Venezuelan Chavismo: Will It Survive Maduro’s Fall?
- At a rally in Caracas in 2024, a supporter holds a statue of late President Hugo Chávez as his successor, Nicolás Maduro, delivers a speech formalizing his candidacy...
- Buoyed by record oil prices that inflated state coffers, Chávez launched social programs that cut poverty rates.
- intervention in latin America and what he saw as rampant materialism in the "imperialist" United States, Chávez forged alliances with Washington's adversaries, such as China, Cuba and Iran.
MEXICO CITY – Hugo Chávez called the United States “the empire,” and President George W.Bush “the devil.” denouncing capitalism as ”the road to hell,” he pushed an option economic model that nationalized key industries and redistributed wealth.
During his 14-year presidency of Venezuela, Chávez warned of a CIA plot to kill him and steal his country’s vast oil reserves, declaring: “Fatherland, socialism or death!”
Now, after the U.S.attacked Venezuela and imprisoned Chávez’s successor, Nicolás Maduro, the future of the leftist movement forged by Chávez – known as Chavismo - might potentially be at stake.
Venezuela’s interim leader, Delcy Rodríguez, insists her country “will not be a colony” of any imperial force, but appears willing to tolerate president Trump’s demands that the U.S. get “total access” to Venezuela’s oil.
Rodríguez, Maduro’s vice president, has called for reforms to Venezuela’s energy sector to attract foreign investment and has freed dozens of dissidents once deemed enemies of the Chavista revolution.
“Venezuela is entering a new political era, one that allows for understanding despite political and ideological differences and diversity,” Rodríguez said last week. On Thursday, she sat down in Caracas, the capital, with CIA Director John Ratcliffe, whose agency helped plot Maduro’s abduction.
“It’s pretty captivating to see how a hard-line Chavista like Delcy has taken a 180-degree turn just one week after assuming the presidency,” said Imdat oner, a former Turkish diplomat in Caracas.
Some analysts now wonder whether the days are numbered for Chavismo, which allowed Chávez to concentrate power under a banner extolling nationalism, populism and what he described as “socialism of the 21st century.”
“I think it’s in intensive care, and I don’t think it will leave the operating room,” said Enrique krauze, a Mexican historian who wrote a biography of Chávez.The movement has been undermined by the U.S. attack,Krauze said,and discredited by authoritarianism,widespread corruption among leaders and an economic crisis triggered by falling oil prices and U.S. sanctions that prompted a quarter of the population to flee.
The ideas of Chávez,a charismatic figure who inspired a generation of latin American leftists,have been irrevocably tarnished,Krauze said.
“Venezuelans are exhausted after 26 years of Chavismo,” Venezuelan journalist Boris Muñoz wrote in Time magazine. “Understandably, many are willing to a
At a rally in Caracas in 2024, a supporter holds a statue of late President Hugo Chávez as his successor, Nicolás Maduro, delivers a speech formalizing his candidacy to run for reelection.
(Getty Images)
Buoyed by record oil prices that inflated state coffers, Chávez launched social programs that cut poverty rates. His goverment built homes for the poor and provided free and subsidized staples for those in need. It opened hospitals and schools and slashed infant mortality.
An outspoken critic of U.S. intervention in latin America and what he saw as rampant materialism in the “imperialist” United States, Chávez forged alliances with Washington’s adversaries, such as China, Cuba and Iran.
Addressing the U.N. General assembly in 2006 a day after Bush gave a speech about the Iraq war, Chávez declared: “The devil was here yesterday … this place still smells of sulfur!”
Venezuela’s unhappy elites tried to unseat Chávez - mostly notably during a short-lived coup d’etat in 2002 – but he continued to win elections.
The tide began to shift after his 2013 death and the ascension of Maduro, a former trade union leader who lacked the charisma of his mentor.Then came a dramatic decline in oil prices – inevitable in an industry prone to boom-and-bust cycles.
As revenue sank, the economy collapsed amid soaring inflation. Bread and medicine lines stretched for hours. Malnutrition and infant mortality rose. Millions fled the country.
Support for Maduro plummeted, and the opposition handily beat his party’s candidates in 2015 parliamentary elections. Sanctions on Venezuela’s oil industry during Trump’s first term made things worse for Maduro.
From the beginning, Maduro had been deepening the authoritarianism that had begun under Chávez, a model Corrales said was “based on the idea that the revolution will never relinquish power.”
Maduro claimed he won a disputed election in 2018, even though the U.S.“`html
Venezuela’s Presidential Election: A Contentious Vote Amidst Disqualification
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Venezuelans are heading to the polls on July 28, 2024, to elect a new president, but the process is already marred by controversy following the disqualification of key opposition candidate, Henrique Capriles Radonski. This decision, announced on March 8, 2024, by the Comptroller General’s Office, has sparked international criticism and raised concerns about the fairness of the election.
The Disqualification of Capriles
Capriles, a former presidential candidate who narrowly lost to Nicolás Maduro in 2013, was barred from holding public office for eight years.The Comptroller General’s Office cited administrative irregularities during his tenure as governor of Miranda state between 2008 and 2017 as the reason for the disqualification. Specifically, the office alleged violations of public contracting regulations, as reported by Reuters.
International Reaction and Concerns
The United States government condemned the disqualification, with state Department spokesperson Matthew Miller calling it “a further blow to democratic processes in Venezuela.” The U.S. State Department stated on March 8, 2024, that the decision demonstrated the Maduro regime’s intent to prevent fair and competitive elections. The U.S. State Department has consistently called for free and fair elections in Venezuela.
The European Union also expressed concern, urging a reversal of the decision.Josep Borrell, the EU’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, stated on March 11, 2024, that the disqualification undermined the credibility of the electoral process, according to Euractiv.
The Opposition’s Response
The opposition coalition, Unidad Democrática, has denounced the disqualification as politically motivated. They are currently seeking a replacement candidate,but face a tight deadline to register before the election. On March 15, 2024, the coalition announced Corina Yrisarri as a potential replacement, though her candidacy remains subject to approval by the electoral council, as reported by