Latin America

Zorro

(15,749 posts) Fri Jun 21, 2013, 10:46 AM Jun 2013

Analysis: Rough honeymoon for Chavez's successor in Venezuela

Wearing sports gear in the national colors and sitting on a sofa in a modest family home, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro holds a microphone, chats with locals and expounds on the benefits of socialism.

Variations of the scene - on a factory floor, playing soccer in the presidential palace or walking the plains with farmers - play daily on national TV as Hugo Chavez's successor makes "Gobierno en la Calle," or "Street Government," the chosen slogan of his rule.

Almost constantly on the road since being elected in April, Maduro has launched a plethora of new schemes, from raising the minimum wage to sending soldiers into city slums to fight crime.

Trumpeting his modest background as a bus driver and union activist, he continually reminds Venezuelans he is the South American nation's first "worker president," guaranteed to empathize with the poor and thus continue Chavez's legacy.

http://news.yahoo.com/analysis-rough-honeymoon-chavezs-successor-venezuela-124900072.html

1 replies

= new reply since forum marked as read

Highlight:

Analysis: Rough honeymoon for Chavez's successor in Venezuela (Original Post) Zorro Jun 2013 OP

So this says the game plan is to use a recall referendum and force Maduro out in 3 years Socialistlemur Jun 2013 #1

Socialistlemur

(770 posts)

1. So this says the game plan is to use a recall referendum and force Maduro out in 3 years

Reply to Zorro (Original post)

Fri Jun 21, 2013, 11:26 AM

Jun 2013

It would work if they had assurances the system would be fair and clean. But in three years they'll have the country clamped down Castro style. I suspect the country is bound for very hard times, because thus far Maduro seems to be more interested in traveling around and there are no serious moves to fix the currency exchange imbalance or reactivate local production. They seem to believe oil will rescue them. What they don't get is the Venezuelan oil left to produce looks a lot like Canadian bitumen. It's really expensive to produce, and very low quality.

Reply to this discussion