By Jared Abbott

Erosion of a Democratic Promise

By Jared Abbott

(This is an updated version of an article that appears in the Spring 2014 Democratic Left magazine. Part I was posted yesterday. – Editor)

Today, well over a year after the death of Hugo Chávez, Venezuela is being governed by a leader who lacks the charisma, political skill, and legitimacy that allowed Chávez to hold the Bolivarian movement together. On top of that, the country suffers from extremely high inflation that has produced exorbitant consumer prices and widespread shortages of basic consumer goods, and has an oil industry that is not operating at full capacity even as the country looks at a massive fiscal deficit. These factors, in addition to a still soaring crime rate (with over 24,000 murders in the country in 2013) have produced a wave of protest activity that has rocked the country since February of this year, in which over 40 people have been killed (both opposition and government supporters), hundreds have been injured, and thousands detained.

Source: Will the Pink Tide Lift All Boats? Latin American Socialisms and Their Discontents – Part Two