Venezuela: The Lies Never Stop

Tulio: Left wing economics aren’t working out in Latin America either. Let’s face it, Latin America is dysfunctional whether it’s run by the left or right. I know Robert is a Chavista and all but the results speak for itself. They are probably a few clicks away from outright civil war.

The poster’s problem is that he gets all his Venezuela news from the Western media. You will not read one true thing about that country in the Western media. It is an all out propaganda war from Day One. If you want to read the truth about Venezuela, go to Venezuelanalysis. It’s all straight up 10 Yes, it is a civil war because the Right is running through the streets rioting, killing people, burning down buildings, buses and police cars. Let me ask you something. Suppose when Obama was in, Republicans went on a rampage all over the US, rioting, burning stuff down, killing people, firing guns, setting up snipers, setting off bombs, throwing grenades, killing lots of cops. Would you blame Obama for that? Because that is exactly what the commenter is doing. This is part of the Right’s project down there. They lost the election, so they are trying to overthrow the government by force. What exactly is the state supposedly do about what is in effect a rightwing insurgency? What they are trying to do is to create so much chaos that the military steps in and does a rightwing coup. Barring that, they are creating so much chaos and disorder that the US steps in with the military, invades and overthrows the Chavistas in the name of humanitarian intervention. It’s the exact same scheme we pulled in Syria when we turned ISIS and Al Qaeda loose on secular regime. The US government’s official policy in Venezuela now is regime change. Mattis himself said so. The riots, destruction, arson, murders and political assassinations are all being coordinated with the US. We are the cause of all that violence down there. There are no poor results of Chavismo. Things were booming along for many years. The rightwing has been sabotaging and boycotting the economy since Day One. Norway is far more socialist than Venezuela. China is orders of magnitude more socialist than Venezuela. There’s nothing socialist at all about Venezuela. The economy is 10 All Chavismo did was take a lot of that oil revenue and spend it on the people. If you think that’s a failed model, I do not know what to say to you. After the oil price crashed, the government could no longer cover up for the business sector’s sabotage of the economy. There are shortages? How can there be shortages in a 10 The business sector is refusing to import products, and they are refusing to make products in short supply. You need to go study how Kissinger and Nixon blew up the Chilean economy. They did the exact same thing, down to the letter. This is the Chilean Model down to the letter.

“We will make the Chilean economy scream. –  Henry Kissinger.

Every week they seize huge warehouses full of products that are being hoarded by the capitalists in order to create artificial shortages. You heard of a shortage of syringes? A warehouse full of 21 million syringes was recently seized. If you read the Venezuelan papers, these seizures happen all the time, maybe every other day. Why is there inflation? The capitalists have caused artificial shortages by hoarding stuff, refusing to produce stuff and refusing to import stuff. These artificial shortages of course caused inflation. This economic sabotage has been going on from Day One, but when the oil prices were high, the government could cover up for the Economic War by importing their own products and selling them to people for cheap. Hence the state covered up all the artificial shortages caused by the refusal to import and manufacture products. When the oil price crashed, the state no longer had the money to import goods to cover up for the shortages, and furthermore, the Economic War went into high gear. Furthermore, since Maduro has come in, he has made a hard turn to the Right from Chavez. His administration of full of rightwingers and representatives of the business sector. He caves to opposition demands over and over. They are always demanding hikes in the controlled prices, and he keeps raising them. No matter how much they raise the prices, the capitalists do not produce one more item. It’s all a scam. Keep in mind that the economic crash has occurred against the background of a hard right turn in the government under a government that is now about 5 The economy crashed as the government turned Right and filled the executive with people from the business sector. According to the poster’s logic, rightwing economics is responsible for the crash. That’s not really true either. Neither Right nor Left economics is responsible for the crash. The ministers from the business community can’t control the problems either. No one can. There is a problem with currency, but that was created by the capitalists too. Currency controls were put in because the capitalists were taking all their money out of the country. No country can put up with that for long. So currency controls were put in, but that causes a black market in currency. Price controls were put in because the capitalists staged a lockout strike that caused horrible shortages and sent prices skyrocketing. Incidentally, despite currency controls, the business community still takes $50 billion out of the country every year. Do you know how much more they would take out if the currency controls were taken off?  The system would probably collapse. The fake excuse all along was that price controls make it so the producing the price controlled products is not worthwhile. This is their fake excuse for the shortages. Now the price controls have been almost completely lifted, and they are still refusing to make stuff or import stuff. What’s their fake excuse now? I agree that the standard Communist model caused a lot of economic problems, but the lie is that Venezuela is a Communist country like Cuba or the USSR, and this is the cause of all the problems. It’s caused by “socialist failure.” Why isn’t socialism failing in Europe? Why isn’t it failing in China? Why isn’t it failing in most of the world that runs social democratic systems? The Chavistas were simply trying to produce a European style social democracy in Venezuela. Even that’s too much for the Venezuelan elite. I will have you know that the rightwing Venezuelans the poster cheers for are some of the racist people on Earth. The commenter is Black. I assure you that the people he cheers for hate him because he is Black. Their word for Chavez was Mono. That means monkey. They call him monkey because his White blood is mixed with Indian and Black. When they came into power, the first thing they did was take down the portrait of Bolivar because they said he looked too dark. They put up a new portrait that showed him as White as a Swede. These are the racists that this Black commenter is supporting. The government is screwing up badly by not floating the currency, but that’s not a Right versus Left thing so it’s not a fault of Left economics. It would be a very unpopular decision, and Maduro is a weak and not very good leader and he does not have the balls to put in. Hence I agree that the problems in part are caused by failures of the regime, but those failures having nothing to do with Right or Left economics. They’re not dealing with the currency problems, and that’s a failure on their part, but it has nothing to do with capitalism or socialism or any of that. The price controls were put in to fight inflation. The Right screams about inflation and about price controls. They took all the price controls off, and the prices went way up. Now they are screaming because the prices went up. They criticize the problem, and they attack the solution to the problem. You can’t win with these people. I agree that the Communist model leaves a lot to be desired, and the lie is that the problems of Cuba and the USSR are being replicated in Venezuela. It’s a lie because Venezuela never even made it to social democracy. Venezuela is a capitalist country through and through. I will ban any posters who attack Venezuela as a failure of Left economics because it’s nothing of the sort. Now if  you want to talk about problems with the Cuban model, go for it.  

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0 thoughts on “Venezuela: The Lies Never Stop”

  1. Inflation occurred because Venezuela took on huge amounts of external debt, and had to pay this back….(presumably this came from Chavez reforms)
    Price controls may solve that problem, but they decrease the incentive to supply goods (causing shortages).
    Seriously, Robert, you should look elsewhere to defend socialism.
    Not Venezuela.

    1. It is just social democracy. Debt is a huge problem all over the world. The Third World always has a huge debt problem.
      There is no socialism in Venezuela.
      I suppose you oppose the Chavez changes then? As they apparently could only be done with borrowed money? What do you suggest instead?
      My opinion: default on the debt. Iceland and Argentina did.
      Iceland, Argentina, Ireland, Spain, Greece, Italy, all those places had debt problems. Are all those failures of socialism?

      1. Robert- I much empathize with what Chavez had to do.
        He could not have raised taxes on the oligarchy, as they had a stranglehold on government.

    2. The Right’s Economic War caused the price controls in the first place. The Right staged a one year lockout strike and prices went through the roof. The price controls have been in since 2002 and there have never been any shortagets of anything.
      The business sector would not go along with the project. They defied the price controlled and refused to produce or import price controlled products since the day the controls were put in. The controls allowed for a modest profit but that was not enough for them. We had a wage price freeze under Nixon and there were no shortages.
      Anyway the price controls have almost all been removed and the Right is still refusing to make stuff or import stuff.
      They have been trying to sabotage this project from Day One and they finally succeeded.

      1. “The controls allowed for a modest profit but that was not enough for them.”
        Sadly that’s a testament to right-wing economics.
        It’s much like the current situation with Obamacare in the United States.
        There really is no free-market solution to those types of problems.

  2. not trying to be snarky:
    If Venezuela is just another capitalist country, why do you defend it?

    1. Well they were trying to do social democracy down there. They used a lot of the oil money to fund a lot of great programs for the people. They massively redistributed income from the rich down to the middle classes and the poor. But that’s not exactly socialism.
      I guess you are opposed to that. You oppose using oil money to help the people? You oppose redistributing money from the rich to the poor.
      The debt was never a problem until the economic mess.
      The problems of Venezuela are not caused by “socialism” or any of that bullshit.

    2. Yes, but Chavez wasn’t allowed to tax the Oligarchy, so he had to take on debt.
      The U.S. could foreseeably take on more debt to serve its poorest citizens because we have a high credit rating and the strongest dollar in the world.
      But is that really wise in a country like Venezuela?
      I am a Keynesian, some state run industries would be welcome but they should be limited.

  3. Robert
    Saying that the oligarchy acts petulant does not contradict right wing economics. That IS right wing economics. 🙂 !

  4. Venezuela depends almost entirely on oil revenue to subsidy its economy.
    Economically, Venezuela isn’t a lot different than those Gulf States. The reason it has a tougher time is because their oil production are much higher cost than Gulf oil, plus the Gulf States have stored up much more money over the years and invest overseas.
    I agree with Robert, the crisis in Venezuela isn’t a problem about communism/socialism. Quite the contrary, there wouldn’t have been a crisis if it were communism, because it would have produced no matter what, albeit on low productivity. See North Korea.
    However, Venezuela does need to diversify its economy, and work out some sustainable policies.

  5. Robert, I have two friends from Venezuela, a married couple, the female is white, the male is dark brown. I assure you they are not racist, they have never called me “mono” and they have been completely and 100% kind to me as long as I’ve known them. I have even visited them and stayed in their home and they have visited me and stayed in mine. Never seen their bank account but I’m pretty sure they are not rich, they are probably middle class by Venezuelan definition. They are 100% opposed to Chavismo. I don’t even know where they fall on the left-right continuum per se. They really don’t even talk much politics with me outside of opposing the condition their country is in. They are now living in Santiago, Chile where they worked and resided since the rise of Chavez, but frequently go to Venezuela to see family. I’m not an expert of Venezuelan internal affairs by any means. I’ve gotten a lot of my info directly from them. Neither of them seem “right wing” to me in any sense that I understand the term. They seem to want nothing more than a stable, functional and non-authoritarian government. I also see massive marches in Caracas. I can’t believe all those tens of thousands of people are rich, right wingers. When I see close up photos of the crowd, they look like just ordinary Venezuelans to me. You seem to be painting a broad brush here and assuming anyone against Chavismo is a hard right-winger.
    https://s.yimg.com/uu/api/res/1.2/n19sPMb82EDhIBZPnFlOug–/aD02MTk7dz0xMTAwO3NtPTE7YXBwaWQ9eXRhY2h5b24-/https://s1.yimg.com/uu/api/res/1.2/nxVDyfkppUVamou_XbZ7aA–/dz0xMTAwO2g9NjE5O3RhZz1vcmlnaW5hbDthcHBpZD15bmV3cw–/http://streambe.zenfs.com/streambe/streambe_701e8e79-0687-3fce-8148-a667ce920929–1399436008.jpeg

    1. When economy is in trouble, it’s always easy to get a crowd marching. Especially when the US government is leading the advocate of free market around the world. After all, who doesn’t want their country as rich as the US?
      That is a game that has been played successfully dozens of time already. Problem is, while people hoping their country become the US after adapting the US way, it might very well end up resembling the Philippines, a duplication setup by the USA itself….

  6. And I never said socialism is the problem. I have to remind you I believe in leftist economics. I’m opposed to authoritarianism.

  7. Serious attempts to implement social democratic measures seem to always run up against capitalist resistance in the form of investment strike and capital flight. How to get around that?

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