Venezuela: Chavismo implodes without Chávez

President Maduro has “created a climate of antagonism and confrontation that is stretching Venezuela to the breaking point.”

The enemies of the Bolivarian socialist revolution are attacking, said Nelytza Matuzalen in Ciudad CCS (Venezuela). Last week, the leader of the right-wing opposition, Leopoldo López, rallied his supporters in Caracas and “incited them to violence.” They rose to the call. One member of a pro-government citizen militia group was shot dead, and two of López’s supporters were killed in the ensuing melee. “Violent motorcycle gangs” raced around “throwing rocks and large objects at the Bolivarian National Guard and the Bolivarian National Police.” They even firebombed a court building. Will the “fascist right” listen to President Nicolás Maduro’s calls for calm?

Violence at anti-government protests is exactly what Maduro wants, said Fausto Masó in El Nacional (Venezuela). “Anytime a tire burns in the streets or a stone flies, Maduro jumps for joy.” Violence allows him to invoke his universal excuse for the nation’s continued decline, that fascists backed by the U.S. and beholden to moneyed interests are plotting a coup. Of course, that ridiculous theory is intended to distract us from the real issue: the economy that Maduro is destroying with his outdated brand of socialism. We already had “long lines, inflation, food shortages, and insecurity.” Now Maduro has added the Fair Prices Act, which subjects any merchant to criminal penalties for charging whatever the government arbitrarily decides is too much. “Toyota is leaving the country, as will other assemblers, because of this draconian law.” We can’t allow Maduro to change the subject from the crippled economy to his imagined coup.

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