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Nicolas Maduro was sworn in for his second term as president last Thursday. He had been elected with 68% of the vote, but the election was widely decried as being rigged. Hugo Chavez, who was much more popular than his protégé Maduro, got 63% in 2007, then a record margin in Venezuela. That election was certified by the OAS, and monitored by the Carter Center. This election was not. Fourteen countries including the US have said that they will not recognize the Maduro Presidency because of election irregularities. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-46821653
In short, once-socialist-democratic Venezuela appears to have devolved into a socialist dictatorship. Maduro has been widely unpopular due to the shattered economy. Venezuela was once the richest country in South America.
Hugo Chavez brought in 'democratic socialism' in 1998, and indeed did carry out everything he did via democracy. He lost few elections; when he did, he would throw a tantrum, but mostly would abide by the results.
I have to admit that I was excited when Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez came along. She is a member of the Democratic Socialists of America, a group that does believe in true socialism (collective ownership of the means of production). But I'm having second thoughts these days. Here is yet another example of a country adopting socialism, only to morph into dictatorship and tyranny.
Nicolas Maduro was sworn in for his second term as president last Thursday. He had been elected with 68% of the vote, but the election was widely decried as being rigged. Hugo Chavez, who was much more popular than his protégé Maduro, got 63% in 2007, then a record margin in Venezuela. That election was certified by the OAS, and monitored by the Carter Center. This election was not. Fourteen countries including the US have said that they will not recognize the Maduro Presidency because of election irregularities. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-46821653
In short, once-socialist-democratic Venezuela appears to have devolved into a socialist dictatorship. Maduro has been widely unpopular due to the shattered economy. Venezuela was once the richest country in South America.
Hugo Chavez brought in 'democratic socialism' in 1998, and indeed did carry out everything he did via democracy. He lost few elections; when he did, he would throw a tantrum, but abide by the results.
I have to admit that I was excited when Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez came along. She is a member of the Democratic Socialists of America, a group that does believe in true socialism (collective ownership of the means of production). But I'm having second thoughts these days. Here is yet another example of a country adopting socialism, only to morph into dictatorship and tyranny.
Says the guy who never met a regulation he didn't like.
According to one book I read, Maduro was mostly chosen by Chavez because Maduro would endure Chavez's sarcastic put-downs without complaint. Maybe Chavez felt guilty. Maduro is a former bus driver with zero college education.
VZ never had Democratic Socialism. It began as populism and transitioned into Dictatorship. All that socialism talk was just riling up the Chavez base who were the masses living in poverty.
Bernie said explicitly Venezuela was a better exemplar of the "American dream" than America just a few years go. Actually, the country did turn out to be an exemplar of democratic socialism.
According to one book I read, Maduro was mostly chosen by Chavez because Maduro would endure Chavez's sarcastic put-downs without complaint. Maybe Chavez felt guilty. Maduro is a former bus driver with zero college education.
Yup. Chavez was a dictator, plain and simple, and Maduro was his chosen successor.
What they called their party and what political claims they made don't matter at all. Chavez was elected democratically, then once in office, took over the government and established a populist dictatorship that he held until his death.
If cancer hadn't gotten him, he would have been the dictator for as long as he lived, just like Castro, and Maduro would have remained his #2 for all that time.
Dictatorship is the most enduring form of government in Venezuela. It's one of those nations that have repeatedly gone back and forth between decades of dictatorship with brief breaks of democracy between one dictator and the next.
The names of the political parties change, but the names are just names. The dictators aren't socialists, communists, capitalists, or anything but dictators. They all do the same actions and say the same stuff.
Every dictatorship is always centered totally on the dictator alone.
They take over all the national news, control all the media, are the only faces of the government, and are the biggest stars of their show always.
That's how they gain their power and how they keep it.
By keeping all the attention on them constantly, an opposition has less opportunity to become known, so they can't become as popular, so they can't become as strong as the dictator.
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