Latin America
Related: About this forumIn Venezuela, a Popular Uprising, or Class Warfare?
In Venezuela, a Popular Uprising, or Class Warfare?
By Kanya D'Almeida
UNITED NATIONS, Mar 27 2014 (IPS)
~snip~
Targeting the poor
Some sources say the above analysis is borne out by protesters systematic targeting of public welfare institutions, utilised by the countrys most destitute and marginalised groups, in a deliberate attempt to weaken the nerve center of the Socialist state.
There have been attacks on government supermarkets that sell food at subsidised prices, on clinics where Cuban doctors provide free medical care, and on educational facilities, James Petras, professor emeritus of sociology at the Binghamton University in New York, told IPS.
A few nights ago demonstrators torched an experimental university in the western city of San Cristobal, cradle of the protest movement, where several hundred low-income Venezuelan students were receiving subsidised education. Over the last 12 weeks, Petras says, protesters have also targeted many centres of social gathering and recreational activities, electrical grids especially those that supply areas where support for Chavez is strong municipal buildings, local banks that supply microcredit loans to small-scale enterprises, and the list goes on.
Fire bombings, arson and other acts of sabotage have cost the country about 10 billion dollars in damages, the government said last Friday in a statement that lambasted such tactics as vandalism and terrorism.
These are not random acts, this is a deliberate campaign to cut social links between the government and its mass base by blocking the delivery of social services, Petras said.
More:
http://www.ipsnews.net/2014/03/venezuela-popular-uprising-class-warfare/
tech3149
(4,452 posts)I didn't climb out of Plato's cave until 2003 but I have the freedom and time to expand my awareness as fast as I can. When it comes to Latin America there is no way to refute that their problems are a direct result of economic exploitation.
Unfortunately, any discussion that questions the US motive in relations with other countries will always draw condemnation from those willing to accept the "official" reason for our actions.
Those who will take the time to study history already know the stratification has been present since the firs European set foot on the continent. Nothing has changed in those centuries. Those who are "protesting" are the blancos. They are the sons and daughters of the exploiters of the people and resources of the country.
mecherosegarden
(745 posts)This is in San Cristobal today
or tear gas :
Very sad what is happening in Venezuela.
Judi Lynn
(160,542 posts)Carlos Andres Perez, who murdered over 3,000 in El Caracazo Massacre.
To any DU'er who doesn't remember, or never heard (and, of course, you didn't read it in our corporate media) you can spend some important time researching that monstrous massacre which is STILL considered really cool by the Venezuelan oligarchy who continued to adore this demon even after he was impeached and lived in exile in the US and Colombia, etc. for the rest of his damnable life, financed by money he stole from the Venezuelan taxpayers while acting as the President.