Fernando Alcoforado *
With the election of Carlos Andrés Pérez in 1989, the neoliberal model was introduced in Venezuela in the late 1980s, which was known at the time as “the great turn.” His proposals included privatizations, currency devaluation, tax reform, deregulation and tariff reduction, among others. At the same time, prices of products produced by state-owned industries, especially those linked to oil, have risen, which has consequently raised gas prices and public transport charges.
This situation produced a series of protests in the streets generating a crisis of governability, which culminated in the well-known Caracazo, characterized as a civil insurrection against the Perez government that killed at least 300 people (according to unofficial sources more than a thousand people would have been killed). In 1991, new demonstrations broke out contrary to President Perez’s economic policy. The protesters demanded the fulfillment of campaign promises, betrayed when Perez came to power and implemented neoliberal reforms.
In February 1992, there was the attempted military coup commanded by then Lieutenant Colonel Hugo Chavez in order to take power in the country that was defeated by the military action that remained faithful to President Perez. Despite all the demonstrations by civil society, the repeated attempts of military coup, the growing disapproval of his government and the political pressure of the successive strikes that paralyzed the country, Perez refused to change his economic policy, persisting in the deepening of the reforms neoliberals.
In March 1993, Attorney General Escovar Salom officially denounced Carlos Andrés Pérez for poor administration of public funds. In August 1993, Congress finally removed President Perez from office as Venezuela’s president after clear evidence of corruption in his government. Following the impeachment of President Perez, Congress indirectly elected independent senator Ramon Velásquez who remained only eight months in power. His administration organized the presidential elections of December, in which Rafael Caldera was the winner.
In 1994, Caldera decided to amnesty Hugo Chavez and the other leaders of the 1992 military coup, freeing them from prison. The Caldera government has established price and exchange controls. Also in 1994, a financial crisis led to the collapse of the banking system, which led the state to take control of 18 private banks and the escape of 322 bankers from the country, to escape accusations of economic fraud, leading to millions of dollars in luggage. However, the first set of measures taken by President Caldera was not able to prevent in 1996 the inflation record of 103% and negative GDP growth of less than half a point.
Beginning in 1995, in an attempt to change the orientation of the economy, the Caldera government chose to take the path of neoliberalism, including signing an agreement with the IMF and a commitment to neoliberal reforms. If at first the new economic measures taken by President Caldera presented a good result, with the passage of time Venezuela returned to the problems of the past. Meanwhile, after two years in jail and dismissed from the army, Hugo Chávez joined political-institutional life and presented his candidacy for the 1998 presidential elections, being elected with 62.46% of the votes promising to fight corruption practiced by the class political and economic situation and a complete refoundation of the Republic.
Hugo Chavez, elected for the first time in 1998, won four successive presidential terms by electoral means. In the early years of Chávez’s presidency, he introduced social welfare reforms that resulted in improving the social conditions of the of the low-income population. It also implemented free health and education systems, up to university level, funded by the government. About 1 million more children have been enrolled in primary school since the Bolivarian leader came to power. In 2003 and 2004, Chavez launched social and economic campaigns that were converted into free reading, writing and arithmetic classes for the more than 1.5 million illiterate Venezuelan adults. According to surveys, this set of measures resulted in a growth of 150% in the family income of the poorest between 2003 and 2006 and a reduction of 18% in infant mortality between 1998 and 2006.
Chávez’s successive victories in the Venezuelan elections have confirmed his mandate with strong popular support, indicating that the path chosen by him in that country has succeeded not only in mobilizing and organizing the poorest population, but also in building an affirmative agenda in defense of national sovereignty and of confrontation with imperialism, especially the American. The two major brands of the Chávez government concern the purpose of carrying out the Bolivarian Revolution and implanting Socialism of the 21st Century. This socialism proposed by Chávez in 2005 at the World Forum in Porto Alegre would be nourished by the most authentic currents of Christianity, by Marxism and Bolivar’s ideas. However, the discourse proposed by 21st century socialism and its practical application faced a series of structural problems that the government of Hugo Chávez could not solve, such as promoting the expansion of Venezuela’s productive sectors and avoid excessive dependence of the country on the export of oil and of importation of numerous products, including food.
The Bolivarian Revolution was the term created by Hugo Chávez to designate the political, economic and social changes initiated from his access to the power in Venezuela. The Bolivarian Revolution is based, according to Chavez, on the ideology of the liberator Simon Bolivar and had as main objective the emancipation of Latin America. Its strategy in Venezuela consisted in expanding its influence among the popular strata of its population and count on the decisive support of the Armed Forces to give it support. At the external level, it established alliances with the rulers of Ecuador, Bolivia, Argentina, Brazil and Peru, among other countries, strongly supported in the fundamental wealth of the country, oil.
After Hugo Chávez’s death and Nicolás Maduro’s rise to power, Venezuela has been the scene of economic turmoil and violent clashes between pro- Chávez and anti-Chávez forces, whose main causes are hyperinflation, the sharp fall in GDP growth and the sharp rise in unemployment, the shortage of strong currency (which generates speculation with the dollar) and the shortage of some basic products that strongly affects the entire population. Without credit and without foreign exchange, Venezuela has become increasingly dependent on oil sales, as the only source of capital inflows, whose prices have declined in recent years and are undermining the country’s economy. An indisputable fact is that Venezuela is a country divided and polarized to the extreme between pro- Chávez and anti-Chávez whose radicalization reached top level with the defeat in the last parliamentary elections of forces pro- Chávez to the forces of opposition that today are majority in the National Assembly presided by the deputy Juan Guaidó who in turn intends to remove Nicolas Maduro from power.
Nicolás Maduro won the last presidential elections in May 2018, competing for direct and secret ballot, defeating three other opposition candidates, obtaining 67.8% of the valid votes and took office on January 10 for a second presidential term, according to the electoral calendar approved by the National Constituent Assembly (ANC), which currently exercises plenipotentiary powers in Venezuela. On Wednesday, January 23, Juan Guaidó, president of the National Assembly, proclaimed himself President of the Republic of Venezuela, relying on the support of Trump government, the OAS, Ivan Duque from Colombia and Bolsonaro from Brazil. It is noteworthy that Guaidó did not run for the elections in May 2018. Following that, Guaidó was quickly recognized by Donald Trump’s government, followed by countries aligned to the United States in Latin America and Europe. The exceptions that have been declared against the most recent operation to remove Maduro from power were the Latin American countries like the Mexican, Cuban and Bolivian governments. Turkey, Russia and China also opposed the US intervention in Venezuela.
In order to maintain himself in power, Nicolás Maduro arrested opponents of Chavism, violently suppressed the demonstrations of the opposition forces, used the Bolivarian militias to attack his opponents by using violence, implemented an exception regime similar to the state of siege to maintain order, and empty the National Assembly of opposition to the government with the convening of a new Constituent Assembly. The chaotic situation in Venezuela demonstrates that Chavism failed as a project of society because, economically, it could not manage the economy in the sense of serving the interests of the whole society, because it can only manage politically with the use of force and failed socially because it faces a vertiginous impoverishment of the population.
Very difficult, representative democracy can result from the political conflicts that occur in Venezuela due to the impossibility of establishing a social pact that would require consensus in Civil Society difficult to construct between pro-Chávez and anti-Chávez forces. In addition to the civil war, there is a risk of US military intervention to appropriate the world’s largest oil reserves in Venezuela with the support of some Latin American countries in flagrant disregard of the United Nations Charter from which it can result of a conflict involving several countries in Latin America. This situation tends to promote the intensification of the new Cold War between the United States and the allied Russia of Venezuela and the worsening of relations between the United States and China, also an ally of Venezuela.
Russia warned that the recognition of Deputy Juan Guaidó as president of Venezuela by the United States could lead to a “bloodbath” in the country. In a statement, the Russian Foreign Ministry said that events in Venezuela are reaching a dangerous point and that Washington has demonstrated disrespect for international law. Moscow also warned the United States not to carry out a military intervention in Venezuela, saying that such action could lead to a catastrophe. In another statement, the Kremlin said it continues to support Maduro and that attempts to seize power in Venezuela violate international law. Venezuela is therefore facing a humanitarian catastrophe of gigantic proportions.
* Fernando Alcoforado, 79, holder of the CONFEA / CREA System Medal of Merit, member of the Bahia Academy of Education, engineer and doctor in Territorial Planning and Regional Development by the University of Barcelona, university professor and consultant in the areas of strategic planning, business planning, regional planning and planning of energy systems, is the author of 14 books addressing issues such as Globalization and Development, Brazilian Economy, Global Warming and Climate Change, The Factors that Condition Economic and Social Development, Energy in the world and The Great Scientific, Economic, and Social Revolutions that Changed the World.
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