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What's really happening in Venezuela and why are Venezuelan people going through a crisis right now, a long anti-american imperialism (must-read) thread:
First you should know that Venezuela is a south american country who shares borders with Colombia, Brazil and Guyana. It's a country with a population of 28M people, their main ressource is oil, it's the country with the biggest oil reserves in the world.
Hugo Chávez (on the left) held power from 1999 until his death in 2013. Venezuela under Chávez, has experimented with process of social and economic reform using constitutional and electoral means. Chávez, called it the "Bolivarian Revolution,” it is now also called Chavismo.
During his presidency, the country saw a referendum on a constitutional assembly, the election of that assembly, a referendum to ratify the new constitution, a new election under that constitution, an attempt to use a provision in the constitution to recall Chavez-
and two additional presidential elections, all of which were won by Chavez's government. To say that Chavismo's popularity and that of Chavez himself has been tested at the polls is an understatement.
As often occurs whenever a country runs afoul of the U.S., Chavez was despite his numerous electoral victories, presented as a dictator, thanks to a demonization of him in the country's private media and the systematically negative coverage of his government across Western news.
a good exemple of western media lies, the deaths during the opposition led protests, here's a guide to understand them https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Heres-Your-Guide-to-Understanding-Protest-Deaths-in-Venezuela-20170422-0016.html
A CIA backed coup was attempted in 2002, Hugo Chávez was detained for 47 hours and Pedro Carmona took power. The U.S. and Spain had quickly recognised Carmona's government. https://venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/800
When word began to spread that Chávez had not resigned, Chávez supporters surrounded the presidential palace and demanded his return. The pro-Chávez Presidential Guard retook Miraflores without firing a shot, leading to the re-installation of Chávez as president.
When coup and media campaigns failed to upend the government or silence its mouthpiece, the opposition resorted to economic warfare. This war has had several phases: a national strike in 2002-2003 brought Venezuela's state-run oil company, PDVSA, to a halt, denying-
the government it's main source of revenue. But despite their personal suffering, the company's lower-ranking officials remained loyal to Chavez (as did many of the middle ranks), stepping up to replace the striking managers and engineers in order to get the oil flowing again.
Empire Files: Abby Martin Meets the Venezuelan Opposition:
Now why is Venezuela going through an economic crisis ? as we already know their main ressource is oil, but a precipitous drop in the price of oil occured in 2015. The oil price drop of 2015 was a global phenomenon. Since the formation of OPEC in the 1970s, the Saudi Kingdom-
has been able to use its immense reserves to undermine other oil-producing countries' attempts to maintain a high and stable price for petroleum. The Saudi Kingdom can turn the tap up or down and change the entire global economy to benefit its own geopolitical agenda and that of-
its U.S. patron. It did so in the late 1970s to offset lowered production in Iran after the 1979 revolution. And it did so again in 2015,response to the success of the Iran-U.S. nuclear deal. The most severe effects were felt by the United States' enemies: Russia, Iran, Venezuela
So to do shorter, the U.S and Saudi Arabia are declaring an economic war to Venezuela simply because the government decided to not be exploited by western forces like most of the global south is. This was the first economic attack on Venezuela.
Western forces have started to sanction venezuela since 2018 but trump's administration in 2019, went a step higher and applied additional economic sanctions in mainly: the petroleum, gold, mining, food and banking industries.
It would be too long and complicated to go in details for the sanctions so i'm gonna link articles at the end of the thread, however you should know that experts have qualified them as "sociopathic" and "genocidal" and it's even more true during a pandemic.
here's a short conversation about how the Venezuelan's governement is coping with the food sanctions and how the U.S. is trying to starve venezuelan poeple.
Now let's see how recently the U.S. is forcing aggression and imperialism on Venezuela. This is Juan Guaidó, the U.S. backed right wing self proclaimed Venezuelan president, as you can see on these photos he's with Bolsonaro and Trudeau, both countries who sanctioned Venezuela.
this man has already collaborated with western forces and is in favor of an american intervention in Venezuela. Juan Guaidó has been appointed as the coup leader so western forces could easily loot Venezuela.
He is the face of today's american imperialism on Venezuela.
Maduro is far from being perfect and his socialism is flawed, but it's important to understand that today, he is the only solution to counter imperialism. A perfect exemple is Honduras, who is being ruined by the "US-backed right-wing coup regime"
Right now supporting any other solution than Maduro is clearly wrong. The situation that prevails is not the result of too much socialism, but too little, and any path that attempts to split the difference between socialism and capitalism will endure the worst of both worlds.
Links if you want to know more about Venezuelan politics:
1. important google doc with lots of links in it https://docs.google.com/document/d/1LvHlf5LfND7zzipltzuifwR_7J2ilFCMJEvAA3wluGE/edit
2. for Venezuelan politics
https://venezuelanalysis.com
3.for politics in general
https://thegrayzone.com/
4. for SA politics https://www.telesurenglish.net/index.html
1. important google doc with lots of links in it https://docs.google.com/document/d/1LvHlf5LfND7zzipltzuifwR_7J2ilFCMJEvAA3wluGE/edit
2. for Venezuelan politics
https://venezuelanalysis.com
3.for politics in general
https://thegrayzone.com/
4. for SA politics https://www.telesurenglish.net/index.html
