Venezuela : The Latest Case of the Failure of Socialism

It takes a lot of Progressive guts for the Washington Post to ask President Trump to "correct" anything the WP's beloved President Obama did. • • • VENEZUELA COLLAPSES. But that is exactly what the Washington Post did in an Opinion piece by its Editorial Board on March 17. The headline was "Trump Has a Chance to Correct Obama’s Mistake on Venezuela." The Post Editorial Board wrote that as Venezuela "has plunged deeper and deeper into a economic, political and humanitarian crisis, its regional neighbors and the United States have stood back, refusing to adopt meaningful collective measures to pressure the authoritarian regime of Nicolas Maduro and instead hiding behind appeals for 'dialogue' with the democratic opposition. Now the region’s leaders are being bluntly called out by the Secretary General of the Organization of American States, Luis Almagro, who says the strategy has been a feckless failure and that collective action is imperative to restore Venezuelan democracy. The Obama adminisration ignored Mr. Almagro when he made a similar appeal last year. The Trump administration should listen to him." • You heard it right. The Washington Post thinks Obama actually made a mistake by not listening to the Secretary General of the OAS. Almagro, a lawyer and former Uruguayan foreign minister, is not the right-wing fascist that Maduro’s propaganda describes. He is, rather, a leftist liberal democrat who has committed himself to defending the Inter-American Democratic Charter, a treaty adopted by the 34 OAS nations in 2001 that provides for action -- including the suspension of OAS membership -- when states breach democratic norms such as free elections, freedom of assembly and free speech. The Venezuelan regime, says a 73-page report issued Tuesday by Almagro, “is in violation of every article of the Inter-American Democratic Charter.” As he put it, his report is “brimming with abuses, rights violations, curtailment of civil, political and electoral freedoms, poverty, hunger, deprivation of liberty, torture, censorship, and the whole catalogue of violations of political, social and personal dignity.” The WP Editorial Board stated : "Even the most servile apologists for the regime founded by Hugo Chávez acknowledge this descent into chaos, which Mr. Almagro says has produced a 'humanitarian crisis...at a scale unheard of in the Western Hemisphere.' For the past year, debate has centered on what to do about it. The Obama administration, along with several Latin American governments, strongly backed a mediation mission led by three left-leaning statesmen and later joined by the Vatican. Opposition leaders, who had been pressing for a recall referendum to remove Mr. Maduro from office, came under heavy pressure from Washington to negotiate with the regime. As Mr. Almagro vividly describes it, the initiative was an abject failure. The government fulfilled none of its promises and instead increased repression; the opposition was left divided and discredited. Concludes Mr. Almagro: 'We cannot allow the premise of a false dialogue to continue to be used as a smokescreen to perpetuate and legitimize...what has become a dictatorial regime.' ” • Now, Secretary General Almagro is calling on the OAS permanent council to suspend Venezuela’s membership unless the regime agrees within 30 days to hold general elections, release political prisoners and establish a channel for international humanitarian assistance, among other measures. While recognizing the limits of such multilateral measures to arrest the country’s slide, he says “peer condemnation is the strongest tool we have.” Suspension would require a two-thirds majority on the OAS council, and Venezuela has leverage over a number of small states that it supplies with oil at a discounted price. But a strong stand by the Trump administration could make a difference. Mr. Trump should align himself with the OAS chief -- and with the cause of democracy in Latin America." • • • ALMAGRO REFUSED ENTRY INTO CUBA. The Miami Herald wrote an article in February about OAS Secretary General Luis Almagro denouncing the Cuban government’s refusal to issue him a visa for entry to the island to receive a democracy award named in honor of the late government opponent Oswaldo Payá. The award was to be issued by the Latin America organization Jóvenes por la Democracia (Youth for Democracy), which is headed by Payá’s daughter and renowned activist Rosa María Payá. Almagro said : “My trip to Cuba was no different than others I have made to attend similar events in Latin America organized by civil society,” adding that the reason he could not receive the Oswaldo Payá award in Cuba was because his visa request was denied. Almagro wrote a letter to Rosa María Payá, saying that the Cuban consulate in Washington informed him that he would not be granted a visa to enter Cuba as secretary of the OAS, nor would he be allowed to enter with his Uruguayan passport because the reason for his visit constituted “an unacceptable provocation.” In his letter, Almagro said “it would be quite ridiculous that after 67 years of revolution, both the well-being of the Cuban people and bilateral relations with the United States depended on this ceremony.” Those were the reasons given for denying Almagro entry. Barck Obama was still President and did nothing to encourage Cuba to give Almagro a visa. The Miami Herald said : "If the intention of the Cuban government was to avoid a conflict by restricting attendance to the event, the denial of entry to Almagro, former Chilean Minister Mariana Aylwin and former Mexican President Felipe Calderón, generated an outcry across the region. Mexican Foreign Minister Luis Videgaray stated that Calderón's presence in Cuba does not affect the Cuban people or government. 'We lament the decision,' he posted on Twitter. Former Foreign Minister Jorge Castañeda characterized Havana’s action as 'highly hostile against Mexico' in statements to Televisa. The Mexican government maintains close relations with Cuba and its President Enrique Peña Nieto was even invited to give an eulogy at the funeral of former Cuban leader Fidel Castro. Former Chilean President Sebastián Piñera posted a video condemning the Cuban government for its decision to prevent the entry of visiting politicians and activists : “This demonstrates not only that the Cuban government has no respect for freedom, democracy and human rights, but also signifies an affront to all Chileans.” The Cuban Embassy in Chile, meanwhile, issued its own declaration calling the event, “A serious international provocation against the Cuban government...perpetrated by an illegal anti-Cuban group that acts against the constitutional order and that provokes the repudiation of the population, with the collusion and financing of politicians and foreign institutions, in order to generate internal instability and, at the same time, affect our diplomatic relations with other countries.” In Miami, Ophelia Acevedo, Oswaldo Payá’s widow and mother of Rosa María, said she feared for the life of her daughter and the other event organizers who are promoting the CubaDecide campaign in and outside of the island. Acevedo lives in Miami with her daughter, who traveled to Havana specifically for the award ceremony. Acevezdo said : "We know what the Cuban government is capable of doing,” referring to the accident that killed her husband in 2012 suspected of being orchestrated by the government, “We have seen their level of intolerance, arrogance and contempt for others. They feel attacked because other personalities in the world recognize not only the Oswaldo Payá award, but also because in Cuba there are people who think differently and have different alternatives.” • • • VENEZUELA QUITS OAS. Venezuela, after a month of threats, announced it is quitting the Organization of American States, accusing the regional body of meddling in its internal affairs over weeks of political unrest. The step was taken last Wednesday just hours after violent clashes in Caracas between security forces and protesters during yet another march against the Socialist government of President Nicolas Maduro. Fox News reported : "Nearly four weeks of anti-government demonstrations have been blamed for 29 deaths, and the opposition is showing no inclination to pull back. Leaders called a march for Thursday to honor a college student who died during the latest violence after being hit by a tear gas canister fired by security forces. Foreign Minister Delcy Rodriguez announced the decision to withdraw from the OAS after a brief but contentious meeting at the group's Washington headquarters in which its permanent council voted in favor of holding a special session to evaluate Venezuela's crisis. International pressure has been mounting for Maduro to schedule delayed elections and free detained political activists. Rodriguez accused the OAS of seeking to 'intervene and take custody of our country, something that fortunately will never happen.' Maduro sent out a tweet Tuesday night calling for support against outside meddling in Venezuela's affairs. 'Enough of interventionist abuses and violation of legality,' he said. 'Venezuela is the cradle of the Liberators and we will respect it.' Rodriguez said the pressure being brought by the US on some members like Haiti to punish Venezuela had been considerable. Tension has been steadily rising between Venezuela and a group of OAS members that includes the United States since OAS Secretary General Luis Almagro issued a 75-page report in March accusing Maduro's government of systematically violating human rights and standards of democracy. Almagro unsuccessfully urged OAS members to suspend Venezuela.' " • The withdrawal announcement drew quick rebuke from Venezuelan opposition leaders. Former congresswoman Maria Corina Macahdo said Maduro's exit from the OAS "formalized Venezuela's outlaw status." • • • THE STARVING VENEZUELAN PEOPLE ARE IN REVOLT. Fox News showed a 2016 photo of men picking up tomatoes from the trash area of the Coche public market in Caracas, Venezuela. At Coche, even once middle class Venezuelans made desperate by the country's economic collapse have taken to sifting through the trash to resell or feed themselves on discarded fruits and vegetables. Fox said photos show that "unemployed people converge every dusk at a trash heap on a downtown Caracas sidewalk to pick through rotten fruit and vegetables tossed out by nearby shops." • Earlier Wednesday, thousands of protesters marched on Caracas' main highway seeking to deliver a message to the national ombudsman, whose job is to stand up for citizens' rights but who the opposition calls the "defender of the dictator." They were met with plumes of tear gas that sent demonstrators running. Luis Florido told Fox : "The repression is very strong." Opposition leaders said Juan Pablo Pernalete Llover, a 20-year-old college student, was killed during the Wednesday protests. He was a student in political accounting at Metropolitan University, which issued a statement saying the institution mourned the "early and unjust departure of this talented young Venezuelan, who gave his life in exchange for the highest values of democracy." Ramon Muchacho, a Caracas-area mayor, told Fox at least 22 others were injured, including 14 with serious injuries. Elsewhere, children were evacuated from a school after being exposed to tear gas. In the evening, government officials reported two national guardsmen were wounded by gunshots in the same part of Caracas where Pernalete Llover was killed earlier. In all, 29 people have been killed, more than 400 injured and nearly 1,300 detained in the monthlong unrest roiling the nation. The swell of protests is the most violent seen in Venezuela since two months of anti-government demonstrations in 2014 that resulted in dozens of deaths. Maduro has repeatedly called for renewed talks between the two sides, but opposition leaders have discarded that as an option after earlier talks collapsed in December. • • • AMERICAN PROGRESSIVE DEMOCRAT ELITES AND CELEBRITIES SUPPORT MADURA. The American Thinker published an article on April 23 by Monica Showalter. She wrote : "What holds Venezuela together these days? According to the New York Times, this state is held together only by an encircling ring of death-squad gangs, who serve as its enforcers. These are the community organizers known as 'colectivos' who ride and circle around menacingly on motorcycles, and shoot randomly into crowds to generate terror. I saw them myself in Caracas in late 2005, and they were scary. Now, they are engorged with drug cash and legitimized by the state. Who could have imagined that this tontons macoute situation would be the logical conclusion of Chavista Socialism? Not Venezuela's celebrity endorsers from the Hollywood elites, that's for sure." Whowalter cited mant examples of these celebrity Useful Idiots, who spent years using their capacity for drawing media attention to browbeat the West into believing that Chavista Socialism was the wave of the future, like the political and celebrity pilgrims who endorsed the Soviet Union in its early days while the Ukraine starved from the communists' man-made famine. Sean Penn declared that anyone in the West who called the late Hugo Chavez a dictator should be imprisoned : (Chávez) is a fascinating guy. He’s done...incredible things for the 80% of the people that are very poor there." Film producer Michael Moore tweeted on Chavez's 2013 death that : "Hugo Chavez declared the oil belonged 2 the ppl. He used the oil $ 2 eliminate 75% of extreme poverty, provide free health & education 4 all." Celebrity linguist and leftwing activist Noam Chomsky described the suggestion that Chávez had suppressed press freedom as “a bit of a joke,” adding : "There’s a strong opposition press bitterly attacking him all the time. There’s much more of an opposition press than there is in most of Latin America...There is some repression of the press, but it’s mostly, you know, verbal intimidation." • • • REALITY TODAY IN VENEZUELA. A PanAm Post gives a glimpse into the reality of the Socialist regime these numbskulls were defending : “They attack your neighbors when they are in food lines and are identified as opposition members, they attack store owners by making them pay extortions, they attack bakers by taking away part of their production which they later sell on the black market. They are not true collectives, or political actors -- they are criminals.” • The New York Times stated : "Colectivos control vast territory across Venezuela, financed in some cases by extortion, black-market food and parts of the drug trade as the government turns a blind eye in exchange for loyalty. Now they appear to be playing a key role in repressing dissent." Or this recount by Showalter: "A woman whose butcher's shop was ransacked in violence overnight in Venezuela says the attack was like 'a war.' Liliana Altuna says looters armed with guns and knives attacked about 30 businesses in the community of El Valle over the course of five hours. An officer tried to help but Altuna says police were unable to stop looters from breaking the windows of her business and violently grabbing refrigerators, lamps, security cameras and anything else they could seize." • Suddenly, says Showalter, the Hollywood crowd has gone silent -- "Only Jamie Foxx and 1-800 Dial Joe-4-Oil Joe Kennedy are known to have paid visits in the last year to the palace of Venezuela's now-reigning gang dictator, Nicolas Maduro, who was hand-picked by Chavez to succeed him. Some leftists have attempted to blame the hellhole on 'populism' instead of Socialism, as their way of delecting criticism to the perfectly blameless Donald Trump. It's been done in a Times op-ed, and Rachel Maddow was ripped by Fox News' Tucker Carlson when she tried it. Anything but put the finger where the culpability belongs -- on Socialism. Anything but blame their own vile enabling of an indefensible gang regime." • • • MAY DAY IN VENEZUELA. The opposition and government are both planning massive marches across the country on Monday, with many Venezuelans fearing further violence.The Times of India reported on May Day that anti-governmznt marchers were out in force to protest the MAdura regime. Sonia Lopez, a 34-year-old social security worker and mother-of-three at an anti-government rally in the poorer western side of Caracas, told the Times of India : "Who can stand this? So much hunger, misery, crime...The prices are going up far more than the salary rises. There are days my kids eat, and days they don't." The Madura government used hundreds of buses for its backers to get inot Caracas for the pro-governùent protest but it closed subway stations in the capital and set up roadblocks, impeding opposition mobilization. Henrique Capriles, who narrowly lost to Madura in the 2013 presidential election, said : "No matter the obstacles today, even cats will mobilize against this corrupt, drug-trafficking top brass and its leader." Government opponents are demanding elections, autonomy for the legislature where they have a majority, a humanitarian aid channel from abroad and freedom for more than 100 jailed activists. Maduro answers that they are violent protesters seeking a coup to allow a Washington-backed right-wing government get its hands on Venezuela's oil wealth. Police and National Guard troops, whom the opposition accuses of using excessive force in near-daily clashes, were out in force across the capital, Caracas, many behind riot shields with armored vehicles waiting in side streets. Some government workers acknowledged they had been coerced into attending. "We're here because they tell us to. If not, there are problems," a 34 year-old worker with a state aluminum company, just off a bus after an all-night journey from southern Ciudad Bolivar, told a journalist until a supervisor cut off the conversation. • • • MADURA ANSWERS PROTESTERS. Reuters reports : "Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro said on Sunday he expected delayed state polls to be held this year, although opponents have demanded a broader general election to replace him in protests that have sparked 29 deaths. The postponed vote for governors of Venezuela's 23 states -- originally slated for 2016 -- is one of a litany of opposition grievances against Maduro whom foes accuse of becoming a dictator and wrecking the economy. During his weekly TV program, Sundays With Maduro, the 54-year-old Socialist leader said gubernatorial elections would happen later this year although the opposition's real agenda was to topple him with a US-backed coup. Madura told supporters : "I am anxious for an electoral process to be called. Then the CNE will fix the pending governor elections, for this year....Venezuela's problem is not that there won't be elections this year. Venezuela's problem is that an empire in extremists' hands wants to take our oil and carry out a coup." • The government party controls 20 states, but polls indicate the opposition would now win a majority of the states, given voter anger over the OPEC nation's brutal recession -- the opposition took control of the national assembly in a landslide election in December 2015. The next presidential election is due for late 2018, but the opposition wants that brought forward to this year and bundled with legislative, state and mayoral elections. In a special program to celebrate the construction of 1.6 million housing units under a six-year state project begun by his predecessor, Hugo Chavez (many funded by the Chinese), the president lambasted his opponents for violence occurring around protests. Madura also criticized foreign media, saying they ignored social achievements such as Venezuela's 6.6% unemployment rate or the Housing Mission, to focus obsessively on the unrest. • In his lengthy Sunday program, Madura also announced a 60% increase in the minimum salary to 60,000 bolivars to take effect from Labor Day on Monday. With increased food tickets worth 135,000 bolivars, workers would receive 200,000 monthly, he said. That amount is worth about $50 at the black market rate for dollars. USA TODAY reported that the pay raise was "the third pay increase the Socialist leader has ordered this year and the 15th since he became president in 2013. It is small solace to workers who seen the buying power of their earnings eroded by a sinking currency and the world's highest inflation -- forecast to accelerate to 2,000% next year, according to the International Monetary Fund. But, Madura says : "We're here to take care of the workers, those who are most humble, and not the privileges of the oligarchs," while announcing that in addition to the pay hike, there will be a special "economic war" bonus to retirees to make up for what he says are attempts by the opposition to sabotage the economy. • • • DEAR READERS, the poor and starving of Venezuela, the very people Socialists claim to champion, are leading Venezuela's march against Socialism. Both the Washington Post and Reuters see it as a turning point. This is the same Socialism that has justified lost freedoms, expropriation of property, redistribution of income and tolerance of a government elite -- because it is "helping" the poor. The left defends Socialism because of Socialism's supposed good intention to help the poor. Today, the poor are banging pots and throwing eggs at the hated regime. The Washington Post notes in its article on developments in Venezuela, citing the man who brought Venezuela to its knees, the late Hugo Chavez : "Chávez, a master showman who promised his country a Socialist “revolution,” loved to wade through crowds of poor Venezuelans, blowing kisses and dispensing hugs. But when his successor has ventured out in public in recent months, he’s been pelted with eggs and chased by angry mobs." • We know that Socialism has never been about helping the poor. Capitalism is what helps the poor, any Cato study can show this. Or consider Chile, which transitioned from Socialism to Capitalism successfully. Look at China -- since its economic reforms began in 1976, the reality is that the Chinese people live better lives, even under the Chinese Communist regime that tightly controls political and religious expression while letting Capitalism work to save its elite from the econonic collapse inevitable under Socialism and the eaually inevitable popular protests, such as those we are now witnessing in Venezuela. American Thinker's Showalter points out : "Socialism is about empowering an elite and taking over every single facet of the lives of the poor and powerless, all in the name of 'helping them.' The poor often vote for Socialists in the name of "free" stuff. But it leads to the destruction of any chance of climbing out of poverty. Chavez brought Socialism to Venezuela, and he left the poor worse off than ever. At the same time, his own surviving family members remain billionaires (Chavez's daughter Maria Gabriela is Venezuela's richest woman), and his Castro patrons in Cuba remain grotesque tyrants." • As for the poor, under Socialism, finally all they have left is protest. The Washington Post reports : "Venezuelans from longtime chavista strongholds are starting to join them, at considerable risk. Residents of Castillo’s neighborhood protested openly against Maduro for the first time last week. Pro-government block captains in neighborhoods like El Guarataro have responded by threatening to deny food rations to those who march with the opposition or fail to join pro-Maduro rallies." The WP notes that those were the ones still strong enough to protest, or the ones not to preoccupied looking for food. • And, the Progressives still trying to sell Socialism by defending what is happening in Venezuela as "populism" are either blind or brainless -- probably both. On April 1, the New York Times wrote an article titled "How Does Populism Turn Authoritarian? Venezuela Is a Case in Point" by Max Fisher and Amanda Taub. It wasn't an April Fool's Day joke. They were actually serious, stating as dogma : "Venezuela’s fate stands as a warning: Populism is a path that, at its outset, can look and feel democratic. But, followed to its logical conclusion, it can lead to democratic backsliding or even outright authoritarianism. Populism does not always end in authoritarianism. Venezuela’s collapse has been aided by other factors, including plummeting oil prices, and democratic institutions can check populism’s darker tendencies. The country is feeling the fundamental tensions between populism and democracy that are playing out worldwide....But although countries must choose which system to follow, the choice is rarely made consciously, and its consequences may not be clear until it is too late." • If you detect a hidden NYT agenda in that, you re right. It is part of the Progressive assault on President Trump, despite the fact that modern "populism" was created by President Andrew Jackson, the founder of the modern Democrat Party, as a freewheeling form of Capitalism that made American financial risk-takers rich at the expense of Native Americans whose lands Jackson stole. The NYT and its Progressive allies confuse populism and elitist tyranny. Venezuela's Chavez told his supporters that their problems were caused by unresponsive, undemocratic elites and institutions. A strong leader, he argued, was necessary to break through those shadowy forces and impose the will of the people. That message was popular, as were his initial steps. BUT, it was not "populist." It was totalitarianism and soviet gulag despotism in the making. It had nothing to do with populism -- it had everything to do with the anti-democratic tendencies of Socialism that tend always toward elitist regimes uncontrolled by popular will expressed through free speech and voting. • And, that leaves citizens with one of two choices -- either submit and be enslaved, or protest. Venezuelans have chosen to protest. It will lead to the collapse of Madura and Chavism, or it will lead to civil war, as protesters fight back. Serious violations of human rights and human decency -- the kind that recently got Syria an American air strike -- are occurring now in Venezuela but they are still hidden from view. Chavistas tear-gassing a maternity ward in a hospital -- it happened, prompting the evacuation of more than 50 babies. There are also the barricades, the burning garbage, the tossed Molotov cocktails -- the work of the protesters. • The New York Times got one thing right. It is now President Trump's problem to solve. But the Times is all wrong about Obama -- he never meant to intervene or stop the march of Socialism in Venezuela, just as Pope Francis did not, even though he now calls for "talks." Talks were Obama's weapon of choice to avoid undercutting the Chavista Socialists. The Pope has taken up Obama's support for the Chavistas. But the level of violence signals a civil war, because the Chavistas will never reform or retire and the people will not submit. • The only question left now is how bloody the civil war will be and how long it will be allowed to go on.