Caracas Chronicles

Yesterday there was a little brouhaha regarding some documents that people within the MUD may or may not have authored. It prompted Chávez to go out and say Capriles would be the second coming of CAP or something. It was all kind of silly and irrelevant, in my opinion, as the documents themselves don’t really say much that could be controversial to the 50%+ of the population that is, you know, sane.

But if chavismo wants to discuss proposals, let’s!

Let’s start by discussing Hugo Chávez’s proposal for 2013-2019. Chile’s La Segunda looked at the document and spoke with Amherst professor Javier Corrales and MUD social policy chief Marino González – who has also analyzed it.

According to these sources, Chávez would

• do away with state and local governments, and replace them with thousands of communal councils;
• increase the power of the Presidency;
• increase the presence of the military so that they are in “all” of the State’s instances;
• create 3,000 Communal Banks;
• take over the savings of all workers and incorporate them into a Workers’ Savings Fund managed by the State;
• dramatically increase State-owned arepa restaurants, drug stores, bakeries, butcher shops, and tourism outlets;
• increase cooperation with China, Vietnam, Syria, and Iran.

It’s chavismo on steroids. Some might say it’s a blueprint for a Communist takeover.

So yes, let’s debate proposals, shall we?