Venezuela’s Slide into Chaos

by John J. Metzler

UNITED NATIONS—Storm clouds are buffeting the coast of Venezuela, the once rich South American state which is sliding into economic chaos and combustable political confrontation.

Mass demonstrations have rocked the capital Caracas. As democratic opposition protesters confront the riot police and paramilitary forces of the entrenched socialist dictatorship, the country of 31 million slips deeper into turmoil.

It did not have to be this way.

Once a fairly prosperous and middle class country, Venezuela challenged the paradigm of much of Latin America in the post-war period having a working democracy which was not jolted by periodic military coups detat. Nor was this the stereotypical “banana republic.” Anything but.

Yet the rise of the petroleum fueled and politically high octane presidency of Colonel Hugo Chavez starting in 1999 changed the political equation. A dozen years of left wing politics, nationalizations and increasing authoritarianism of the Bolivarian Revolution put Chavez’s Venezuela near the pinnacle of progressive Latin American regimes. President Chavez presented himself as a buffoonish populist and regular critic of the USA. Having witnessed his antics during his UN visits, one could be assured of colorful rhetoric and a peculiar charm fitting of a Latin despot.

In a sense Venezuela’s oil boom was both a blessing and a curse. In the beginning petrodollars fueled the state and lavish social welfare programs for his United Socialist Party. Later petrodollars provided a massive political slush fund to support political solidarity with Castro’s Cuba, and a host of other Marxist states looking for the flow of Peso diplomacy. But the drop in global oil prices and the cost of socialist mismanagement by Hugo Chavez turned a once prosperous state into an economic basket case.

When Chavez died of cancer in 2013, his mantle fell to vice President Nicolas Maduro, a less talented demagogue, who’s since been swamped by falling oil prices, corruption, and inflation.

After Maduro’s left wing Supreme Court dissolved the National Assembly, which was controlled by the opposition, street demonstrations reignited. Once again, as many times during the Chavez years, especially in 2002, the middle class opposition rose up to challenge the Maduro government. Yet widening food and medicine shortages across Venezuela have swelled the ranks of the protesters to include many of the poor proletariat who once supported the Chavismo movement.

The Washington-based Organization of American States (OAS) issued a 75-page report accusing the Maduro government of violating human rights and democratic standards. The OAS Secretary General later warned, “In Venezuela, the rule of law does not exist even in appearance…The group of people who hold power in Venezuela has no right to inflict the harm and damage it is causing on the country and the hemisphere.”

Weeks ago the Caracas regime decided to quit the OAS, of which it was a founding member.   Former congresswoman Maria Corina Machado stated that Maduro’s leaving the OAS “formalized Venezuela’s outlaw status.”

The human rights watchdog group Freedom House rates Venezuela’s political rights and civil liberties as “Not free” and scores its standing as lower than Zimbabwe! Venezuela is regarded as the “least free” country on the South American continent, a tragic turnaround from its historic standing. Political prisoners, media harassment/intimidation and human rights violations have become part of Venezuela’s new normal.

During a May Day rally speech, Maduro proudly proclaimed plans for a new constitution, one which will be written and framed by regime appointees who know what the Boss wants.

The armed forces, while constitutionally barred from politically meddling, may be biding their time. Nonetheless, the National Guard and the regime’s loyal People’s Militias keep Maduro in power in the short run albeit it to the backdrop of tear gas, and dozens of dead thus far.

Caracas is seething. While the opposition wants fresh elections and a release of political prisoners, the biggest threat to Maduro comes from weak petroleum prices on which 95 percent of the country’s exports depend. This combined with hyper-inflation, food shortages, and a health care crisis present a toxic mix to the regime.

The paradox facing the Trump Administration and many Latin American partners is how to defuse this tinderbox before it becomes a regional crisis. Preventive diplomacy is needed before the crisis explodes.

John J. Metzler is a United Nations correspondent covering diplomatic and defense issues. He is the author of Divided Dynamism The Diplomacy Separated Nations: Germany, Korea, China.

{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }

Eloise Hedbor May 20, 2017 at 12:07 pm

My husband and I visited Venezuela in the mid 1990s. We traveled out in the countryside and met some wonderful people- even though in places we could sense tension. I remember with particular poignancy our conversation with a man who owned a small restaurant and who had a beautiful 5 year old daughter. It was mid afternoon and she was there with him. He had such great hopes for her future. I often think of them and hope they left the country before this tragic chaos began. That country had such possibilities with many creative entrepreneurs. All is in ashes now.

Reply

Mark Shepard May 21, 2017 at 3:24 am

One would hope the reality of where socialism takes nations would result people like Bernie Sanders and most of Vermont’s elected Democrats unelectable. What do those who vote for these people want? Do they even think? Doesn’t seem so.

Reply

Leave a Comment

Previous post:

Next post:

About Us

The Ethan Allen Institute is Vermont’s free-market public policy research and education organization. Founded in 1993, we are one of fifty-plus similar but independent state-level, public policy organizations around the country which exchange ideas and information through the State Policy Network.
Read more...

Latest News

VT Left Wing Media Bias Unmasks Itself

July 24, 2020 By Rob Roper Dave Gram was a long time reporter for the Associated Press, is currently the host of what’s billed on WDEV as a...

Using Guns for Self Defense – 3 Recent Examples

July 24, 2020 By John McClaughry  The Heritage Foundation’s Daily Signal last week published eleven news stories about citizens using a firearm to stop a crime. Here are...

FERC ruling on solar subsidies could help Vermont ratepayers

July 21, 2020 By John McClaughry Last Thursday, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission finalized its updates to the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act (PURPA), in what the majority...

The Moderate Left’s Stand for Free Speech

July 17, 2020 By David Flemming Harper’s Magazine, a long-running monthly magazine of literature, politics, culture, finance, and the arts, is hardly what you would call a ‘politically...

Trump’s Regulatory Bill of Rights

July 16, 2020 by John McClaughry “President Trump [last May] issued an executive order entitled  ‘Regulatory Relief to Support Economic Recovery.’ The executive order includes a regulatory bill...

Video