{"id":34656,"date":"2018-06-01T05:53:50","date_gmt":"2018-06-01T10:53:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=34656"},"modified":"2018-06-01T05:53:50","modified_gmt":"2018-06-01T10:53:50","slug":"venezuela-defies-the-us-empire-reelecting-maduro","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=34656","title":{"rendered":"Venezuela Defies the US Empire Reelecting Maduro"},"content":{"rendered":"

Venezuela Defies the US Empire Reelecting Maduro<\/a><\/h3>\n
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Photo by Joka Madruga | CC BY 2.0<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

The Venezuelan people reelected Nicol\u00e1s Maduro for a second presidential term on May 20. A US-backed political tide of reaction had been bucked, which had swept away previously left-leaning Latin American governments \u2013 often by extra-parliamentary means \u2013 in Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Paraguay, Honduras, and even Ecuador.<\/p>\n

The US and the rightwing opposition in Venezuela had demanded an election boycott and Maduro\u2019s resignation. Defying them, the popular classes voted as a form of resistance in what they proudly told us was a \u201ccelebration of democracy.\u201d Hugo Ch\u00e1vez\u2019s Bolivarian Revolution was again affirmed as was Ch\u00e1vez\u2019s successor, Nicol\u00e1s Maduro.<\/p>\n

Maduro\u2019s Inheritance<\/strong><\/p>\n

Hugo Ch\u00e1vez was first elected in 1998 and died in office in 2013. Many Venezuelans grieved deeply and personally; some rejoiced; no one was untouched. Ch\u00e1vez had spearheaded a movement that turned Venezuela from an epigone of Washington to an independent force opposing US global hegemony. The Bolivarian Revolution reclaimed Venezuela\u2019s history and forged a new national identity that no longer looked to Miami for affirmation.<\/p>\n

Venezuelan society became more inclusive for poor women, people of color, and youth. As Greg Grandin observed<\/a>, this inclusiveness has awakened \u201ca deep fear of the primal hatred, racism, and fury of the opposition, which for now is directed at the agents of Maduro\u2019s state but really springs from Ch\u00e1vez\u2019s expansion of the public sphere to include Venezuela\u2019s poor.\u201d<\/p>\n

On a geopolitical level, the Bolivarian Revolution placed a renewed focus on the socialist project. While some in the international left have become confused\u00a0<\/a>on anti-imperialism, Uncle Sam has been clear and has made regime change in Venezuela a priority<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Maduro inherited all this and more: a dysfunctional currency system, deeply engrained corruption, an entrenched criminal element, a petro-economy dependent on the international market, and the eternal enmity of Washington.<\/p>\n

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Venezuela Defies the US Empire Reelecting Maduro Photo by Joka Madruga | CC BY 2.0 The Venezuelan people reelected Nicol\u00e1s Maduro for a second presidential term on May 20. A US-backed political tide of reaction had been bucked, which had swept away previously left-leaning Latin American governments \u2013 often by extra-parliamentary means \u2013 in Brazil, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[5493,5376,18382,2422,20150,20294,851],"class_list":["post-34656","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-geopolitics","tag-counterpunch","tag-election","tag-hugo-chavez","tag-nicolas-maduro","tag-roger-harris","tag-united-states-empire","tag-venezuela"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34656","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=34656"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34656\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34657,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34656\/revisions\/34657"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=34656"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=34656"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=34656"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}