Venezuela: the Left's favourite 'socialist paradise' is sliding into poverty and dictatorshipBy Tim Stanley
How are things coming along in Venezuela, that paradise of democratic socialism? You must remember Venezuela. That's the country that Diane Abbott said was showing "a better way", which Owen Jones told us had proven that "you can lead a progressive, popular government that says no to neo-liberalism"? The apple in the eye of Marx, the last hope for humanity in a world of fat cat banksters and austerity Scrooges. The Copacobana of the international revolution. Viva!
How is Venezuela doing? Well, tens of thousands of protesters are in the streets, the army's been sent to crush revolt, an opposition leader has been arrested and supporters of the government just shot dead a former beauty queen. It's going to hell in a handcart, that's how it's doing.
After Hugo Chavez died he was replaced by Nicolas Maduro, a man of considerably less talent who bears a striking resemblance to an obese Burt Reynolds. A Venezuelan friend explains that Chavez's titanic personality held his revolution together, reconciling its various contradictions with his charismatic nationalism. By contrast, "Maduro has let the worst people take over" – surrendering authority to radical mobs and corrupt officials in a bid to keep them all on side. The result? Bad economic management, inflation at 56 per cent, rising unemployment, food shortages, shocking levels of crime and an increasing reliance on government control of the press.
The Left always insisted under Chavez that some meddling in the media was necessary because it was otherwise controlled by dark, foreign forces (read: people who disagreed with Chavez). But Maduro is now threatening to expel CNN, which is about the fairest and most balanced news source on the planet. CNN's crime was to report on the recent protests that have engulfed the capital. And good for CNN. Coverage on what's happening in Venezuela has been eclipsed by events in Ukraine, so for those who don't know here's what's happening on the ground.
- On February 12, the opposition held a massive rally that resulted in bloodshed. Three people were killed, including two opposition protesters and one pro-government activist. The National Guard was dispatched to prevent further rallies.
- Violence quickly spread out across the country. Some 3,000 troops were sent to pacify the city of San Cristobal, where the government also cut off transport links and the internet.
- Opposition leader, Leopoldo Lopez, was forced to hand himself over to the National Guard on charges of inciting violence.
- The President blamed America for starting the conflict and has expelled US officials.
- Local TV stations have gone into lockdown and simply aren't reporting the fighting. Venezuelans are relying on social media, which includes some false reporting. The opposition lack a single national TV outlet to be heard on.*
The crisis hasn't come from nowhere. It is the inevitable product of Chavez's brand of socialism, which created a base of support by convincing the urban poor that they were the victims of a conspiracy by the rich. The base has been kept on side with social services bought with the use of oil, fostering a false economic boom and a fantasy of progress. Beneath the surface, civil society has been allowed to stagnate. Now that Chavez is dead and the magic gone, there is anarchy. We might even ask if the elections that put Chavezism in office were ever truly legitimate. Yes, they were technically democratic (although the opposition complained that the odds were rigged against them) but the Chavezistas were never really committed to democracy in the orthodox, liberal sense. They were constructing a new order out of clientism. It's astonishing that their supporters in the West couldn't see this, that they deluded themselves that Hugo was building a Latin American Sweden.
And perhaps the breaking of the spell accounts for some of the relative quietness about what's happening right now in Venezuela. Some Left-wing commentators understandably don't wish to comment: one Labour MP appeared to raise the threat of legal action when the subject was raised on Twitter. The European and American enthusiasm for Chavez was born out of an understandable, sympathetic desire to see a country defy the neo-liberal model and go it alone – to turn away from the US, a power that has so often meddled in Latin America with appalling results. But the slow collapse of Venezuela into lawlessness demonstrates that the economic facts of life cannot be ignored. You can't buy a democracy, you can't bribe people to build a paradise. And when the money runs out, all that holds the new state together is force.
The government suggests that Genesis Carmona, the 22-year old former beauty queen murdered this week, was the victim of a stray bullet fired from her own side. The protesters say she was gunned down by pro-government supporters on motorbikes. The test of a true democracy would be a full, transparent inquiry and the culprits being brought to justice. Will that happen in Maduro's Venezuela? Unlikely. A relative asked, "How long are we going to live like this? How long do we have to tolerate this pressure with them killing us?" The answer is probably "for as long as Maduro can get away with it."
This, comrades, is how every experiment in Marxism ends.
*I could've phrased this better and have been rightly challenged about it on Twitter. But, as you can read here, the Venezuelan networks are charged with not fairly reporting the crisis and Venezuelans have to rely on Colombian TV for coverage – which the government has tried to censor. The situation has eroded enormously since the 2013 elections.
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/timstanley/100260605/venezuela-the-lefts-favourite-socialist-paradise-is-sliding-into-poverty-and-dictatorship/http://
