Bolivarians have enthusiastically defended the gains of _freedom and democracy_, despite economic costs. Venezuela showed the world that freedom and democracy _in themselves_ are worth defending, even though freedom and democracy alone cannot improve the standard of living dramatically and, in fact, allowing the enemies of freedom and democracy -- escualidos -- to continue to enjoy too much of both can bring the nation to the brink of economic ruin (as it recently did).
Here's an interesting development:
***** Venezuela's Chavez brings back leftist economic ally Reuters, 04.22.03, 4:49 PM ET (Adds Giordani's return, analyst's quotes, background) By Silene Ramirez
CARACAS, Venezuela, April 22 (Reuters) - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez Tuesday brought back a veteran left-wing soulmate to serve as his Planning Minister after firing the previous minister for disagreements over economic policies.
Former paratrooper Chavez, whose oil-rich nation is facing its deepest recession in recent history, demanded 48-year-old economist Felipe Perez resign after sharp differences had emerged among members of the president's economic team.
But the biggest surprise came when Chavez named his successor, bringing back 62-year academic Jorge Giordani, who had been the president's first Planning Minister for the first three years of his rule in the world's No. 5 oil exporter.
The announcement came as a shock to many analysts, who had welcomed Giordani's substitution by Perez back in May last year, soon after a dramatic military coup that briefly toppled populist Chavez. They saw Giordani as closely associated with Chavez's left-leaning statist economic policies which have been fiercely opposed by business and labor opponents.
"It was a surprise to a lot of people. I don't think that people expected this," Jose Cerritelli, Andean economist with Bear Stearns in New York, told Reuters.
He recalled that Chavez, who has spooked many investors with his fiery, revolutionary and anti-capitalist rhetoric, had praised Giordani recently for being "an anti-IMF policy maker". Giordani's return was likely to lead to an even wider divergence between Chavez's government and Washington-based lending agencies, Cerritelli added.
"Felipe (Perez) made a great effort in a very difficult period. Now Jorge (Giordani) is coming back to take up again all the main objectives of the great national development project that he used to direct," Chavez said.
POLITICS OVER ECONOMICS
Perez, who has a Ph.D from Chicago University, had publicly disagreed with Chavez's decision, backed by most of the rest of the government economic team, to decree tight foreign exchange and price controls earlier in the year.
Perez had also had differences over forecasts and polices with Finance Minister Tobias Nobrega and directors of the country's Central Bank.
His departure came at a time when Chavez's government was struggling to cope with the deep recession triggered by months of political turmoil and an opposition strike that slashed oil output in December and January. The strike, which fizzled out in early February, severely cut government revenues....
BATTLE FOR INFLUENCE
Finance Minister Nobrega, a banking and finance specialist has been spearheading the government's efforts to negotiate voluntary debt swaps with local and foreign bankers to ease a payments crunch.
But analysts said the return of Giordani, who had dominated the government's economic policy when he was in office, could lead to a confrontation with Nobrega....
The strike caused the government to slap tight foreign exchange and price controls onto the economy to stem heavy capital flight and halt a sharp slide in the bolivar currency.
The International Monetary Fund, which urged Venezuela to ditch the currency curbs, has forecast a huge 17 percent contraction for the economy this year following a fall of nearly 9 percent last year. (Additional reporting by Pascal Fletcher, Patrick Markey)...
<http://www.forbes.com/markets/newswire/2003/04/22/rtr947196.html> *****
There's no magical policy that would allow Chavez to deliver prosperity and reward Bolivarians in the state of worldwide economic woes and continuing sabotages by the rich and powerful, but there's no sign that Bolivarians are giving up on freedom and democracy -- including popular control of economy -- because of the odds against them.
At 12:16 AM +1000 4/25/03, Thiago Oppermann wrote:
>As for the coup and counter-coup, I think people tend to
>overestimate the role of the popular revolt, which was nevertheless
>considerable and perhaps decisive. Though a necessary condition, I
>don't thin it was a sufficient condition for defeating the coup. The
>tremendous international pressure applied on the US and coup
>government was, in a way, unprecedented in the history of Latin
>American coup (imagine how different the response would have been
>twenty years ago.) I also think that Chavez's intimate connection to
>the army was very important.
Chavez and Bolivarian circles are supported by the Venezuelan military. Not only that, Bolivarians exist in it and lead it, transforming its institutional character from inside. Enemies of the Bolivarians have been alarmed by the democratization of the Venezuelan military -- here's one of them speaking at "a joint meeting held recently by the National Endowment for Democracy and the Center for International Private Enterprise":
***** Hernán Castillo (Assistant Professor of Social Science, Simón Bolivar University; co-author of "Balance and Perspectives of Civil-Military Relations in Venezuela..." in the book _Civil-Military Relations in Latin America: Challenges in the Beginning of the 21st Century_, 2000)
Since the election of President Hugo Chávez, Venezuela's military has become an active participant in the country's social development and delivery of public services. This trend represents a marked break from the role assigned to the armed forces by the 1961 constitution that limited their role to defense of the country. Today, the military are divided largely between two groups. One comprises the "institutionalists" who are loyal to the traditional, apolitical role of the armed forces; the other, labeled the "revolutionaries," views the military as an institution that has a mandate to promote the country's social development. Through Chávez the latter now have at their disposal millions of dollars to spend in vote-getting public works projects and services....
<http://www.cipe.org/whats_new/events/conferences/lac/venezuela/> *****
At 12:16 AM +1000 4/25/03, Thiago Oppermann wrote:
>The aspect of the counter-coup which I think might show the decisive
>role of popular resistance was the fact Chavez could treat the coup
>plotters with such light reprimands. He basically ignored them, and
>he didn't censor the press in any significant way. Why can he do
>this? Could it be that it is because he can count on strong popular,
>international and institutional support?
Yes.
At 12:16 AM +1000 4/25/03, Thiago Oppermann wrote:
>Or is it, as I fear, because he hasn't really done anything?
What do you _mean_ that "he hasn't really done anything"? I thought you aren't given to economism. :-> No left-wing force in a still capitalist society has democratized _both the military and civilian society_ as much as Bolivarians have! I only wish that we (especially leftists in Japan and the USA) had made one hundredth of the achievements of the Venezuelan left!!! -- Yoshie
* Calendar of Events in Columbus: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/calendar.html> * Student International Forum: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/> * Committee for Justice in Palestine: <http://www.osudivest.org/> * Al-Awda-Ohio: <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Al-Awda-Ohio> * Solidarity: <http://solidarity.igc.org/>