Democracy, Socialism And Counter-Revolution In Latin America

Democracy, Socialism And Counter-Revolution In Latin America
By Andy Piascik, www.zcomm.org
May 6th, 2014

Recent developments in Latin America continue that region’s remarkable surge toward democracy and socialism and away from the clutches of US imperialism. Left parties have won recent presidential elections in Chile and El Salvador, and a candidate of the Left is virtually assured of victory in Costa Rica’s presidential election on April 6. In addition, the ruling United Socialist Party of Venezuela (known by its Spanish acronym PSUV) won a substantial majority of nationwide races in December, nine months after PSUV leader Nicolas Maduro was elected to succeed the late Hugo Chavez as president. One discordant note was the election of the reactionary National Party’s Juan Orlando Hernandez as president of Honduras over LIBRE candidate Xiomara de Castro on November 24 in an election marred by massive fraud.

In Venezuela, the PSUV’s big victory came despite ongoing efforts by reactionaries to undermine the economy and destabilize the advances of the Bolivarian Revolution. Violence by oppositionists from the upper classes broke out in February in an effort to turn the clock back to the days when a tiny elite owned most of the nation’s wealth, while the vast majority lived in squalor. Though the Bolivarian government has widespread support throughout Latin America as well, indeed, as the world, the United States is aiding the counterrevolution and is threatening sanctions. A volatile situation exists as this article goes to press

The United States has been working with the Venezuelan oligarchy to undermine the Bolivarians ever since Chavez was elected president in 1999 and escalated those efforts after Chavez’s death last year. The State Department, the CIA, USAID and Non-Governmental Organizations such as CANVAS and Freedom House have poured tens of millions of dollars into Venezuela in support of sabotage, hoarding and shutdowns by businesses, and widespread media propaganda. These efforts are widely known throughout the Hemisphere if not here, and for many Latin Americans undoubtedly bring to mind events leading up to the 1973 coup in Chile. That effort was also armed and financed by the US and resulted in the overthrow of the democratically elected government of socialist Salvador Allende by the fascist Augusto Pinochet.

The US was also deeply involved in the 2002 military coup that temporarily deposed Chavez, only to be repulsed by a popular uprising. Though Venezuela has structures and levels of popular participation in fundamental decision-making that exceed those in virtually every country in the world, Washington and the corporate media have been hammering away for 15 years with the lie that it is a dictatorship that must go. One distortion among many is the nature of the “labor strikes” that have periodically disrupted Venezuela throughout the Bolivarian years.

In reality, most every one of these strikes was a lock-out by business owners involved in or supportive of the counterrevolution. Workers would show up at work, only to find the factory, mill or refinery closed. Highly-paid union bureaucrats like Carlos Ortega, who assumed control of the influential Confederation of Venezuelan Workers (CTV) despite never having been duly elected, collaborated with these efforts. The working classes, by contrast, are the most steadfast supporters of the Bolivarians.

More:
http://www.popularresistance.org/democracy-socialism-and-counter-revolution-in-latin-america/