jat
2017-07-10 01:35:31 UTC
Venezuela descends deeper into a political and economic crisis every
day. The death toll rises relentlessly, and the vicious street battles
show no signs of abating.
On June 27, looters trashed the city of Maracay; they burned shops,
public transport stations, government buildings, and homes in a single
night of destruction. Two days later, Barquisimeto had its turn.
The world’s media, overwhelmingly hostile to the Bolivarian process,
sneer at President Nicolás Maduro’s rhetoric while presenting the
right-wing parties, which certainly launched this wave of violence, as
defenders of democracy. This definition of democracy apparently allows
whole populations to fall into poverty and illness, with nearly one
hundred people left to die in the streets.
Meanwhile, the international left has accepted the explanations
government spokespersons offer, still believing that the enemy of my
enemy is my friend. Thus, when a helicopter attacked government
buildings on June 28, some observers simply added the event to the
catalog of right-wing violence.
It is, unsurprisingly, far more complicated than that.
Oscar Pérez, a retired officer of the state security services, piloted
the helicopter. Pérez has close ties to ex–Interior Minister Miguel
Rodríguez Torres, whom Maduro dismissed in 2014. Torres, like the
majority of the current cabinet and around half of Venezuela’s state
governors, belongs to the military. He also leads one of a number of
Chavista factions angling for power.
Behind a façade of governmental unity, another struggle is developing,
but none of the groups are fighting to continue the revolutionary
project or to reconstruct the mass movement that saved it after the
attempted coup and the bosses’ strikes of 2002–3.
The opposition is also split into rival factions. Some advocate dialogue
with the president, while others, especially the group that Leopoldo
Lopez and his partner Liliana Tintori lead, almost certainly support the
most violent street fighters. They aim not only to get rid of Maduro but
also to destroy Chavismo itself.
https://jacobinmag.com/2017/07/venezuela-maduro-helicopter-attack-psuv-extractivism-oil
day. The death toll rises relentlessly, and the vicious street battles
show no signs of abating.
On June 27, looters trashed the city of Maracay; they burned shops,
public transport stations, government buildings, and homes in a single
night of destruction. Two days later, Barquisimeto had its turn.
The world’s media, overwhelmingly hostile to the Bolivarian process,
sneer at President Nicolás Maduro’s rhetoric while presenting the
right-wing parties, which certainly launched this wave of violence, as
defenders of democracy. This definition of democracy apparently allows
whole populations to fall into poverty and illness, with nearly one
hundred people left to die in the streets.
Meanwhile, the international left has accepted the explanations
government spokespersons offer, still believing that the enemy of my
enemy is my friend. Thus, when a helicopter attacked government
buildings on June 28, some observers simply added the event to the
catalog of right-wing violence.
It is, unsurprisingly, far more complicated than that.
Oscar Pérez, a retired officer of the state security services, piloted
the helicopter. Pérez has close ties to ex–Interior Minister Miguel
Rodríguez Torres, whom Maduro dismissed in 2014. Torres, like the
majority of the current cabinet and around half of Venezuela’s state
governors, belongs to the military. He also leads one of a number of
Chavista factions angling for power.
Behind a façade of governmental unity, another struggle is developing,
but none of the groups are fighting to continue the revolutionary
project or to reconstruct the mass movement that saved it after the
attempted coup and the bosses’ strikes of 2002–3.
The opposition is also split into rival factions. Some advocate dialogue
with the president, while others, especially the group that Leopoldo
Lopez and his partner Liliana Tintori lead, almost certainly support the
most violent street fighters. They aim not only to get rid of Maduro but
also to destroy Chavismo itself.
https://jacobinmag.com/2017/07/venezuela-maduro-helicopter-attack-psuv-extractivism-oil
--
/jat
Knowledge will set you free
El conocimiento te hará libre
/jat
Knowledge will set you free
El conocimiento te hará libre