Here’s an article from April about the commission established for this purpose: https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/venezuela-installs-commission-to-evaluate-state-assets-mulls-possible-sell-offs/
The acting president announced that Venezuelan state assets would be divided into four categories: strategic ones to remain under state control, “strategic alliances” where the state retains ownership but management is turned over to the private sector in concession-type deals, “non-strategic” assets to be fully privatized; and assets to be liquidated or reincorporated elsewhere.
tl;dr there are a bunch of factories for things like steel and cement which have become derelict due to sanctions that they are open to privatizing but so far every contract announced for oil, gas, or mineral extraction has been a lease from the national companies, not a privatization.
The article in the OP is intentionally muddying the waters of what is actually happening. It leads with a quote from Delcy “I have instructed that non-essential assets held by the state be assessed to determine which can be offered to the private sector or returned to their former owners. This process is already well advanced,” Rodriguez said in a televised address."
I emphasized the important part, non-essential assets.
The article goes on to say “In her speech, Rodriguez said 44 energy contracts are being negotiated under the state’s oil law approved in January. The government has stated that 61 oil agreements have been signed, without providing details. “Similarly, important negotiations are under way in the mining sector, specifically regarding gold, aluminum, and iron,” she added.”
They are trying to make it seem like she is saying that the energy contracts and mining negotiations are a part of the assets being privatized, but that isn’t what she said in the speech or what any evidence has supported. Again, every contract that has been announced has been a lease, not a privatization. The are cherry picking quotes from her to make it seem like the headline is about oil, gas, and minerals, but it is really about old factories and refining facilities which are barely in use.
Thank you! I was already grinding my teeth to dust
I’m still a Delcy skeptic, but yeah, this sounds like a policy in-line with modern Chinese-style Socialism.
On the surface yes, but the crucial difference is that Venezuela does not have a DoP. Which makes this strategy inherently more risky.
It is very possible that if the Chavista movement and the communes are not strong enough this all goes off the rails.
The next elections are going to be an exceptionally dangerous moment for Venezuela. That is what i am most worried about, not Delcy.
Maduro should have just built a drone production facility out of fucking sticks and stones to combat the ambush… it’s so jover.
Maduro should have purged.
Still would have happened lol; it just would’ve not been Delcy. Even considering it is too much, he just would not have done it… Like he didn’t in our actual time. They’re not exactly known, as a movement and party, to be the most Marxist-Leninist. Chavez literally never took the step forward towards a DOTP, I even remember hearing that he fucking “disavowed” it or whatever, that’s where the “21ist Century Socialism” phrase comes from. I do not understand why your specific targeting (I guess) is on Delcy only rather than on Chavez-to-Maduro too. Or that somehow the revolution was betrayed rather than incomplete. You and many others were all for it but now it’s somehow different? Something to be disavowed now?
“We have to re-invent socialism. It can’t be the kind of socialism that we saw in the Soviet Union, but it will emerge as we develop new systems that are built on cooperation, not competition.” -Hugo Chávez during his closing speech at the World Social Forum in Porto Alegre, Brazil. January 31, 2005. “We have to build the Bolivarian socialism within the framework of the Bolivarian Constitution. […] We do not envisage the abolition of private property, neither the big nor the little one. […] Socialism has to be built by us, the sectors of the middle class, professionals, technicians, they are needed to build a productive socialism. We need the middle class, the professionals, the technicians, the entrepreneurs, the farmers, the youth, to join into a broad debate. Socialism of the 21st century is democracy, we are not talking about the dictatorship of the proletariat. No.” -As quoted in “Chávez propone constituir un ministerio para el seguimiento de obras y políticas” (6 October 2012), Correo del Orinoco
Yeah. He would have purged for a DOTP. And Delcy totally is not in line with the Chavez line.
Chavez literally never took the step forward towards a DOTP, I even remember hearing that he fucking “disavowed” it or whatever, that’s where the “21ist Century Socialism” phrase comes from.
There is a plan to reach DOTP. To delve into it further, I shared this post a year ago that goes through this. That’s why the communes are very important for that.
Why do you keep posting misinformation about Venezuela. This is a pattern with you and I want to know why.
Delcyzueala ain’t it.
So basically, you’re ignoring the facts to push a specific narrative because you have a personal vendetta against Delcy?
She didn’t press the DOTP button despite the revolution having not done so itself during the time of Chavez… It’s so jover… Weird how all the faults and flaws of the incomplete revolution is now pushed onto Delcy solely, and as if the country was already inherent ML. There’s zero need for a fanfic ‘betrayal’ narrative.
You know what’s weirder? Miami gusanos and Latino Fascists are saying that the US didn’t change anything haha. They are even flooding the social networks with this narrative that is contradictory to what Saymaz is suggesting.
Always feels great to have the opposite opinion of Miami Gusanos’.
So you support Delcy? They don’t support her and think she is a Chavista who is continuing the lineage of Chavez. So you have the opposite opinion?
In the fascist camps, you have two people: The ones that think that US didn’t change anything in Venezuela and the others that believe in every pompous lie that Trump and the White House prints.
The narrative that you have pushed so far with every post regarding Venezuela follows the latter. What I find funny is that not even gusanos believe in Trump.
At this point, the nature of the current PSUV leadership is frankly secondary compared to the example which Venezuela serves. Whether Venezuela under the PSUV is subverted and eroded Gorbachev-era CPSU-style, or whether it’s Venezuela’s own Special Period will eventually be determined through time. While I say that, Venezuela under the PSUV is not a DotP and they will not have anything close to the latitude afforded to the USSR during its NEP, China during the early Reform and Opening Up and Cuba during Special Period.
For the present, it’s very clear that the Trump government’s objective was to turn this into a “Venezuela model.” They tried to do it to Iran, with catastrophic humiliation thus far. Unable to learn a lesson, they will undoubtedly want to use it against Cuba as well.
Whether Rodriguez is a comprador or biding her time, it can be stated that the current PSUV leadership is clearly compelled to play along with Trump’s narrative about Venezuela. That narrative is that: if you cooperate once we decapitate your current leadership, we will allow you and your party to remain in power, call off our government-in-exile ghouls, give you some form of economic relief so long as you slowly devolve your system as a trade-off.
For countries without the capacity or capability to resist like Iran has, it may seem an odious yet tempting deal and quite an evolution of US foreign policy. The US’ demand towards its adversaries in the original Cold War and in its unipolar moment has always been one of unconditional surrender. All the socialist states destroyed in the 1989-92 counter-revolutions were replaced wholesale. Yugoslavia tried to compromise, but the US refused and launched the Yugoslav Wars. Then, Libya tried to compromise, but the US refused and sent Libya into an unending civil war.
While it is Cuba’s great misfortune is that it is right across from the United States, likewise, the US’ great misfortune is that it is right across from Cuba. That’s to say that the US is psychologically wedded to the idea that it is bounded by two oceans and that the American homeland is untouchable and safe from any possible blowback. This is the great American national neurosis and Cuba challenges that more than the USSR, China, Russia or Iran ever can. In all of contemporary American history, there are only two real instances where the sacred American homeland was attacked: Pearl Harbor and 9/11. No US president wants the history books to say that they allowed the third to occur under their watch.
That, above all else, I believe is the reason why Cuba has been left alone even after the fall of the USSR, in spite of the US invading numerous other countries far away in the meantime and its official military posture today being that it could still take on China at the latter’s doorstep. Even if the entire US military goes into Cuba, one missile lobbed against Miami would create that third attack on the American homeland.
Therefore, while the US bluster is that it could re-do the Bay of Pigs, its only politically viable option is to attempt to trigger a relatively bloodless counter-revolution. The Venezuela model is thereby designed to be a rebuttal against Cuba’s “Patria o Muerte” by attempting to create the impression that the US will not force it to be an either/or but that “Patria” can still exist, so long as it is placed second. Therefore, for leftist observers, it would be important to bear in mind that the continued persistence of the PSUV leadership in Venezuela today speaks not only to their own possible maneuvering, but also dialectically the American desire to play to that end such that it can create a “Venezuela model.” Until the eventual time where the truth will out, this is what really makes the situation in Venezuela rather opaque.
I think we need to also consider the economic and political conditions for the US with regard to Venezuela.
The US needs access to Venezuela’s resources, which can only be gained through repairing existing infrastructure that Venezuela can’t use itself due to the long term consequences of sanctions, as well as building new infrastructure that hasn’t existed yet.
Venezuela needs the sanctions to be lifted in order to have electricity, food, water, and sewage treatment - basic necessities that they have been living without for years. They also need an economy that warrants the ability to purchase the thing they need if they can’t make them domestically.
That takes a psychological toll on the people, and it has pushed them to be more dedicated to the commune movement, but that itself has no ability to scale up rapidly to meet the needs of the people without capital which they can not make without selling oil which can not make it out of the Caribbean before being stolen by the US. Millions are living without regular access to basic necessities for over a decade, how does this get resolved? Through vague notions of resistance and perseverance? What are the actual actions one must take to resolve these contradictions?
Still, the US is also crumbling.
The US economy is trash, their constant warmongering has caught up with them, and they are pretty desperate for that Venezuelan oil. oil which can’t be extracted without years of investment into Venezuelan infrastructure and the Venezuelan economy. how can they get it?
with what is going on in Iran, are they really going to invade Venezuela and install someone? There is no mass opposition to PSUV and Chavismo, just disparate and unpopular losers vying to be the viceroy, and that the US has openly admitted have no motion.
The US literally can’t go in and take Venezuelan oil, they need to invest and normalize Venezuela for that to ever be realized, and so the only path forward is for the US to do that with the Chavistas, who also need the same thing to happen. It isn’t one for one with the example of China, because this is happening long after that example existed with a totally different nation.
Still, PSUV has shown themselves to be knowledgeable and dedicated Marxists, who openly quote every revolutionary figure you can think of. They know about Vietnam. They know about Iran now. They can see what is happening too because it is all very clear. They know they can maneuver a situation where they get their means of production rebuilt, their infrastructure restored, and their communes are in the background working tirelessly on expanding and becoming self sustainable, with government funding.
They have leverage over the US in this situation, and if the armed, militant commune movement wanted to, they could make sure that US companies don’t get anything out of Venezuela for a long time. After years of sanctions, they would rather rebuild the society that sanctions have denied them before jumping into a deeper level of suffering and violence beyond the slow agony of sanctions.
They need to be come normalized as a nation and shake off the mantle of pariah, be able to have access to the global economy to make money, and be able to openly work with other nations again. A Chinese company just helped reopen an inoperable electrical station this week. Two weeks ago Zulia state had two turned back on. pharmacies have reopened. The US knows it can continue to force Venezuela to live in hell, but Venezuela knows the US needs their resources and is so desperate they they would cooperate.
In the end, the next test will be the elections. My prediction is we will see a situation similar to what just happened in Brasil, with the US attempting to use media manipulation to rig the election in favor of Machado, or someone else as she doesn’t have much support from the other opposition figures who she is competing with. Chavismo will win and then it will just be accepted that they run the country. this time their democratic process will be accepted because they are already normalized by this point anyway and then won the election. After Lula winning Brasil, I’m confident that PSUV will win this upcoming election. Chavismo is deeply entrenched and the alternative is being run by people who have openly asked the US to bomb your country and commit other heinous acts, which isn’t a popular idea either.
tl;dr US needs oil, venezuela needs money for crucial life saving infrastructure and just basic economic shit, and there is no mass popular resistance in opposition to PSUV, so its actually easier for the US to just work with PSUV and give them concessions, since the only way for the US to reap the benefits is after years of infrastructure repair and new production lines built from the ground up. the US would require a stable and consistent venezuela for that to ever pay off, and they can have that with PSUV since they are the only ones who are really around to do it and the US really really needs it for long term stability.
I find your analysis quite insightful comrade, however if I may, I’d like to make a critique about one part of your comment.
They need to be come normalized as a nation and shake off the mantle of pariah, be able to have access to the global economy to make money, and be able to openly work with other nations again. A Chinese company just helped reopen an inoperable electrical station this week. Two weeks ago Zulia state had two turned back on. pharmacies have reopened. The US knows it can continue to force Venezuela to live in hell, but Venezuela knows the US needs their resources and is so desperate they they would cooperate.
I may not be a Latam comrade myself, but I’ve done my best to educate myself on their analysis, as well as using my understanding of West Asia to better understand the context of Latin America. So, the main thing I’d like to critique is the first part of this sentence.
They need to be come normalized as a nation and shake off the mantle of pariah, be able to have access to the global economy to make money, and be able to openly work with other nations again.
I think remembering how the US imposed this situation on Venezuela in the first place is worth remembering. The US used its naval and air superiority to blockade Venezuela from any assistance from countries like China and Russia. In other words, I think that it’s fair to say that as long as the US is capable of using its military to obstruct Venezuela (and really all Latin American countries with a coast line), then becoming normalized doesn’t actually prevent the US from doing something similiar in the future, and this doesn’t only apply to Venezuela.
This is paired with the fact that unlike with its overseas military bases, the US is essentially a geographical fixture of the Americas. You can’t drive the Yankees out like in Iran because the issue of supply lines doesn’t exist like it does across the Atlantic.
This isn’t me saying that normalization s useless, but that extra attention must be paid to who Venezuela normalizes, and increases its economic relationship with. To be more specific, I mean to repeat the words that Venezuela themselves have been talking about for decades, and what many Latam Marxist have concurred with. That being, economic integration and cooperation between all (or as many as possible) Latin American countries.
If Venezuela is to be able to resist US imperialism, the most important step is to forge it’s future in tandem with the rest of Latin America. We can see right now that the Latin American left is in immense danger, with the US rigging elections and installing pro-imperialist fascist regimes in several Latin American countries. However these fascists have also temporarily been halted in Brazil and Mexico.
I’d argue that the destiny of Latin America is collective, and if the existing sovereign forces in Latin America aren’t able to establish a form of regional integration, then the humiliation we are seeing in Venezuela, will continue as it is.
Normalization with the rest of the world is important, and can be helpful, but I think due to the geographic position of the US, regional Normalization and integration is the most pressing matter for Venezuela.
I mostly agree with what you are saying. the US can always use this play due to proximity alone, but Venezuela could also withhold their exports entirely if they are put back in the position of being blocked from making revenue. the US needs a regional source of resources and is more inclined to play ball than to cut themselves off from getting those resources. I agree with you that regional integration would be ideal, its a shame they were blocked from joining BRICS and don’t have many aligned governments in proximity anymore.
still we can see the comments from a few days ago from Rodriguez criticizing the sanctions on Russia, and the commitment between them to continuing to work together. We can also see China continues to work with them, although not making as many public statements about it. since they need exports to make money, they will ultimately need to be able to trade with more than just regional players to generate enough revenue to sustain their economy.
Comprador in action…
Are we still coping about Venezuela? All I see is more and more evidence that they have been completely defeated.
Calling it coping implies people are in denial about the realities of what’s occurring and are reaching for whatever they can to cling to hope that it’s not happening the way it is actually happening.
That’s not what is occurring here. When Assad fell and Jolani took over, were MLs going, “Jolani is just playing the long game to liberate Syria”? No. The reason for ongoing back and forth about Venezuela is precisely because the situation isn’t simple. It can’t fairly be called straightforward coup/comrador and it also can’t fairly be called straightforward resistance against imperialism. It is murkier than that and so it requires analysis beyond “our person good, their person bad; our movement losing, their movement winning.” Depth of analysis has always been important for Marxists to conduct and we need to practice it the best we can. If anything, I’d argue situations with this degree of complexity and controversy are going to become more common as unipolarity dies. Already, some struggle with the idea of China as anti-imperialist yet not global military liberator and doing trade with imperial states. Binary thinking with marxist-leninist characteristics is not itself scientific socialism. We have to work through the complexity or we will be reduced to coping in the form of labeling something as good/bad and calling it a day, which is not a flattering trait to share with liberals. I don’t say this to be sanctimonious at all. I know well the urge to label something and move on. But labeling and moving on is for spectators, not for people who are trying to change the world.
Time will tell.
They will prevail
Jesus Christ, top 10 betrayals
