After a short but bitterly fought, insult-laden campaign, Chávista standard-bearer Nicolás Maduro defeated challenger Henrique Capriles, thus assuring continuity in Venezuela after the death of the former president, Hugo Chávez, last month. But the election was much closer than the polls predicted: a margin of just 1.6%, or about 275,000 votes.
By Manuel Larrabure – The Bullet / Socialist Project, Apr 1st 2013
The death of Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez has prompted the international left to acknowledge two key features about him and Venezuela's Bolivarian Revolution, writes Manuel Larrabure.
By Jake Johnston and Sara Kozameh - CEPR, Mar 10th 2013
On Tuesday, Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez passed away after 14 years in office. Below is a series of graphs that illustrate the economic and social changes that have taken place in Venezuela during this time period.
Venezuela's recent devaluation has sparked quite a bit of discussion in the international press. The Venezuelan opposition has naturally framed it as desperate move to head off inevitable economic collapse.
A new op-ed in the Guardian by Ricardo Hausmann portrays a dystopian fictional Venezuela, one in which the Venezuelan government has run the economy into the ground despite abundant oil wealth, but yet its charismatic president continues to be re-elected through some sort of sinister trickery.
The Venezuelan government continues its fight against price speculation, hoarding and sporadic shortages of certain products. Venezuelanalysis.com translates this interview with the president of Indepabis, the government’s consumer protection body charged with inspecting businesses and ensuring that companies abide by laws on price controls and other measures to guarantee the population’s access to goods and services.
By Luigino Bracci Roa – El Espacio De Lubrio, Feb 11th 2013
In light of Venezuela’s recent currency devaluation, Venezuelan blogger and technology activist Luigino Bracci Roa argues that a change in attitudes towards consumption and technology is required.
By Arthur Phillips and Stephan Lefebvre- CEPR, Jan 30th 2013
The World Bank has joined the “doom and gloom” chorus on Venezuela’s economy. And in Haiti, the Washington-based institution again appears overly optimistic.
Just as it appeared that the current conventional wisdom on Venezuela had spread and hardened irreversibly throughout the major media, on Monday the UK daily The Guardian published an editorial entitled “Venezuela, defying predictions – again.” The piece deftly takes on a few commonly held views found in much of the media coverage of Venezuela.
By Yuleidys Hernandez Toledo – Ciudad CCS / CdO International , Dec 7th 2012
Building nearly a million homes, strengthening the national healthcare system, and creating productive sources of new employment are just a few of the things the national government could have done with the $20 billion dollars lost during the oil lockout launched by the Venezuelan opposition on December 2, 2002.
What Venezuela currently faces is a dilemma also known and lived by many other neighbouring Latin countries, wherein the need for progress and development essential to guarantee national sovereignty and economic might is challenged by the equally important endeavour to safeguard the environment, natural resources and the indigenous populations that inhabit the same regions.
By Chris Carlson - Venezuelanalysis.com, Nov 30th 2012
In the lead up to Venezuela’s presidential election earlier this year, the picture painted in most private media was that of a country falling apart. But a brief look at the statistics offers a very different story, one that helps explain why the majority of the Venezuelan people keep re-electing a government that, according to the private media, is driving the country into the ground.
