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Forum nameGeneral Discussion
Topic subjectAnd the answer to that is multi-fold
Topic URLhttp://board.okayplayer.com/okp.php?az=show_topic&forum=4&topic_id=13309042&mesg_id=13309386
13309386, And the answer to that is multi-fold
Posted by Hitokiri, Fri Jan-25-19 01:51 PM
Not nearly as simple as "fuck Chavez" and "fuck Socialism" Some of it is his fault, depending so much on oil revenue to fund... everything. He can be criticized for lots of other things too. But as far as what's going on in Venezuela right now, there is plenty of blame to go around.

Venezuela's economic elite have to take blame as well, an article from 2010 states "While it’s true that there is awful inflation in Venezuela, much of it has been caused by business owners, large-scale private distributors and producers, import-exporters and the economic elite that seek to destabilize and overthrow the Chavez administration. They sell dollars on the black market at pumped up rates and speculate and hike the prices of regular consumer products to provoke panic and desperation among the public, all with the goal of forcing Chavez’s ouster. And despite ongoing economic sabotage, the economy has still grown substantially in comparison to other nations in the region. In fact, according to the neoliberal International Monetary Fund (IMF), Venezuela is the only South American nation to forecast economic growth this year."

US policy toward Venezuela shares some of the blame. Despite the fact that Chavez was an overwhelmingly popular president the US funneled millions of dollars to opposition groups, then decreased their importation of Venezuelan oil because the "politicial instability" they were funding. Again, the US spent a decade+ funding political instability in the country.

Maduro shares some of the blame. Lots of the blame. So much more complicated than "Fuck Chavez, Fuck Socialism". Honestly though I'm getting tired of typing and sourcing things. What I will say is that US media coverage toward Venezuela has been biased as fuck since before the first time I went to the country back in 2005. And it's hard to find good sources to really understand what is and has been going on. venezuelaanalysis.com is one of the better sites for information.

https://venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/5384
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/17/opinion/contributors/a-tale-of-three-presidents.html
https://venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/896