Thursday, 6 March 2014

Thoughts on the Venezuela crisis

The Jamaican Tory can no longer keep silent on this issue that has been making headlines around the world recently, which has to do with the crisis going on in the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, as we all must be aware of by now, the country has been rocked by a series of riots and clashes between the citizens and government forces, for those who may not have been following the story, the whole crisis began early last month with a nationwide student protest over a various number of issues, mainly security, the breakdown of law and order and the poor state of the economy all of which have  been blamed on Venezuela’s current President, Nicholas Maduro.

              


There are many speculations as to what the root cause of the crisis may be as well as reasons as to why it escalated so quickly, but anyone who has followed political and historical happenings in that country would know that this was bound to happen, I don’t mean to sound harsh or judgmental but the truth is that you reap what you sow and that is exactly what is happening here. Ever since the late 1990s Venezuela has been under the spell of a personality cult led by  the late El Caudillo Presidente Hugo Chavez,  a man known for  his eccentrics and twisted charisma that captured people's hearts almost in the same way that Hitler’s Nazism did to Germany in the 1930s . Under his rule he introduced what he called Bolivarian Socialism or Socialism for the 21st century, both of which were nothing more than code words for saying that he was introducing his own special brand of Communism into the country, his schemed worked brilliantly and from that time up until early in 2013 he was basically untouchable...or so he thought, but alas not even he as mighty as he thought he was could escape from the cold hands of death.  That of course leads us to his successor, the current President Maduro, virtually known for most of his career as Chavez’s main henchman, far less creative or charismatic with hardly an original thought in him; Senor Maduro had big shoes to fill.


            

All throughout Chavez’s years, Venezuela was infested by the host of social and economic problems but Chavez being a master of propaganda gave the impression that things were fast improving for the people in his country, it seems as though however his successor was not nearly as good an expert illusionist as he was hence the reason why many social problems are now coming to the fore and the new administration (which is really a continuation of the Chavez regime) almost a year in power still has no clue as to how solve this country’s problems or at least pretend that they are doing so in a manner that will satisfy the people, hence the open revolt.

            


As I mentioned earlier, I’m not surprised that this is happening; only that it didn’t happen sooner. Socialism no matter how you try to spin it or brand it, never works and the kind of socialism attempted in Venezuela was that of the worst order, now the people of Venezuela are finally beginning to see through their government’s deception, the "Partido Socialista Unido de Venezuela" no longer looks like an invincible machine now that Chavez is no longer around to lead them, the big question is how long will this go on? It’s already seen as a major humanitarian crisis (even though now the eyes of the world are fixed on the Ukraine Crisis, which I will deal with in due course), how will the Venezuela’s neighbours in Latin America respond?, what about the Petro-Caribe deal signed between Venezuela and several Caricom states?, what implication will it have for the continuation of this arrangement? All these and more are extremely important questions to ponder in this crisis where the end is not yet in sight. 

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