RE: [OPE] Latin America

> How it is possible that after 10 years of Chavista government the level of anomie in Venezuela
> keeps among the highest in the region, is a problem that Chávez’s sympathizers have to face
> instead of evading the reality.
 
Hi Alejandro:
 
 
There are a number of factors. First and foremost, the level of poverty - especially in urban
areas. It is a reality - which can not be evaded - that much of Venezuela's wealth is owned by
a small capitalist and landowning oligarchy. Another huge factor in promoting violence
is the "opposition" which has incited violence and (with CIA financing and logistical help)
is responsible for the (failed) junta and more recent acts of treachery. Then, there is the
US which _wants_ (and pays for) instability and lawlessness in Venezuela. This is a tried
and tested imperialist method for destabilizing "unfriendly" governments. The answer to _all_
of these questions is a mobilization of the masses and a quicker march towards socialism.
The recent elections have given Chavez and the PSUV the mandate to do just that.
 

 
> In the case of Cuba the reasons must be the police like regulation and a system of
> indoctrination that fosters the acceptance of an institutional order contrary to basic
> socialist values like freedom and autonomy.
 
You jumped illogically to a conclusion which was not supported by your argumentation
when you wrote what "the reasons must be" - and that, if I understood him correctly,
was a large part of what Abelardo objected to. There is nothing _logically_ which supports
such a strong conclusion. Your 'process of elimination' type 'deduction' has not
considered all of the possible explanations (such as social cohesion in Cuba) _and_
accepted without question or criticism all of the claims (by right-wing, anti-Castro,
anti-socialist) in propaganda directed at Cuba. Your posts on these topics are also, imo,
too filled with with what mainstream social scientists call "loaded terminology" - e.g.
"indoctrination". Of course, left-wing and Marxian theorists are not immune from
using loaded terminology either, but we do not generally (?) uncrtically accept the stories
promoted by the bourgeois press, reactionary communities (like the right-wing
Cuban exile community in the US) and the U.S. State Department.
 
In solidarity, Jerry

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Received on Sat Nov 29 16:30:20 2008