Major protests against Venezuelan government

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

Could fascists be any less worse than the current regime?

[Snowstalker Mk. II]

Could fascists be any less worse than the current regime?

Corruption will continue, elections will become less free (if they are held at all), and the mass privatization/welfare cuts will lead to the return of extreme poverty in the country and the nation's upper crust becoming more powerful than ever, so...

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

Could fascists be any less worse than the current regime?

Corruption will continue, elections will become less free (if they are held at all), and the mass privatization/welfare cuts will lead to the return of extreme poverty in the country and the nation's upper crust becoming more powerful than ever, so...

Venezuela doesn't deal with extreme poverty now?

[Cassius]

Snowstalker, I am genuinely intrigued. Would you like to live under the Maduro regime?

[Snowstalker Mk. II]

Could fascists be any less worse than the current regime?

Corruption will continue, elections will become less free (if they are held at all), and the mass privatization/welfare cuts will lead to the return of extreme poverty in the country and the nation's upper crust becoming more powerful than ever, so...

Venezuela doesn't deal with extreme poverty now?

It's been sharply reduced across the continent, but moreso in Venezuela than in anywhere else.

[Comrade Funk]

Snowstalker, I am genuinely intrigued. Would you like to live under the Maduro regime?

Got to love that 55% inflation.

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

"Fascist uprising". Hahaha.

 Isn't inflation in Venezuela at 50% or something? Everything I've heard about the place recently indicates the country's on the verge of collapse. Demonstrations are hardly surprising, nor is the near-inevitability that the government will use this an excuse to crack down on dissent.

To be fair, Venezuela has an inflation problem for decades.  That's one of the few things that the current government hasn't made significantly worse, but they haven't made it better either, nor can they.  The neoliberal economic solutions that would have a chance at reining in inflation simply are not ideologically acceptable solutions to the current regime.  It is a much higher inflation rate that I'd care to live under, but the rate of inflation isn't nearly as important as its predictability.  A 50% inflation rate doesn't have to cause economic ruin provided that it is reasonably stable and people believe it won't be going even higher soon.

[Famous Mortimer]

Is this the same guy who loves the Yellow shirts in Thailand? Yeah, he's a troll. Ban him.

[Snowstalker Mk. II]

Is this the same guy who loves the Yellow shirts in Thailand? Yeah, he's a troll. Ban him.

...no?

[Oak Hills]

Can people please stop using the word "fascist" to describe any quasi-authoritarian movement they disagree with? Because it's really fing annoying.

"Fascist" should only refer to movements that actually endorse the tenets of…well…fascism.

[Antonio the Sixth]

Coming back after a month, it's nice to see that certain things never change - such as Snowstalker's awfulness.

[Snowstalker Mk. II]

Welcome back! I was always puzzled by your support of Capriles.

[Oakvale]

Welcome back! I was always puzzled by your support of Capriles.

Why on earth would you find that puzzling? Tony's never been a fan of leftist quasi-dictators as far as I know.

[Gustaf]

Reducing poverty during an oil boom is so hard when you're drowning in oil.

[Niemeyerite]

As a former supporter of Maduro, I find this thread hilarious. Maduro is such a joke that he needs to be replaced by a more serious person if the PSUV wants to keep winning election after election (I think Cabello would be a decent option).

I don't know what some left-wingers like about a Government that is managing to keep Venezuela isolated from the rest of the World, with an inflation over 50%, a President who sees Chávez on the walls, Christian ideals that don't let them pass abortion, SSM and pot legislation... And, most important, there isn't a safe place in Venezuela to live in. People are still killed in Caracas every day, they haven't reduced crime rates and in some places it has even gone up since Chávez took the Presidency.

There are some positives, of course, but the country is run by clowns right now. I will not be supporting them just because they call themselves "socialists". No. Give me the "social-liberal" Governments of Brazil and Uruguay, instead. They get things done and win by larger margins than Maduro without the need of making elections a bit... "opaque".

I suppose I'd be a fascist uprising against Maduro if I were Venezuelan. I don't want to be on the same place the right-wing opposition is, but it's my opinion that I'd be fighting for low inflation and security if I were Venezuelan (also, if a Government wants my support they have to make a push for abortion and SSM).

Also, for those who understand Spanish. Imagine the President of any other democracy doing this. I regret my endorsement of Chávez after watching some of his actions on Youtube. But I find this one specially telling:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uoE4q7GDA2g

If I keep saying that Spain is not really a democracy just because we still have voting rights... I can't say Venezuela is for the same reason. And even Rajoy's Government is less arbitrary than PSUV oligarchy and their TV programmes. I'd still vote for them in a PSUV v. PP race, however.

[Cory]

Can people please stop using the word "fascist" to describe any quasi-authoritarian movement they disagree with? Because it's really fing annoying.

"Fascist" should only refer to movements that actually endorse the tenets of…well…fascism.

This. "Fascism" =/= "Anything To The Right Of Socialism". It's like when conservatives say anything to the left is "full blown Socialism".

[eric82oslo]

Still can't believe Venezuela has a bus driver as president. Embarrassing.

[warandwar]

Still can't believe Venezuela has a bus driver as president. Embarrassing.

How does once working as a bus driver make Maduro absolutely unqualified? I don't love Maduro, but the crap he gets about how being a bus driver makes him unqualified to be president, or that the driving force behind Venezuela's not-so-great economy is that the lowly plebeian bus driver Maduro "doesn't understand" it is completely unconvincing.

[Velasco]

Still can't believe Venezuela has a bus driver as president. Embarrassing.

Lula was a metal worker and José Mújica still works in his orchard. The only difference between them and Maduro is that the two first are talented and skilled politicians and the latter is president only because of his loyalty to a deceased leader. I can't believe that having worked as a bus driver can be used as an argument to disqualify someone.

[Antonio the Sixth]

Yeah, for God's sake, can't we oppose the insanity and incompetence of the chavista machine without resorting to classism, thanks?

[Deus Naturae]

The government is now jailing protestors and blocking social media sites.

[Rocky Rockefeller]

The government is now jailing protestors and blocking social media sites.

But its totally the protesters who are fascist, am I right?

[eric82oslo]

Still can't believe Venezuela has a bus driver as president. Embarrassing.

Lula was a metal worker and José Mújica still works in his orchard. The only difference between them and Maduro is that the two first are talented and skilled politicians and the latter is president only because of his loyalty to a deceased leader. I can't believe that having worked as a bus driver can be used as an argument to disqualify someone.

That's exactly my point. If Maduro was Lula, there wouldn't have been any problem what so ever.

[All Along The Watchtower]

Bloomberg News is neoliberal scum, wait for The People's Cynic to give you the real news.

(Of course, all news has an agenda, but we don't want the fascists to win the ideological wars).

[Peeperkorn]

"Fascist" uprising? Fascism has been in government for 15 years!!!

Snowstalker: If you don't understand other countries' politics (and in particular South American Politics) stop making these threads.

Anyway, today one of the leaders of the protests was put in jail. What a democracy.