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I wanted to share this because I wish for people to see that there is more than one perspective on the situation in Venezuela.
In the US, the press is filled with the horror stories of the Maduro Government, and Maduro is called a 'dictator', despite being democratically elected in one of the most widely scrutinized elections in world history. The 'opposition' in Venezuela are depicted as freedom fighters, trying to bring an end to a corrupt and violent regime. Well, there is always another side to the story.
If you are at all familiar with the history of US involvement in Latin America, you will be aware of the dirty wars which have been waged against every 'leftist' government which ever came to power on that continent. The true textbook horror-story of course, is the US backed overthrow of the Allende government, by the brutal Pinochet Regime on the other September 11th.
Of course, that is but one example and there are plenty more... Grenada, Panama, Cuba, Haiti, Mexico, Nicaragua, Guatemala. Oh, the shadowy agencies of empire have become so much more sophisticated than in the early days.
The current situation in Venezuela cannot be understood without studying the history of Latin America, and the conditions which gave rise to the Presidency of Hugo Chavez and everything that followed. But first, let's just join Abby Martin on the ground in Venezuela, and see what she has been able to uncover about the current situation there.
Watch the video, and let me know what you think.
Best wishes,
@lovejoy
Empire Files: Abby Martin in Venezuela - Supermarkets to Black Markets
"Abby Martin talks to Venezuelans on the streets of Caracas and investigates the main claim that there's no free press, and that there is no food in the supermarkets.
Using hidden cameras, she takes you through local grocery stores and the underground black market currency exchange, the main source of inflation in the country.
Abby sits down with economist Pasqualina Curzio to learn more about the nature of the black market and chronic shortages of goods. Knowing that world leaders are calling for foreign intervention, Abby finds out if locals agree."
[1] Image Credit: Telesur English
I can totally relate to this. I was born in Yugoslavia, in Bosnia to be precise, it was socialist country and we had our "dictator", hahahaha what a joke. Then war broke up and new half-educated half-people came to power... believe me in that "dictatorship" I was 100% happy and free, never had wish to go anywhere else to live. Now I live in Australia and people which are living in Bosnia now want to run away. So....
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There are a lot of expressions which come to mind when reading your comment, such as:
and...
Thanks for your comment, and for sharing your unique perspective.... That's the only way we can ever really get a grasp on such things, a plurality of voices.
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Hi @lovejoy, greetings from Caracas. Sadly I couldn't say this is a very trustable report on the situation in my country. Since I know where the money to produce it comes from I can't feel but reluctant to anything that comes out of TeleSur.
I see there's some global attention towards Venezuela's situation now, even though we've been going through political/economic trouble for more than 30 years. I would recommend anyone who's seriously concerned about it to look at this issue with a very needed open mind, and start by reading Servando Gonzalez's work on the Cuban regime's history. Once his point is understood I guarantee Venezuela's situation will become more clear, as well as half of South America's obvious political meltdown caused by Venezuela's "fall".
Do not disregard the constant news about Venezuela's government and military officials caught up in drug trafficking (they're ALL true), and try to connect what you learn out of Gonzalez's work with the already known story of Pablo Escobar Gaviria and the Cuban connection to introduce cocaine into the US back in the 80's. You'll see a LOT of coincidential patterns in the behaviour of most political leaders in Venezuela (opposition or government).
There's an old book called Dope, Inc. written by the editors of the Executive Intelligence Review that says one thing or two about that "entrepenour" Gustavo Cisneros (mentioned in the video). That guy has been basically running the money laundry scheme of the cocaine business practically since the beginning of it (personal appreciation) without any obstacles. Hugo Chávez came into power because Cisneros helped him, and because Cisneros was involved in the coup of '92 as well... I really recommend to investigate about it. Now he is plotting against the actual goverment to politically "land on his feet" when the sh**t hits the fan in the next weeks...
There are so much more things to know, and to comment... but I shall not.
Thanks a lot for posting about it. Whatever is happening here must be a "MUST KNOW" for every freedom concerned citizen in the whole world.
Sorry my comment is so long, I don't want to have a political profile here on steemit but I'm thinking about writing about this problem from the "conspiranoic" point of view (since to me it seems to be the most accurate approach)... to much missinformation in the mainstream media.
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It is really good to be able to get information from inside Venezuela. Your comment has provided me with a few things to look into with Gustavo Cisneros being first on the list. You wrote 'There are so much more things to know, and to comment... but I shall not.' but you should. I'm sure many would be interested based on the information you shared in your comment. Following you & if you decide to write a proper blog post about life in Venezuela both personally & politically you can count on a resteem & 100% upvote from me.
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Hi @jimbobbil, thank you. I just read your "What happened to all the protest songs?" post and man, you just inspired the content for it ... I will probably start writing it in the morning when I come back from signing and voting after the national plebiscite (consultation) that's going to take place here.
If it is ok with you guys (@lovejoy and @jimbobbill) I'd like to ask your permission to mention you and link both of your posts.
It'll be a music-wise related story to a subject that actually has to do with both of your posts content.
Following you also Jim, thanks for the support. Music business here is one of the favorite money laundry scheme s for this drug kingpins we have as political leaders and army generals. I've seen some pretty messy stuff "working" with a few "artists" related to them. ;-) I'll make it worh the while. Thanks so much.
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Permission granted. I look forward to reading your post. It'll be interesting to see how Venezuelan vote too.
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Thank you for your really thoughtful reply! I will read into these materials you have presented. My bias is pretty obviously pro revolucion bolivariana, however... whatever that looks like in the present tense, I cannot very well speak to. That is, I don't know what this process has come to look like under Maduro et al.
Whatever fundamental disagreements anyone may have with various policies under Chavez, when he was first elected, convened a national assembly, and re-wrote the Venezuelan Constitution to be one of the most enlightened documents I have ever read, and then survived the US backed coup against him, precisely because he had planted the seeds of power in the people to hold up that Constitution.
That was a watershed moment in world history. The whole world was watching, and when the Chavez administration began creating these parallel institutions (missions) to circumvent the corrupt state institutions, well, many of us had never seen this sort of thing play out before. Here was a person with an undeniably genuine love for his country, attempting to bend the instruments of the State to ultimately render the state obsolete. I'm just giving you my truncated perspective from the outside, and much has been written about the relative successes of the Missions... Mission Robinson (literacy), Mission Barrio Adentro (free medical coverage), and Mission Mercal (affordable food), and so forth.
To my mind this was a fascinating exploration and very satisfying response to Audre Lorde’s well-known declaration:
I had never witnessed a 'left' revolutionary administration of any country attempt such things without disastrous consequences.
I admit my positions may be naive on some fronts, and ultimately I myself may not agree in principle with some of Chavez' economic policies.but I'm genuinely open to being challenged, and so I appreciate you offering a contrary perspective to my own.
I would write more now, but just wanted to offer up some context for my perspective. You seem to be more steeped in current affairs, and I would like to know more. I will follow up with reading about this Gustavo Cisneros character, and more that you have shared.
Thanks!
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No, thank you. You seem to have a genuine concern about Venezuela's situation and definitely you are aware of it's "role" in the leftist global propaganda (sorry, I couldn't think of a better term for it). I admit it's very easy to get caught up in the apparent utopia.
Maybe you'll find Servando Gonzalez's work a little fringe, but it has been the best way that I've found to understand the place I live in without loosing my mind. You see, it seems Venezuela's role in the future of global politics is sort of fundamental (as a social/legal precedent), and all this mess we've gone through has been something very carefully directed (you can picture me with the tinfoil hat here if you want, I won't take it as an offense).
That coup back in april of 2002 is one of the more strange things that have ever happened in the history of coups, it sparked a rise in the oil prices at the time and gave Chávez ALL he needed to enforce the idea of his revolution, but there's a third party working behind the courtain and reading Servando Gonzalez's work I've found my most acceptable theory of it. I'm not selling it, since I can't be really sure of anything, but I can bet you will enjoy reading it.
I can't thank you enough for bringing the subject to discussion and sharing info about it. I'l be writing a personal story of the things you see as a musician in a private military ascencion party, it's not very political, but it's a true story ;-) I'll let you know when I post it, thanks so much for inspiring. Good reading. Keep in touch
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Keep on commenting and posting, being able to contrast opinions and information is useful. For instance, I myself can't say there are shortages here as there were last year, but what about the prices? Last year you couldn't find stuff, now you can but can't afford them. Whose fault is it? Who controls the dollars for importing? Can you blame a businessman for selling at black market rate when he does not have access to the official rate?
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Very intresting view thank you for sharing it now i am thinking a bit different about venezuela.
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Very nice piece of propaganda you got there! For starters, take a look at this very interesting piece about the reporters. If you have the posing for pictures with pro-government people you already know which side they are rooting for, don't you?
The papers she bought are only 8 pages! There's no paper to print the news! Then the TV: Even if the privately-owned networks were 92% (which is untrue) they fear on being shut down by Conatel. A more recent example: Conatel made visits to TV and radio stations last week to warn them not to publicize the opposition event of last Sunday. There's no such thing as freedom of speech if the speech if being limited or redacted whenever possible.
Food shortages are real. There are shortages, but more importantly, the prices are sky high. Private store and market owners import goods on black market rates, that explains the prices. Easily solved by allowing store owners to import at non-black-market price and see those prices fall at least 60%, even more if everyone had access to the Bs.10/$ rate that government officials keeping for themselves.
Take another look to the shortages issue here:
So in the end Ms. Martin knows the black market was willing to pay Bs. 6000 per US Dollar. If someone is willing to pay that much for what the government says it's worth Bs. 10 definitely are shortages. Let the forex price be adjusted my the market instead of artificially capped and see everything fix itself, at least regarding the economy and shortages.
And again, the "closed fist" thing has a meaning of its own. A las pruebas me remito:
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Very good article @lovejoy thank you for reflecting the harsh and grave situation that my country is living, you are showing a heartbreaking reality, the desperation of my people for freedom is evident, it is totally true there is censorship of the media, serious violations to the Human rights for a corrupt dome who wants to screw up in power, but all, most of us in the country are fighting a battle for freedom of our nation. Tomorrow is a massive consultation convened by the National Assembly of Venezuela and we are all motivated to evidence that we want full and absolute freedom, to exercise all our rights, I leave you my upvote this publication deserves it.
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good video and info bro
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I love Venezuela. Hopefully things turn out better in the future.
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Thanks for sharing! Interesting document with experiences of people from both perspectives and what also apparently looks like "normal" people. There are a lot of things to blame to venezuelan government, it has also suffered a lot the decrease of oil prices, but usually the "democratic" situation is not that different to most of "western democracies". Well, it is true that recent comments from Maduro are not extremely encouraging to support him
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Thanks for sharing this information, which dramatically added to what I knew about the situation in Venezuela. I have watched some videos of protests here on Steemit, and I thought that was the whole of the story.
I was unsettled when I watched them because the police were not violent. Here in the US, police are very violent. In the Venezuelan opposition videos I saw, even when they were being assaulted with molotov cocktails, stones, and IEDs, the police did not return fire, did not bust heads, and talked - they talked to the protestors throwing rocks.
Now I know why.
Thanks.
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oh.. but they have killed more than 90 people. Smashed a lot of heads, and illegally detained more than 1500 people, sexual abuse from the police and national guard officials have been reported among the youngest women detained. There are even more police brutality videos than there are non...
There's actually a Mayor General detained that got his back broken by torture techniques, it is publicly known information here (but not by the media) this is a tweet from his daughter, those private "media owners" that they talk about in the video are all part of a money laundry scheme that comes down from the government itself. That TeleSur video was paid with cocaine money. Please don't believe everything you see without properly researching it. Best regards.
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Not believing everything I see is why it is important to see more, to enable one to assemble some validity to support an opinion. While I noted that in the opposition videos I did find, the police seemed far less prone to violence than police in America, I had no context whatsoever, as the wholly owned media here in the US completely ignores the larger (and peaceful) pro-government protests.
This is the first time I have seen ANY video that even reports that there ARE such demonstrations.
I have very little information to go on, and recognize that ALL of it is propaganda. The man-on-the-street interviews, and hidden camera footage is therefore particularly useful to me in forming a basis for some validity for having an opinion on the issues.
Perhaps you might post more videos, and rather than slant them politically, show fair reporting showing both sides of the issue, for folks like me that are trying to find sources of news they can trust.
If the facts do support your cause, you will win support by being impartial - the most scarce of media species today, and the facts will be judged by viewers to generate informed opinions.
Thanks for providing new information I have not seen before, but must judge critically, as you clearly have an agenda, and are not impartial.
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I agree with you in the "have to see more". Keep on being hungry for information. At the end there's no true truth but the one formed by opinions, facts, beliefs. The fact you haven't seen the police being violent doesn't mean they are not. The police seems less prone to violence when they know they're being filmed, when there's media coverage, but still:
Shot dead. Those steps he made were his final ones.
And I could keep on posting videos and photos all night long.
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I appreciate the videos. I'd appreciate them more if they included the approach to the deaths, as the context in which they occurred is but implied. Clearly there are pitched battles ongoing. I have seen IEDs used against the police.
It is impossible to know more than that there are violent clashes, and that people are dying, absent the specific context of the killings.
Regardless, it's a bad time to be in Venezuela. I am sure that many wish for little more than an end to the violence. That's what most people end up wanting shortly after an uprising begins. It was the case during the American revolution. Only about a third of the people were revolutionaries, the rest being either loyalists, or staying out of the way.
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how can the black market be 'the main source of inflation?"
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As the internal production is real low, everything has to be imported. Most importers do not have access to "cheap" dollars at the "official" rate of Bs. 10 / $1 but the black market rate that is 6000-8000 per dollar. So a tooth paste that could be worth $3 sells here at Bs. 18.000 which is over 30% of the minimal income.
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Good
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Thanks for sharing. Its always good to listen to different voices. Hope the situation will improve soon over there. But how?
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