Venezuela Superthread- Merged

[tomahawk6]

Chavez's power base are the poor.If they cant buy food then eventually they will blame Chavez. It will be interesting to see if his dictatorial powers are renewed in 18 months.A coup would be a welcome alternative.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/17/world/americas/17venezuela.html?_r=2&oref=slogin&pagewanted=all&oref=slogin

Food producers and economists say the measures announced late Thursday night, which include removing three zeroes from the denomination of Venezuela’s currency, are likely to backfire and generate even more acute shortages and higher prices for consumers. Inflation climbed to an annual rate of 18.4 percent a year in January, the highest in Latin America and far above the official target of 10 to 12 percent.

 

[Kirkhill]

Mr. Chávez, whose leftist populism remains highly popular among Venezuela’s poor and working classes, seemed unfazed by criticism of his policies. Appearing live on national television, he called for the creation of “committees of social control,” essentially groups of his political supporters whose purpose would be to report on farmers, ranchers, supermarket owners and street vendors who circumvent the state’s effort to control food prices.

He apparently doesn't read Russian OR French.  Venezuelan Famine next year.  Counter-Revolution 18 months.  Unless he gets as vicious as Stalin and Lenin.

 

[Timmy!]

A coup sounds about good. As long it is doesn't get out of control.

 

[Brad Sallows]

So far so good.  Now if the Yanks can just restrain themselves from putting their fingers in the pie, this generation of revolutionary dreamers can have one clear and inexcusable example of where the good intentions lead.

 

[geo]

Chavez's power base are the poor.If they cant buy food then eventually they will blame Chavez. It will be interesting to see if his dictatorial powers are renewed in 18 months.A coup would be a welcome alternative.

Look at Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwe..... the country is a complete and total basket case and he's still holding onto power... In Venezuela, Chavez has Oil.... you can survive many mistakes with petrodollars.

 

[TCBF]

He will need help, and who are the new Communists?

The enviromentalists.

All he has to do is declare himself a born-again Green, and the liberalist elite of the Western World will beat a path to his door.  Depending on his smarts, he could make Yassir Arafat look like an amatuer.

 

[geo]

Chavez has taken a stand..... anyone/anywhere but the US.

He provides oil to Cuba and he gets trained medical personnel from Cuba.
And we also know that he's good buddies with the President of Iran

 

[a_majoor]

You only have to look at North Korea to see how far you can go. For the price of a few sea cans of consumer goods; the Dear Leader can co opt enough people to maintian power. Although Chavez, Mugabe, Castro, Pol Pot and a depressig ctalogue of would be reformers always give lip service t the poor; make no mistake, they are in it fir the wealth and power that accues to them.

A counter revolution will have great difficulty pulling Chavez down, even a collapsed economy hasn't stopped any of his friends. The other factor is most people want stability, so even if a revolution suceeds, the people will be in no mood for radical economic reforms. They will welcome a dictator who can keed the peace (why do you think monsters like Lenin, Hitler or Napoleon were able to take control of their nations? They were ruthless enough to crush the opposition during periods of civil strife), and perhaps the best we could hope for is a "Pinochet" who will be a moderate ruler and provide stability to rebuild the nation a la Chile.

 

[geo]

... Hmmm.... Franco?

 

[NL_engineer]

So far so good.  Now if the Yanks can just restrain themselves from putting their fingers in the pie, this generation of revolutionary dreamers can have one clear and inexcusable example of where the good intentions lead.

The farther left Mr. Chavez goes, the better chance the US will get involved. 

If I remember correctly the US's policy on Communism haven't changed, so judging by past practise they will get involved in one form or another (economically most likely as most of the American troops are tied up in Iraq and Astan).

Also note that the US gets oil from Venezuela.

 

[seamus]

I think Mr. Chavez is doing a great job cleaning up Venezuela, it was a real crap hole. And how did it get like that, through American intervention. I hope he cleans up the place and the only thing that will cause more problems than his policies is western intervention.

 

[Kirkhill]

Thanks for the reality check Arthur - now my Monday morning is complete. It is also pouring buckets out here on the wet coast.  Do you have any more good news? 

 

[Colin Parkinson]

I got to work a bit in Venezuela back in 94, the country was controlled by about 5 families and corruption was crippling everything. Most of the mining was being done by illegal immigrants from neighbouring countries. Their opinion of Venezuelans was rather low, considering them lazy. The country is teeming with resources.

When I first heard about Chavez I thought this may help the country, but it’s pretty clear to me that Bolivar seeds are still sprouting and the country is about to get screwed royally. They should just give up and send us the woman and the rum now.

Food always becomes a weapon which despots like Chavez will use to control the population.

 

[rmacqueen]

The real winners will be the oil companies as any sort of unrest will cause the speculators on wall street to drive up the price of crude.  As undesirable as Chavez may be, the US will want a stable market rather than volatility which could prompt them to stick their noses in.

 

[tomahawk6]

One can only hope that the pro-democracy folks can topple Chavez, otherwise the future is bleak for millions of Venezuelans.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6699383.stm

 

[Greymatters]

There is a disconnect here somewhere.  If this is bad for the population, why does the news article include an AFP photo with the caption: "Many Venezuelans back Mr Chavez's decision"? 

 

[tomahawk6]

The MSM seem to be supporting Chavez.

 

[DBA]

There is a disconnect here somewhere.  If this is bad for the population, why does the news article include an AFP photo with the caption: "Many Venezuelans back Mr Chavez's decision"? 

There is allways some support for censorship from the side not being censored. It can feel empowering to silence critics of your position right up until you find yourself on the wrong side of some issue and realize the consequences of losing this freedom. In western countries some lament about how the press is biased or presents material to shape an issue but that is nothing compared to the facade created in countries without a free press where everything is government controlled. In any country without a free press any and all information about it should be considered highly suspect. That means any comparisons between them and countries with a free press should be taken with a grain of salt.

 

[Greymatters]

This was an article by the BBC...

 

[tomahawk6]

At the time I couldnt find any US articles because the US media supports Chavez and his drive to silence his critics and to control the Venezuelan media. Chavez is well on the way to creating a communist society - unless he is stopped by the people. Its pretty telling that the protests began with college students and have spread to high school students.