The left isn’t dead yet in Venezuela

[Judi Lynn]

The left isn’t dead yet in Venezuela
Raven Brown 12 December 2015

On December 6th Venezuelans headed to the polls and handed a blow to the legacy of Hugo Chavez and the Bolivarian Revolution. But, contrary to what the majority of media outlets are reporting, while it was damaging to the Revolution, chavismo was not dealt a death blow. The opposition, known as the Democratic Unity Roundtable (MUD), won a two-thirds majority, a landslide victory with 112 parliamentary seats, while the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) only won 55 seats. This puts the opposition in a position to roll back the socialist programs which make up the chavismo policy agenda and to submit President Nicolas Maduro, Chavez’s successor, to a referendum aimed to oust him from power.

After the results were announced, President Maduro said, quoting Chavez, “the counterrevolution triumphed yesterday… for now”, implying that the election was a short-term setback and that chavismo would ultimately triumph. MUD ran a very shallow campaign saying they were afraid of violence and human rights abuses, especially after the murder of opposition leader Luis Manuel Diaz on November 25th. The sentence, in early September, of Leopoldo Lopez to more than 13 years of prison (another prominent opposition leader arrested in February 2013), did help to underlie Maduro’s iron fist with the opposition. Many argue that MUD was not sincerely concerned about violence, or human rights abuses, but that they wanted the economic troubles most Venezuelan’s face to be their campaign advertising.

It is very telling that MUD did not run on policy issues but on the failures of the Maduro government to build a healthy economy. The MUD ran on the campaign slogan of “change” without specifying what exactly they would change. Thus, the election was more about the harsh economic problems that Venezuelans face than a real referendum on chavismo’s policies. There are plenty of legitimate reasons that Venezuelan’s have to be unhappy with the state of affairs in their country, and yet embracing the opposition’s without knowing its true political agenda is likely to make things more uncertain, and probably worse, for most Venezuelans.

Chavez’s initial victory was a response to the fact that poverty had nearly doubled in Venezuela between 1981 and 1994 as a direct result of the country’s internal and external debt and the adoption of Washington Consensus’ neoliberal policy prescriptions, which ended up shrinking the capacity of government to help people and redistribute the immense wealth of a petro-state. Again, it has been the economic situation what has changed Venezuelan’s mind.

More:
https://www.opendemocracy.net/democraciaabierta/raven-brown/left-isn-t-dead-yet-in-venezuela

[COLGATE4]

1. Stage of Grief: Denial Chapter: Two

[Marksman_91]

2. It may not be dead, but Chavismo itself has become corrupted, and it can't survive with that n/t

[FBaggins]

3. The election had little to do with "the left"

The left is doing just fine. This election (and very likely the upcoming recall in the Spring) was about incompetence and corruption.

The opposition was made up of left, right, and center... many of whom agree on little more than the simple fact that Maduro needs to go.