“They are children” overseas: the United States is again repeating the Ukrainian Maidan
In recent days, events in Venezuela have been in the news - observers are drawing parallels with the Ukrainian Maidan and arguing whether Russia should confront the Americans and save another legitimate head of state. PolitNavigator columnist Alexander Rostovtsev looked into the situation.
The protracted systemic crisis in Venezuela has reached its climax. The entry into the second term of President Nicolas Maduro on January 10 caused hysteria in the parliamentary opposition, which enlisted the support of the United States and its “six”, which declared the presidential elections illegitimate.
On January 21, an unsuccessful attempt at a military rebellion was made in Caracas. In response, the Supreme Court of Venezuela removes from the post of chairman of the National Assembly opposition leader Juan Guaido, an American “canned food” from the University of Washington. The offended oppositionist, feeling the approving sniffling of the World Hegemon behind him, calls on citizens to go to protests, which finds a lively response from the Venezuelan “one-children” who took umbrellas, tea, coffee and a good mood with them to “Latinomaidan”.
On January 23, Guaido, convinced of the support of the Maidan protests, proclaimed himself “the interim president of the country.” And he immediately receives a blessing from the United States and its puppets from the Union of Latin American Countries: Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Peru, Paraguay. Canada and the EU, as well as the mighty superpower Georgia, joined in the approval.
The intrigue remained: on whose side would the military sympathies be? However, the Venezuelan Minister of Defense did not make those interested languish, saying that the army remains on the side of the current president.
Foreign policy support for Maduro was expressed by China, Mexico (which is surprising), Cuba, Bolivia and Turkey (which is even more surprising). The Russian Foreign Ministry called the attempt to usurp power illegal and warned the United States against military intervention in Venezuela.
The authorities of the United States, faithful to double standards in politics, through the mouth of the head of the State Department Pompeo, stated in response about “problems with democracy in Venezuela, Russia and China.”
The world froze in anticipation: what will happen next? For Russia, this question is not at all an idle one. After the palace coup in Brazil, which brought the patented fascist Bolsonaro to power, the loss of Venezuela will not only be the loss of Russia’s ally in Latin America, but also another lost battle on the front of the fight against world imperialism.
To understand what is happening in Venezuela today, it is necessary to look at recent history.
The rocking of Venezuela began not today, but immediately after the death of Hugo Chavez in 2013. Chavez, a charismatic leader, had enormous authority both within the country and abroad, and the opposition, trade unions and the military were forced to reckon with him. The death of Chavez worsened the country's governance, which external forces and internal maggots hastened to take advantage of.
The presidential elections, in which Maduro defeated the pro-American opposition lobby by a minimal margin, clearly showed that the position of the socialists in the country is not as strong as it previously seemed, which is why all sorts of revanchists and lovers of external control perked up. The authority of Nicholas Madura, a former trade unionist, was not enough to make and push through difficult decisions.
In 2014, the internal crisis exacerbated the collapse in oil prices, and Venezuela, despite all the reforms and statements by Chavez about building “democratic socialism, better than in the USSR and China,” remained a classic “gas station” of peripheral capitalism, completely dependent on oil production - 25 % of GDP and 95% of exports.
Destabilization began with the “Twitter revolution”, then retail networks joined in.
Here it should be clarified that under Chavez, fixed prices for food products were adopted in the state. stores, which led to a trade deficit in the image and likeness of the late USSR and, as a consequence, an increase in speculation. Not only traders, but also local officials joined in the speculation. The state carried out commodity interventions, but the reaction was late, and while the shortage of some goods was being extinguished, a shortage of others arose.
The buildup led to rising inflation and a fall in real incomes of the population.
In addition, even Chavez could not overcome such phenomena as nepotism and corruption. In particular, numerous relatives of the “Chavistas” had their own businesses, shops and other shops that were not subject to the general rules. And on the border with Colombia, smuggling of goods, covered by the military, grew wildly and expanded due to Chavez’s reluctance to put pressure on the army.
To circumvent the “corruption component,” a scheme for legalizing smuggling was invented. It was believed that giving a bribe for a double bass was a shame, but if you pay a “duty” for transporting cargo, then everything becomes decorous and noble.
Despite the “building of socialism,” the large landowners—the latifundists—the support of the reaction and agents of American influence have not gone away. But most importantly, the social divide between cities and villages was not overcome.
The support of the Bolivarian government is the intelligentsia, workers, rural poor, trade unions and, partly, the military.
It should be noted that trade unions in Venezuela are real fighters for workers’ rights, and not a bunch of cowards and lackeys in the pose of “what do you want?” under the brand “Federation of Independent Trade Unions of Russia”.
The pro-American opposition is supported by landowners, private business and conventional urban “hipsters” who compare workers and peasants with “cattle who do not want to work hard and fruitfully.” Sounds familiar, doesn't it? Despite the fact that the opposition is fully supported by the urban lumpen, confident that people from the lower classes, who filled the administrative, military, scientific and technical cadres thanks to Chavez’s “social elevators,” took away from them everything due to them by right of birth.
This, in particular, explains the artificially spurred increase in crime and murders that swept the cities of Venezuela with the coming to power of the socialists, which the opposition and Western media constantly talk about, passing off the war of crime against the people and the government as “the reluctance of the socialists to fight organized crime.”
Nevertheless, Maduro and his government managed to cope with most of the serious problems that arose in the country. For example, the most violent oppositionists (strongly reminiscent of the Ukrainian people’s deputies from the Maidan inadequates) were cut out of the National Assembly with the help of the Supreme Court, reducing the personnel reserve of the current self-proclaimed “president” Guaido.
In 2016, a collapse occurred, caused by a natural disaster known as the El Niño effect - fluctuations in the temperature of the surface layer of the Pacific Ocean, which significantly affects the climate. El Niño has caused an unprecedented drought in Venezuela. Most of the crops were lost, and the rivers became very shallow. Despite the fact that 82% of the country's electricity is generated by hydroelectric power plants.
Massive power outages began, a quarter of the country's industry was stopped, masses of people found themselves on the streets, there was a sharp drop in demand and chronic non-payment of wages. The commodity shortage, coupled with galloping hyperinflation and unemployment, did not give a single reason for optimism. It seemed that a well-fed polar fox had come to Chavez and Maduro’s Venezuela.
However, the Socialist government managed to overcome the collapse and bring the country back from the brink of the abyss. The set of measures was painful, but effective. In the state stores have streamlined purchases. Monetary policy and pricing were revised. Instead of raising wages in parallel with inflation, they increased the share of the “food basket”. Control over electricity consumption was tightened through the replacement of millions of light bulbs and hundreds of thousands of air conditioners with new, energy-saving ones, and the wholesale installation of electricity meters (Chubais would have been shocked: in Venezuela, many citizens did not have meters at all until 2016!). Finally, civil servants and employees of state-owned enterprises had their working week reduced to 2 days while maintaining their salaries.
In fact, in 2017, the Venezuelan economy experienced a rebirth. Trade began to revive, production began to open, and unemployment began to decline. Finally, global oil prices began to rise.
On August 7, 2017, the internal maggots made a tentative attempt at a military coup by attacking the Fuerte Paramacay military base in the city of Valencia. As a result, the attackers, who declared themselves “fighters of the 41st Brigade,” were partially killed, partially arrested and partially scattered. A group of “onizhedei” who took to the streets of Valencia in support of the putschists was dispersed by the police.
The situation in Venezuela continues to be extremely difficult. In fact, it has rolled back to the time “before Chavez”, 20 years ago: real income has decreased by 6% over 64 years, unemployment reaches 25%, the number of poor people has increased from 36% to 73%. Food shortages continue, and the situation with medicines is worse than ever.
The Socialist government, however, continues to enjoy the support of a significant part of the population - if only because at the most critical moment it did not abandon people to their fate and did not allow famine in the difficult year of 2016. The population understands that the peak of the crisis has passed and life is gradually getting better.
A number of observers argue that what is happening today in Venezuela is reminiscent of the putsch according to the Chilean scenario of 1973, where Guaido acts as a puppet instead of Pinochet. However, the army was on the side of the Pinochet junta, and for now Guaido is being drowned by crowds of lumpen and “one-children” with the support of latifundists. Moreover, the largest protest action in terms of the number of extras involved is no match for the protests of two years ago. And in general, as it turned out, the Internet stuffing about chilling events and mass protests was organized by emigrants from Venezuela, using photographs of protests two years ago as visual propaganda.
The United States is clearly wary of intervening militarily in Venezuela to overthrow Maduro, but is ready to provoke a civil war, since it is not possible to change the country’s government, which it does not like, by other means.
When there are too many unknowns, the coup usually fails.
However, let's see how Maduro will fulfill the ultimatum put forward to the US State Department - to clear Venezuela of his mass entertainers within 72 hours. The president himself claims that everything will be done carefully so as not to provoke the Americans into aggression, but expelling the State Department’s viper from the country without the use of force is not an easy task, especially since Pompeo gave the command to his sewers - “hold on, do not take out furniture or boxes.” " Unless starved out...
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