Features: Bolivarian Project

Attending Need, Not Profit: Venezuela’s Experiment with Community Medicine

By Ewan Robertson - Venezuelanalysis.com, Oct 14th 2013

The February 2012 graduation of the first wave of community doctors, of which there were over 8000 in total (AVN)

How should the healthcare needs of a society be met? Conspicuously absent from international media coverage and under fire from conservative critics at home, Venezuela is developing a public healthcare system distinct from both U.S. market-driven and European welfare-state models. Perhaps nothing makes this system more unique than the kind of doctors being trained to run it.

From “For Now” to “Forever More”: How Venezuelans Said Goodbye to Hugo Chavez

By Ewan Robertson - Venezuelanalysis.com, Mar 10th 2013

Supporters wrote messages to Chavez outside of Heroes Avenue (Reuters / Tomas Bravo)

On Friday 8 March, millions of Venezuelans flocked to Caracas to pay their final tribute to Hugo Chavez. VA.com’s Ewan Robertson gives his eyewitness impression of the day.

Grassroots Activists Speak on Chavez’s Absence: “We’ll Fight Even Harder”

By Tamara Pearson - Venezuelanalysis.com, Jan 24th 2013

At a recent march in Merida city (Tamara Pearson / Venezuelanalysis.com)

If anyone is clearest about what Chavez’s absence means and what it could mean in the future, it is the grassroots activists and revolutionaries in Venezuela. While private international and national media paint a picture of hopelessness, economic chaos, a power vacuum and power struggles in Venezuela, the grassroots are experiencing a different reality, and have a much more positive outlook for the future.

Exposing Five Key Media Myths about Chavez’s Health and Swearing-in

By Ewan Robertson and Tamara Pearson - Venezuelanalysis.com , Jan 8th 2013

Venezuelans signing a petition on Sunday against the media distortions (agencies)

Over the last few weeks the private English language media has stepped up its campaign against the Venezuelan revolution, spreading a number of lies and misconceptions around President Hugo Chavez’s health, and the swearing-in for his new term. Here, Venezuelanalysis.com debunks the top five lies currently being spread by private media.

Venezuela’s 2012 State Election: Lessons for Chavismo and the Opposition

By Ewan Robertson - Venezuelanalysis.com, Dec 18th 2012

The political map of Venezuela’s regions turned even further red after the PSUV took 20 of 23 states in the 2012 regional elec

What does the 2012 regional election tell us about the current political situation in Venezuela and trends going into next year, including for the differing scenarios depending on whether Chavez will be able to assume his next presidential term?

Venezuela’s State Elections: When Winning Comes before Revolution

By Tamara Pearson - VENEZUELANALYSIS.COM, Dec 12th 2012

Supporters rally for PSUV candidate for Merida, Alexis Ramirez. Their placards say “Alexis – governor, loyalty always” (YV

Internal debate and criticism of the PSUV and its current state election campaign, as well as proper grassroots involvement, has been put off, and put off, because in this incredibly democratic country there is always some kind of election coming up. Yet for how long will such sacrifices be made in the name of defeating the capitalist opposition?

What the Statistics Tell Us about Venezuela in the Chavez Era

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.

Venezuela’s Presidential Elections: An Imperfect-Victory

By Tamara Pearson – Venezuelanalysis.com, Oct 8th 2012

People celebrating the victory outside the Miraflores Palace (Tamara Pearson / Venezuelanalysis.com)

Venezuelanalysis.com examines the causes and consequences of yesterday's election results.

Revolutionary Democracy in the Economy? Venezuela’s Worker Control Movement and the Plan Socialist Guayana

By Ewan Robertson - Venezuelanalysis.com , Aug 3rd 2012

An outdoor worker assembly in Alcasa, August 2011 (Prensa Alcasa)

In this in-depth investigative analysis, Ewan Robertson evaluates the advances and setbacks of the worker control movement in Venezuela, and what Venezuela's experience in worker control means for the Bolivarian revolution and movements for radical social change worldwide.

Planning the Next 6 Years of Venezuela’s Bolivarian Revolution

By Tamara Pearson - Venezuelanalysis.com, Jul 6th 2012

President Chavez with the plan on the day he registered to be a candidate (patriagrande)

From communes, to agriculture, to regional relationships and new models of economic production and distribution; planning the next stage and the deepening of Venezuela’s revolution is a huge task. Here Venezuelanalysis has summarised and analysed Chavez’s proposed 2013-2019 plan, and included a brief analysis of the opposition’s proposal as well.

Beautiful Venezuela: Tourism with a Social Conscience

By Tamara Pearson – Venezuelanalysis.com, May 18th 2012

One of Venezuela's many beautiful sites, La Azulita caves, Merida state (Tamara Pearson/Venezuelanalysis.com)

Rather than Disneyland tourism, rather than humiliating “third word” selling itself to the rest tourism, in stunning Venezuela, tourism is taking a new turn towards community and state run exploration of history, culture, and biodiversity.

Capriles, Homophobia, Anti-Semitism and Systemic Violence: Understanding the Venezuelan Elections

By Rachael Boothroyd, Venezuelanalysis.com, Apr 5th 2012

Anti-Chavez Venezuelan media quickly latched onto the Western media line about a state campaign of “persecution” against opp

With the Venezuelan elections now looming, and with Chavez’s approval ratings stubbornly hovering around the 57% mark, it would seem that the international media has stepped up its “disinformation” campaign against the Bolivarian revolution with renewed urgency, producing the kind of biased, baseless and manipulative stories about the “persecution” of opposition presidential candidate, Capriles Radonski, that have been filling the corporate press’ Latin American correspondence pages for weeks.

Interview: The Great Patriotic Pole (GPP) - How Thousands of Movements are Constructing their Revolutionary Organisation

By Jessica Pernia, Tamara Pearson – Venezuelanlaysis.com., Feb 28th 2012

Jessica Pernia (Tamara Pearson- Venezuelanalysis.com)

In this interview Venezuelanalysis talks to one of the activists who has been involved in the formation of the GPP almost right from the start. Although the GPP, an organisation which formally unites 35,000 Venezuelan movements and collectives, is just in its initial stages, we try to get a hang of what kind of organisation it could be, and the processes and forces that have been involved in its formation.

Latin America no Longer for Sale: the New CELAC Poles Apart from the OAS

By Tamara Pearson – Venezuelanalysis.com, Dec 7th 2011

CELAC plenary session, 2 December 2011 (Tamara Pearson / Venezuelanalysis.com)

Reuters may have dismissed the CELAC as more “initials” but many Venezuelans, both in the government and in the organised grassroots, see it as an important step towards Latin American integration, and as an organisation that is profoundly different to the OAS, EU, APEC and other regional blocs. This Venezuelanalysis.com eyewitness report explores how and why.

Venezuela’s 21st Century Socialism and the Difficult Journey from ‘Me’ to ‘Us’

By Franklin Rosales - Venezuelanalysis.com, May 25th 2011

The Venezuela of today is a nation mobilized in defense of a new ideal – a proposal for the future referred to simply as Socialismo del Siglo 21, or 21st Century Socialism. In this analysis, Rosales seeks to contextualize a few of the guiding principles being used by the Venezuelan people in their struggle to consolidate a socialist society, and takes a brief glimpse at the challenge faced by 21st Century Socialism in the fight against capital’s culture of consumption that remains quite present in the Venezuela of the Bolivarian Revolution.