Venezuela on the brink

When former army officer and left-wing populist Hugo Chavez won the presidential election in 1999, nobody thought that he would emerge as an icon of anti-capitalist and anti-imperialist movements across the world.

His victory and pro-poor policies gave a new ray of hope to millions of impoverished people in Latin America. It gave rise to the left-wing populist governments and movements in Latin America. Brazil, Bolivia, Argentine and some other countries experienced similar forms of government.   

Chavez was a democratically-elected champion of the poor. His policies lifted millions of people out of abject poverty and misery. He represented a break from many years of parasitic and corrupt regimes that often had a dire record of human rights abuses and anti-working class policies. He was hated equally by the US imperialist and the capitalist classes in Latin America.

Chavez demonstrated in clear terms that it is possible to resist the neoliberal dogma and free-market onslaught that holds sway over much of humanity. He won 17 elections and referendums in 13 years. The US imperialist and right-wing reactionary capitalist class joined hands against him. But they failed to defeat him. His death was a big blow for the working class and poor, not only in Venezuela but for the entire continent. 

Once presented as a new model of democratic socialism and radical reforms, Venezuela is now battered by a social and economic catastrophe. The reforms introduced in the health, education and housing sectors during the late president Hugo Chavez’s tenure have all but disappeared under the weight of economic collapse, the falling oil prices and the corruption and sabotage caused by the capitalist class.

Amid vast food shortages of the most basic staples like rice and beans and frequent power and water cuts, there is the real threat of a total social collapse. Some commentators have even warned that Venezuela is becoming a “failed state”.

The scale of the social collapse is reflected in the epidemic of murders and violent crimes. Venezuela has the second highest murder rate in the world. Thousands of people have lost their lives every year as a result of the spike in violent crimes.

The capitalist class is already attempting to present this disaster as another “failure for socialism”. Yet, this is far from the case. The initial reforms and inroads made against the ruling class initially won massive support as the process of the revolution was taking steps forward. It was the failure to take this process to its conclusion and break with capitalism that has resulted in the current crisis.

Capitalism was wounded but not snuffed out. The absence of a genuine worker-led control and management and the emergence of bureaucratic, corrupt, top-down methods by the state have also contributed to the current crisis. It remains to be seen how the current crisis will develop. However, the social conditions are such that a massive social outburst of anger, rioting and looting could take place.

On May 1, President Nicolas Maduro announced the calling of a Constituent Assembly “to achieve peace the republic needs [and] to defeat the fascist coup…so that it will be the people and their sovereignty which impose peace, harmony and real national dialogue.”

This declaration came in the context of a grave economic and social crisis, with inflation at over 700 percent (3,000 percent for food prices) and a clear erosion of numerous reforms and social conquests won in previous years – including the sacking of thousands of workers. Poverty, which was reduced under Chavez, is growing spectacularly. This has resulted in increased urban violence, insecurity and marginalisation.

The Venezuelan right-wing (united under the MUD) has used this situation in an opportunist and hypocritical way and has tried to capitalise on it. The bourgeois parasites of the MUD cannot offer any alternative to workers and the people and their programme represents the same nightmare as Temer in Brazil and Macri in Argentina. The capitalist class in Latin America is already on the offensive. Only Bolivia appears stable with a radical reformist government.

The desperation of the MUD and the decision of the imperialists to reject the Constituent Assembly are not casual reactions. Their objective is to bring down Maduro as quickly as possible, get into the presidential palace and apply savage plans of privatisation and attacks on workers and the poor, dismantling all the progressive measures applied under Chavez. This would comply with the demands of their overlords – the IMF and the imperialist multinationals.

The international capitalists and the MUD have reacted to the calling of the Constituent Assembly with cries of horror. With their habitual cynicism, the same people who organised the coup of 2002 and locked up Hugo Chavez (who was democratically elected by the people), dissolved the parliament and suspended the constitution (ratified by 87 percent of people in a referendum) are now speaking of ‘coup d’état’ and ‘dictatorship’ and crying crocodile tears about the threat to “liberties” in Venezuela.

The Maduro government is hanging by a thread. The army is still supporting the government. However, the situation is particularly volatile and could change in one way or another quickly – as we saw with the fallout from the Supreme Tribunal and the National Assembly. It is clear that there are splits and divisions within the state apparatus.

The elections for the Constituent Assembly on July 30 might decide the fate of the Maduro government. The high turnout might save him for the time being. The right-wing triumph in Venezuela will deal a severe blow to the left-wing radical reformist movement. The international capitalist class will claim that only the free market economy and neoliberalism can work. Democratic socialism is a mere slogan and cannot be practiced.

 The writer is a freelance journalist.