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To the Washington Post: Venezuela Is, in Fact, An Example of the Failure of Socialism
To the Washington Post: Venezuela Is, in Fact, An Example of the Failure of SocialismIt is fundamentally irresponsible to attempt to disassociate the Venezuelan disaster from socialism.
By Orlando Avendaño Last Updated Aug 23, 2018
Francisco Toro comes up short when he attempts to let socialism off the hook for Venezuela’s humanitarian crisis (EFE)
In the Washington Post, Venezuelan Francisco Toro, columnist for that newspaper and founder of the Caracas Chronicles group blog, presents an attempt to dissociate the Venezuelan tragedy from its ideological cause.
In the article, entitled “No, Venezuela does not prove anything about socialism,” Toro rails about what he calls “the conservative American mediasphere.” He deems them opportunists, seeking to promote their agendas by taking advantage of the Venezuelan drama. Specifically, he accuses them of linking anyone who raises the banner of “socialism” with those responsible for the worst humanitarian drama that the region has suffered.
His argument is based on the following premise: Venezuela is not the only country in Latin America that has been governed by some self-styled “socialist”, but Venezuela is the only one plunged into an unprecedented humanitarian tragedy.
“Since the beginning of the century, every country in South America, except Colombia, has chosen a socialist as president at some point. Socialists have taken power in the largest economy in South America (Brazil), in the poorest (Bolivia) and in the most capitalist country (Chile),” the article reads. Then, Toro says: “Mysteriously, the supposedly automatic link between socialism and the zombie apocalypse did not occur in those countries. Not content with just not collapsing, several of these countries have prospered.”
First, Toro mentions Peru and the corrupt government, linked to the Lava Jato case, of Ollanta Humala. He also talks about Evo Morales, the communist-chauvinist, with authoritarian pretensions, who has been leading Bolivia since 2006. Toro credits both with securing “important social achievements along the way.”
He talks about socialism in Argentina, in Brazil, in Ecuador and mentions corruption; but then, in an act of pettiness, he says: “I would never have voted for some of those people. But when you try to evaluate their results, the word that comes to mind is “mixed”: successes in some areas, failures in others and no cataclysms in society.”
However, the most disturbing phrase appears after so much condescension with respect to those who represent the capitulation of a region before the Castroite will. Toro, to try to hold his flimsy column together, argues: “Do you not believe me? Ask the hundreds of thousands of Venezuelan refugees who are now in Brazil, Ecuador, or Argentina looking for a better future.”
-snip-
https://panampost.com/orlando-avendano/2018/08/23/to-the-washington-post-venezuela-is-in-fact-an-example-of-the-failure-of-socialism/
Francisco Toro is a Venezuela ex-pat journalist who lives safely in the United States, who frequently caterwauls about the failures of Chavismo (correctly so!) while insisting that the problem isn't Chavismo itself, but how it is being implemented incorrectly, and who is implementing it. Where has this argument been hear ad nauseum? "Marxism works, it just hasn't been tried yet!"
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