You Wish We Were in 1989
Everyone’s worried about the consequences that Maduro’s paquetazo will unleash upon the Venezuelan economy. People calling this plan, which will surely fail, neoliberal are either irresponsible or ignorant.
Everyone’s worried about the consequences that Maduro’s paquetazo will unleash upon the Venezuelan economy. People calling this plan, which will surely fail, neoliberal are either irresponsible or ignorant.
Turns out, it’s not only chavistas who remain in denial, who alter and distort reality or have trouble admitting and dealing with facts and existing, real life problems. Now, these problems extend to opposition leaders and citizens, too.
It’s not really true that the academic literature extensively documents the futility of electoral boycotts. Believing it does makes it dead easy for the government to divide the opposition.
A national strike seems like a good way to demonstrate how people feel about the new set of economic measures imposed by Maduro last week. But when people are left stranded in a broken economy, and they desperately need money to eat, a strike doesn’t seem like the adequate protest.
In Venezuela, those who should theoretically live in a magic bubble against the crisis, have stories of resistance. Here’s the case of a banker who hasn’t gotten hold of cash in a long, long time.
Politicians called for a general strike against the reconversion and the measures announced last Friday. Around 60% of citizens complied, most cities in Venezuela partially shut down. The thing is: What now? Was it enough? What comes next?
During the 19th century, many Venezuelan cities modernized and found ways to implement the technology available to them. Maracaibo, despite everything that happens today, was the first town to use electricity for public lighting.
This afternoon, an earthquake with its epicenter in Sucre State, shook the country. Funvisis doesn’t have the technology to accurately report its magnitude. No deaths or injuries have been reported.
The government created the carnet de la patria as an instrument for control and discrimination. Nonetheless, the fact that we’ve rendered it pointless or might do so, was something the government didn’t consider.
Maduro tried to clear the air through a Facebook Live broadcast, but he left us with even more questions and a clear understanding that the so-called recovery plan is nothing more than the same old 21st Century Socialism with a face-lift.
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