An inverse transition: Delcy Rodríguez as Venezuela’s first post-Chavista president
By Manuel Azuaje Reverón In recent weeks, various Bolivian social movements have blockaded highways and streets, besieging the capital to protest President Rodrigo Paz’s economic and social policies. A few days ago, I listened to two students from Argentina’s anti-capitalist left speak at a university occupation with great clarity about their resistance and defending their rights. Right now, social and indigenous groups in Ecuador are preparing for a national strike on June 24–26, having initiated a recall process against President Daniel Noboa. They demand an end to extractivist policies, and reject public service price hikes and the government’s failure to comply with previous agreements. The ‘stabilisation phase’ and dismantling the state While social movements in the rest of the region are holding back anti-popular economic policies, in Venezuela, the process of state restructuring has accelerated since the January 3 US bombing. It began with the hydrocarbon law reform and was followed by the mining law reform. More recently, the announced electricity law reform paves the way for privatisation and price hikes to make the sector more profitable for private companies. According to US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and the US government, Venezuela is currently in a “stabilisation” phase. What does this phase entail? It appears to mean a process of structural transformation of the state by dismantling its legal framework, a process focused on facilitating foreign investment, privatisations and the gradual dismantling of the rule of law and rights enshrined in the Constitution of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela. Last week, National Assembly president Jorge Rodríguez, with the same arrogant vehemence with which he defended the opening up and privatisation of the oil sector, criticised the state’s management of agricultural farms. He called into question the entire land redistribution process under former President Hugo Chávez. He announced a cattle ranching law reform to “rectify” those “failings.” This represents the final restoration of latifundismo (large landed estate ownership) in Venezuela, which has involved high levels of violence and contract killings against the peasant movement in recent years. This stabilisation plan, announced by Rubio and agreed to by the Delcy Rodríguez government, is about more than control and management of the economy. It is a structural transformation of Venezuela’s social state and rule of law, dismantling whatever social policies remain. The US government insists that, at the end of the stabilisation phase, there should be a complete transformation of Venezuela’s social institutions and legal framework. This radical reform is to be carried out by the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) and its allies — that is, by Chavismo.... Read full article at https://links.org.au/inverse-transition-delcy-rodriguez-venezuelas-first-post-chavista-president -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. View/Reply Online (#42023): https://groups.io/g/marxmail/message/42023 Mute This Topic: https://groups.io/mt/119796149/21656 -=-=- POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. #4 Do not exceed five posts a day. -=-=- Group Owner: [email protected] Unsubscribe: https://groups.io/g/marxmail/leave/13617172/21656/1316126222/xyzzy [[email protected]] -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
