#LaSalida? Venezuela at a Crossroads

[xchrom]

http://www.thenation.com/article/178496/lasalida-venezuela-crossroads


An anti-government demonstrator in the Altamira neighborhood of Caracas, Venezuela, Friday, February 21, 2014 (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)

Ukraine. Bosnia. Venezuela.

Tear gas. Masks. Water cannons.

Ours is an age of riots and rebellions, of radical self-creation in the heady streets: Spain’s indignados, the Occupy movement, Mexico’s Yo Soy 132, and of course the Arab Spring. We are understandably excited when we see people in the streets, and our pulse may even rise at the sight of masks, broken glass and flames, because for so long such images have represented the shards of the old world through which we can catch the perceptible glint of the new. Recent protests in Venezuela against the government of Chávez successor Nicolás Maduro might therefore seem to be simply the latest act in an upsurge of world-historic proportions.

Not so fast.

Despite hashtags like #SOSVenezuela and #PrayForVenezuela and retweets from @Cher and @Madonna, these protests have far more to do with returning economic and political elites to power than with their downfall.

Venezuela’s “Bolivarian Revolution” leapt forth from the historical collision of radical social movements against a repressive, neoliberal state. Fifteen years ago, Hugo Chávez was elected president of Venezuela amid the collapsing rubble of the old two-party system, but the “revolution” over which he would preside has far deeper roots. For decades, armed guerrillas, peasants and workers, women, Afro- and indigenous Venezuelans, students and the urban poor struggled against a system that—while formally democratic—was far from it in practice. These revolutionary grassroots movements, which I document in We Created Chávez, blew a hole in what Walter Benjamin would call the continuum of history in a massive anti-neoliberal riot that began on February 27, 1989.

[brooklynite]

1. Is the person in the picture a dupe or a CIA plant?

I would be helpful to tell the difference.....

[reddread]

3. huge crowd isnt it?

thats a question that could be widely asked.
some folks seem conspicuously suspicious.
cynicism and historical reference dont seem useful to others.
the difference between dupe and plant doesnt mean much.
cheerleaders and unthinking mobs a fair analogy?
the difference between those types with toilet paper shortage outrage
and
pro-democracy, anti-Koch Bros $$$$$ interference doubting and inquiring minds,
seems considerable.

[brooklynite]

5. Apparently, just as large as the crowd in the Ukraine...

[geek tragedy]

2. Maduro has used the oligarchs as an excuse to avoid accountability.

And many are all too happy to help him in that task.

[Jesus Malverde]

4. It's own hashtag?

It must be an "official" state department project.

Andy Carvin must be going nuts.

[Zorra]

6. "The Nation" is the most consistent vehicle for informed political journalism in

the US.

Great piece, thanks again, xchrom.