Venezuela Watch

old europe wrote:

Well-precedented and proven methods for Bolivian economic progress and development? I don't think so. That's the whole crux with Bolivia, isn't it? That free market economy has, in Bolivian history, done next to nothing to improve the situation of the overwhelming majority of the population.

The problem is that most Bolivians live outside the modern economy - free market or feudal. This is a hold over of the social dysfunction that has plagued the Andean countries (and others in South America) throughout modern history. It is wrong to blame the free market for the effects of this, and is is even more wrong to assume that Authoritarian populism and government ownership of the means of production will solve it.

It is true, as you say, that more regional trade would likely benefit all on the continent. Historically there was little of that in South America as each country looked independently to European patrons for trade and cultural influences. It is also unfortunate that memories of the War of the Pacific of 1880 still limit obviously needed mutual actions for the common good, more than a century later. It is noteworthy that Morales is not focused on either of these fundamental problems, and is, in fact, worsening them. That was the motivation for my comments.

The U.S. embargo of Cuba is an anachronism - just like the leader of that unfortunate country. I doubt seriously that it would be enacted today, but also recognize that more harm than good would be done by removing it now. The fact is that Cuba produces nothing we or anyone else wants in the free market, and has no money with which to buy the products of others. Cuba's economic isolation is quite obviously the product of its own social and economic policies, and not the U.S. embargo. (The EU is quite free to increase its lending and trade with Cuba if it wishes - odd that it doesn't do this.) It will take several generations to wash out the enervating effects of totalitarian socialism in Cuba (consider what a generation of it did to Germans!), and I have no desire to see this country pay for the process by lending them money or investing in a land without laws or freedom.

0 Replies

georgeob1 wrote:

The problem is that most Bolivians live outside the modern economy - free market or feudal. This is a hold over of the social dysfunction that has plagued the Andean countries (and others in South America) throughout modern history. It is wrong to blame the free market for the effects of this, and is is even more wrong to assume that Authoritarian populism and government ownership of the means of production will solve it.

It's wrong to blame free market for the effects, but it can be noted that the forces of the free market took, universally, advantage of the situation. You might say that this is to be expected - trying to get the most out of an enterprise like mining a country's natural rescources while trying to avoid to employ a large workforce is a sound principle of capitalism. However, it still bypasses the local economy, in a way. And it is telling that many countries are experiencing this problem. Chile and Ecuador, not your typical "communist dictatorships", are trying to find solutions for exactly that problem (even though Chile has been faring quite well, recently. But that's maybe just due to the proportion of easily minable natural resources/population). Oh, and I've been to Kentucky, and I've noticed that the problems there are quite similar, so I'm not going to buy a line like "Well, that's a typical South-American problem".

Problem is: how do you reintegrate the population into the market? You have lots of unskilled workers, and lots of natural resources. Sure, alphabetization programs, education, etc. sound nice, but constitute a long term solution. What do you do in the meantime?

So... back to local trade agreements. Yeah. Those would be beneficial. So, in principle, ALBA would not necessarily be a bad thing. However, as fbaezer said, the timing is quite noteworthy - nationalizing the gas fields, alienating traditional local trading partners like Brazil, while proclaiming to join ALBA... That smells a wee bit like populism. As does his announcement to legalize coca farming...

0 Replies

old Europe,

I think we actually agree on most of this. Indeed I accept your description of the application of capitalism in Bolivia. I would add that under the stratified social and political conditions that have long existed there, capitalism would usually yield a better outcome for the affected portions of the society than would its alternatives under the same conditions.

Eastern Kentucky and West Virginia are indeed somewhat analogous. However we have learned that relatively generous social welfare programs tend, as an unintended and perhaps perverse side effect, to freeze the basic social causes of the problem in place. The transformation of the population, if it is to be effective, usually has to emerge from within. The hell of it is that income disparity is the essential voltage or pressure that is required to motivate beneficial changes in behavior. As long as there are no artificial barriers to the economic rewards of productive behavior, this will work. In Bolivia there are such barriers. In the Appalachian region of the U.S. the barriers are only local - during five decades during which the population of this country increased from 160 million to almost 280 million, the population of this region has remained static, or in many areas decreased. There has been a persistent exodus of people from Appalachia who have found better lives in the midwest and other areas of the country - this is the usually overlooked benefit of the free economic conditions here..

I believe most of the economic transformation of Chile came as a result of the free market economic principles applied during the Pinochet years. They undeniably broke the back of the stagnant labor market and investment conditions that preceeded them. The subsequent center left governments have merely continued the basic policies they inherited. It is also telling that Chile is virtually the only country on the continent in which the police are not for sale. (Also they, and Rio Grande del Sul in Brasil, have a lot of Germans - and just enough Irishmen to soften their rough edges.)

0 Replies

Venezuela approves oil partnership contracts

CARACAS, May 5 (Xinhua) -- Venezuela's National Assembly on Friday approved Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) partnership contracts with 16 foreign and local firms to create joint venturesfor exploiting 15 oilfields.

The Assembly announced the creation of 21 joint ventures set bythe national oil corporation with its collaborators.

The joint ventures will pump nearly 400,000 barrels per day, almost 13 percent of Venezuela's total output. Venezuela is considered the world's fifth crude oil producer.

Under the new plan, PDVSA has an average share of 63 percent.

The foreign firms in question are British Petroleum, Royal Dutch Shell from the Netherlands and Spanish/Argentinian giant Repsol YPS.

On December 30, 2005, Repsol became the last firm to accept the change after buying shares Exxon Mobile had in an oilfield they exploited together. Enditem

Editor: Zhang Lihong

0 Replies

Mexico beats Venezuela in big game

Bravo Helps Mexico Beat Venezuela 1-0

Omar Bravo scored on a penalty kick in the 58th minute to help Mexico beat Venezuela 1-0 on Friday night in a World Cup tuneup match in front of 58,147 fans at the Rose Bowl.

0 Replies

Bolivia's Morales Says Repsol, Petrobras Won't Be Compensated
May 11 (Bloomberg) -- Bolivian President Evo Morales said oil companies including Brazil's Petroleo Brasileiro SA and Spain's Repsol YPF SA won't be compensated after he seized their oil and gas fields to nationalize petroleum reserves.

``There is no reason to indemnify them,'' he told reporters at a news conference in Vienna before a meeting today of European Union and Latin American leaders. ``What we are looking for are partners not bosses that exploit our oil resources. We are not chasing out anyone. But they cannot have ownership.''

Bolivia took control May 1 of the country's oil and gas fields and gave foreign energy companies operating in the country 180 days to agree to new contracts with the government.

cont; http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000086&sid=a0T0Jb.cHx5Y&refer=latin_america

0 Replies

And this, from The Times:

Pope tells Chávez to mend his ways
From Richard Owen in Rome

THE Venezuelan President's audience with the Pope yesterday was not the vote-winning photo opportunity that he might have hoped for.

Instead, Pope Benedict XVI, increasingly wary of foreign leaders using meetings at the Vatican for political purposes, gave Hugo Chávez, the aggressively populist left-wing leader, a stern lecture on the need to respect religious freedom in a nation where 96 per cent of the population is Roman Catholic.

Señor Chávez, who arrives in London this weekend, last year described the Church as a "tumour" and denounced Venezuela's bishops as out-of-touch, elitist "devils in cassocks".

The Vatican noted drily that during the 35-minute audience Senor Chávez, who faces elections in December, had "briefed the Holy Father on projects for social change under way in his country".

Señor Chávez, who professes to be a "Catholic Christian" but accuses the Church of "siding with the rich", had told Italian newspapers that he hoped to discuss "world poverty" with the Pope and receive a "papal blessing". But the Pope reminded him to respect the Holy See's freedom to name bishops, said that he hoped the Santa Rosa da Lima Catholic University would "always maintain its Catholic identity" and attacked attempts to eliminate religious instruction from schools as part of Señor Chávez's reforms.

0 Replies

Yes, I also read that story fbaezer. It was an effective Photo op. Chavez is started his international PR campaign.

0 Replies

By the way, shouldn't this thread be renamed "Venezuela & Bolivia Watch"?

0 Replies

Amigo wrote:

Evo Morales of the Socialist party won the the vote for president of Bolivia. He has vowed to be Washington "nightmare". The election boast a 85% turnout.

We might as well start a South America watch thread. Bolivia is were Bectel tried to privatise water and they went apeshit.

Yes we should.

There are 11 elections coming up this year in South America. Nicaragua is next.

0 Replies

Basic geography: Nicaragua: Central America

Venezuela & Bolivia have somehow merged in the discussion. given the characteristics of their presidents.
Peru could join, if Humala wins. Happily, so far it seems he will not.

0 Replies

Similar screeds were written in the 1920s and 2930s about the wonderful benefits that totalitarian socialism would bring to the Soviet Union. Later in the 1960s we heard similar things about Cuba. The truth was that the promised benefits were mostly worthless, and their price was the freedom and initiative of the people of these unfortunate countries. The result was in every case a totalitarian police state aand widespread poverty and decay. What is most remarkable about this piece is the blind credulity of its author.

0 Replies

georgeob1 wrote:

What is most remarkable about this piece is the blind credulity of its author.

Michael Parenti

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Dr. Michael Parenti (born 1933) is an American political scientist, historian, and media critic. Parenti received his Ph.D. in political science from Yale University and has taught at several universities, colleges, and other institutions. As of June 2004, he has had seventeen books and over 250 articles published. Parenti's articles have been published in scholarly publications, periodicals, and assorted news media. His works have been translated into over a dozen languages. Parenti also lectures frequently on college campuses across the nation; his talks and commentaries (e.g., Real History) are also broadcast to radio audiences across North America and worldwide. His book, The Assassination of Julius Caesar, was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize.

0 Replies

It always amazes me that people can search so hard to find the good in a country like Venezuela, yet do nothing but spout anger and hatred towards the US.

"Other critics I encountered in Venezuela shared this same mode of attack: weak on specifics, but strong in venom, "

replace the word Venezuela with America and you describe the common liberal in America.

0 Replies

McGentrix wrote:

It always amazes me that people can search so hard to find the good in a country like Venezuela, yet do nothing but spout anger and hatred towards the US.

"Other critics I encountered in Venezuela shared this same mode of attack: weak on specifics, but strong in venom, "

replace the word Venezuela with America and you describe the common liberal in America.

Were have I spouted hate for my country America? Or is it necessary for you to Interpret the truth as hate because it directly conflicts with what you've come to believe?

If you can't incorperate the truth in what you've believe in something is wrong.

0 Replies

Amigo wrote:

georgeob1 wrote:
What is most remarkable about this piece is the blind credulity of its author.

Michael Parenti

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Dr. Michael Parenti (born 1933) is an American political scientist, historian, and media critic. Parenti received his Ph.D. in political science from Yale University and has taught at several universities, colleges, and other institutions. As of June 2004, he has had seventeen books and over 250 articles published. Parenti's articles have been published in scholarly publications, periodicals, and assorted news media. His works have been translated into over a dozen languages. Parenti also lectures frequently on college campuses across the nation; his talks and commentaries (e.g., Real History) are also broadcast to radio audiences across North America and worldwide. His book, The Assassination of Julius Caesar, was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize.

Similarly, other noted academics in the cited earlier decades praised the coming bright new world of socialism led by such enlightened figures as V. I. Lenin, Joseph Stalin and Fidel Castro. However we now have available to us the undeniable facts of their widespread murders, oppression and corruption, as well as a vivid picture of the misery they brought to their people. I forget his name now, but note that there was a prominent writer for the New York Times who got a Pulitzer Prize for his glowing on scene descriptions during the 1930s of the collectivization of agriculture in Ukraine and the great benefits it was already bringing to the population. Only later the truth came out of the mass imprisionments and the forced starvation of literally millions of people.

So much tor the reliability of academics on such issues - including those with Pulitzar prises.

0 Replies

Amigo wrote:

georgeob1 wrote:
What is most remarkable about this piece is the blind credulity of its author.

Michael Parenti

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Dr. Michael Parenti (born 1933) is an American political scientist, historian, and media critic. Parenti received his Ph.D. in political science from Yale University and has taught at several universities, colleges, and other institutions. As of June 2004, he has had seventeen books and over 250 articles published. Parenti's articles have been published in scholarly publications, periodicals, and assorted news media. His works have been translated into over a dozen languages. Parenti also lectures frequently on college campuses across the nation; his talks and commentaries (e.g., Real History) are also broadcast to radio audiences across North America and worldwide. His book, The Assassination of Julius Caesar, was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize.

George, To you care to defend your statement against the information provided?

0 Replies

McGentrix wrote:

It always amazes me that people can search so hard to find the good in a country like Venezuela, yet do nothing but spout anger and hatred towards the US.

"Other critics I encountered in Venezuela shared this same mode of attack: weak on specifics, but strong in venom, "

replace the word Venezuela with America and you describe the common liberal in America.

McGentrix, Do you care to provide an example of my spout of hate for my country?

0 Replies

Venezuela Watch

Related Topics

Quick Links

My Account

able2know