Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Big_Bird]

I remember following the attempt to oust Chavez from power a few years back. I was sure he wasn't going to make it. The US had him in her sights and the big money was desperate to be rid of him. Giving the poor big ideas he was. Can't be having any of that. Got to nip that in the bud right away. And I just assumed he'd be chopped down. Not so. Much to my delight that defiant buggar is still on a roll! The best thing Latin America could do (as far as it's poverty stricken populace are concerned-not it's blood sucking elite of course) would be to throw off US influence - and maybe, just maybe, Chavez will get the ball rolling.

Ch�vez leads the way

In using oil wealth to help the poor, Venezuela's leader is an example to Latin America

Richard Gott in Caracas
Monday May 30, 2005
The Guardian

A muddy path leads off the airport motorway into one of the small impoverished villages that perch on the hills above Caracas, a permanent reminder of the immense gulf between rich and poor that characterises oil-rich Venezuela. Only 20 minutes from the heart of the capital city a tiny community of 500 families lives in makeshift dwellings with tin roofs and rough breeze-block walls. They have water and electricity and television, but not much else. The old school buildings have collapsed into ruin, and no children have received lessons over the past two years.

Two Cuban doctors are established in a temporary surgery here on the main track. They point out that preventative medicine is difficult to practise in a zone where the old clay sewer pipes are cracked and useless, leaving the effluent to flow unchecked down the hillside. The older inhabitants have been here for years; they first came from the country to take root on these steep hillsides in the 1960s. Many are morose and despairing, unable to imagine that their lives could ever change.

Others are more motivated and upbeat, and have enrolled in the ranks of the Bolivarian revolution of President Hugo Ch�vez. They expect great things from this government, and are mobilised to demand that official attention be focused on their village. If their petition to the mayor to repair their school and sewer pipes does not get answered soon, they will descend from their mountain eyrie to block the motorway, as they once did before during the attempted coup d'�tat of April 2002.

Hundreds of similar shanty towns surround Caracas, and many have already begun to turn the corner. In some places, the doctors brought in from Cuba are working in newly built premises, providing eye treatment and dentistry as well as medicines. Nearly 20,000 doctors are now spread around this country of 25 million people. New supermarkets have sprung up where food, much of it home-produced, is available at subsidised prices. Classrooms have been built where school dropouts are corralled back into study. Yet it is good to start with the difficulties faced by the motorway village, since its plight serves to emphasise how long and difficult is the road ahead. "Making poverty history" in Venezuela is not a simple matter of making money available; it involves a revolutionary process of destroying ancient institutions that stand in the way of progress, and creating new ones responsive to popular demands.

Something amazing has been taking place in Latin America in recent years that deserves wider attention than the continent has been accustomed to attract. The chrysalis of the Venezuelan revolution led by Ch�vez, often attacked and derided as the incoherent vision of an authoritarian leader, has finally emerged as a resplendent butterfly whose image and example will radiate for decades to come.

Most of the reports about this revolution over the past six years, at home and abroad, have been uniquely hostile, heavily influenced by politicians and journalists associated with the opposition. It is as if news of the French or the Russian revolutions had been supplied solely by the courtiers of the king and the tsar. These criticisms have been echoed by senior US figures, from the president downwards, creating a negative framework within which the revolution has inevitably been viewed. At best, Ch�vez is seen as outdated and populist. At worst, he is considered a military dictator in the making.

Yet the wheel of history rolls on, and the atmosphere in Venezuela has changed dramatically since last year when Ch�vez won yet another overwhelming victory at the polls. The once triumphalist opposition has retired bruised to its tent, wounded perhaps mortally by the outcome of the referendum on Ch�vez's presidency that it called for and then resoundingly lost. The viciously hostile media has calmed down, and those who don't like Ch�vez have abandoned their hopes of his immediate overthrow. No one is any doubt that he will win next year's presidential election.

The Ch�vez government, for its part, has forged ahead with various spectacular social projects, assisted by the huge jump in oil prices, from $10 to $50 a barrel over the past six years. Instead of gushing into the coffers of the already wealthy, the oil pipelines have been picked up and directed into the shanty towns, funding health, education and cheap food. Foreign leaders from Spain and Brazil, Chile and Cuba, have come on pilgrimage to Caracas to establish links with the man now perceived as the leader of new emerging forces in Latin America, with popularity ratings to match. This extensive external support has stymied the plans of the US government to rally the countries of Latin America against Venezuela. They are not listening, and Washington is left without a policy.

Ch�vez himself, a youthful former army colonel of 51, is now perceived in Latin America as the most unusual and original political figure to have emerged since Fidel Castro broke on to the scene nearly 50 years ago. With huge charm and charisma, he has an infinite capacity to relate to the poor and marginal population of the continent. A largely self-educated intellectual, the ideology of his Bolivarian revolution is based on the writings and actions of a handful of exemplary figures from the 19th century, most notably Sim�n Bol�var, the man who liberated most of South America from Spanish rule. Ch�vez offers a cultural as well as a political alternative to the prevailing US-inspired model that dominates Latin America.

So, what does his Bolivarian revolution consist of? He is friendly with Castro - indeed, they are close allies - yet he is no out-of-fashion state socialist. Capitalism is alive and well in Venezuela - and secure. There have been no illegal land seizures, no nationalisations of private companies. Ch�vez seeks to curb the excesses of what he terms "savage neo-liberalism", and he wants the state to play an intelligent and enabling role in the economy, but he has no desire to crush small businesses, as has happened in Cuba. International oil companies have fallen over themselves to provide fresh investment, even after the government increased the royalties that they have to pay. Venezuela remains a golden goose that cannot be ignored.

What is undoubtedly old fashioned about Ch�vez is his ability to talk about race and class, subjects once fashionable that have long been taboo, and to discuss them in the context of poverty. In much of Latin America, particularly in the countries of the Andes, the long-suppressed native peoples have begun to organise and make political demands for the first time since the 18th century, and Ch�vez is the first president in the continent to have picked up their banner and made it his own.

For the past six years the government has moved ahead at a glacial rate, balked at every turn by the opposition forces ranged against it. Now, as the revolution gathers speed, attention will be directed towards dissension and arguments within the government's ranks, and to the ever-present question of delivery. In the absence of powerful state institutions, with the collapse of the old political parties and the survival of a weak, incompetent and unmotivated bureaucracy, Ch�vez has mobilised the military from which he springs to provide the backbone to his revolutionary reorganisation of the country. Its success in bringing adequate services to the shanty towns in town and country will depend upon the survival of his government. If it fails, the people will come out to block the motorway and demand something different, and yet more radical.

� Richard Gott's book Hugo Ch�vez and the Bolivarian Revolution will be published by Verso in June

[jaganath69]

Subverting democracy, aiding known human rights abusers in the region and turning a once stable economy into a basketcase. Three cheers

[Big_Bird]

[Big_Bird]

[dogbert]

U.S. policy toward Chavez is stupid...tinpot "statesmen" like Chavez thrive on being able to position themselves as standing up to the U.S. Just ignoring/indulging him would have been a far better strategy than what the U.S. has done so far.

[jaganath69]

Ok then, quick scan of the figures reveals a continued recession through 2002-3 in which the country's GDP shrunk (8.9 and 18.5% respenctively). Add to that the suspension from trading and devaluation of the Bolivar and unemployment of around 20% and there you have it, the country that saw steady growth from the 50s to the 80s is now, as twas said in the movie 'Snatch', "Proper F#cked", just like the big rabbit. And yes, I realize that US foreign policy in the region has been less than stellar, but buddying up to Castro, a man who locked up every pro-democracy dissadent in the country recently, I mean c'mon, what is up with that?

[crito03]

Is this the same Venezuela who had a 16.9% percent increase in GDP for 2004? Stats clearly show that they have also increased their GDP/capita by over $3000 in the past 10 years.

You are correct in saying that they have been steadily growing since the 50's however that growth has been exponential under Chavez and more importantly the money is finally making it's way to those who need it the most.

All this while America has been trying to subvet Chavez at every turn. As for the dip during the recession, the same could be said for most global economies seeing that how that recession (2001 - 2003) was international in scope. The only difference is that other economies are not posting the numbers that Venezuela is in the aftermath of that recession

http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/COUNTRIES/LACEXT/VENEZUELAEXTN/0,,

menuPK:331777~pagePK:141132~piPK:141107~theSitePK:331767,00.html
(link separated to preserve page formatting)

http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/ve.html

[R. S. Refugee]

Chavez was also elected multiple times in elections acclaimed as fair and free by the international community. In our "elections", international observers were not welcome to see how we "elect" a president.

[bucheon bum]

Chavez has nothing to do with the GDP rising. It is simply luck. If global oil prices weren't sky-high, Venezula's economy would be shrinking.

What makes Chavez inept is he's spending money like no tomorrow. While the country can afford it now, oil prices are bound to go down someday, and Venezula will once again have an enormous debt that it can't pay off.

If Chavez had any common sense, he'd keep some of that oil money saved up for when that time comes.

[desultude]

[thepeel]

Where you at now? BB? Defend your boy Chavez.

[huffdaddy]

[ddeubel]

An interesting viewpoint....

http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/03/19/opinion/edvalen.php?page=2

[Rteacher]

I think "Crito03" messed up the page format of this thread by not clicking the URL thing before and after his very long link ...

I'll just add that Hugo Chavez came across very well when interviewed by Barbara Walters last week.

He conceded that his name-calling of President Bush might be considered offensive, but that it was not nearly as offensive as invading Iraq, etc...

When asked to try to give a message in English to the American people, he finished strongly by saying that his message would be the same as his hero, Martin Luther King, who also had a dream that everyone, including poor people, could be happy and peaceful (or something like that...)

Here's a link - http://www.watchingtheview.com/barbara-walters-interviews-hugo-chavez-2/

[mack4289]

Here's what Chavez has done to take apart democracy in Venezuela (http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200605/chavez/3):

"[Chavez' revised] constitution trimmed the legislative branch from a potentially obstreperous bicameral body to a more easily managed, one-chamber National Assembly, which can pass legislation into law with a single vote. It eliminated congressional oversight of the military, allowing Ch�vez to more easily stack the army�s top ranks with friendly generals. And it lifted an old provision that prevented the president from serving consecutive terms. Ch�vez now wants to further amend this rule, so that he can serve a third term. His most powerful political allies openly predict that he will remain in power until 2030."

"When his opponents describe the prevailing atmosphere, they begin with the �Tasc�n List.� In 2003 and 2004, petitions circulated demanding referenda to recall the president�just the sort of people-empowering action enshrined as a right in the 1999 constitution. Soon thereafter, a list of the petitioners� names and national identification numbers mysteriously appeared on the Web site of a pro-Ch�vez congressman named Luis Tasc�n. The government began denying these petitioners passports, government contracts, and public welfare. Two years ago, in a statement that he later recanted, the health minister brashly declared that any ministry employee who signed the list would be fired, �because [the petition] is an act of terrorism.�

Media intimidation has begun as well. The Law of Social Responsibility in Radio and Television, passed in 2004, allows the government to suspend stations that �promote, defend, or incite breaches of public order or that are contrary to the security of the nation.� The law has cowed the television networks, once devoted to dropping rhetorical napalm on the regime. Venevision, once a particularly notorious anti-Chavista bastion, is now known as the Disney Channel, for its increasing abundance of cartoons and bland newscasts.

By adding twelve new chairs to the twenty-seat supreme court, and packing them with loyalists, Ch�vez has begun to domesticate the courts as well. He proudly presented the new jurists like a trophy at the opening of the court�s 2006 session. With the president in attendance, the robed justices rose to their feet and began to sing a favored chant of their benefactor: Uh, ah, Ch�vez no se va� (�Uh, ah, Ch�vez is not leaving�)."

What about all the spending on programs for the poor? The important question about these programs is not how much is being spent, but how much of what is being spent will create long-term change in Venezuela. If the spending is more directed toward the short term, then it would be fair to say Chavez is bribing poor voters while he can (before the oil price drops). Here's how the same article describes these programs:

"Spending has not been designed to produce sustainable results, and there is little evidence of any coherent social policy. Cuban doctors can�t compensate for the country�s ramshackle public hospitals. According to the government�s own official data, infant mortality increased in 2003 and 2004, the last two measured years. Over the course of Ch�vez�s presidency, the percentage of the population earning less than $2 a day has risen from 43 percent to 53 percent.

Today, Chavez�s desultory government spending and overall economic approach resembles the populism of the Argentine Juan Per�n far more than any authentic socialist model. It is an incoherent mess, dependent on constant infusions of oil money, and is highly unlikely to lead to sustainable development for Venezuela. It is governed primarily by an age-old autocratic goal: the maintenance of personal power."

On top of all this, there's his bizarre new economic scheme. http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/business/4640304.html

My opinion of Chavez is that he's a master manipulator of public opinion but a generally incompetent head of state. I have two responses to the inevitable chorus of "Bush does the same thing":
1. to defend Chavez by saying he's no worse than Bush isn't really a defense at all, and
2. Chavez doesn't have to battle the long tradition of and belief in democracy and the free press that Bush does. Granted, Bush was kicking as* for a while there, but look at him now. American democracy will survive George Bush. How confident does anyone feel about Venezuelan democracy surviving Hugo Chavez? (And yes, I know he was elected. But it isn't just about elections, it's about checks and balances. Supreme Court justices singing in your president's honor= collapse of checks and balances).