To mark the 20th anniversary of Chavez’s 4 February 1992 coup attempt, Venezuelanalysis.com has translated two articles; one by Chavez himself, and the second by a Venezuelan Communist, which have quite different interpretations of its historical importance. They in turn bring out distinct analyses of the role of Chavez, the military, and the revolutionary vanguard in the Bolivarian revolution.
A general article by ex Cuban president Fidel Castro on Chavez's performance as president, the role of the miltiary in Venezuela, Venezuela's relationship with Colombia, and the importance of some historical events.
Joao Pedro Stedile, a founder and leader of the MST, speaks about the importance of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America (ALBA), an anti-imperialist bloc of eight Latin American governments that includes Venezuela, Cuba, Bolivia, Ecuador and Nicaragua.
By Rachael Boothroyd for Correo del Orinoco International, Feb 6th 2012
In a bid to secure the Cuban and Venezuelan expat vote in Florida last week, Republican presidential candidates Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich managed to conjure up the kind of anti-leftist propaganda that wouldn’t have been out of place in one of Ronald Reagan’s anti-Soviet Union speeches.
Venezuela’s socialist revolution was both highlighted and defended this weekend as the global summit of social, economic, and environmental justice movements known as the World Social Forum (WSF) came to a close. With some 40,000 activists gathered to discuss anti-capitalist alternatives to the world economic crisis, participants stressed the importance of Venezuela’s Bolivarian Revolution and the leadership role played by President Hugo Chavez in proving that “another world is possible”.
By Rafael Enciso Patiño - workerscontrol.net, Feb 4th 2012
Based on the analysis of the historic experience of what we call the Soviet mode of production – to differentiate it from the socialist mode of production theoretically formulated by Marx, Engels, and Lenin – we here analyze the experience of Venezuela, its process of recuperation of national sovereignty during the government of President Chávez since 1999 and the road traversed with the construction of the material and cultural bases of socialism since his reelection in December 2006 when the chief of state declared socialism as the path of development and the strategic objective to be obtained.
By Rachael Boothroyd - Venezuelanalysis.com, Feb 1st 2012
Even in a regulated economy such as Venezuela, financial traders and the commercial elite, the same bourgeoisie which Carroll continues to cite as a reliable source on all things Venezuelan at the expense of engaging with ordinary citizens, have found a way of speculating and exploiting the economic situation whilst giving the proverbial finger to the majority of Venezuelans and the national government.
By Correo del Orinoco International , Jan 27th 2012
This week Venezuelan opposition forces demonstrated a false showing of unity against President Hugo Chavez in preparation for next October’s presidential elections.
By Reinaldo Iturriza López - Saber y Poder, Jan 25th 2012
One of the principle tasks for the Great Patriotic Pole (GPP), which is still under construction, is the development of what could be called the People’s Programme, which would serve as the fundamental programmatic component for the government and which would be presented by Commander Chavez to the country during the upcoming electoral campaign.
"We have to get out of ICSID" proclaims Hugo Chavez Frias during ´Hello, President´ on the 8th of January 2012. To understand why, let´s recap. States are sovereign. A state cannot be judged by other states or organisms, because it has jurisdictional immunity, which is inalienable. To hand that over is to loose sovereignty
By Correo del Orinoco International, Jan 22nd 2012
As governor of Zulia, Perez has been accused of helping Colombian paramilitary forces enter the country as part of destabilization plans aimed at toppling the Chavez government. Earlier this year, neighboring Apure State Governor Ramon Carrizalez accused Perez of using his role in office to “make frequent trips into and out of Colombia” and “making agreements to bring in paramilitaries to sow anxiety and violence in the region”.
By Eva Golinger, Correo del Orinoco , Jan 20th 2012
During an event that included the transfer of mandate of several members of the high military command on Tuesday, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said changes to the National Bolivarian Armed Forces (FANB) are important for strengthening democracy.
For the sector of society that has it all and no one has taken it from them, the real problem is that a “zambo” [a person of mixed African and native American origin] governs them.
By Steve Ellner - Latin American Perspectives, Jan 17th 2012
Most political analysts place the governments of Hugo Chávez (Venezuela), Evo Morales (Bolivia) and Rafael Correa (Ecuador) in the same category but without defining their common characteristics. However there is a need to go beyond the rhetoric of many of the left’s detractors and defenders, and to examine the wide range of similarities in order to determine just how new the new left is.
Venezuela's opposition once again appears to be withering on a vine that has not taken root since President Chavez was first elected 12 years ago. The men who would be president this year are little more than plastic media candidates, reading scripts written by their funding source in the U.S. State Department. They offer no real challenge to the Chavez administration for several reasons. The first is due to the success of the Bolivarian Revolution or in a word, socialism.
