Tag: Venezuela

Venezuela: Regime Change On The Agenda?

It is true that Venezuela faces many problems, not least in terms of its economic difficulties. These are being exacerbated both by a conscious economic war — with echoes of the situation in Chile prior to the 1973 coup that brought General Pinochet to power — and the plunge in world oil prices.

But the right’s programme of vicious neoliberalism — illustrated by its proposals for the mass sell-off of housing — will only make these worse, while reversing the gains in reduced poverty and inequality, plus increased labour rights, in recent years.

Don’t Rely on Amnesty to Judge Amnesty Law in Venezuela

NGOs like Amnesty end up providing a kind of “idea laundering” for the U.S. government and its allies. Many years ago, that’s how Canadian writer Linda McQuaig described the function of corporate funded think tanks in debates about domestic policy. Not everybody will be happy to believe what the U.S. government or corporate journalists say. It’s useful to have “independent”, and preferably liberal, organizations like Amnesty promote the required assumptions and deceit.