Venezuelan Government Research Articles

Venezuelan Government and the opposition's policies toward the United States

Venezuelan Government and the opposition's policies toward the United States

Constructing (Il)Legitimate Democracy: Populism and Power Concentration in Newspaper Discourse on Venezuela

Despite scholarly consensus about the importance of the media for democracy, scant attention has been paid to what democracy means to journalistic discourse and how discourses on democracy are interrelated with legitimacy. The aim of this paper is to explore how (il)legitimate democracy is constructed in newspaper discourse. By using critical discourse analysis, this paper examines foreign news items about Venezuela, a country that under the presidency of Hugo Chávez has challenged the hegemonic global political and economic orders. The analysis section focuses on two main findings about the Venezuelan government: the constructions of populism and power concentration, which serve to mark deviance from what is perceived as legitimate democracy. This paper argues that a liberal perception of democracy constitutes a central framework for the construction of (il)legitimate democracy, which is revealed not least by news discourse’s focus on what is morally unacceptable political conduct according to liberal democratic norms. In this sense, such constructions serve to denounce potential governmental power abuses but also to legitimize the hegemonic economic and political orders.

Venezuelan scheme to fingerprint food shoppers hits controversy

The Venezuelan government has announced a controversial fingerprinting system in food shops aimed at reducing food shortages. President Nicolas Maduro appeared to backtrack, describing the system as voluntary, after apparently ordering compulsory fingerprinting in shops that sell food and other basics.

Venezuela, en la prensa internacional: una cobertura sesgada

Introducción. Se investigó la cobertura de Venezuela en 28 grandes diarios de América Latina, Europa y EEUU a lo largo de un año. El objetivo del trabajo fue dilucidar si existía un sesgo sistemático. Metodología. Se compaginó el análisis cualitativo y cuantitativo de contenido. Se condensaron varias categorías en dos variables –tendencia e impacto– con una simple escala de medición adscrita. Resultados. Se demostró un sistemático sesgo negativo en la cobertura de Venezuela en los grandes diarios: el 82% de los artículos publicados tienen un impacto negativo. A la vez, el 95% de los temas está relacionado con el gobierno venezolano. Discusión y conclusiones. La comprobación de un sesgo negativo sistemático significa que el derecho de información de los ciudadanos-lectores no se está cumpliendo.

Petismo e chavismo: variedades de capitalismo e de regulação trabalhista no Brasil e na Venezuela

O objetivo deste artigo é discutir as variedades de capitalismo na América Latina e verificar se a chegada de governos de base popular alterou o curso das políticas trabalhistas implementadas após os anos 1990. Mais precisamente trata-se da discussão sobre a regulação laboral sob os governos petistas (2003-2013) e chavista (1999-2013) respectivamente no Brasil e na Venezuela. A pesquisa tem como propósito analisar como esses governos trataram a herança institucional deixada pelos antecessores neoliberais. Utilizamos a teoria de variedades de capitalismo e o conceito de path dependence para o entendimento da questão. Percebemos que a força dos movimentos sociais nas ruas foi determinante para as diferentes posturas assumidas tanto pelo petismo, como pelo chavismo.

The Public Perception of Police Corruption in Venezuela and its Effect on National Government

It is not surprising that many citizens of Latin American countries believe public officials are corrupt. Decades of authoritarian rule, crime, and highly publicized corruption scandals have reduced confidence in many, if not all, government institutions. The public perception of corruption in Venezuela however, presents an intriguing case. Traditional explanations—economic factors, regime stability, and quality of life—are unable to account for the high levels of perceived corruption in government. This author argues, the public perception of police corruption strongly influences the perception of corruption in national government in Venezuela. Using OLS regression, the author statistical analyzes national-level Latinobarómetro data from 2002-2010. The results indicate a strong, significant relationship between perception of police and government corruption.

The Public Bond Offering of Petróleos de Venezuela S.A.

In April 2007, Petroleos de Venezuela S.A. (PDVSA) issued debt for USD 7.5 billion, the largest debt offering to date by a Latin American company. The conditions surrounding this issue, which was denominated and tradable in dollars, but payable in bolivars, were quite special, particularly when considering the strict foreign exchange control system put into place by the Venezuelan government in 2003. The fact that the bond issue attempted to fulfill the dual purpose of offering dollars to local companies and investors in the midst of prevailing exchange rate controls, while helping to finance PDVSA as a company, creates a unique dilemma that is ideal for class discussion. This teaching case provides the information necessary for estimating and proposing a price for PDVSA's bond offer.

The public bond offering of Petróleos de Venezuela S.A.

In April 2007, Petróleos de Venezuela S.A. (PDVSA) issued debt for USD 7.5billion, the largest debt offering to date by a Latin American company. The conditions surrounding this issue, which was denominated and tradable in dollars, but payable in bolivars, were quite special, particularly when considering the strict foreign exchange control system put into place by the Venezuelan government in 2003. The fact that the bond issue attempted to fulfill the dual purpose of offering dollars to local companies and investors in the midst of prevailing exchange rate controls, while helping to finance PDVSA as a company, creates a unique dilemma that is ideal for class discussion. This teaching case provides the information necessary for estimating and proposing a price for PDVSA's bond offer.

Contours of Alternative Policy Making in Venezuela

The economic policies of the Venezuelan government in the last decade represent a significant departure from neoliberal orthodoxy. This departure consists of a focus on greater national autonomy, a return to some of the macroeconomic policies of earlier eras, and increased state involvement in the economy through interventions and social programs. While these policies have resulted in improved social indicators, they also have provided space for a set of “transformative” initiatives, including experiments with worker co-management, cooperatives, and participatory planning, all of which seek alternatives to the capitalist organization of the economy. Although the Venezuelan experience could be considered sui generis, especially with the economy’s dependence on oil, a critical evaluation of the policies implemented in Venezuela would contribute to discussions on the alternatives to both neoliberal policies and capitalism in general. This paper provides an analysis of the break with neoliberal economic policies and of the transformative initiatives, as well as an evaluation of their achievements together with a discussion on their likely future path.

Claiming the past: Venezuelan historical films and public politics

Since 2000, multiple historical films and documentaries have been released that reference different stages of Venezuelan history. This trend reflects a society persistently exploring its past, mirrored in part by the policies of the Venezuelan government toward its cultural institutions. By analyzing historical films Taita Boves (2010) and Zamora (2009), this article explores some of the ideological currents that traverse Venezuelan society, raising questions about the role of film in social and political life. Ultimately, this essay contributes to the debate around the constitution of a national historical consciousness.

Review of "Electing Chavez: The Business of Anti-Neoliberal Politics in Venezuela," by Leslie C. Gates

Review of "Electing Chavez: The Business of Anti-Neoliberal Politics in Venezuela," by Leslie C. Gates

The Centralism of ‘Twenty-First-Century Socialism’: Recentralising Politics in Venezuela, Ecuador and Bolivia

AbstractPresidents Hugo Chávez, Rafael Correa and Evo Morales have all sought to reverse the policies of decentralisation that were adopted in the 1990s in Venezuela, Ecuador and Bolivia. This article adapts ideational and institutional hypotheses from the earlier literature on decentralisation to explain this recent movement in the opposite direction. At the ideational level, because of the close association of decentralisation with liberalisation in each country, recentralisation emerged as a way for presidents to reverse the legacies of their neoliberal predecessors. Beyond ideology, recentralisation can be explained by paying attention to the territorial distribution of electoral support; presidents used it to weaken the sub-national governments where the opposition had found political shelter, while simultaneously redirecting recentralised resources toward supporters.

Framing of the US-Venezuela diplomatic relationship in major US newspapers

This study examined news coverage of diplomatic relationship between the United States and Venezuela in three major US newspapers— the New York Times, Washington Post and Christian Science Monitor. This content analysis was conducted over two distinct stages that represented the first hundred days of the first and second presidential periods of Hugo Chavez. Data found that news coverage of diplomatic relationship between the US and Venezuela was characterized by a positive tone that described the bilateral relation in the first period. The tone had changed drastically when a negative portrayal of this relationship was covered in the second period. The most frequently cited sources included Venezuelan government officials and US government officials. Moreover, news themes relevant to Hugo Chavez were consistent across Chavez as a military man and leftist.

After Chávez: Re-Shifting the Focus

Discussions of contemporary Venezuelan politics are often confined to Chávez's larger than life image: the authoritarian demagogue or the uncompromising man of principles, the saviour or the destroyer of the motherland, the skilful or the crude communicator, the brave revolutionary who confronted Empire or the illusionist who recast old ideologies, el zambo impertinente or the incarnation of los de abajo; all of these have captured the imagination of intellectuals, artists and, of course, the Venezuelan electorate. Chávez's death, and the massive expressions of popular mourning that followed, only added to this tendency to read the last decade as the ‘Chávez Era’.

La evolución de las políticas regionales en los países andinos: una visión comparativa

The regional policies (RP) in the Andean countries has evolved closely linked with the evolution of the role assigned to the State in the promotion of de- velopment. During the phase of the developmental and interventionist State, the PR had the same orientation and climbed up. With the generalized adoption of the Washington Consensus policies in the 1990s, the RP were dismantled much in the same way as the other active policies typical of the developmental State. The turn to the left of the Boli- vian, Ecuadorian y Venezuelan governments marked another drastic turn in its RP, this time induced by powerful ethnic and social movements. This article presents a historical and comparative analysis of the Andean Regional Policies in the period comprised second half of the twentieth century and the first decade of the present one and a vision —compara- tive as well— of current emergent trends.

Direct Distribution of Oil Revenues in Venezuela: A Viable Alternative?

Venezuela is a textbook example of a resource-dependent country — between 1950 and 2008, oil generated over a trillion dollars of income for the state. Nevertheless, Venezuela currently combines an economy that is stagnant, despite high oil prices, with an increasingly authoritarian government. The authors argue that large oil rents that accrue to the state, together with a lack of formal and transparent mechanisms to facilitate citizen oversight, are a large part of the problem. They consider the nature of the fiscal contract between the Venezuelan government and its people. This has been characterized by increasing discretion of the executive; only a small share of the rents is now subject to political oversight within the framework of the budgetary system. The authors consider the case for direct distribution of rents, distinguishing it from a populist approach to transfers as effected through Venezuela’s misiones. They also report on focus group discussions of the direct- distribution approach and the political viability of direct transfers.

The Political Economy of Social Production Companies in Venezuela

In 2005, shortly after the Venezuelan government declared “twenty-first-century socialism” as its development goal, Chávez launched “social production companies” to change the way communities produced and exchanged goods. Investigation of the relationship between these companies, agrarian cooperatives, and the oil economy calls into question assessments by both the right and the left, the former portraying Venezuelan development initiatives as populist profligacy and the latter seeing them as a socialist alternative to neoliberal hegemony. An analytical focus upon ground rent and the way it is distributed through the social production companies that draws upon insights from the Marxian critique of political economy provides an original window onto the contradictions and limits of the Chávez government’s development policies. Three case studies suggest that social production companies and their links with small agrarian cooperatives are reproducing a limited and ground-rent-dependent form of capital accumulation that, coupled with the ideology of popular power, is being presented as a step toward twenty-first-century socialism. En 2005, poco después de que el gobierno venezolano declarara el “socialismo del siglo veintiuno” como su objetivo de desarrollo, Chávez lanzó las “empresas de producción social” para cambiar la forma en que las comunidades producían e intercambiaban bienes. Una investigación de la relación entre estas empresas, las cooperativas agrarias, y la economía petrolera pone en tela de juicio las evaluaciones tanto de la derecha como la izquierda, la primera representando las iniciativas del desarrollo venezolano como derroche populista y la segunda viéndolas como la alternativa socialista a la hegemonía neoliberal. Un enfoque analítico sobre la renta de la tierra y su distribución por medio de las empresas de producción social que se fundamenta en la critica marxiana de la economía política ofrece una ventana original hacia las contradicciones y límites de la política de desarrollo chavista. Tres estudios de caso sugieren que las empresas de producción social y sus vínculos con pequeñas cooperativas agrícolas están reproduciendo una forma de acumulación de capital limitada y dependiente de la renta de la tierra, la cual, junta con la ideología de poder popular, se está presentando como un paso hacia el socialismo del siglo veintiuno.

Seasonal variability of total dissolved fluxes and origin of major dissolved elements within a large tropical river: The Orinoco, Venezuela

Seasonal variations of total dissolved fluxes of the lower Orinoco River were calculated taking into account four complete hydrological cycles during a five-year period (2005–2010). The modern concentrations of total dissolved solids (TDS) of the Orinoco surface waters were compared with data collected during the second half of the last century published in the literature. This comparison leads to the conclusion that chemical composition did not evolve significantly at least over the last thirty to forty years. Surface waters of the Orinoco at Ciudad Bolivar are between bicarbonated calcic and bicarbonated mixed. In comparison to mean values of concentrations of total dissolved solids (TDS) of world river surface waters (89.2 mg l−1), the Orinoco River at Ciudad Bolivar presents mainly low mineralized surface waters (2005-10: TDS 30 mg l−1). The TDS fluxes passing at this station in direction to the Atlantic Ocean between 2005 and 2010 were estimated at 30 × 106 t yr−1, i.e. 36 t km−2 yr−1. It was observed that the seasonal variations (dry season vs wet season) of total dissolved fluxes (TDS and dissolved organic carbon (DOC)) are mainly controlled by discharge variations. Two groups of elements have been defined from dilution curves and molar ratio diagrams. Ca2+, Mg2+, HCO3−, Cl− and Na+ mainly come from the same geographic and lithologic area, the Andes. K+ and SiO2 essentially come from the Llanos and the Guayana Shield. These findings are important for understanding fundamental geochemical processes within the Orinoco River basin, but also as a baseline study in the perspective of the development of numerous mining activities related with aluminum and steel industries; and the plans of the Venezuelan government to construct new fluvial ports on the lower Orinoco for the transport of hydrocarbons.

Venezuelan Political Thinking as Seen in the 19th – Century Newspapers

The beginnings of Venezuelan press were inevitably linked to national political events. This medium of expression and information has become the most expeditious vehicle to convey the modernist thought. The ideas of the Enlightenment and the Encyclopedia have had positive impact positive on the Spanish American Colonies generating numerous independence movements that will shape a new political, economic, social and cultural order, thus becoming independent republics. Ideas of liberty, fraternity, equality, sovereignty, citizenship, liberalism, constitutional order, federalism, confederation, positivism, and nationalism have shaped during the Venezuelan nineteenth century a complex political‑ ideological network that gives birth to a peculiar way of thinking. Through the creation and operation of a considerable number of newspapers and magazines, these ideas were gradually consolidated and entrenched into the society and they served as a support for the changes taking place within it. The infallible work of thinkers, writers, men of letters, amateurs and politicians was worth, and since the beginning of republicanism, the country was flooded with newspapers, papers, periodicals and magazines that give life to a country and preserve intact its cultural heritage that shapes the Venezuelan political thinking of 19th century.

Zuazo in Caracas: The urbanism of exile in Venezuela, 1937

The urbanism of the 1920s and 1930s was marked by the debate over the avant-garde and in Spain during this time there were two points of reference: those who (based in Barcelona, with Sert at the helm) follow the directions of Le Corbusier and those who, from Madrid, opted for German architectural influences. But there was even a third option: that of Secundino Zuazo (arguably Madrid's principal architect before 1936) who in 1926 – backed by a French initiative – organized a study to define the urban problems of the principal Spanish cities, find solutions and present them to the municipal governments along with the necessary financial backing. In 1929 Zuazo obtained – together with Herman Jansen of Berlin – first place in the Competition held for the extension of Madrid, supporting the Project at the same time with its own financing. From that experience, during the Spanish Civil War Zuazo was invited by the Venezuelan government to go to Caracas to put together a study of that city.