The complete degeneration of Nicolas Maduro

Nicolas Maduro, the President of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela has degenerated completely into a enemy of the Venezuelan working class. While at first a sidekick of Hugo Chavez, Nicolas Maduro was made President of Venezuela after his mentor died of cancer in 2013. In the 8 years since the death of Chavez, the Maduro administration destroyed most gains of the Bolivarian revolution and now is attacking the independent left-wing of Venezuela. Political parties like the Communist Party of Venezuela who supported him until 2020, he now calls ”agents of imperialism”. Anybody who is not a uncritical supporter of Maduro is denounced as ”agents of the USA” by the state media. Although Venezuela is under siege by the capitalist world, this paranoid mentality proofs that Nicolas Maduro has degenerated like Joseph Stalin into an enemy of the working class.

The main target of government attacks against the independent left-wing is the Popular Revolutionary Alternative. A political alliance set up by the Communist Party of Venezuela in opposition to the Great Patriotic Pole (GPP), the main alliance around the ruling United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV). The communist party was part of the GPP until it decided to brake with the Maduro government in 2020. After years of siding with the president, the increasing capitalist politics of Maduro forced even the Stalinists to abandon him. With the GPP as his mouth piece and the state media behind him, Nicolas Maduro now sees the independent left-wing as a danger. This is because the authoritarian president is moving to the right-wing. He has already made corrupt deals with the military and elements of the bourgeoisie who now support the government.

Venezuela is under siege by U.S imperialism. The goals of the Americans is to replace Nicolas Maduro with a puppet leader. Juan Guaidó was drilled to become this puppet, but he failed to overthrow Maduro and with the National Assemble fully under control of the GPP again, the official capitalist opposition lost most of its political power. Maduro however is not backing down on his increasing turn to the right. By working with corrupt army officials and capitalists, he hopes to bypass the sanctions imposed by the USA. Also the degenerated leader is making deals with Chinese and Russian capitalists, who use Venezuela for all kinds of dirty transactions. The Popular Revolutionary Alternative (ARP) won only one seat in the last elections to the National Assembly. They are not a political danger to the GPP and its supreme leader Nicolas Maduro. But their criticism is genuine left-wing and this is what the ruling party does not like.

The United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) does not wish to be exposed as a bureaucratic state party. They are an empty shell however, not a revolutionary tool for the working class. Despite that the party has millions as members, it does not mean it is a party that works in the interests of Venezuelan workers. Revolutionary socialists were hopeful in 2007 when the PSUV was founded by Hugo Chavez. But it soon turned out that Chavez needed a political vehicle, not a revolutionary workers party for socialism. Even under Chavez, the PSUV became nothing more but a propaganda weapon. PSUV leaders were already using undemocratic methods to silence critical socialists and by 2013, the party was indeed just a political vehicle for Chavez and his inner circle, including Nicolas Maduro.

Despite the propaganda in the western world about the nature of Venezuela, the country is not socialist. We have said it many times. The economy of Venezuela is based on a market economy. Yes, there is ineffective government red tape and there used to be price controls. But neither Chavez nor Maduro build a planned economy. State enterprises were still forced to run on capitalist principals, meaning that they needed to make a profit for the state. Workers remained slaves to this system as there was no self management, no democratic councils controlling enterprises. Even the social programs that Hugo Chavez created to help the poor have dried up now that the government has not enough money. The crisis in Venezuela is the direct result of state mismanagement, economic sanctions by the USA and direct attempts to overthrow Maduro.

In the new National Assembly, the PSUV and its allies in the Great Patriotic Pole have started to attack the only representative of the Popular Revolutionary Alternative (ARP). He was called an ”agent of imperialism” and denounced openly as an enemy of the Bolivarian revolution. Leader of the National Assembly: Jorge Rodríguez, openly said that the sole ARP representative was supported by US special envoy for Venezuela: Elliot Abrams. This is a complete lie as the ARP has fully rejected Elliot Abrams and what he did under Ronald Reagan in Nicaragua. To equal the ARP with a monster like Abrams is a huge scandal and a genuine embarrassment for the whole PSUV. These attacks are part of Nicolas Maduro’s degeneration as he starts to cooperate with Fedecamaras, the largest organisation of Venezuelan capitalists in the country.

Fedecamaras was a key organisation who supported the failed 2002 coup against Chavez. The organisation of Venezuelan capitalists worked with the coup regime and tried to hinder Chavez in anyway. Now Fedecamaras is more positively about the government and their growing capitalist politics. Maduro is talking to them and by doing has betrayed the millions who took to the streets in 2002 to defend Hugo Chavez, while Fedecamaras was supporting the army officials who tried to install a right-wing regime. The Popular Revolutionary Alternative is right to criticize the government and they are no agents of imperialist scum like Elliot Abrams. It is the failed politics of Chavez and Maduro that has led the PSUV to become a sectarian force that is now attacking the only left-wing alliance inside the National Assembly.

What is to be done now? Revolutionary socialists argue that the ARP needs to present a socialist alternative. Trusting the Communist Party of Venezuela (CPV) in building up this socialist alternative would be naïve. The communist party has supported Hugo Chavez uncritically and was supportive of Nicolas Maduro for many years. Also the CPV remains on good terms with Cuba, a country that is not building socialism but more capitalism each year, now that Fidel Castro is death. The Popular Revolutionary Alternative needs to put socialism central and expose the government for what it is, a corrupt undemocratic regime that has never build a socialist society in Venezuela. Since the ARP is led by members of the communist party, it will be difficult to present a genuine socialist alternative.

Socialism is not more government, socialism means control of the working class. Millions trusted Hugo Chavez since 1999. They trusted him and are now massively disappointed by his successor. This is why only 30,5% voted in the last parliamentary elections in 2020. Millions are busy surviving as they lack the income to pay for basic needs. There is food in the supermarkets, but the majority of Venezuelans lack the money to pay for it. Due to the crisis and massive inflation, the Venezuelan currency has lost most of its value. Shops and supermarkets now demand foreign currency like United States dollars. The rich and bourgeoisie of Venezuela can still survive, because they have access to dollars and euros. Since 2017 it is reported that 20% of the whole Venezuelan population has fled to countries like Columbia. Five to six million have decided to leave their homes in the last four years. This is mainly because they lack the income to survive.

Nicolas Maduro has degenerated the Bolivarian revolution although the bureaucratic degeneration started with the inability of Chavez to move beyond capitalism. Hugo Chavez was a petty-bourgeois army officer, who first tried a coup with the army in 1992. After this failed he mixed social-democracy with populism and anti-imperialism. But neither Chavez nor Maduro looked towards the working class. Their base of power remains the state bureaucracy and the army. Workers are not part of the political and economic process, now that independent left-wing voices are censored and attacked. What Venezuela needs is a socialist alternative and although many leftists are still sympathetic to Maduro and his PSUV out of anti-imperialist solidarity, we say this is wrong. Rejecting Maduro does not mean you support the imperialist USA, in trying to impose the will of capitalism on this Latin American nation.

Failed U.S coup in Venezuela

Again the Americans tried to install a pro-USA regime in Venezuela. But their attempt failed as Venezuelan fishermen were able to contact the local government and the foreign mercenaries were captured and arrested. Now it becomes clear that a American private security company was behind it. Silvercorp USA failed in their mission to bring Juan Guaidó to power. President Nicolas Maduro remains in office, but his government is ineffective and deeply flawed. What is needed is socialism, workers control over the government and economy. We demand the arrest and trial of Juan Guaidó and his fellow coup plotters, the expropriation of all property of US multinationals and the Venezuelan oligarchy (capitalists, bankers and landowners)!

American imperialism never cared about Venezuela before 1999. Until the election of Hugo Chavez (1999-2013), Washington DC was sure that Venezuela was in their pocket. Because every Venezuelan government was friendly towards U.S capitalism and allowed them to exploit Venezuelan workers. Hugo Chavez however said no and openly defied imperialism. He stood on a modest leftist populist platform which gave him the support of millions. After he got elected in 1999, the Venezuelan ruling class already started to hate the new populist president. With his charisma and populist talks, Hugo Chavez inspired the poor and many working class people to stand behind him and his Bolivarian Revolution.

In 2002, the government of Chavez wanted to restore state control over the national oil company: Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA). Today PDVSA is run by the military and many workers have abandoned working at it. This is due the ineffective and bureaucratic maneuvers of the current government led by Nicolas Maduro. The PDVSA is providing over 70% of all state incomes and the collapse of the oil market has resulted in less money coming in. At the same time the economic war between the bureaucratic state and the Venezuelan ruling class has resulted in absolute poverty for most workers. Back in 2002 the ruling class and their allies in the military decided to remove Hugo Chavez and replace him with a business leader called Pedro Carmona.

The 2002 coup was hailed by the capitalist media of Venezuela and those who profited from the market dictatorship. However the poor and lower working class Venezuelans rallied behind the populist president and restored him to power. Chavez would win all democratic elections because of their support. It was their vote that gave him legitimacy. Despite his populist rhetoric, Hugo Chavez never broke with capitalism and not led a movement towards socialism. He centralized a lot of political and economic power in the presidency and created a huge (ineffective) government bureaucracy. This resulted in capital flight and a increase in corruption. Despite propaganda from both the state and opposition, Venezuela is not a socialist society!

Revolutionary socialists have always been critical of the Chavez government. We said in 2013 that voting on the party of Chavez (United Socialist Party of Venezuela – PSUV) would not bring about socialism. With the death of the icon of the Bolivarian Revolution in the same year, things have turned for the worse. The current government of Nicolas Maduro may use anti-capitalist propaganda and claims of defending ”socialism”. In reality the regime has made numerous corrupt deals with those capitalists supporting the government. Looking behind the facade we see a authoritarian regime, desperately holding on to power.

Here are some of the things the supposed ”socialist” government of Venezuela carried out:

1. They arrested socialist activists and trade unionists
2. They returned land to former landowners
3. They privatized nationalized companies
4. They made concessions to the reactionary opposition and the ruling class
5. They allow Juan Guaidó and his thugs to remain free to keep plotting

In the seven years that Maduro is now in power, he has undone many of the popular ideas of Chavez. His PSUV has proven to be a party of the state bureaucracy much like the Communist Party of Cuba. Millions hoped for a true workers party in 2007 when the PSUV was founded. However both Hugo Chavez and Nicolas Maduro never wanted a socialist workers party. They needed a political force that carries out their ideas in parliament. Therefore the PSUV is a bureaucratic vehicle, not representing the working class.

The 2020 coup attempt by Silvercorp USA proofs that the opposition is willing to use foreign mercenaries to overthrow Maduro. The USA claims it did not know, but we are not stupid. Silvercorp USA has been in close contact with Donald Trump. They organized security for one of his rallies in the past. Also the company provided security for a concert organized by the Venezuelan opposition and capitalist Richard Benson. Juan Guaidó was supporting the invasion of mercenaries, he only pulled out at the last minute. The very reason this American company tried an invasion is because of the 15 million dollars reward that Donald Trump put on the head of Nicolas Maduro.

Yes, an American president has offered 15 million dollars for the removal of another president. The fifty nations that recognize Juan Guaidó as the President of Venezuela, have remain silent. Off course they don’t condemn this attack on the sovereignty of Venezuela by an American capitalist company. If Chinese mercenaries would have tried to remove the Taiwanese president from power by force, the whole western world would be in uproar. But since Europe and the USA have decided to stand behind Juan Guaidó, they do not criticize the coup attempt by Silvercorp USA. It proofs the hypocrisy of the western world and their hostility towards any government that does not bow to capitalist supremacy.

At the same time we give no political support to the failing regime of Nicolas Maduro. His corrupt deals with the military and part of the bourgeoisie are anti-socialist. The only reason the government is still supported is because millions fear the opposition. If the anti-Maduro coalition was better organized and not divided like it is, then it would take power. However Juan Guaidó is not supported by all and he only represents a part of the right-wing opposition. Millions of poor and lower working class people know that he is a puppet of foreign powers. Guaidó would restore the capitalist class as rulers of Venezuela. He will end the price controls and privatize the last state owned sectors. That is the goal of the Venezuelan opposition.

What now for the millions who are suffering of poverty and desperation? First we say that they cannot trust Guaidó and Maduro! The opposition may not use capitalist propaganda (many claim to have a social democratic agenda) but once in power, we know for sure they would. Second, the working class must organize around a political force that exposes the corrupt PSUV for what it is. In 2007, the United Socialist Party of Venezuela attracted millions. Today a new workers party could do the same, if it adopts a genuine socialist program in opposition to capitalism. Support for Maduro as many leftists do is very counterproductive. It legitimizes him as a ”leftist leader” which he is not. Nicolas Maduro shares blame for the current crisis just as much as Juan Guaidó!

 

Venezuela: No to the coup, no to the government

Juan Guaído the self-appointed ”President of Venezuela” has abused Labour Day to call for a counterrevolution against the official government of Nicolas Maduro. Millions of working class people are suffering due to massive state mismanagement, U.S imposed sanctions and attempts by the ruling class to sabotage the ruined economy. At the same time the U.S Empire is working closely with Guaído to install him as the next leader of Venezuela. That is what Donald Trump wants, a puppet like Guaído taking control of the largest oil reserve on the planet!

The world capitalist media has been attacking the Maduro government for years now. Using their bureaucratic and top-down methods as a weapon to discredit the ideas of socialism. Venezuela is often used by right-wing personalities to smear leftists and anybody who stands for socialism. Revolutionary socialists have always been critical of President Maduro and his predecessor Hugo Chavez (1999-2013). However unlike most bourgeois-democrats, we do not accept Juan Guaído nor his violent attempts to overthrow Maduro. The authoritarian reaction of the Venezuelan government is because the opposition is using violence and even murder!

On Labour Day (1 May), Juan Guaído called for the army to stand with him in the overthrow of Nicolas Maduro. Guaído has been calling for violent demonstrations for two months now. But the reality is that he lacks popular support. Yes, millions do not support the current president, but that does not mean they all ally themselves with a guy who is supported by imperialist powers. Working class people are critical of Maduro and his United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV), many even rejecting him. But that does not translate into automatic support for Guaído, who’s agenda is to bring political power back to the class who used to control all aspects of the country!

Media outlets have portrayed Guaído very positively. CNN, Sky News and many other western news networks show him as a ”genuine democratic” leader. They do not mention his program and what consequences that would have for the poor. Pro-government supporters are almost never shown and it gives you the picture that Nicolas Maduro is only supported by the state-bureaucracy and the army. The Venezuelan president they call a dictator and the country a dictatorship. In reality the opposition has been free to speak out. They have organized huge anti-Maduro rallies for six years now. Never have they been silenced or oppressed. The media of Venezuela remains in private capitalist hands with only one network supporting the government!

Juan Guaído attempt to get the army on his side failed. But this does not mean that the military will back Nicolas Maduro forever. In Venezuela, the armed forces are the third pillar of power (with the government and capitalist class acting as the other pillars). If that military pillar fears that it loses power and privileges (as they would under genuine socialism), army officials will happily drop all ”revolutionary”rhetoric and join the side of Juan Guaído and his American masters. This may happen in the future as nothing in certain. This is why we call for a socialist revolution, to prevent the restoration of full capitalist control over the nation. Nicolas Maduro cannot be trusted to be the leader for the working class as he and Hugo Chavez created the military pillar of power!

A few anti-government demonstrators have been killed in clashes with security police. No doubt their deaths will be portrayed as ”proof” that the Maduro government is ”evil”. Nothing will be mentioned about the violence and brutal assaults that the opposition is enforcing against those who support Maduro. When European anarchists choose to attack police officers and vandalize shops, the capitalist media is the first to denounce the whole revolutionary left as ”violent scum”. However in the case of Venezuela, things are different. This is because the anti-Maduro opposition is led by people who want to restore capitalist control. Therefore the newspapers and news networks owned by billionaires, will never portray the supporters of Juan Guaído as ”violent”!

Nicolas Maduro has been very modest in dealing with the opposition. Next to Juan Guaído is Leopoldo López, his mentor who has been called a political prisoner after he was jailed by the government. López was freed from prison by soldiers royal to Guaído and fled into the embassy of Spain. Politically he and Guaído are not right-wing or even liberal. The political party Popular Will, to which the two belong is in fact social democratic and a member of the pseudo-Socialist International. Popular Will is portraying itself as a progressive center-leftist party. In reality Leopoldo López has proclaimed to be a support of the markets and he rejects price controls. He also wants to privatize the oil sector and that is why he is supported by western imperialism!

Due to the failure of Hugo Chavez and Nicolas Maduro to build a socialist society, people like Juan Guaído and Leopoldo López are winning support. Until 2013, their base of supporters was limited to the middle class and upper class of Venezuela. However now even the working and poor classes are drawn to the propaganda of the opposition. Partly out of disillusion, but mostly because of desperation. There is no shortage of food, but there is huge inflation and wages are so low many workers cannot pay for basic needs (water, food, electricity) anymore. The capitalist media portrays this as a failure of socialism, when in reality it was the failure of Chavez to mix capitalism with elements of state interventionism (social-democracy)!

In a real dictatorship like Saudi-Arabia (fully supported by the USA), anti-government demonstrators would have been murdered at the first day of protests. Saudi forces waste no time in hunting down and killing those who stand against the king. Nicolas Maduro has done nothing alike. Never has Juan Guaído been jailed despite that he has a record of a brutal violent street thug, a guy known for attacking police forces since 2007. Leopoldo López was jailed, but only after he initiated violent demonstrations. For years, Lopez has been leading opposition marches against Hugo Chavez, who never ordered his arrest. It was only after the western world choose to ally themselves with the Venezuelan opposition, that right-wing leaders started to use violence more often, as we seen in 2014 and 2017!

The failure of the May Coup by the opposition maybe due to the fact that many Venezuelans now understand that people like Juan Guaído and his mentor López are underdogs for foreign imperialists. We known that Guaído is working very closely with the Americans and there is one man who has been installed by Trump to be his Special Representative in Venezuela: Elliott Abrams, a convicted criminal who participated in the Iran-Contra scandal during the Reagan administration. He also was part of the George W. Bush government and gave green light for the failed 2002 coup against Chavez. Elliott Abrams is now trying to finish what he started 17 years ago. He wants to install a government that will privatize the oil sector, which would give American oil capitalists free reign over the largest oil reserves on the planet!

After they realized that the army would not support their coup (again), Guaído and Lopez fled. The mentor was able to get into the embassy of Spain, but Guaído has disappeared again. Revolutionary socialists have said it before. We call for massive mobilization of working class Venezuelans and poor against the coup attempts. At the same time we give no political support to the PSUV and their leader Nicolas Maduro. What to be done is building a true socialist Venezuela, under democratic control of workers councils (as the soviets in Russia 1917). The Bolivarian Revolution has stagnated for six years now and if the working class does not intervene, it will collapse to a violent and brutal counterrevolution!

The supporters of the International Marxist Tendency in Venezuela say:

• Jail Guaidó,
• Disband the coup-plotting National Assembly,
• Strengthen and spread the Bolivarian militias,
• Respond to the seizing of assets by expropriating foreign multinationals,
• Expropriate the coup-plotting bourgeoisie,
• Workers control of production,
• Down with the PSUV bureaucracy,
• Complete the revolution with rank-and-file organisation.

 

Guaído failed again, now he is on the run.

Venezuela: Revenge of the Bourgeoisie

Almost five years after Hugo Chavez died, the bourgeoisie is finally ready to remove the last remnants of the Bolivarian Revolution. This is a process that started under Chavez and is now in its final stage. The capitalists and right-wing forces in the Venezuelan parliament have selected Juan Guaidó as new interim president. The Democratic Unity Roundtable (MUD) is clear what it wants: a return to the market dictatorship, an end to price control and privatization of nationalized sectors. After failing to build socialism, the supporters of Chavez led by president Nicolas Maduro face alienated and outright rejection by a huge section of the working class. Revolutionary socialists warned Maduro for years, but his top-down centralism and authoritarianism have now led to this coup!

The Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela is not a socialist nation and no workers state. Despite the propaganda spread by both the late Hugo Chavez and his successor Nicolas Maduro, Venezuela never moved beyond capitalism. What the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) did build was a failed model that tried to mix social democracy with leftist nationalism and elements of stalinism. After 2013, the Maduro administration even started to make compromises with sections of the bourgeoisie. These ”patriotic” capitalists are given privileges as are the top members of the PSUV and military, who are called the ”Bolivarian Bureaucracy”!

Poverty is now very high with 90% suffering from a lack of food, medicine and basis human needs. To blame are three major forces. One is the government led by Maduro, who’s politics have contributed to the massive growth of poverty since 2013. The second force responsible is the bourgeoisie, who’s economic sabotages led to a shortage of goods. The final element that caused the economic crisis is the United States of America. Under Barack Obama, sanctions were imposed that have harmed the economy of Venezuela. These three elements are responsible for the suffering of millions. In the western capitalist media you only hear that Chavez and Maduro are to blame. They ignore the role the capitalist class plays and the sanctions imposed on the country by the US!

Juan Guaidó is hailed as a ”people’s hero” by anti-socialist media outlets. Venezuela has one state media network and numerous private broadcasters. During the 2002 April coup against Hugo Chavez, the private media fully supported his removal. They spread one lie after the other, even claiming that Chavez was a secret communist and working with Fidel Castro to build ”communism”. We knew that was not true as the first four years (1999-2003) of Chavez were very modest and not at all revolutionary. It was only after this failed coup that the Chavez administration became more hostile to the bourgeoisie and western imperialism. Now the private media will once again support a counter-revolution. They have been the mouthpiece of the capitalist class because the private media is owned by Venezuelans who belong tot the bourgeoisie!

MUD is a coalition of different capitalist parties. Most are not publicly right-wing, they hide their pro-capitalism under cloaks of social democracy and progressivism. MUD parties like ”Justice First” speak of human rights, direct democracy and an end to centralism and authoritarianism. ”Popular Will” is the party of Juan Guaidó. It is a member of the ”Socialist International”, a pseudo-leftist group of social democrats who have allied themselves with capitalism for almost 30 years. ”Popular Will” is speaking a leftist language which attracts young students, intellectuals and sections of the working class. We know however that MUD as a coalition is calling for an end to the Bolivarian Revolution and it plans to serve those who pay them: the capitalist class of Venezuela!

Nicolas Maduro is supported by the Great Patriotic Pole (GPP), a coalition set up by Hugo Chavez in 2011 to support his Bolivarian Revolution. Parties inside the GPP include the United Socialist Party of Venezuela, the Communist Party of Venezuela, the Alliance for Change, ”Fatherland for All” and many smaller leftist parties. It is ironic that there are almost no openly conservative or right-wing parties active in Venezuela. This is because the capitalist class has been using leftism to attack both Chavez and Maduro. Revolutionary socialists understand this tactic as we too criticize the government from a leftist point of view. We reject the top-down state-bureaucracy and the dictatorial way Maduro has behaved since the GPP lost the majority in the National Assembly!

The situation for workers in the country is very severe. Most if not all social programs that Chavez set up have stopped due to a lack of funding. Public services have shut down and many hospitals are closed. This forces people to seek help from private medical centers who charges a lot of money. Most workers have no access to food, water and medical services, because they cannot afford them. The government has tried to increase the minimum wage but this fails to cover the fact that prices for basic goods have only gone up since 2013. Maduro tried to print more currency but this only increased the inflation. His desperation comes from a lack of understanding how capitalism work. As Chavez never removed the capitalists from power, they now stop producing goods as there is no profit to be made!

If Juan Guaidó is able to defeat Nicolas Maduro it will be a great victory for the ruling class. They will start with brutal austerity and privatization to restore the trust of capitalists and the world markets. MUD has also stated that they will privatize the national oil company which is responsible for 95% of the economic export. Working class people who support MUD have no idea how a counter-revolution would impact their lives. However we must not forget that in the name of socialism, they have been oppressed by an administration that failed in almost all ways. Maduro has made deals with elements of the bourgeoisie and given them privileges for political loyalty. This is not uncommon as Venezuela before 1999 was build on corruption. Chavez also played on favoritism and gave his army a lot of benefits for their loyalty!

There is massive anger and rejection of Maduro. Workers feel betrayed and abandoned. They showed this the first time when MUD got a majority in the National Assembly in 2015. Nicolas Maduro then moved against the parliament by introducing a Constituent National Assembly. The opposition boycotted the election to this new bureaucratic layer and revolutionary socialists said it would change nothing. Indeed it did not, it only gave Maduro a rubber-stamp as a clear majority of the Constituent National Assembly are members of the PSUV. The National Assembly has been put aside and can do little as Venezuela is a presidential state with a lot of power centralized in the presidency!

Is a civil war possible? Yes and working class people need to reject both sides. They cannot support Juan Guaidó, who works to restore the bourgeoisie to power and they cannot support Nicolas Maduro, who’s politics have not help them. Some will choose the lesser of two evils, but it depends on who you calls the lesser of two evils. Many students and workers will say that Juan Guaidó is a lesser of two evils, because he promises them freedom and liberty. Others will say that Nicolas Maduro is a lesser of two evils, because he stands up to foreign imperialism and the attempts to restore capitalist rule in Venezuela!

Revolutionary Socialist Media stands with the ideas of Izquierda Revolucionaria (Revolutionary Left) who say:

The experience of recent years shows that we cannot have the slightest confidence in the Maduro government, the bureaucracy or the senior army officers if we want to prevent the victory of the reaction. It has been Maduro’s policies, his bureaucracy and his corruption that have opened the way to the right wing and the coup. 

Guaidó is like a wolf in a lambs clothing and speaks of a government for all and reconciliation. Yet if this right-wing reactionary and the forces that support him come to power, the result will be a nightmare for millions of workers and peasants, who are suffering from the social and economic crisis. Their political and economic agenda can only be applied with even more massive layoffs, brutally cutting social spending and repressing unions, social movements, and activists on the left, on an even more brutal and bloody scale than they do in the countries of their sponsors – Duque, Bolsonaro and Macri.