An informative essay here; an excerpt (footnotes omitted):
Throughout most of its history, there has been very little interest in North America about Venezuela except as a supplier of oil. With the election of Hugo Chávez in 1999, all this changed. He ushered in the Bolivarian Revolution, founded on ideas expounded in the 19th Century by Simón Bolívar, the great The Liberator of Venezuela, Colombia, Bolivia, Ecuador and Perú. Its basic principles are: that natural resources are for the benefit of all citizens, the state is guardian and promoter of civic and social human rights, and the citizens are fundamental protagonists in political life. Its foreign policy is based on Latin American and Caribbean integration and solidarity. With the Bolivarian Revolution, Venezuela has become the most exciting, innovative, and progressive developing country in the world....
On June 1, 2002 in a speech at West Point, US President George Bush made an unprecedented assertion that the US has the right to overthrow any government in the world that is seen as a threat to its security.
This may have been startling news to the world including Canada, but not to Latin Americans. Since 1846 the United States has carried out no fewer than 50 military invasions and destabilizing operations involving 12 different Latin American countries. Yet, none of these countries has ever had the capacity to threaten US security in any significant way. The US intervened because of perceived threats to its economic control and expansion. For this reason it has also supported some of the region’s most vicious dictators such as Batista, Somoza, Trujillo, and Pinochet....
The Bush administration does not accept the democratically expressed will of the Venezuelan people. They have clearly chosen President Hugo Chávez and his government in nine free, transparent and internationally observed elections and referenda, during the seven years since he was first elected. President Bush supported the 2002 bloody coup against the government of President Chávez, financed and supported a devastating oil lockout that cost the country $14 billion in export revenues and numerous opposition maneuvers, disturbances and a recall referendum. And they continue to finance the opposition there....The main reason behind President Bush’s aggression towards this small country that has minimal armed capacity is quite obvious: oil. The United States has become increasingly dependent on oil imports and feels that its security is threatened. Venezuela is the 5th largest oil exporting country in the world and is sitting on the largest oil reserves in the hemisphere and perhaps, of the world. It supplies the US with 1.2 million barrels daily; supply that has not been in any danger of stopping – until President Bush came along. Indeed, it has been a very convenient trading arrangement for both countries. The insecurity of the United States, real or imagined, has lead it into invasions and armed conflict in the Middle East to shore up its supply of oil. Given the rhetoric and actions of its leaders, is it any wonder that President Chávez should question the intentions of the United States towards him and his government?
There is also another reason for the Bush administration’s aggressive stance towards Venezuela. President Chávez has made possible a new political and economic reality in his country that directly challenges globalization and neo-conservative policies (or neo-liberal as they are referred to in Latin America) pushed by the IMF, the World Bank, the WTO, and the profit drive of multinational corporations. The so-called Washington Consensus consisting of privatization of public services, deregulation, lifting of tariffs, unrestricted investment flows and free access of large corporations to public contracts and domestic markets, were measures foisted onto Latin American government by making them conditions of international loans and even by threats.
Touted as instruments of development, they have been a spectacular failure by almost any indicator.
• Between 1960-80, income per person in Latin America grew by 82% whereas in the next 20 years, it grew only by 9% and in the last 5 years, it has grown by only 1%.
• In just one decade, the number of poor increased by 14 million.
• From 1990 to 2002, US banks and multinational corporations remitted $1 trillion in profits, interest payments and royalties from Latin America.
• In the 1990s, more than $178 billion of state-owned industries were privatized, more than 20 times the value of privatization in Russia after the collapse of the Soviet Union.
None of his could have occurred without the willing collaboration of Latin American elites and their satellite middle classes. Venezuela, in particular, has the most Americanized middle class in the continent by virtue of the penetration of the oil industry early on. The sham 40 year elite-driven democracy left oil rich Venezuela in 1998 with
• 80% of its population in poverty
• 75% of arable land in the hands of 5% of the population
• crumbling schools and hospitals
• 70% drop out rate
• 7% illiteracy rate and 60% to 70% of the people without access to basic medical care.
In the last 25 years, oil-rich Venezuela had the largest increase in poverty in Latin America....Venezuelans have set up a model of electoral revolution for participatory democracy that has reverberated throughout Latin America and indeed, the entire developing world. This is a “peaceful” revolution, or as we Venezuelans affectionately call it, “la revolution bonita”, the pretty revolution, which is now a viable and visible alternative, a new model. It challenges US hegemonic ideology promoted by the neo-conservatives who control all the state powers in the US.
What has the government of President Chávez achieved?
By using oil revenues for the public good, the government of President Chávez has done what previous elite-dominated governments failed to do: provide for the basic political, economic, and social needs of the population. Oil revenue is now used for universal health services, education at all levels, clean water, food security, micro credits, support for small and middle range industry, land distribution and deeds for de-facto owners, worker cooperatives, infrastructure, such as roads and railways and support for independent community radio. Most importantly, there is promotion of citizen participation in all government programs including policy consultation. This has never been done before in Venezuela and is rare throughout the developing world. The marginalized spectators are now political protagonists....The results have been spectacular:
• Venezuela has been declared free of illiteracy by UNESCO
• Infant mortality has been significantly lowered
• 70% of its citizens previously marginalized now have free health services in their community
• Almost half the population is studying
• Poverty has dropped to 37% in 2005
• And, as for the economy it grew by 9.4% in 2005, the highest in Latin America, with most of this growth occurring in the non-oil sector (increased by 10.3% while the oil sector increased 1.2%).
Recent Comments