Is John Galt Venezuelan?

On January 1 Venezuela entered into its second month of a national work stoppage. Close to 90 percent of the working population refuses to participate as producers in an economy that supports the regime of Lieutenant Col. Hugo Chavez. In a disorganized and chaotic fashion, without any single leader or political party, the people (known as “the opposition”) have taken a page out of Ayn Rand’s novel, Atlas Shrugged, and tried to answer an important question in that literary masterpiece: what would happen if the productive forces laboring under a despotic government went on strike and ceased subsidizing their own subjugation?

Chavez, a radical Marxist, was elected four years ago on a campaign promising to eradicate poverty and do away with government corruption. Since he was elected he has done away with the rule of law and private property while presiding over the greatest oil boom in Venezuela’s history. Corruption and poverty have grown to levels unseen in the country’s history. Chavez passed 49 decrees that expropriated private property in the name of his “revolution.” He terrorizes the opposition with his militia, the Circulos Bolivarianos—armed thugs financed by the government. But there is hope.

The country is united against Chavez. The labor unions and the chamber of commerce oppose him. They all speak of liberty, dignity, and the right to work for one’s prosperity. They see his rule as a threat and on December 1, 2002 they discontinued their complicity. The unions orchestrated the closing of industry for one day. Then they extended it another day. And another... New Year’s Day was the 30th day. But most surprising and encouraging: the government’s main source of revenue, the state-owned oil company, PDVSA, has also stopped.

The drama of the oil stoppage illustrates the magical realism that South America is famous for. Beyond the 40,000 laborers, engineers, and technicians that left the refineries and oil fields, the stoppage climaxed at sea. Dozens of oil tankers, part of the merchant marine, suddenly dropped their anchors and declared solidarity with the opposition. One ship, the Pilin Leon, was headed for Cuba (Chavez supplied free oil to Fidel Castro’s government). Some companies use names of kings and heroes, others use names of presidents or business leaders, in Venezuela, oil tankers are named after the country’s second greatest export: beauty queens. Pilin Leon was the Venezuelan beauty queen who became Miss World 1981. The drama surrounding the Pilin Leon became the focus of the struggle. Miss Leon herself, in London judging the Miss Universe contest that had recently been moved from Nigeria, sent the ship’s crew a message that she was proud of them and hoped they would stand firm. They did.

Days later, The tanker was taken over in a commando-style raid by Venezuela’s armed forces after Chavez decreed the lethal use of force in order to protect the “energy supply of the revolution.” Other tankers were also forced back to port but most remain anchored—Chavez does not have the manpower with the expertise to sail them at full capacity. Oil facilities use less than 10 percent of their capacity.

The governments of the hemisphere have abandoned the liberty-lovingproducers of Venezuela (Brazil’s government, now headed by Chavez sympathizer Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, has shipped tankers with gasoline to break the work stoppage) and the U.S. Ambassador here has blithely mouthed platitudes about the importance of democracy while disregarding the crimes of the government. He even failed to condemn the televised murder of opposition members by Chavez thugs, instead engaging in moral equivalency and blaming “two sides.”

Perhaps the U.S. government’s policy on Chavez (nefariously influenced by President Clinton’s former Ambassador to Venezuela who is now Condoleezza Rice’s National Security Council advisor for Latin America) is betting on the chance that Chavez can weather the work stoppage and get the oil flowing soon (for an Iraq war timetable?). Venezuela supplies the U.S. with 15 percent of its oil imports.

As in Rand’s novel, things get progressively worse and government rhetoric cannot alter the reality. Chavez calls the country’s workers “Traitors who have stabbed their country in the back.” His ministers publicly suggested that lethal force be used to compel the workers to return to their posts.

There is no fear in Venezuela. There is resolve, indignation, and determination. The oil workers have daily meetings, massive gatherings taking place at amphitheaters, universities, and even ballrooms. Their will is unshakeable in the face of the tyrant. The wheels of production have stopped turning. For now Atlas has shrugged.

—Thor L. Halvorssen has served as a political strategist and campaign consultant in two Venezuelan presidential elections. He lives in Philadelphia.

Hits close to home for me. Many of my students are from Venezuela. Since we are a private, non-secular (read: expensive) school they are almost without exception children of some of the weathiest families. I have noted a spike in enrollment of kids from there as families with the means to do so ship their children off to the U.S. to protect them from the current madness.

Though I normally teach higher Mathematics, last year I had a Geography class for one semester. I created a whole unit on what I called Exploitation vs. Exploration colonization. We compared places where colonization was mostly a tool to grab all the loot and go back home(i.e. most of South America) against places where Europeans came to settle down for the rest of their lives. For all the white European bashing, the Spanish colonies (Mexico, Central & most of South America) never seemed to cultivate the culture of respect for the rights of the individual that those "white male oppressors" did.

Look at a map and note the most unstable and repressive countries in the Western Hemisphere. Every single one is a former Spanish exploitation colony (OK, so Haiti is the lone exception). Venezuela is just the latest example of this theory.

Regards,

Michael

Since the author brings up Rand, here is what Tracinski at the Ayn Rand Institute wrote 12/11/02:

Venezuela's Lonely Rebellion

By Robert Tracinski

Rebelling against tyranny is a lonely business these days. If the brave citizens of an oppressed country dare to resist evil, they can expect the rest of the supposedly civilized world to react with hostility or indifference. That's the case right now in Venezuela, where an alliance of business leaders and labor unions is demanding the resignation of would-be dictator Hugo Chavez.
Chavez is a former military officer who attempted a coup against Venezuela's government in 1992. In 1998 he used a brand of Marxist populism to get himself elected president, then set out to establish a dictatorship inspired by his hero and ally Fidel Castro. Chavez set up armed gangs called Bolivarian Circles, extra-legal militias loyal to his political movement. Then he and his backers in the legislature rewrote the nation's constitution to extend his term in office and give him the power to rule by decree.
About a year ago Chavez used that power to impose 49 decrees giving him near-total power over the economy. He also staged a political takeover of Venezuela's state-controlled oil monopoly — the backbone of the Venezuelan economy. Chavez declared to his supporters: "The revolution is invincible, and no one is going to stop it, because it has infinite powers."
But there were brave souls in Venezuela who stood up to deny Chavez "infinite power." The nation's largest business federation joined with its largest labor union, organizing strikes and protests to demand the end of the economic dictatorship. The protests reached a crisis this April, when a gang of Bolivarian thugs — acting on Chavez's orders — opened fire on a crowd of protesters. In a bloodless revolution, Army leaders reacted by allying themselves with the protesters and deposing Chavez. The leader of the business federation was installed as an interim ruler, vowing to organize new legislative and presidential elections.
The April rebellion was an inspiring sight: people from all walks of life had joined together in courageous resistance against tyranny.
So naturally everyone condemned it. American newspapers reported the event as a "coup" — as if it were the protesters, not Chavez, who were attempting to impose dictatorship. The Organization of American States and the Rio Group, a 19-member council of Latin American countries, both condemned the rebellion. And what about the United States, which would have much to gain from the overthrow of a Castro ally in the oil-rich nation of Venezuela? Our intrepid State Department vigorously denied that it approved of the rebellion. (So much for U.S. foreign policy being ruled by greed for oil.)
Chavez, sensing the changing momentum, seized power again, vowing revenge against the protests' leaders and against Venezuela's independent media, which had given the rebellion sympathetic coverage.
Fortunately, the people of Venezuela were not so easily defeated. They have rallied again with a vast general strike protesting Chavez's rule. The strikes have brought Venezuela's oil wells and refineries to a standstill, while a group of dissident military leaders have seized control of a public square in Caracas to create a safe space for mass demonstrations against Chavez. (The space was violated a few days ago when Bolivarian thugs once again opened fire on protesters there.) This time, the protesters are making a less controversial demand: they want a national referendum on Chavez's presidency — an attempt to oust the would-be dictator through new elections.
But the international response has been discouraging. The Organization of American States sent a negotiator to try to find a compromise between those who want freedom and the dictator who wants them under his boot. The Washington Post tsk-tsked at both sides, chiding Venezuela's workers that "national strikes are no more the solution than martial law" — as if they are as guilty for resisting dictatorship as Chavez is for imposing it.
And what about the U.S. government? Venezuela is strategically important to the United States, providing 13 percent of our oil, shipped directly across the Caribbean to refineries on the Gulf Coast. That's a crucial source of oil if we are headed into a wider war in the Middle East — and all we have to do is declare our support for elections. But our State Department has gone mute, and presidential spokesman Ari Fleischer has only mouthed some pabulum about finding a "non-violent solution."
There are now two countries in the world where a popular rebellion is building against a dictatorship: Venezuela and Iran. In both cases, America's interests and the cause of human freedom demand that we stop sitting on our hands and start supporting these freedom fighters.

Chavez has lost most of the support of the poor, too, with five years of empty promises that has them clearly in worse shape now than when he arrived on the scene.

The oil money he might have helped them with has gone to filling his own pockets and those of his top supporters and financing dictators and international terrorism.

Chavez, and his unbridled praise for, active alliances and support with, and openly proclaimed desire to have Venezuela become like; Cuba, Iraq, Libya, and China does not equate to helping his own people, nor to a sustainable future supporter of U.S. interests, not by a long-shot. But, very dangerously, just the opposite! (BTW, too, China has made more 'investments' in Venezuela than in all of the rest of South America, including Mexico, combined! And, Chavez is on record proclaiming himself a maoist!)

This is not empty rhetoric from Chavez to simply be ignored, and the people opposing him today know it.

Chavez, according to the top military that have recently left him, is an active supporter of the FARC/ELN Columbian revolutionists, that US is currently fighting, and they are supported materially in exchange for lucrative drug trade that's transported via official health dept vehicles here across Venezuela with Puerto Rico as the foreign destination.

And, Chavez donated 1 million $'s to Al Queda in Afganistan shortly after 9/11. He also publicly excused his Chavista supporters burning USA flags then by saying USA brought 9/11 upon itself.

If U.S. does nothing, or worse, supports Chavez for illusion of stable oil in the short term, this administration will eventually be seen to have facilitated another, much more dangerous, Cuba in this hemisphere!

The millions of Venezuelans, along with his top military that have deserted him, and are now striking and in the streets protesting Chavez's cubanization of their beloved country know it all too clearly, they've been having to live through it...

Variations of that same "NO CUBA HERE!" sentiment is on a lot of those banners being carried down there right now...

We all here in the U.S.A. better get up-to-speed on this historic fight for freedom in Venezuela that'll surely impact us here, and quick, too!

Attitude-wise, we could hope here in the USA for no better allies than the Venezuelan people. According to the just published 2002 Global Attitudes Survey by the Pew Research Center in Washington; 82% have a favorable opinion of the USA, and that is amongst the highest ratings of all the 44 countries surveyed. And, in regard to supporting the US led war on terrorism, 79% favor it while only 20% oppose it! (What's the current %'s for that question here in the USA?)

Clearly, no country in South America holds more promise for being a strong and effective ally and supporter of the USA, perhaps none better in this entire Hemisphere, *when* Chavez is gone and remnants of his regime are fully rooted out.

Also, though, there is no current government in this hemisphere that is a more "Clear & Present Danger" to the USA with the continuation and expansion of Hugo Chavez type initiatives. Unchecked, Chavez will be able to do throughout this hemisphere what Fidel has only dreamed/wished he could do!

-Shane (My recent eye-witness report from mil opposition hdqtrs here)

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