Americans who worked for ARAMCO often maintained friendships with American ex-pats working with the oil companies in VZ.. VZ's history has always been turbulent lurching from one extreme to another.. with only the elites benefiting from oil revenues. Timeline: Venezuela's tumultuous history Founded by Spanish colonialists, Venezuela became independent in 1830 but political unrest continues. 1498 - Italian explorer Christopher Columbus, working on behalf of the Spanish monarchy, sails along Venezuela's eastern coast. 1499 - Alonso de Ojeda, a Spanish explorer, apparently names the country's north coast "Venezuela", or "little Venice" because of its resemblence to the Italian city. 1521-1522 - Spanish colonisation formally begins on the coast, following a visit by Christopher Columbus in 1499. 1550 - African slaves are shipped to Venezuela to work on plantations. 1810 - The king of Spain is overthrown by France's Napoleon Bonaparte, providing an opening for anti-colonial movements fighting for independence. 1821 - After a series of bitter battles and short-lived declarations of sovereignty, Gran Colombia - comprising Venezuela, Colombia, Panama and Ecuador, wins independence from Spain. Simon Bolivar, Venezuela's national hero, plays a key role in the struggle. 1830 - Venezuela seperates from Gran Colombia to become an independent country with Caracas as its capital. 1902 - After failing to repay foreign loans, Venezuela's ports are blocked by German, British and Italian warships. 1908-1935 - Venezuela becomes one of the world's largest oil exporters under the leadership of Juan Vicente Gomez, a dictator. 1958 - Leftist Romulo Betancourt is elected president. He oversees the 1963 elections, the country's first democratic civilian-to-civilian transfer of power. 1964 - Raul Leoni becomes president during a period of known as "puntofijismo", in which elections are limited to competition between two major parties. 1973 - The Arab oil embargo begins following the "Yom Kippur War" between Arab states and Israel. Oil prices rapidly rise, benefiting Venezuela. 1983 - A fall in world oil prices leads to government spending cuts. President Jaime Lusinchi signs a pact between business, trade unions and government to deal with the fallout. 1989 - President Carlos Andres Perez is elected president as Venezuela seeks loans from the International Monetary Fund to prop up its economy. 1992 - Hugo Chavez, then a military officer, leads a failed coup attempt and is jailed. 1994 - Chavez is freed from prison and forms a new political party. 1998 - Hugo Chavez is elected president. 1999 - Chavez takes office promising to reduce poverty and corruption. 2000 - Chavez wins presidential elections by a margin above 20 per cent, against challenger Francisco Arias. 2001 - Venezuela's government decrees a new law requiring PDVSA, the state petroleum company, to hold a majority stake in all upstream oil projects. 2002 - A strike by workers at PDVSA creates political chaos. The opposition launches a coup that ousts Chavez for three days, until democracy is restored by Chavez supporters and loyal members of the security forces. 2002-2003 - Chavez sacks about 20,000 PDVSA employees in light of the coup attempt, and begins using the energy company to finance social programmes. 2004 - Voters defeat an effort to recall Chavez by a wide margin. 2006 - During a vote with exceptionally high turnout, Chavez wins re-election to a new six-year term. 2007 - Chavez takes control over four heavy oil products in the Orinoco belt worth billions of dollars. US oil firms Exxon Mobil and ConocoPhillips leave the country and sue for compensation. 2007 - Chavez suffers his first electoral defeat in a referendum changing dozens of articles in Venezuela's constitution, including the abolition of term limits. 2008 - Oil prices peak above $145 per barrel, and PDVSA is put in charge of a major food importing campaign to deal with supply shortages. 2010 - Congressional elections lead to significant gains for the opposition, but Chavez's United Socialist Party still retains a majority. 2011 - Chavez undergoes cancer surgery in Cuba. October, 2012 - Chavez is re-elected president with a convincing mandate despite his illness. March 5, 2013 - Chavez died of cancer, a period of national mourning begins. April 14, 2013 - Presidential election which will see Chavez's chosen successor, Nicolas Maduro challenge opposition candidate Henrique Capriles. Source: Agencies http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2012/09/201292121430533264.html
Who can ya trust? Poll: Venezuelans' trust in police, military at record lows June 14, 2017 -- After months of heated protests that have seen several deaths and casualties, the vast majority of Venezuelans have lost faith in their police and military, a new Gallup poll shows. See also: Venezuelan Interior Ministry takes control of Miranda state police -- Venezuela's Interior Ministry said it has seized control of the Miranda state's police force over accusations of violating human rights and of criminal activity.
Latin America and its' nations were divided up to a relatively few large land owning families. All the revolutions that I know of that called for land redistribution failed to deliver. Latin America represents what happens when too few control too much of a nation's wealth. As for the ups & downs of Venezuela's economy and occurrences such as food shortages, I wonder how much was engineered by the West's corporate interests in Venezuela. Destabilize a gov't and create a new one foreign policy. Moi r > g Make Pay Its' Fair Share!
Venezuela opposition launches civil disobedience campaign... As fears of more violence increases, Venezuela launches civil disobedience campaign Friday 21st July, 2017 - Amid fears of violence escalating in the country, millions of citizens in Venezuela participated in a civil disobedience campaign with the opposition hoping it will end nearly two decades of socialist rule.
Can ya believe it?... Crisis-Torn Venezuela Remains a Member of the UN’s Top Human Rights Body August 2, 2017 – The United Nations’ secretary-general and top human rights official on Tuesday both expressed concern about the political crisis in Venezuela, but neither statement addressed the fact that the Nicolas Maduro regime is a member of the U.N.’s top human rights body. See also: Venezuela vote: Authorities reject inflation claim Thu, 03 Aug 2017 - The electoral authorities dismiss a claim turnout figures for a vote were inflated as "baseless". Related: EU mulling range of actions on Venezuela Thursday 3rd August, 2017 - The European Union is discussing a "whole range of actions" against Venezuela over its political crisis but is likely to stop short of sanctions, officials and sources said Wednesday.
Yes indeed, how much. It turns out, PLENTY! One year ago the IMF said Venezuela’s growth rate was -8%, the inflation rate was 482%, and the unemployment rate was 17% and climbing. Mark Weisbrot of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, who had just returned from a trip to Venezuela, says those INF numbers are projections that turned out to be very wrong. Actual inflation was extremely high but the 482% projected was way off. It was actually 182%. The point being that the IMF numbers are not even close and so not reliable. Last year the IMF projected the economy for last year would shrink by 10% but it shrank by 5.7%. And the U.S. media further exaggerates the numbers because it’s “socialism”. They even were viciously critical of the economy when it was booming from 2003 to 2008. Weisbrot said the U.S. has been working to topple the Venezuelan government for many years and as an example in March of 2016 Obama announced sanctions againt Venezuela, saying that they presented “an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security of the U.S.” The corporate U.S. media didn’t bother to ask how that could be so Obama never had to explain that bit of contrived thinking. But it succeeded in persuading banks to refuse to extend further loans to Venezuela. Weisbrot cites increased Trump sanctions that threaten to destroy Venezuela’s oil industry and the economy with it. Even the Venezuelan opposition is against the sanctions. So the threat to their economy is coming from the U.S., not Venezuela or “socialism”. Opposition in Venezuela has always been supported by US A.I.D. and The National Endowment for Democracy with milions and millions of taxpayer dollars. Obama allocated $5.5 million to fund opposition. American lawyer, Eva Golinger, spent 3 years studying our role in the development of the Venezuelan crisis. She used the FOIA to access government data. The documents she obtained showed that the U.S. government knew all about the 2002 coup that was to occur against Chavez two days before it happened. The documents showed that the CIA identified Chavez and 10 others to be arrested. A document said “to provoke military action, the plotters may try to exploit unrest stemming from opposition demonstrations slated for later this month”. Two hours before protesters were shot by rooftop snipers, an army officer representing military forces that overthrew Chavez recorded a statement for release in which he said that Chavez had snipers kill 6 people. Chavez was captured and a corporate giant, Pedro Carmona was installed as President. Dispite knowing what would happen beforehand and even making recommendations on whom to arrest including Chavez, Ari Fleischer said in a quick press conference “we know that the action encouraged by the Chavez government provoked this crisis. The results of these events are now that President Chavez has resigned the presidency.” The public announcement of this false information was part of the U.S. government’s role in the coup. Tens of thousands of Venezuelans took to the streets to demand Chavez’s safe return and soldiers still loyal to Chavez retook the palace and the coup crumbled within 48 hours. Eva’s investigation uncovered a money trail from Washington to key organizations and individuals involved in the coup. She found that in the months before the coup, Washington had given millions of dollars to Chavezes opponents. The U.S. claims they want “democracy” in Venezuela, but while Chavez was in jail, Carmona was busy dissolving the parliament and the courts leaving him free to rule by decree. Just 5 months before, Carmona had visited Washington as a guest of the State Department. A cable from the U.S. Embassy in Caracas referred to Carmona and his collegues as “influential business leaders who have consistently played a critical role in advancing U.S. commercial interests in Venezuela.” Another one said Carmona was “the right man at the right time” for Venezuela. After Chavez was returned to power, the State Department sent instructions to the U.S. Embassy in Venezuela, saying “if asked ‘was the United States involved in the attempt to remove Chavez from power?” the answer was to be “absolutely not”. Golinger’s research also uncovered documentation showing that Washington also backed disgruntled elements within the Venezuelan Armed Forces. Also see http://links.org.au/for-a-democratic-revolutionary-socialist-solution-to-Venezuela-crisis
