With this simplifying figure there is no intention of putting reality in the middle. All transformative processes are full of risks, obstacles and contradictions. It cannot be otherwise. The contradictions have within them dynamism and movement, they are the engine of change. And what is developing in the Venezuelan territories is that: a liberating process that is in a very difficult development, with its achievements, its contributions, its errors, its hard context and its own conviction.

The brigade of the internationalist organization Askapena has allowed us to better understand the situation of the Venezuelan process in the summer of 2019, beyond the information and analysis we can find in the media (we are talking about media that try to analyze the Venezuelan reality with a minimum objectivity, not of propaganda corporations that use the supposed information as a tool of war against the Bolivarian process). Relations with many institutions and people have enabled us to know the consequences of the offensive of Yankee imperialism on the people and bring us closer to the complexity of the process. The aim of this text is to offer a series of strokes to better understand some key aspects of the current situation of the Venezuelan people. This text, articulated in chapters, will reflect the consequences of the multiform attack on Venezuela, the resistance and dignity of large sectors, the inherited practices and behaviors that make Venezuelan society sick, the contradictions in the process, the challenges facing this grave situation or the difficulties of attempts to build a community system.

Nobody said it was going to be easy.

 

 

 

 

 

Economic blockade: humanitarian disaster they want to create but have failed

When the blockade of Venezuela is mentioned, macros are often used: the impossibility of financial transactions, the blocking of foreign economic assets, the difficulty or impossibility of foreign investments, the intervention of Venezuelan companies in the USA (such as the subsidiary of Sitgo del PDVSA)… The blockade imposed by the United States has had a very important impact on the economy of Venezuela. According to a calculation made by the Latin American Strategic Center for Geopolitics (CELAG), the economic blockade resulted in losses between 2013 and 2017 of between 245,000 and 350,000 million dollars, an average of between 8,400 and 12,100 dollars per Venezuelan. It is estimated that as of 2013 the Venezuelan public sector has not received $19 billion a year and, at the same time, has had an overrun of 3.3 billion in external debt, mainly for risk premium. In recent years, losses have increased due to the intensification of the Trump administration’s economic sanctions. As of 2017, the U.S. government has adopted 150 coercive measures against Venezuela in the United States.

In any case, the economic aspect is a component of a hybrid war. A war, yes, a war of measures of all kinds, in which the economic and financial blockade is combined with other types of attacks: diplomatic war to isolate Venezuela at an international level, media war to distort Chavism and Venezuelan reality and justify an intervention, psychological war to bring despair to the Venezuelan people and unravel the street, sabotages to further hinder daily life, paramilitary attacks for the bases.

 

 

 

 

In Venezuela there is no humanitarian disaster, as they want us to be seen from the media of the system. In fact, in February 2019 what was thought was that trying to move trucks with "humanitarian aid" through Colombia was a propaganda campaign against the Police. An aspirin for the disease that they themselves had creado.Sin embargo, although the blockade has not caused the humanitarian crisis, the people are suffering and suffering a lot, according to Interior. And it has to be said that, if the crisis is not greater, it is because of chavism. The Government must be acknowledged that it has made a great effort to meet the basic needs of the people. CLAPs (Local Recycling and Production Committees) are the best example. Although CLAP boxes have great problems reaching certain places regularly, they are sent to all families the amount of food (oil, rice, corn flour, legumes, sometimes short flight cans..) to guarantee a minimum. In any case, this initiative has not been spared the persecution of the US government. CLAP Secretary General Freddy Bernal announced in May 2019 that 10 of the 12 shipping companies transporting food for CLAP to Venezuela had been sanctioned. In addition, difficulties in payments are a long way behind the process of purchasing food.

Over and above these obstacles, the Government ' s effort to secure food must be added to the logistics offered by the organized people ' s structures to carry out these initiatives. In the villages and neighborhoods, this level of organization has facilitated coping with this situation of exception, analyzing the situation in the same towns and neighborhoods, performing preventive work and carrying out social programs. Beyond criticism, the popular support maintained by the Maduro government, the organization of the Chavista sectors and the level of awareness of a large part of the population have avoided what in another country would have been a rebellion long ago. A large section of the Venezuelan people is ready to resist and is showing up. It is clear to a large part of the population that what they are defending is more than the process of transformation or chavism, it is the sovereignty of their people.