Fred Fuentes says: In what is an other wise OK article, Andreína Chávez claims Venezuela’s communes "have become the backbone of the country’s political life." This and other similar claims are often made by the pro-Maduro left to present his government as somehow progressive or socialist. But they never present any data to prove this is the case. That is because it doesn't exist.
Instead, if we look at the Ministry of Communes website, we see that communal councils (which are the basic units of the communes) are on the steep decline. Here are the numbers provided: * Since 2008, 49,183 communal councils have at some point been registered. The elected bodies of these have to be renewed at least every three years in a citizen's assembly in order to remain active. * The figures for communal councils whose authorities have been renewed in the past three years are as follows: 14,103 (2023), 9,046 (2024), 2,207 (up to Oct 24, 2025) The decline is self-evident * These numbers also reveals that only just over half of all communal councils (25,356) have been able to maintain the bare minimum of activity of holding a citizen's assembly once every three years in order to be classified as "active". How exactly "the communal movement is to expand production to every corner of Venezuela through economic communal circuits" when the government's own figures show the number of communal councils are crumbling is never explained. ________________________________ My response: Former president Hugo Chavez placed great importance on the communes. After his death in 2013, support for the communes seemed to decline. During the most acute phase of the economic crisis, many communal councils became inactive. But recently Maduro has once again been promoting communes. The figure of 14,103 communal councils holding citizen's assemblies to elect a new leadership in 2023 presumably reflects this. The fact that communal councils were reactivated at a slower rate in subsequent years reflects the uneven political consciousness and organisation in different localities. The fact that only 25,356 out of 49,183 communal councils have held assemblies to elect a new leadership during the period between 2023 and October 2025 is an indication of this unevenness. It suggests that only about half of the communal councils are active to some degree. This unevenness is a problem, but the figures still indicate that a significant part of the population lives in areas with active communal councils. Is the glass half empty? Or is it half full? Chris Slee -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. View/Reply Online (#39968): https://groups.io/g/marxmail/message/39968 Mute This Topic: https://groups.io/mt/116992054/21656 -=-=- POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. #4 Do not exceed five posts a day. -=-=- Group Owner: [email protected] Unsubscribe: https://groups.io/g/marxmail/leave/13617172/21656/1316126222/xyzzy [[email protected]] -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
