Sunday 14 July 2019

Venezuela: The Bolivarian Revolution is alive and kicking

Venezuela: The Bolivarian Revolution is alive and kicking



The Rise of Simon Bolivar – The Revolutionary



Simon Bolivar, the Criollo aristocrat who championed the revolutionary cause for Hispanic America, lives and breathes in the hearts and minds of every patriotic Venezuelan.

In 1821, the quest for the Independence of Venezuela was concluded at the Battle of Carabobo, when Bolivar and his revolutionaries defeated the Spanish army to secure Caracas. He subsequently, proceeded to liberate, from Spanish Colonialism, the modern States of Peru, Columbia, Ecuador, Bolivia, and Panama.  Thus, the struggle for Freedom and Independence from Imperialist Colonialism in Hispanic America had set its course.

For two centuries the battle for the control of Latin America and its vast resources continue to this day as Venezuela fights to defend its Independence from modern day colonial powers. Depending on whom one engages the fight for Dictatorship? or Western style Democracy is neither here nor there. Like most sovereign nations, Venezuela is no exception when Revolution is required to free its people from the tyranny of subjugation and oppression delivered by the Ideology of Colonialism. The birth of the Bolivarian Revolution became the catalyst for Social and Political change in Venezuela.

In the late 1980s, the Neoliberal policies (primarily the increase in petrol prices that offset a rise in the costs of Public Transport) of the Perez administration caused widespread Social protests in the Capital of Caracas that culminated in repressive violence from the military and police which resulted in over 3000 deaths.  (As an aside, imagine a country with vast oil reserves, increasing the price of locally produced petrol, which makes the already poor majority practically poverty stricken) Constitutional rights were suspended, the economy tanked, several newspapers, television and radio stations had been shut down or censored and a State of Emergency was imposed.  In 1992, two failed coup attempts, by the military leader Hugo Chavez was averted, with the coup plotters, imprisoned. In 1993, Perez was impeached under a cloud of corruption and fraud charges. He was succeeded by Rafael Caldera in 1994, who pardoned Chavez for his role in the coup attempts.

Hugo Chavez, the Ultimate Socialist

Chavez started his political career with the formation of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV), who came to power in 1998, due to his widely popular policies on Social Transformation, which spurred a renewal of the Constitution and subsequently giving rise to the Bolivarian Revolution. His focus on Social Reform and Economic development saw the radical Nationalisation and regulation of the Oil Producing company PDVSA as the driving force for economic emancipation of the poor. Prior to Chavez coming into power, poverty was a National crisis, with 43% of the population being subjected to it. Furthermore, 17% of the population was living under extreme poverty conditions, i.e. living under $1 per day. Chavez's Social and Economic Development Policies were employed with the specific purpose of uplifting the poor and poverty stricken millions.

From the time Chavez came to power in 1998 to his untimely death in 2013, Venezuela prospered economically, primarily from the proceeds of PDVSA Oil sales on the back of a favourable oil price. Chavez’ Policies were largely centred on a dozen Social and Economic “Missions”, like the Mission Sucre (Free Higher Education), Mission Bario Adentro (Healthcare), Mission Corazón Adentro (Arts and Culture), Mission Viviendas (Construction, affordable housing), etc. Under this new Socialist Model, Poverty and Extreme Poverty were reduced from 43% to 26% and 17% to 7% respectively, School attendance (due to the introduction of various food programs) increased from 45% to 90% of school going students. The number of College Student enrolment quadrupled from 900 000 to over 4 Million. Illiteracy was totally eradicated by 2005. The number of pensioners receiving grants increased from 370 000 to 3,2 Million. As a result of free Universal Healthcare, the rate of infant mortality dropped by an astounding 50% between 1999 and 2017. The Mission Viviendas achieved a total of 1, 6 Million homes built for the poor, in the period between 2013 and 2017. Contrary to popular belief, housing was provided at affordable cost, and not given away freely.

By virtue of his vision to transfer power to the people, Hugo Chavez committed to amend the constitution to introduce a Constituent Assembly that is more representative of the people.  The Constituent Assembly would serve as a voice of the people, where Constitutional amendments are likewise promulgated. This Assembly would take the form of a 50% territorial and a 50% Sectorial representation. The Territorial representation would be elected, by secret vote, per Municipality, while Sectorial representation, also by secret vote, would be represented by eight Social and Economic Sectors, namely; Labour, Academia, Indigenous Cultures, Private Business, Agriculture, Fisheries, the Disabled and Senior Citizens. The objective was to restrict political interference of Sovereign ownership of the country. The Venezuelan government commits up to 70% of its budget to Social Programs for the integration of the poor into the mainstream economy. 

Born Free, Sanctioned to Death

By 2017, the Venezuelan economy had shrunk by an excruciating 87% due to a decline in oil sales and a deflated valuation in the Bolivar. The fact that the situation was a result of a mixture of internal and external factors did not matter to the minds of neoliberal, capitalist thought proponents. As oil prices plummeted in 2014, income from oil sales relatively declined, causing a knock-on effect on the economy that stifled local production Industries. The external political attacks on the Bolivar, by means of extracting and thereby reducing the availability of cash, caused its value to plummet as the currency became scarce internally. One of the preferred tools to destabilize targeted economies is currency manipulation, and the activities of credit rating agencies, which, although they have neither democratic legitimacy nor oversight, have a significant impact on the financial ability of States to issue bonds and obtain financing. The rating agencies, Standard & Poor’s, Moody’s and Fitch, have consistently issued negative ratings based on the country’s ability to make external payments, conveniently forgetting that the Government has a history of excellent debt repayments. (By any measure of integrity, these are the same rating agencies that rated the CDO and CDS derivatives healthy AAA+ ratings just before the financial crises of 2008, when in fact these investment instruments were worthless, as they were the primary cause of the financial meltdown.)

As the economy is primarily dependant on Oil sales revenue, much of this revenue is in turn used to import goods that are not locally produced. As a result of the reduction in revenue from oil sales in 2014, available capital for imported goods was relatively reduced in line with this loss in Revenue. In conjunction with this, the US government applied Economic sanctions, i.e. Executive Order 13692, which restricted any Financial Institution in the West from doing business with the Venezuelan government.  This followed a string of additional sanctions by Trump in April 2017; March, May, November of 2018; and January, March, and April of 2019.They target income generated from Venezuela’s oil exports, assets abroad; access to imported goods and credit; and the ability to secure, reschedule, or repay loans. Foreign banks are crucial to U.S. economic hegemony. USD is the currency of choice in international trade, making Venezuelan economic trade subject to the USD. To avoid penalties, the banks enforce U.S. mandates on transactions involving dollars.

From 2016, banks refused to handle Venezuelan transactions. They included various global Institutions like Commerzbank of Germany, Credit Suisse, Germany’s Deutsche Bank, Citibank, etc. Sanctions in January 2019 barred U.S. financial institutions from facilitating foreign sales of Venezuelan oil and gold. The effects of sanctions imposed by Presidents Obama and Trump with unilateral measures by Canada and the European Union have directly and indirectly aggravated the shortages of life saving medicines. To the extent that economic sanctions have caused delays in distribution and thus contributed to many deaths. In his report to the UN, the envoy Alfred de Zayas, had this to say to emphasise the effect of economic asphyxiation through sanctions and embargoes:

“Economic asphyxiation policies are comparable to those already practised in Chile, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Nicaragua and the Syrian Arab Republic. In January 2018, Middle East correspondent of The Financial Times and The Independent, Patrick Cockburn, wrote on the sanctions affecting Syria: ‘There is usually a pretence that foodstuffs and medical equipment are being allowed through freely and no mention is made of the financial and other regulatory obstacles making it impossible to deliver them. An example of this is the draconian sanctions imposed on Syria by the US and EU which was meant to target President Bashar al-Assad and help remove him from power. They have wholly failed to do this, but a UN internal report leaked in 2016 shows all too convincingly the effect of the embargo in stopping the delivery of aid by international aid agencies. They cannot import the aid despite waivers because banks and commercial companies dare not risk being penalised for having anything to do with Syria. The report quotes a European doctor working in Syria as saying that the indirect effect of sanctions makes the import of the medical instruments and other medical supplies immensely difficult, near impossible. In short, Economic sanctions kill.’



The Political Escobars of Venezuela


In 2015 the opposition used its support from large producers, importers and distributors to create artificial scarcity of food and hygiene products. Seemingly, international criminal groups were fingered for the theft of public resources, food items and medicines, which have found their way into neighbouring countries. There have been cases of stashing of food, medicines and personal hygiene items, where these items were then released onto the black market.  Opposition groups were found to be responsible for the widespread sabotage of public property, arson attacks on public buildings, buses, ambulances, hospitals, maternity wards and other institutions, destruction of electricity and telephone lines, para-militarism in some regions  and other violent acts equivalent to terrorism.

On the road to Recovery

Since the collapse of the economy around 2014, the government has introduced various policy measures to repair the damage that was done by the internal and external factors mentioned above. Here are a few of those crucial measures enacted:

Due to the lack of capital, a series of repayment plans with various creditors were put in place, e.g. the Maduro government has pledged to repay any outstanding debt to various stakeholders, with crude oil.

Trade agreements and loans to the tune of approximately $5Billion were signed off with China to rebuild the economy.

49.9% of the State owned company PDVSA was transferred to the Russian oil company, Rosneft, in the form of a $1,5Billion loan.

In 2018, the government expanded gold mining (in view of the fact that the Bank of England literally stole $1,36Billion worth of Venezuelan gold holdings) and other metals like nickel, diamonds, iron ore, aluminium and bauxite to Russian and Chinese mining companies.

The economy was heavily dependent on the import of its food and medicine supplies, thus policies were introduced to diversify the economy for the local Production of basic goods essential to the population; in turn reducing the country’s import bill and creating much needed local employment.

In August 2018 the government decreed that all international trade would be conducted in Euros and Chinese Yuan to bypass the US dollar system. In addition to this, a new internal currency, the Sovereign Bolivar was introduced. This would subsequently be pegged to a Cryptocurrency, the Petro, which would be equivalent to the value of one barrel of oil.

The government is in the process of removing its dependence from the Western backed SWIFT International trade system, by adopting the new Chinese system of trade, the CIPS (Chinese International Payment System). 

And then there is the Constitutional decree; the Government has Gazetted the Chavez proposal of a Constituent Assembly that transfers Constitutional power to the people. By means of this political vehicle, a group representative of the electorate is now able to review and amend the Venezuelan Constitution that suites the greater populace needs. A big fuck you very much to their Imperial neighbors up North.

Conclusion

The United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) of Hugo Chavez and Nicolas Maduro has won a total of 26 regional and national elections since Chavez came to power in 1998. This overwhelming success was repeatedly attributed to a majority vote of more than 70% of the electorate. Rumours of election fraud and vote rigging were nullified by the endorsement of the Carter Foundation and International Election Monitors who praised the electronic electoral system as the best in the world. Therefore, regardless of what the International community have to say of the Maduro Government, the electorate has the final say, and they have done so 26 times over. 

What Hugo Chavez thought was a brilliant idea of nationalizing the Oil Company PDVSA back in the nineties, turned out to be the Achilles heel of the Venezuelan economy. In hindsight very few measures were put in place to backup the oil industry in the event of a global downturn of the oil price. Although his intentions of ensuring the larger, poorer populace benefited from the production and sale of the country’s energy hydrocarbons (approximately 300 Billion barrels of oil and 5,6 Billion cubic meters (bcm) of natural gas), his economic policies were lacking in  detail of this noble intention. 

Coupled with a very low oil price and burdening US and European economic sanctions, his policy failures came to bear. With the largest oil and gas reserves worldwide, it’s clear why the US is salivating at regime change of the leftist, socialist government for a Western backed puppet that would satisfy their Imperial whims. Suffice it to say, it hasn’t and probably never will come to pass, because with Russian military and Chinese economic aid, the People of Venezuela aren't giving up just yet.