Venezuela votes tomorrow
By all accounts Hugo Chavez looks to win by a large margin in tomorrow’s election in Venezuela. No doubt the media will question the election results. Judging from some of the articles I have read on it today, they are already questioning it.
What is going on is in Venezuela is really simple. There are a whole bunch of people that have not been paid attention to for decades, mostly the poor living in the barrios across the country, and Chavez pays attention to them. It is the poor vote that gets him elected. That is where the analysis should end. There is a larger amount of poor people than in the middle or higher classes. Wow, I could be a pundit.
I have taken issue with certain things about Chavez; I would like a more decentralized government in Venezuela (and everywhere else for that matter). But given the history of the area and given the fact that they have survived a coup, I would say his commitment to democracy is much better than our current administration. Venezuela passed a Community Council Law that allows communities to organize, be recognized by the federal government and makes them available to receive federal grants and loans. This skips the local and state governments, which people view as corrupt. They have pioneered the idea of “co-management,” which allows workers to have a voice at their job. That is a right we in the US don’t even come close to having in the majority of work places.
Like the rest of Latin American, Venezuela has a history of corruption and undemocratic rule. Ever since the Monroe Doctrine, the US decided they can intervene in Latin America whenever they see fit. In fact, they have intervened 79 times since 1846. Now, due in great part to us being bogged down by our failed policy in the Middle East, Latin America is choosing their own destiny. We see leader after leader campaign against neoliberalism (most recently Nicaragua and Ecuador) and win. Unsurprisingly, we hear nothing but condemnation from the "pro-democracy" US government. The US government cares little for democracies that aren't bourgeois capitalist ones.
What is going on is in Venezuela is really simple. There are a whole bunch of people that have not been paid attention to for decades, mostly the poor living in the barrios across the country, and Chavez pays attention to them. It is the poor vote that gets him elected. That is where the analysis should end. There is a larger amount of poor people than in the middle or higher classes. Wow, I could be a pundit.
I have taken issue with certain things about Chavez; I would like a more decentralized government in Venezuela (and everywhere else for that matter). But given the history of the area and given the fact that they have survived a coup, I would say his commitment to democracy is much better than our current administration. Venezuela passed a Community Council Law that allows communities to organize, be recognized by the federal government and makes them available to receive federal grants and loans. This skips the local and state governments, which people view as corrupt. They have pioneered the idea of “co-management,” which allows workers to have a voice at their job. That is a right we in the US don’t even come close to having in the majority of work places.
Like the rest of Latin American, Venezuela has a history of corruption and undemocratic rule. Ever since the Monroe Doctrine, the US decided they can intervene in Latin America whenever they see fit. In fact, they have intervened 79 times since 1846. Now, due in great part to us being bogged down by our failed policy in the Middle East, Latin America is choosing their own destiny. We see leader after leader campaign against neoliberalism (most recently Nicaragua and Ecuador) and win. Unsurprisingly, we hear nothing but condemnation from the "pro-democracy" US government. The US government cares little for democracies that aren't bourgeois capitalist ones.
posted by Graeme at 11:33 AM
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