According to the National Electoral Council, the Democratic
Unity coalition won 99 of the 167 seats in the National Assembly, a legislative
majority, while the ruling United Socialist Party of Venezuela won 46
seats. If the opposition wins 13 of the
22 remaining races, it will gain a two-thirds supermajority, possibly running a
referendum to get rid of Maduro before his term expires in 2019. A simple
majority could amnesty all political prisoners.
Of the 19 million registered voters, 74 percent showed up to
cast their ballots, a huge turnout, a sign that people have grown weary and
tired of sixteen years of Hugo Chavez’s style socialism that brought Venezuela
to the brink of destruction.
USA Today quoted Minerva Lopez, a seamstress from Caracas,
who said, “What a relief. The nightmare is ending.” But is it? The opposition
has a hard road ahead to undo sixteen years of economically destructive
policies. www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2015/12/05/venezuela-election-national-assembly-maduro-voting/76883170
The opposition leader is Henrique Capriles, the governor of
the state of Miranda. After Hugo Chavez died, a special presidential election was
held in April 2013 when Capriles lost to Maduro, a successor picked and
approved by Chavez. Maduro is a former
bus driver. In socialism credentials and expertise are not necessary to run a country;
one needs to be faithful to the socialist party line even though it may drag
the country into economic abyss.
Capriles promised to rein in the political corruption. Because
“The government has used state funds to finance their campaigns,” he promised
to make changes “legally, constitutionally, and peacefully.”
Even though Venezuela has one of the largest oil reserves,
the mismanagement of the socialist economy and of the monetary policy has translated
into an inflation rate of 150 percent. As crude prices have dropped around the
world, Venezuelan oil revenues have declined considerably, causing a sizable
contraction of the economy.
Maduro had supported Hugo Chavez’s legacy of “Chavismo,” an
anti-capitalist system centered on keeping the poor pacified with more welfare,
promises of higher pensions, scholarships, and public housing, Chavez and his
ruling elites amassed billions in ill-gotten wealth. Chavez stayed in power by
bringing in free sub-standard health care from Cuba for the poor and by making
promises of perennial dependency on the socialist government. And that is not all that Chavez brought from
Cuba. “Venezuela has promised 100,000
barrels of oil per day to Cuba, and in exchange Cuban intelligence runs the
Venezuelan state security apparatus.” http://bwcentral.org/?p=25545
Once the money dwindled due to reduced oil revenues, the
generous handouts soured and the economy tanked.
Opposition leader Leopoldo Lopez warned, “The world needs
to know that the abuses of Venezuela’s government have put us on a path toward
economic collapse and social devastation, with implications that will spread
beyond our borders.” http://bwcentral.org/?p=26797
Standing in huge lines for hours to buy food and
rationing by fingerprint were just some of the indignities the citizens of
socialist Venezuela had to endure.
“Patricia
Gamboa arrived at a government-run supermarket in western Venezuela at 2:00 am,
six hours before doors opened, to be first in line and buy whatever she could
get her hands on. As dawn broke, about
200 people stood behind her outside the Bicentenario shop in San Cristobal,
with numbers written on their wrists with green markers to avoid arguments over
who came first.” http://bwcentral.org/?p=26019
The
Chicago Tribune wrote on April 11, 2014, “Crisis in Venezuela: Too much crime,
not enough toilet paper.” People could not find enough milk, cooking oil,
sugar, flour, coffee, cornmeal, and toilet paper. Hoarding became a crime in Venezuela and
people received an electronic identification card with their fingerprints.
These cards alerted the authorities when people tried to buy more than they
were allowed by government decree.
The
socialist government blamed their inadequacy on the greedy capitalists who allegedly
drove up prices. Farmers and store owners blamed the socialist government price
controls that forced them to sell below cost.
Chavez
was worshipped by the poor because he spent billions from the huge oil revenues
(when prices of crude were high) on government subsidies, controlled food and
gas prices, and nationalized farms and small businesses that “supposedly were
not keeping up with production. He even awarded a free government-built home to
his 3 millionth follower on Twitter.”
I
understand the indignity of socialist mismanagement of the economy well.
Centralized planning forced us to stand in food lines all the time to survive
in Ceausescu’s Romania. This uneducated cobbler with grandiose aspirations
imposed on his people a socialist/communist nightmare that lasted 44 years
before people finally said “enough.”
A
centralized socialist government always blamed their disastrous and
ever-failing economic policies on greedy capitalists and on business
“profiteers.” Socialists eventually ran out of other people’s money and wealth.
They silenced in the process any opposition and critics if they dared speak out
against the collectivist philosophy, the elites like Chavez, and the “useful
idiots” who understood just enough to be dangerous.
The most vicious capitalists are those who impose socialism in some form upon the masses.
ReplyDeleteLooks familiar huh? Until people actually feel the sting of socialism they will think it is a good plan. I am convinced this is what is happening in America right now but people are so apathetic and down right lazy they don't take time to educate themselves about the dangers we face if we fall for the collectivism scheme.
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