The use of mass media to paint the last 18 years of Bolivarian Revolution as some sort of dictatorship is completely factually unfounded. In fact under the Revolution the Venezuelan people have had 16 elections since 1999, and former US president Jimmy Carter declared that the Venezuelan electoral system “is the best in the world.”
I myself was an international observer at the December 2015 elections and saw proceedings first hand. In terms of President Nicolas Maduro, he was elected in the 2013 Presidential elections attaining some 7.5 million votes.
The election of President Maduro was quite a blow to the elites in Venezuela, coming from a working-class background as a bus driver then trade union leader, he was an affront to them. The elites up until the election of Hugo Chavez in 1998 have always dominated the political landscape in Venezuela.
We should never forget the Caracazo Massacre in 1989 where thousands of people were killed by security forces. This is how the elites used to govern Venezuela.
Under the Bolivarian Revolution, infant mortality fell by 49 per cent, life expectancy increased from 72.2 to 74.3, child malnutrition reduced by 40 per cent, the poverty rate decreased from 42.8 per cent to 26.5 per cent, increased minimum wages 32 times and significantly Venezuela jumped from 83 in 2000 to 73 in 2011 on the UNDP Human Development Index.
These are just a fraction of examples. These achievements can never be underestimated in terms of addressing the issue of poverty. What is difficult for the global neoliberal system to come to terms with, is how a country taking an alternative path was able to make major gains in improving the quality of lives of ordinary people.
This will of course force other countries to begin to question the existing neoliberal models as what began to happen in countries like Brazil, Bolivia, Ecuador, Uruguay, Nicaragua, and others.
Those who hold fast to a neoliberal agenda are of the view that this had to be stopped and thought what perfect opportunity arose with the passing of Hugo Chavez.
The opposition, which is really a coalition of many right-wing interest groups and parties, having won the parliamentary elections which President Maduro has acknowledged, instead of trying to work with the democratically-elected President is attempting to trigger a presidential recall referendum, threatening violent actions and have gone so far as to call for military intervention in Venezuela.
There can be no dispute that Venezuela is in economic crisis, which is only obvious like any other hydrocarbon-based economy. It meant a fall of national income of 70 per cent. In other words, in 2016 income from petroleum sales was just about $77 million, a drop from $3.317 billion in January 2010, a decline of 4,200 per cent.
So of course this will mean extreme difficulty for the government and the people. This is exacerbated by the severe drought which is creating problems in energy generation at the El Guiri hydro-electric dam, which is the source of Venezeula’s 70 per cent of power.
However, what we are seeing is an attempt to use that crisis to create an atmosphere of chaos, panic and violence to justify either a coup or foreign intervention. Imagine an editorial in the Washington Post openly called for “political intervention” by neighbouring countries.
The opposition has even been appealing to the Organization of American States (OAS) to use the “Democratic Charter” to intervene against the democratically-elected president. In fact, just a few days ago, the Secretary General of the OAS, Luis Amalgro sent a threatening, inappropriate and hostile letter to President Nicolas Maduro.
The government of Ecuador has since responded rejecting the comments. Reactionary elements in Venezuela, including editor of the Caracas Chronicle went so far as to write an article on May 16 openly debating the pros and cons of a coup.
Let us also remember that in March 2015 President Obama, with absolutely no basis, declared via executive order that Venezuela is “an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security of the United States.” He did not define how or why this ‘threat” is “unusual” or “extraordinary.”
It is in these contexts that on May 15, 2016, President Maduro issued Extraordinary Sate Decreee and State of Emergency to respond to the economic crisis, the attempt to destabilise the democratically-elected government of President Maduro.
The decree authorises several things but I want to focus on the emergency economic measures to bring some form of relief to ordinary Venezuelans who are the victims of the economic war perpetrated by economic elites like Grupo Polar.
The decree authorises the adoption of measures against contraband, monopolisation, usury, boycotts, fraudulent price changes etc. It guarantees the marketing and distribution of food, with the intervention of the FANB (Bolivarian National Armed Forces) and the Local Popular Supply Committee (CLAPs).
It also authorises the adoption of measures of the sale of regulated products in order for these products to reach the entire population.
Contrary to the popular press and even the opposition here in T&T that there will be some kind of humanitarian or refugee crisis, the real crisis and threat is a possible coup d’etat, possible foreign intervention leading to the removal of a democratically-elected president and the coming to power of a right-wing anti-Caribbean government.
The opposition in Venezuela has plainly and openly stated that they would end Petro-Caribe which has benefited our Caribbean brothers and sisters in Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Belize, Cuba, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, Dominican Republic, St Kitts and Nevis, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Saint Lucia, and Suriname.
In addition, we run the risk of an extremely-hostile neighbour liken to the pre-Chavez days where our sovereignty was threatened by the Guardio Nacional. Over the last few years and continued under President Maduro we have been engaging in important bilateral discussions with our neighbour with regards to oil and gas resources.
These negotiations have been peaceful and productive and are expected to bear fruit which will be to the benefit of the people of T&T. These relations and agreements can be scuttled if the opposition in Venezuela was to come to power. This is the real threat to Trinidad and Tobago, not so called “refugees.”
Ozzi Warwick
Chief Education and
Research Officer
OWTU