What's happening in Venezuela is a right-wing revolt. The students protesting are mostly all from well-off and privileged families.
Behind the right-wing revolt in Venezuela | SocialistWorker.org
In 1996, right-wingers ruled over everybody in Venezuela. The policy of unfettered capitalism was great for the 1%, who had everything.
In 1996, 63% of Venezuelans lived below the poverty line. Bad wages, total distribution of wealth to the 1%, deregulation and privatization of everything gave Venezuela all of its problems.
Hugo Chavez basically ran on a platform that was opposed to neoliberalism, which puts all of its faith in the free market and none anywhere else.
He nationalized the oil industry and shared the profits with all the working poor. In 10 years time, the poverty rate in Venezuela was cut in half.
What's been happening in Venezuela in recent years is that big business, the rich and the powerful have done their best to sabotage economic progress for their country.
Just like Republicans in America. Because some measures of socialism actually work, it drives them mad that it works, so they have to try to make it un-work by governing poorly in a cynical attempt to try to fool people into believing that it's all "socialism's" fault.
Public transportation was attacked in recent days. That helps the working poor get to and from work. One of the only public universities there was besieged recently because it teaches more than just "greed is good".
It's a right-wing revolution in Venezuela waged by people who've been trying to bring down their country for awhile in order to blame it on the socialism boogeyman.
The fight in Venezuela is also a fight within the right-wing. A lot more military members are in government and they have an alliance with the right-winger down there who is the head of the oil industry.
The right down there has been doing its best to sabotage the economy, to devalue the country's dollar, to raise inflation.
They hate that they have to share some of their profits that belong to all Venezuelans. They want it all for themselves just like they did 20 years ago, and which created all that poverty in Venezuela in the first place.
Venezuela proves that unfettered capitalism doesn't work. It also proves that a total rejection of capitalism also doesn't work. It's a fine balance. But this thread is full of hot air and predictable talking points from American morons who just repeat every stupid thing they've heard from their right-wing echo chamber on the internets, which only cares for them to speak in the same tired and stale soundbites.
The mid-90's crisis in Venezuela was caused by rigid right-wing ideology, and the crisis today is also caused by that same wing, who would rather burn everything down than co-operate and live in a society of shared responsibilities and shared benefits.
It's a more complicated story down there than the myths and the fables coming out of the American right-wing echo chamber way up on bullshit mountain, err, Fox News and the rest of their ilk.
