwarded to you and you would like to receive future mailings, e-mail a request to be added to this mailing list.
This posting, from January of 2001, provides some background to the coup that transpired Friday in Venezuela. It is from the Independent Media Center:
http://indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=18215
Venezuela's Hugo Chavez--The Greatest Threat to US Capitalism and to Bush? (english)
by Daniesh Laquandria 2:30am Sun Jan 14 '01 (Modified on 11:22am Sun Jan 27 '02)
The article below was found on several of Deja.com�s newsgroups. The remarks in brackets [ ], written from a broadly leftist, internationalist, and anti-capitalist perspective, may help the reader put the article in a wider context.As the Bush accession approaches, the right ideologues are looking for enemies. They appear to have found one in Hugo Chavez, the populist president of Venezuela. Chavez is alternately compared with Cuba's Fidel Castro and with Chile's democratically elected socialist Salvador Allende, who was overthrown by a US engineered coup d'etat. An analysis of a recent article which tries to state the case against Chavez, proving that he is Bush's "greatest challenge" in the hemisphere.--------------------
Hugo Chavez, a New Allende
Iin South America?By Carlos A. Ball. Mr. Ball is editor of AIPE, a Spanish-language news
organization based in Florida, and an adjunct scholar at the Cato
Institute.[Clarification: Mr. Ball is a paid propagandist, whose job it is to play his part in bolstering the ideology of US and global capitalism at the expense of the working class and poor in America, and around the world]
Last month, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez promised to use special
powers granted by congress to redistribute land from the hands of
private owners to the poor. This mirrors the start of Chilean President
Salvador Allende's 1970 Marxist revolution, when he sanctioned the
illegal takeover of 1,500 farms.[Translation: Hugo Chavez is one of the �bad guys�. The ruling elite has been exploiting the poor and working classes in Venezuela for decades, paying them dirt wages, while enjoying the benefits of the oil boom. Now that Chavez appears to be working to redistribute the land-- which should belong to the people who work it-- he is, like Allende, offending the bourgeois sense of what is legal or illegal. �Illegal� means anything in which would throw a wrench into the upper class�s carefully designed juridical regime, which quite naturally, and quite �legally,� ensures that a select few profit, while the vast majority toils for their benefit, and for the benefit of wealthy foreign investors].
Over the 23 months that he has been in office, Mr. Chavez has
consolidated his power and increasingly frightened the private sector
with his socialist rhetoric.[Mr. Chavez, his associates-- and the 60 percent who voted for him-- have, through a series of elections, and democratic referenda, taken power away from the older entrenched interests.]
This has been costly to the Venezuelan
economy, which, excluding oil, has practically ground to a halt.[Capitalists are finding it more difficult under the new regime to exploit their workers at previous levels. So they are deliberately withholding investment, sending money abroad, and biding their time].
Yet, the Chavez presidency remains popular. To understand why, it is
necessary to understand that a Chavez-like leader has been in the
making for 40 years.[The author does not wish the reader to believe that a popularly elected leader could actually be working to benefit his people while opposing US imperial interests, and the interests of Venezuela�s Business elite. So he will now engage in an ideological obfuscation, to deceive his readers, and bolster the capitalist ideology of his employers, namely, the Cato Institute, a right wing think tank.].
In the mid-'50s, the Venezuelan standard of living rose above that of
such countries as Italy and Spain, attracting waves of immigrants.
Inflation was under 1%, and there was more foreign investment in
Venezuela than in the rest of South America combined. The list of
members of the American Chamber of Commerce of Venezuela read
like the Fortune 500. After retirement, many expatriates stayed in
Caracas, a beautiful city with virtually no crime. The government was
not even democratic, but there was a rule of law and a central bank
run by the private sector. Venezuelans were then much better off than
their parents had been, and the future looked bright.[In other words, from the perspective of this author, democracy does not matter, as long as the profits are high. Many rich Americans and Europeans (expatriates) enjoyed their status as neo-colonial visitors and as the de facto ruling elite in the country. There was �no crime,� of course, because, as in many fascist dictatorships, order was the watchword. The oil boom was benefiting the wealthy foreign investors. The vast majority were very poor, inspite of the high AVERAGE income of the nation. As usual, this author makes no distinction between the national wealth being deposited in the accounts of the elite, and national wealth being distributed justly among the populace, and being used for the benefit of the people].
Five major political episodes reversed the country's economic
progress, eventually opening the doors to Mr. Chavez.First, in 1961, a
new constitution, socialist in nature, introduced a wide variety of
so-called social rights, such as the right to a job, health care, housing
and "just" wages. Article 99 declared the "social function" of private
property. The few auspicious articles to protect economic freedom
were suspended immediately after the document was promulgated.[The 1961 constitution simply affirmed those rights contained in the �United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights,� which affirm rights to fair wages, a job, health care, and housing. ]
Second, in 1962, President Romulo Betancourt announced the
cessation of oil exploration concessions to private companies, and his
energy minister became OPEC's founder.[The Venezuelans dared to defy the US drive to control all aspects of worlds oil secor, including exploration, extraction, trade, and distribution. US oil barons will never forgive Venezuela for this. ]
Venezuelan oil exports were
then more than half of the world's oil trade, but international oil
companies immediately pulled back their investments, and the
currency, the bolivar, suffered its first devaluation of the 20th century.[International Oil Companies (read : US companies, for the most part) decided to punish Venezuela for pursuing an independent course, just as they punished oil rich Iran in 1953, by overthrowing their government in that year, and installing the Shah. Unable to control the Venezuelan government directly, as they controlled Iran from 1953 til 1979, the US elite had to be content with merely wreaking havoc on Venezuela�s economy.]
Third, in 1969, the social democrats lost the presidential election, but
maintained a legislative majority and sought control over the judicial
system. They managed to pass a new law making judicial appointments
a function of electoral results. The judiciary soon became politicized
and corrupt.Fourth, President Carlos Andres Perez nationalized the oil
industry in 1974, and the central bank in 1975. The bank soon began
printing all the paper money the politicians wanted.[Nationalizing the oil industry-- the sin of sins. Iran, Iraq, and Libya are the United States� worst enemies in the Middle East because they also nationalized their oil industries. In Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and the other Gulf States, the 51-49 per cent deal prevails, where the Gulf Monarchs split the oil profits with the Transnational Corporations. Thus, some of the most oppressive countries in the world are US allies. Strange irony, apparently lost on this author, that a democraticly elected leader like Chavez, who could in no way be compared to such despots as the King of Saudi Arabia, or the Emir of Kuwait--- is accused by US officials of being a totalitarian.]
Fifth, in 1983,
President Luis Herrera initiated a round of currency devaluations and
the bolivar has since lost 16,185% against the dollar.[A normal response-- though not necessarily a wise one-- to economic weakness, bound to accrue to any nation who defies the global capitalist system. Of course, other economies which have done the US�s bidding in the region, Colombia, for example, have fared even worse.]
These five steps weakened the balance of power and removed the
system of checks that would otherwise have protected Venezuelans
from a predatory government. Once the way was cleared for trampling
on the private sector, there was no stopping the corruption.[Neighboring Colombia did none of these things, yet the level of corruption is immeasureably higher---another point not considered by this author. While such corruption is to be deplored, this author seems most concerned about corruption which threatens US interests. The corruption in Colombia, for instance-- which channels hundreds of billions of laundered drug money into the US, and which gives the US an excuse to subsidize its arms industry, and to send arms to �fight a drug war� --is not worth denouncing, apparently].
Consider the abuse of power in 1983, when Mr. Herrera's finance
minister established exchange controls that offered a preferential
rate, which led to widespread crony favoritism.[This sort of cronyism is even more rampant in oil rich Nigeria. But Shell Oil participates in it directly, so you will not see the Cato Institute, and other pro-capitalist think tanks denounce the situation there. The cozy relation between Nigerian generals and US oil executives, who enjoy the spoils of oil extraction, while impoverishing the population of the Niger Delta, will not be the subject of the next Cato Institute exposee].
Or the fact that while
Social and Christian Democrats competed for elected offices, they
consistently shared the spoils of power with one another through
public works contracts. In his second administration, Mr. Perez
managed to discredit his government's privatizations by selling several
enterprises to business groups with close ties to the presidential
palace.[Sounds exactly like something George Bush or his cronies would do. For instance, Cheney�s participation in the �revolving door� policy, moving from government to oil company and back to government is �above suspicion� like the proverbial wife of Caesar. Countless State and Defense department officials move backwards and forwards between jobs in the government and in the �private� armaments sector. Such practices, however similar they may be to Venezuelan practices, would not appear to be �discredited� in the eyes of the right wing US think tanks]
Many in the business community did not rebel against growing state
intrusion because they saw that it was easier to convince one cabinet
minister than a market of consumers. I'll never forget watching
Venezuelan businessmen cheering the nationalization of foreign oil
companies, not realizing that the politicians would soon come after
them with more controls, regulations and taxes.[The author appeared displeased that the Venezuelan bourgoisie would feel a sense of pride in having their own resources under the control of their own government, rather than under the control of foreign multinationals.]
Such a shameless record of selfish economic manipulation produced a
desperate population quite ready to listen to the Marxist rhetoric of
Mr. Chavez.[The population eventually realized that foreign control of oil was not substantially different from local bourgeois control of the oil, since no benefit was accruing to the people in either case. ]
Moreover, since the far left has held control of the schools,
universities and arts over the past 40 years, the general public has
fallen under a well-organized system of leftist indoctrination that
strengthens the left's power.[Educated people can be very pesky. Because they are paid by the state, they often do not have to tow the capitalist line in the same way as people who work for capitalist think tanks Nor are they required to act in the same way as journalists, who replicate the views of their masters. I refer to the corporations that own the papers. Independently minded educators will continue, to be one of the banes of capitalist orthodox thinking, especially in the Third World, where the ravages of globalization and maldistribution of income are so obvious.]
Despite Marxism's pitiful results in the rest of the world, Mr. Chavez is
now instituting a wide variety of its practices, signing on its advocates
and reaching out to its international community. A population that had
enjoyed economic freedom would never stand for such retrograde
governance.[Translation: Despite the fact that the US has smashed amost every attempt to construct an indendent economic model--- from Vietnam to Nicaragua, from Arbenz in Guatemala, and Allende in Chile--- people in the third world continue to challenge US hegemony].
Ali Rodriguez, Mr. Chavez's energy minister until last week and the new
secretary general of OPEC, is a director of Sao Paulo's Forum, a
federation of guerrilla groups that might be called Fidel Castro's
answer to the Berlin Wall collapse.[�Might be called . . .� The forum might also be called what it in fact calls itself: a response to the repeated attempts of the United States, since the proclamation of the Monroe Doctrine, to subject Latin America�s social, political, and economic institutions to US overcontrol].
Mr. Chavez himself joined in 1995.
Other prominent members are Nicaraguan Sandinista Daniel Ortega
and Manuel Marulanda, commander of the Colombian guerrilla group,
FARC. Mr. Marulanda's daughter -- Olga Marin -- was recently invited
to take part in the Caracas meeting of the Latin American Parliament.[The recent advances of the FARC in Colombia, added to the liklihood of a another Sandinista victory in the upcoming elections in Nicaragua, strikes fear into hegemonist circles in Washington. The US elite fears that support given to Nicaragua and the FARC, from a national leader, such as Chavez, who has access to considerable oil revenues, could very seriously endanger the plan for total domination of the hemisphere].
Mr. Chavez has granted special favors to Cuba on oil purchases; Castro
will not pay in hard cash, but with medical services. And Cuba alone is
not restricted from reselling the oil to third parties.[A policy in strong contrast to the US attempt to strangle the Cuban socialist economy, which is denounced worldwide.]
Now strong government oil revenues allow the president to spend
generously. The 2000 budget was increased 40% and last summer Mr.
Chavez decreed an across-the-board salary increase of 20%, for both
public and private employees, retroactive to Jan. 1. In October, he
granted an unprecedented 60% salary increase to oil workers.[Such a policy would be at odds with IMF and World Bank prescriptions, were those less than venerable institutions able to dictate Venezuelan policy, as they do elsewhere in Latin American. The IMF�s goal would be to cut, cut, cut, all salaries, and privatize, privatize, privatize, as they have recently done in Nicaragua, to produce what is the poorest nation in the hemisphere, after Haiti].
Lately,
[Chavez] has been replacing incompetent and corrupt civil servants with
army officers, who are better educated and strictly follow his orders.
On Dec. 3, Mr. Chavez won a new referendum giving him total control
over labor unions, the only remaining active opposition he faced.[What irks this author is that Chavez is outmaneuvering the US and the upper class in Venezuela, while relying on a relatively democratic process. Allende did not succeed in Chile, in large part, because he could not keep the military on his side. Chavez will not make that mistake. The referendum LEGALLY and DEMOCRATICALLY suspends the current leadership of the trade unions, who were in the pockets of the ruling elite, and had been for years. The referendum did not give Chavez �total control over the labor unions.� The current leadership has been suspended until new elections produce a new leadership, in 180 days. Chavez continually has relied on referenda and elections: His own election, supported twice by the majority of the voters (unlike the Bush�s pseudo - �election�); the election of a Constitutent Assembly, by the majority of voters, to write a new constitution, which itself was approved in a referendum by the majority of voters; the election of a majority of legislators, belonging to the same political party as Chavez, and now the dissolution of the corrupt union leadership by nationwide popular vote.]
Over the past 40 years, Venezuelans have had little experience with
free-market democracy where individual liberty and private
ownership are protected.[Of course there is no such thing as �free market democracy�. There is democracy, the �rule of the people�, and there is so-called �free market� capitalism, where both markets and the political system, are manipulated by plutocrats. Plutocracy is the system which prevails throughout Latin America, with the vast majority disenfranchised in practice, by their lack of sufficient money, or a strong enough voice to wrest power away from entrenched oligarchs.]
Instead they have been held hostage to mercantilism. Mr. Chavez is a Marxist president who will remain
popular as long as the population believes his promises of wealth
redistribution and as long as oil prices remain high.[There is no question: for Chavez to remain popular and to take his place in history, he must deliver. He must enact a genuine redistribution and restructuring of the economic levers in a society which have historically been dominated by a small social elite. Oil could help him. Only time will tell if his project is genuine, and if it is carefully enough conceived to be successful. Much will also depend on the world wide movement against the naked exploitation which the current international capitalist order wreaks upon the third world. The trick will be to forge links of solidarity, and to move democratically with popular support. Leaders who wish to emulate Chavez must (as he seems to be doing) navigate between 1) the extreme of Left Totalitarianism, following the failed Marxist Leninist models, and 2) the extreme of a disorderely, excessively decentralized society, which will allow foreign and local capitalists to gain their foothold, and ultimately regain dominance.]
The new Caracas-Havana axis will be President Bush's first hemispheric
challenge.[The Usurper, and Undemocratically SE-lected leader, George W. Bush, will try to fight genuinely democratic groups and leaders throughout the hemisphere---e.g., the Sandinistas, Hugo Chavez, and Bertrand Aristide in Haiti. --- End Message ---
