Tensions exist within the broad Chavista movement over the ruling government party sometimes acting as if they were under siege and acting arrogantly towards the PCV and PTT - and they are under siege. The danger is this creates an impression for international leftists to form a misunderstanding of the struggle in Venezuela. Some may tend to consider as valid any criticisms against President Maduro and the PSUV made by the VCP. This is further compounded by ultra-left Trotskyist elements in Venezuela such as Marea Socialista, which use left rhetoric to unite with the right against the Chavista government.
It is certainly true abuses have occurred under Maduro's administration as well as his predecessor Cha'vez. But no head of state or ruling group can be held solely responsible for all actions of all officials in the country. We should not fall for the double standard that the US and its corporate media sell: when a cop abuses someone here, he is called a bad apple; when a cop in a country the US seeks to overthrow abuses someone, it is an indictment of the alleged totalitarian dictatorial regime.
We must also emphasize that unlike the US, Venezuela seriously prosecutes police abuse, with vastly more police convicted and sent to prison. A total of 540 had been charged since August 5, 2017, with 426 actually imprisoned. In contrast, in the US, where police shoot an average of 1000 people a year, for the whole 15-year period 2005-2017, 28 police have been convicted for murder or manslaughter.
No solution to the crisis in Venezuela without ending the blockade
Although PCV leader Figuera allows, "we see imperialism as the main enemy of the Venezuelan people," his APR coalition does not present measures how it would fight imperialism more effectively. As Venezuelan economist Pasqualina Curcio points out, there is no solution to the crisis Venezuela faces outside of ending the US-EU blockade and looting of Venezuela's resources. Economist Mark Weisbrot with CEPR observes that the US sanctions are deliberately and explicitly designed toprevent economic recovery in Venezuela.
Curcio compares Venezuela's situation today with what the US inflicted on Allende's Chile, to "make the economy scream":
"The attacks of imperialism against our economy and therefore against the Venezuelan people have been accurate. They are attacking us at strategic points: 1) the price of the bolivar and 2) our main source of income, oil". But it is important to understand that the productive engines [of the economy] will not be turned on, neither for domestic consumption nor for export, until the attack on the bolivar is strategically stopped and oil production recovers in the short term."
Venezuela is a country long dependent economically on its oil industry, which made up 95% of its export earnings. This dependence on one or a few exports is hardly unique to Venezuela. Economies in the Global South have generally been distorted after imperial conquest to suit the needs of the "mother" countries. Overcoming the enforced dependency trap is a nearly insurmountable task. Struggling internally to rebuild an economy that is self-sustaining and developed requires the greater task of confronting the roadblocks externally imposed by the imperial powers: sanctions, blockade, and even the possibility of invasion, all to achieve regime change.
The APR calls for "a revolutionary way out of the crisis of the capitalist rentier model" without specifying concretely what this revolutionary way is. This requires the country to take on the might of the world imperialist system seeking to maintain neo-colonial dependency. Historically, the only countries in the world that effectively broke with that economic dependency have been the Soviet Union and China. Small countries such as Cuba, North Korea, and Libya, have established some economic independence but have been unable to overcome crushing blockades and/or US-backed coups to create developed economies.
A small country like Venezuela, under a major years-long economic attack and counter-revolution by the imperialist powers, is going to experience economic deterioration regardless of the revolutionary fiber of its leadership. Unlike Cuba, after its 1959 revolution, there is no Soviet Union to rely on to protect the country politically, economically, and militarily. Venezuela remains mainly on its own. Focusing economic blame on the Venezuelan government miseducates others, lets Western criminality off the hook, and sows illusions about an easy fix.
Building socialism in an imperialist world
Those who did not criticize Cha'vez for "building" socialism sooner, yet criticize Maduro for the same, are applying a double standard. For example, VCP leader Oscar Figuera criticizes the Maduro government for not building socialism. But then he still says, "from our point of view (and we said this when President Cha'vez made the proposal), Venezuela's [economic] development isn't mature enough to move toward socialism."
"Cha'vez, despite socialism not being built, was convinced that socialism was the path. Today, Chavista politicians talk about socialism in a rote way, but they are not committed to it. Government officials disassociate discourse and practice: they talk about socialism and national liberation, but in real terms the political and economic policies have a liberal bourgeois character."
(It is a gross mischaracterization to label the country's massive food programs, housing programs, and health care programs for millions of the working poor, let alone the Chavista people's political mobilizations, as "liberal bourgeois.")
With some legitimacy, Figuera's comment could be said of all currents and tendencies around the world, which over the last several decades, have advocated socialism.
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