Thursday, March 19, 2015

George Ciccariello-Maher — What You Need to Know about Venezuela

There’s a lot of confusion about what’s going on in Venezuela. Following the death of President Hugo Chavez in 2013, the left-wing government of Nicolas Maduro has dealt with goods shortages, growing inflation, and civil unrest. Here’s George Ciccariello-Maher with some key points about the situation in the country and recent provocations from the United States.
Good overview. The reporting at Telesur is more in depth, but may be difficult to appreciate without some background, especially for those heavily exposed to neoliberal propaganda.

Jacobin Online
What You Need to Know about Venezuela
George Ciccariello-Maher | Assistant Professor of Political Science at Drexel University, Philadelphia

11 comments:

Peter Pan said...

Maduro is not doing good in the polls. If an election were held, he'd be gone.

Tom Hickey said...

@ Bob

Reference?

Peter Pan said...

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/12/10/us-venezuela-chavistas-idUSKBN0JO1C820141210

Only 24.5 percent of Venezuelans approved of Maduro in November, down from 50.6 percent at the start of his government, according to leading local pollster Datanalisis. Just around 16 percent of Venezuelans identified with the ruling party in July and November, the lowest levels in over a decade.

Tom Hickey said...

Datanalysis has 16% identifying with the ruling party and 19% with the opposition. Most people apparently don't have confidence in anyone. Unclear who would win an election tomorrow.

Only 40% identify with the opposition, but those identifying with an opposition party is a lot less.

The identification with the ruling party is 16% and closest party is 19%, apparently within the margin of error.

People are dissatisfied with the current situation, but less than a majority think that the opposition will do any better.

After all, none of the parties in Venezuela controls the price of oil and that is the chief economic problem.

So I don't see much of an argument that the currently ruling party is close to being out in the next election, which is not tomorrow at any rate.

This is the most recent data I could find — Jan 2, 2015. The one cited above is Dec 2014.

Director de Datanálisis revela que popularidad de Maduro cae a 22%

Marian Ruccius said...

Over half the mayors of major cities have been imprisoned and Maduro now rules by decree. Just another caudillo.

Magpie said...

No worries, Marian. When the marines land, they will set them free.

Peter Pan said...

If Obama were at 22% and had to face an election, would he win?

Venezuelans and Americans have a healthy distrust of their politicians, and this is what the polling is indicating.

Matt Franko said...

A wealthy industrialist person could probably buy some used paper milling equipment up here right now on the cheap and take it down there and open up a toilet paper factory and become a national hero and be swept into office for life...

Peter Pan said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Peter Pan said...

Would that be considered a clean sweep, or a clean swipe?

Tom Hickey said...

Over half the mayors of major cities have been imprisoned and Maduro now rules by decree. Just another caudillo.

By vote of majority in the Parliament, which gave him those powers in order to address the alleged US-mastermined coup.