A matter of opinion

I was talking to a Venezuelan recently about the conditions where she lives. The political opposition is working the crowd against the new government. Popular western press seems to think all the innocent people killed have been murdered by the government. I have the view that the people most responsible was the faction organising the protest.

Of course a tactic used by the British police force  during Thatcher’s strike was to put agitators in the pickets and give the police a cue to lead a baton charge to selected points along the lines.

This obviously didn’t occur in the murders in Venezuela wherehte attacks took place after the even and to a large part, pointlessly. That just sounds like police brutality (the situation where say one in five policemen joins the force to bully people and four out of five fail to react favourably to that for a variety of reasons; cowardice, peer pressure and inexperience etc.)

By what I have read of recent Venezuelan history the opposition leaders seem to be an arseholes. Maybe I ought to mind my own business if I want to visit the country one day but I can’t stand religious hypocrites. Look what they did in Yugoslavia a few years ago. (Or for that matter what they do in more civilised countries such as the USA since the beginning of this millenium.)

Here is some of what we had to say. (By we it was mostly me but she did try to put me right. Except of course she was wrong. Jesus said what you hear whispered between the lines shout from the Internet.)

Because you are probably stupid, I have highlighted the salient points in my argument:

 

Under its present constitution, approved in 1999<<<<<<<

 

Venezuela is a federal republic with 1 federal district, 2 federal territories, 23 states, and 72 federal (island) dependencies. The president is elected to a 6-year term and can be reelected.

 

The president selects a cabinet that is called the Council of Ministers.

 

Legislative power is vested in a National Assembly of 165 members elected to 5-year terms. Upon receiving nominations from >>>>>various civilian groups<<<<, the legislature selects the 18 judges of the Supreme Justice Tribunal for >>>>12-year terms.<<<<<

The Supreme Justice Tribunal is the highest court in Venezuela; its 18 judges appoint lower-court judges and magistrates.

 

Local government officials are chosen in local elections.

 

Since 1936, the government has pursued a policy of “sowing the oil,” or using the government revenues from the tax on the sale of oil to promote economic growth.

 

That policy has been pursued in earnest since the time of Venezuela’s >>>first democratically elected president, Rómulo Betancourt, in 1958.<<<

 

 

From the time of its independence from Spain in 1811 until 1958, >>>Venezuela was ruled by a series of military dictators.<<<

 

 

From 1936 to 1958, although some public projects were constructed by the government, much of the government’s oil revenues ended up in the pockets of the dictators and various government officials. From 1958 until the present, Venezuela has >>>enjoyed<<< uninterrupted democratic rule.

 

 

[For “Enjoyment” read: “Pactus Puncho Judicae”.]

 

 

Two political parties dominated Venezuelan politics from 1958 to 1993: the liberal Democratic Action or Acción Democrática (AD) party, and the >>>conservative Partido Social Cristiano<<< also knows as Des Ualis Spectiare.

 

>>>>>The policies of these 2 parties did not differ from one another because of >>>an agreement called the Pact of Punto Fijo<<< signed by party political leaders in 1958.<<<<<

 

 

>>>Under that pact, political leaders decided on a policy agenda before the election and agreed to divide cabinet and other government offices among the major parties after the election regardless of which candidate won in the vote count.<<<

 

The agreement ultimately broke down because political >>>appointments were increasingly being made on the basis of patronage<<< and because

 

 

>>>>>neither political party had succeeded in controlling excessive government spending.<<<<<

 

 

Dissatisfaction with the policies of the major political parties manifested itself in

 

>>>>>riots in 1989 that left hundreds dead<<<<<

 

and in 2 unsuccessful military coups in 1992. In 1993, >>>Rafael Caldera won the presidency under a 19-party<<< alliance called the Convergencia Nacional (CN). It was the first time since 1958 that the presidency was held by a candidate from a party other than the AD or the COPEI.

 

 

>>>Caldera faced a banking crisis in 1994, a fall in world oil prices (with decreasing government revenues)<<< in 1997, and was ultimately

 

>>>>>forced to adopt unpopular budget cuts.<<<<<

 

His successor, Hugo Chávez Frias, elected in 1998, had been one of the military officers involved in the attempted coups of 1992. He campaigned on promises of changing the constitution to fight corruption and patronage, and also promised to move the economy away from its dependence on oil.

 

A new constitution was adopted in 1999, and Chávez was re-elected president. His party, the Movimiento Quinta República (MVR) has formed a governing alliance with the socialist party, the Movimiento al Socialismo (MAS).

 

 

Moving the economy of Venezuela away from its dependence on oil will be a difficult task. This is because >>>government spending based on oil revenues has been the engine of economic growth<<< for so long. The increased tax revenues that resulted from the higher oil prices after >>>1973 were used by the government to nationalize the entire oil industry.<<<

 

The government also established hundreds of new state-owned industries, as in steel, mining, and hydroelectricity. The >>>Chávez government has continued the effort of the Caldera government to privatize<<<a number of these industries.

 

If Venezuela is to move away from its dependence on oil, its government will have to increase the tax revenues it gets from other sources. Venezuela has an income tax on all economic activity by individuals and businesses, but tax evasion by individuals remains a significant problem.

 

>>>In 1996, the government was taxing the profits of private oil companies at the very high rate of 67.7 percent. It is not clear that the taxing of other entities within Venezuela will provide sufficient revenues to the government.<<<

 

 

 

So although Mr Chavez was with the Socialists, he was not a Socialist. The oil problem was decades old and privatisation, one of his goals, was not a problem he brought with him to power. It was a legacy from 1973 running riot itself the year before he was elected (67.7% Oil Tax.)

 

 

Communications
Country	Newspapers	Radios	TV Sets a	Cable subscribers a	Mobile Phones a	Fax Machines a	Personal Computers a	Internet Hosts b	Internet Users b
	1996	1997	1998	1998	1998	1998	1998	1999	1999
Venezuela	206	468	185	25.8	87	3.0	43.0	3.98	525
United States	215	2,146	847	244.3	256	78.4	458.6	1,508.77	74,100
Brazil	40	444	316	16.3	47	3.1	30.1	18.45	3,500
Colombia	46	581	217	16.7	49	4.8	27.9	7.51	664
a Data are from International Telecommunication Union, World Telecommunication Development Report 1999 and are per 1,000 people.
b Data are from the Internet Software Consortium ( http://www.isc.org ) and are per 10,000 people.
SOURCE: World Bank. World Development Indicators 2000.

 

Read more: http://www.nationsencyclopedia.com/economies/Americas/Venezuela-POLITICS-GOVERNMENT-AND-TAXATION.html#ixzz2u6Abw3H3

 

 

 

 

 

***

 

 

 

Valencia, in the Municipality of San Diego is in the State of Carabobo. Every Municipality is ruled by an Alcalde the main or highest local authority.

This sounds identical to the way Britain is ruled. We have municipalities controlled by local councils the chief councillor is called a Mayor the equivalent to an Alcalde.

Our shire or county councils are run on the same lines. I suppose our constituent countries correspond to the states of larger countries such as Venezuela and the United States. There are some fairly minor distinctions in the courts fo Scotland and England but England And Wales re virtually identical. Northern Ireland is more or less half way to allianced to Ireland proper. They have a clause that when the majoritiy of the population is Catholic they might vote to leave Britain.

That has been the cause of so much violence in Britain since the 1960’s.

Soon Scotland will be feeling its way to a similar vote. It is to be expected that the Scottish decision will be less violent. Mainly because the rest of us never stopped them eating other things besides potatoes in an earlier regime. But people can be quite funny if they read too many newspapers like the News of the World and believe the propaganda.

***

>>>>>Venezuela and Cuba leading a radical “anti-imperialist” group of Latin American and Caribbean allies since Chavez came to power in 1999<<<<<

 

 

Caracas ships around 100,000 barrels-per-day of subsidized oil, seen as >>>crucial to the Cuban economy<<< while >>>>>Havana repays that in part by sending thousands of doctors, sports instructors, military advisers and others to Venezuela.<<<<<

 

 

Though they have bolstered the Venezuelan government’s popular welfare programs, >>>Cubans are a focus of resentment for many Venezuelan opposition<<< activists.

 

Has child mortality gone down under Chavez?

 

Are more people are living longer since he started exchanging oil for health workers?

Does anybody stop to think of the children?

 

You can only do so much with politics. After that it becomes a repressive regime.

 

The alternative is for the hard right wing to be given all the wealth of the nations… and they end up killing all the poor people as is the case in ther USA and to a certain extent in Britain.

If there is an answer, the answer is that there is no answer.

 

There in no answer because there never was. Hard right wing factions are a fundamental of US politics and dictatorial Latin American ones. They usually have names like Christian Democrats. It is the politics of George Bush not Hugo Chavez.

The alternative meets the USA and South America half way. Central American banana republics get around the impasse by having Corrupt Dictators installed by the main peacekeeping nation in the region.

 

(There goes my visa application for the USA.)

 

 

I don’t know what most of Venezuelans think of Cuban “doctors”. how could I? From what I have read recently they are despised. But what other doctors do Venezuelans have?

 

I have been told that Venezuelan doctors are good but expensive.

 

 

So the Cuban ones are good but indifferent?

Overworked?

 

Underpaid and not respected?

Visited by people who are ill?

What?

 

***

 

How is that all going to shape up?

 

Venezuela has nearly as many newspapers as the USA. Are they as dogmatic and right wing?

 

Such newspapers will slant what is going on today the same way the CIA wants to hear it read.

 

When you read the papers and watch TV:

 

Just cut to the chase when you hear complaining and gossip.

 

DON’T be easily lead. It is exactly what the CIA wants. Is it really what Venezuela wants?

 

The CIA is responsible for the sanitised account of what United Fruit did in Central America that you can read for yourself in the Encyclopaedia Britannica. Compare it to what it actually did do:

>>>>>Organised all the Disappearances in El Salvadore and Nicaragua etcetera.<<<<<<

 

So where are all the other Venezuelan doctors?

 

Obviously getting to be a doctor there is not so easy. Will getting to see one after the Cubans go home be easier?

 

What are the opposition planning to supply when all the Cubans go home?

 

United States’ model of health service?

 

Venezuela has a lot of oil. Can the poor Venezuelans use it to buy hospital treatment?

 

Reading between the lines, I don’t believe the main opposition will have anyone’s best interests at heart except for a few:

 

>>>Leopoldo Lopez, whose hardline opposition party<<< “Popular Will” is >>>>>trying to whip up street protests against Maduro,<<<<< said on Wednesday that the detainees were victims of his pique.

 

So what is he organising now instead?

More peaceful protests?

 

I can’t see how a bus driver who has only been in the job a few days can have as scandalous an history as a right wing Christian career politician. Granted he may only have been in the job a short while but as >>>>>Venezuela’s President he is still a politician.<<<<<

Maybe the wingnuts are right and he single-handedly used up all the toilet paper.

In which case why not organise a protest at the paper makers’ and get them to make more?

***

 

It’s easy for me to say this, looking at everything from so far away. Chavez is gone.

 

His successor will have to pass unpopular laws. Soon he will lose the election and we will see what answers were possible when his replacement blames him for everything they promised to solve…

 

…but won’t!