Heh, on the Latin note, I read something a little while ago that made me :/ about Venezuela. Note, not supporting Maduro: more pointing out how idiotic both sides coverage of events is.
One American journalist wrote : "the economy is collapsing, there are protests in the streets, yet the president hasn't been toppled from office. That's not how Democracy
works".
Umm, actually, that is exactly how
democracy works. He won the last Presidential election. His term hasn't expired yet. The entire nation could turn into a zombie-infested hell-hole, because he accidentally released the T-Virus, and it would still be his
legal term in office. And if you're legally in office, and there is violence trying to topple you, you're fully in your legal rights to ask the police to prevent the violence, which is what has happened. There's nothing illegal about shutting down actual riots that are trying to overthrow the government. The idea that elected leaders who prove unpopular must be violently overthrown or it's not "true democracy" seems like a pretty weird - and convenient - definition to apply here.
BTW right now, the Constituent Assembly has set April 30th as the far-limit for the next presidential election in Venezuela, so there's going to be some election coverage and news etc. Here is some breakdown of the parties and candidates involved.
https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/13627These are some potential opposition candidates:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Ramos_Allup, "Democratic Action" party
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henri_Falc%C3%B3n, "Fatherland for all" party
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andr%C3%A9s_Vel%C3%A1squez, "Radical Cause" party
But note, Americans probably won't take comfort in any of these people winning. e.g. -
- Henry Ramos Allup is an opposition candidate, who was elected head of the National Assembly by the MUD coalition, when they ousted the PSUV im 2015, which America hailed as a great day for Democracy, but he was also elected president of the
Socialist International in 2012.
- Henri Falcon is an ex-PSUV guy (came out of Maduro's party). He's in MUD now, representing the "Fatherland for all" party, who list themselves as a Libertarian Marxist / social democratic party / "Comunismo de izquierda" party - this means anti-bolshevik communist, literally "left communist". I guess they're like Trotskyists or something.
- Andrés Velásquez is the leader of a party called "Radical Cause", who are listed as a "revolutionary socialist political party".
Here's the list of pretty much ever party that has any standing in Venezuela.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_political_parties_in_VenezuelaThe thing you gotta love is how scary most of the party names are "Primero Justicia", "A New Era", "Popular Will", "La Causa Radical", "Cuentas Claras" (clear accounts), "Fearless People's Alliance", "Vanguardia Bicentenaria Republicana, "Emergent People", "Project Venezuela", "Fatherland for all" ... all sound pretty fascistic. And these are most of the
non-Maduro choices to pick from.
"Primero Justicia"
"Justice First" is the biggest opposition party, but they're a radical socialist party, who have a platform of democratizing all the means of production. e.g. they're further towards trad. socialism than even Maduro:
On March 2009, the party's national coordinator Julio Borges said, "Venezuela lives under state capitalism, not socialism".[5] The party's economic position is so-called "properties democratization," similar to a social market economy. In the 2012 presidential election, Henrique Capriles described himself as humanist and progressive.
"Acción Democrática"
Democratic Action are the second-biggest opposition party. They're also the party responsible for the biggest massacre of protestors in Venezuelan history, in 1992, when the government killed somewhere between several hundred to several thousand protestors. Apparently the "Democratic" part of the "Action" is where they send the army in to shoot protestors. Note, however for anyone hoping that Democratic Action is going to put the past behind them and be a true conservative option: they're
also members of
Socialist International."Un Nuevo Tiempo"
A New Era" which joined the Socialist International in 2013. Their policies favor join private/public ownership of resources, state economic planning, and creating a sovereign wealth fund. I'd say they're sort of like Signapore then, but with lip service to Sweden's sort of social value system.
Next after that is "Voluntad Popular" => "Popular Will", yet another Venezuelan party who's part of Socialist International..
... and they're followed by the fore-mentioned "La Causa Radical", who bill themselves as "revolutionary socialists", and were founded by previous communist guerillas during the military junta / dictatorship era.
... who are followed by "Movimiento Progresista de Venezuela" who write:
We, militants of the Venezuelan Progressive Movement, aware that the fundamental enemy of today's Venezuelans is poverty and social injustice , believe that the model of development to defeat these scourges is that which provides social progress. be built through a mixed economy where the state is the owner of the basic basic industries, managed with appropriate management and technical criteria, and distributed, but at the same time, the State must guarantee clear rules to private initiative and legal guarantees in the long term with the purpose of promoting it.
There's another party, sort of like the Republicans, the Christian Democrats, they used to be the #2 party, however they boycotted the last several elections and have no seats. Trump would like them to win, the most, probably.
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Topic: Latin American Politics: Moralism (Read 95257 times)