Taking advantage of Chavez’s ill health, the Venezuelan oligarchy and imperialism have renewed their campaign of destabilisation against the Bolivarian Revolution. They risk unleashing the wrath of the workers and the poor. Jorge Martin analyses the latest developments in Venezuela.
Candidates of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) won the governor elections on December 16 in 20 out of the country’s 23 states, including in 5 which were ruled by the opposition MUD. The regional elections came after the victory of Hugo Chávez in the October 7 presidential elections. It is time for the working class and the poor to go on the offensive and complete the Venezuelan Revolution.
On Saturday, December 8, Venezuelan
president Chávez announced that he would have to undergo another
surgical intervention in Cuba. Adding that “there are always risks in
processes like this” he explained that “if anything happens to me that
hinders me [from performing as president]”, vice president Maduro is his
preference to replace him.
Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez has
won, yet again, the presidential elections on Sunday October 7, with a
comfortable margin of 54.84% against the 44.55% of his opponent Henrique
Capriles. This is another victory for the Bolivarian revolution which
should be used in order to carry out the revolution to the end.
The presidential election due on
October 7 represents a decisive moment in the history of Venezuela. The
outcome of this election will have a major impact throughout the
continent and internationally. It goes without saying that the Hands Off
Venezuela campaign is actively supporting the Bolivarian candidate Hugo
Chavez and fighting against any attempt of the oligarchy and
imperialism to sabotage the elections. The IMT stands firmly for the
re-election of Hugo Chávez. Why have we taken this position?
On Monday May 21, there was a foiled
attempt against the life of comrade Abraham Rivas. Rivas is General
Secretary of the National Union of Workers of Helados EFE (SINATRASOHE)
as well as General Secretary of the recently created National Federation
of Workers in Food, Beverages and Other Companies (FENACTRALBECA),
which organizes workers in 21 different companies belonging to Grupo
POLAR. He is also a revolutionary Bolivarian activist and a supporter of
the Marxist tendency Lucha de Clases.
Ten years after the defeat of the coup
in Venezuela by the revolutionary mobilisation of the masses it is
worth looking back at the forces that were behind the coup, the reasons
why it was defeated and what happened afterwards, as those events hold
the clue to the class dynamics of the Venezuelan revolution.
On Sunday February the 12, the
long-awaited opposition primary elections took place in order to select
the candidate who will face Hugo Chavez in the presidential elections
due for October this year. Cápriles Radonski, the present governor of
Miranda state won a clear victory with 62% of the vote, compared to only
28.9% for his contender Pablo Perez, present governor of Zulia state.
While I was in Venezuela a number of comrades asked me about some
manifesto against “Chavez’s attacks on trade union rights” and also
about the controversy over a letter Noam Chomsky had signed which the
bourgeois media had used in their campaign in defence of “human rights”
in Venezuela.
On May 28th,
Mel Zelaya, the Honduran president removed by a coup in June 2009
returned to Honduras where he was met by a massive crowd. On June 1, the
Organisation of American States voted to readmit Honduras as a member,
with only Ecuador voting against. The agreements that made this possible
have provoked a lot of discussion amongst Honduran revolutionaries in
the Resistance Front (FNRP) and throughout Latin America.
The arrest
in Venezuela of Colombian political refugee Joaquín Pérez Becerra and
his hand over to the Colombian authorities by the government of
president Chávez has raised deeper questions about the strategy of the
Venezuelan revolution.
A contribution to the discussion on property and the tasks of the revolution.
The September elections in Venezuela have posed some
serious questions before the Bolivarian Revolution. The opposition has
organized a noisy campaign in the media to present themselves as
"winners", despite the fact that they lost. What is the purpose of this
campaign?