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World News See other World News Articles Title: How today’s crisis in Venezuela was created by Hugo Chávez’s ‘revolutionary’ plan How today’s crisis in Venezuela was created by Hugo Chávez’s ‘revolutionary’ plan July 5, 2016 9.05pm EDT Empty grocery store shelves in Venezuela’s capital. REUTERS/Mariana Bazo Author Venezuela is a nation rich with natural resources such as oil, gold, diamonds and other minerals. Yet, it is experiencing a crisis in which most people cannot find food or medicine. In the past several months, there has been great social unrest in Venezuela. Venezuelans are going out on the streets demanding their basic needs, and storming delivery trucks and stores to get their hands on supplies. Their daily activities are disrupted by water rationing and electricity cuts, which have resulted from long-term neglect of basic infrastructure. Most people would take this as a sign that the government has simply failed. Many onlookers may assume Venezuela’s leaders are just incompetent. Why else would they not able to provide the people with the basic necessities like water, electricity, security and opportunity? As a Venezuelan expat having served in the Venezuelan foreign service for two decades and directing a program for the Inter-American Development Bank, I know the crisis is the result of an effort to gain and maintain power, just as the Castro brothers have successfully done in Cuba. Call for revolution Chávez came to power, after unsuccessfully attempting a coup, by winning an election in 1998. He won by selling the idea of giving power to the people, and ending the corruption of the traditional political parties that had governed Venezuela for the last quarter-century. He won the election by a convincing margin. He started his presidency with the support of the people and a barrel of oil going for more than US$100. His original popularity and success permitted him to accomplish many of his goals that in other circumstances would have been very difficult. In 2012, a member of the former Venezuelan president’s inner circle went public, alleging details of a plan he did not want to be a part of and rejected. Guaicaipuro Lameda, a former general under President Hugo Chávez, shared details of how Chávez and his supporters allegedly intended to carry out the Bolivarian Revolution he campaigned on. Chávez’s call for revolution expressed a rejection of imperialism that sought to establish democratic socialism for the 21st century. But, Lameda claimed, Chávez’s plan to accomplish this involved taking control of all branches of power – the executive, legislative, judicial and military. Consolidating power Post Comment Private Reply Ignore Thread Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/Latest Begin Trace Mode for Comment # 4.
#1. To: BTP Holdings (#0)
Yes in the background there are likely some CIA operatives lurking about. ;)
There are no replies to Comment # 4. End Trace Mode for Comment # 4.
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