Debunking Greg Grandin's lionizing of Chavez

London Review of Books

Dear Sirs:
I attach the following comments on Greg Grandin's review titled "Down from the mountain". I am a Venezuelan geologist and have kept a running analysis of the Chavez years in my blog : www.lasarmasdecoronel.blogspot.com . In my view Ignacio Ramonet and Greg Grandin, among others, are failing in their attempts at creating a myth Chavez. He is progressively recognized as the main motor behind the current Venezuelan tragedy.  

Gustavo Coronel

8360 Greensboro drive #710

Mclean, Virginia 22102

USA

GREG GRANDIN ADMITS TO CHAOS IN VENEZUELA WHILE                                 GLORIFYING CHAVEZ

In a long review of a book by Ignacio Ramonet: “Chavez: My first life”, read it here: https://www.lrb.co.uk/v39/n13/greg-grandin/down-from-the-mountain?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=3913&utm_content=usca_subs , Greg Grandin describes the social and political chaos which prevails in Venezuela but fails to identify correctly its true reasons, claiming falling oil prices as the sole culprit for the Venezuelan tragedy. His review is little more than an ideologically driven white washing of the Chavez years and, as such, contains important factual and conceptual errors, some born of ignorance while some others are fantasies that could only be accepted by ideologically related readers.

LRB · Greg Grandin · Down from the Mountain: What Happened to Venezuela? www.lrb.co.uk By the end of the last century, Venezuela’s old constitutional order, which for four decades had rotated power between two ideologically indistinguishable parties, was close to collapse. The crisis had started decades earlier, in 1983, when the bottom fell out of the world oil market. . . .

Much of the review by Grandin is dedicated to the Chavez pre-era. He justifies the military coup staged by Chavez in 1992 as being a movement for clean government and in defense of the poor. He fails to mention that Chavez had been planning this coup against democratically elected governments for about ten years, first as a student in the military academy and, later, as a member of the Armed Forces, finally to see it collapsing due to his clumsiness and cowardice. The country rejected the coup but did elect him as president six years later, due to the prevailing popular perception that a radical change in the political system was required. What Venezuelans did not realize was that change is not always for the better.

Grandin speaks of Chavez’s bolivarianism as the foundation of his policies, although this was not true. He used the name of Bolivar to give his policies respectability but his true objective was to create in Venezuela a replica of Castro’s Cuba. Under the tutelage of Fidel Castro and inspired by extremist ideologues such as Norberto Ceresole and Martha Harnecker  he created a fascist type of government in which he and the military were the dominant actors.

He was expelled from power in 2002 for about 36 hours when he tried to repress the largest match seen in Venezuela until then but the military refused to obey him and, instead, asked for his resignation. He returned to power thanks to General Raul Baduel, who had the required fire power to decide. This event is well documented and Grandin’s claim that his return was due to a popular movement in his favor is a fantasy.

According to Grandin Chavez put the oil money to good use into health and education, praising the so-called “Misiones” as examples of this strategy. The idea of the “Misiones” was given to him by Fidel Castro but it was far from being a true solution to poverty. They became simple handouts, the proverbial one fish a day, for people who were not being taught how to fish. The real impact of these “Misiones” was modest and rapidly dwindled. Data from the Venezuelan Central Bank concluded that the Pre-Chavez, traditional programs of aid to the poor, were much more effective than the “Misiones”, see: http://lasarmasdecoronel.blogspot.com/2011/11/el-fracaso-de-las-misiones-segun-el.html.

El fracaso de las misiones, según el Banco Central de ... lasarmasdecoronel.blogspot.com Siempre hemos pensado que los programas sociales del gobierno, basados en el concepto de ayuda directa, subsidio, hasta limosna, no eran los apropiados para resolver ...

The huge amounts of money given by Chavez to his ideological allies and to the poor, in exchange for their political loyalties,  were the source of the greatest corruption the country had ever witnessed. Although Chavez won the presidency promising to end corruption his 12 year regime ended as the most corrupt in Venezuelan history. I have estimated that no less than $300 billion of Venezuelan national income went into the wrong pockets, see:https://oslofreedomforum.com/talks/corruption-panel-speech-2 andhttps://www.cato.org/publications/commentary/four-hotbeds-corruption-venezuela for details.

The Four Hotbeds of Corruption in Venezuela | Cato Institute www.cato.org Gustavo Coronel was author of the Cato Institute study Corruption, Mismanagement and Abuse of Power in Hugo Chávez’s Venezuela and was the Venezuelan ...

Corruption Panel Speech | Oslo Freedom Forum oslofreedomforum.com The Oslo Freedom Forum (OFF) provides a global platform for human rights defenders to share their stories and unites a diverse community in challenging arbitrary ...

In the opinion of Grandin: “The social gains of Chavismo at its apex, from around 2005 to Chávez’s final re-election in 2012, were spectacular: greater employment, improved nutrition, increased literacy and life expectancy, more and better housing”. However, it has become evident, under the test of time, that these programs were only short-term and effectist. Today poverty in Venezuela is greater than ever before. Chavez’ subsidies created a legion of poor highly dependent on the paternalistic regime. For some time they had more money in their pockets but, as the money stopped flowing, they were left frustrated and poorer than ever.  

Chavez went on to dismantle all democratic institutions in the country, eliminating checks and balances. Grandin admits “he stacked” the Supreme Court with his followers and reined in the opposition media. Although Grandin recognizes these abuses he goes on to absolve Chavez, labeling him as a true democrat and forgetting to mention his efforts to change the constitution to become president “for life”.

According to Grandin Chavez claimed to be a happy child and this leads him to believe that “Class ressentiment was not the source of his fusillades against Venezuela’s oligarchy”. However, there are solid indications that Chavez’s childhood was not a happy one. According to his biographers Barrera and Marcano, see: https://www.abebooks.com/Hugo-Chavez-Uniforme-Uniform-Spanish-Edition/20552642220/bd Chavez was an unhappy, neglected child, rejected in school because he could not afford new shoes. Venezuelan psychiatrists suggest that his erratic policies owe much to class resentment, see:  http://www.abc.es/20100912/internacional/chavez-divan-201009110102.html .

Hugo Chavez Sin Uniforme / Hugo Chavez Without Uniform (Spanish Edition) by Marcano, Cristina: Debate Editorial 9789802932863 Paperback - Books Squared www.abebooks.com AbeBooks.com: Hugo Chavez Sin Uniforme / Hugo Chavez Without Uniform (Spanish Edition): Only lightly used. Book has minimal wear to cover and binding. A few pages may have small creases and minimal underlining.

Los psiquiatras sientan en el diván a Chávez - ABC.es www.abc.es Mitómano, megalómano, fabulador, compulsivo, narcisista, carismático, seductor, envidioso, carente de escrúpulos. Éstos son algunos de los rasgos que psiquiatras ...

Grandin offers an idealized version of Chavez’s influence in OPEC. It is true that the years of 2001 and 2002 saw a raise on oil prices this was due to a concerted effort led by Saudi Arabia to cut production. As Secretary General of OPEC Venezuelan Ali Rodriguez never had the complete authority Grandin Claims. In fact, by July 2002 he had already been replaced.

In Grandin’s view the creation of Petro Caribe, the group of Caribbean countries receiving subsidized oil from Chavez government represented “a positive act of politicization of the Venezuelan oil industry”. The truth is that Venezuela has given about $30 billion in oil subsidies to these countries, in order to buy their political alliance in international organizations such as the OAS and the UN. Although this political allegiance has proven to be very useful to the Chavez/Maduro regime, it has been bought at an enormous cost to the nation, with money that could have been put to good use in Venezuela.  

As Chavez died, says Grandin, oil prices collapsed, suggesting a connection cause-effect. Venezuelan economy, he says, “began to spiral out of control”. This is a dishonest claim. The Venezuelan economy had been out of control for years. In fact, when Chavez died the country was heavily indebted to China, a the tune of some $60 billion, the Venezuelan Central Bank international reserves had been raided by his government and the Missions (Misiones) had essentially collapsed, Chavez influence on Latin America had evaporated, oil income had largely been stolen or wasted and Venezuela was in ruins. Millennium Development Goals were not “impressively reduced”, as he claims.  Although political propaganda costing millions of dollars made possible a rosy account of the Venezuelan economic and social  statistics the truth was revealed by independent media, in which the poor performance of Venezuela was exposed, see for example:  https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2016/09/21/venezuela-has-solved-its-hunger-problem-dont-believe-the-u-n-s-numbers/?utm_term=.107d770d952e

Venezuela has solved its hunger problem? Don’t believe the ... www.washingtonpost.com Hunger is one of the world’s most pressing development problems. It should have been great news when the United Nations announced at the close of the Millennium ...

Grandin has a poorer opinion of Chavez’s replacement, Nicolas Maduro. He says: “Now, the news is of infant deaths skyrocketing, of Venezuelans going hungry and many fleeing, either overland to Colombia or by boat to Curacao. Diseases the country hadn’t seen in decades are back, diphtheria among them. Vaccination rates have fallen, hospitals lack gloves and syringes, cancer and HIV patients are buying their medicine on the black market, and filthy operating rooms could double as sets for horror movies”. And he adds:  “The unity that Chávez managed to achieve within OPEC is gone, largely due to competition from natural gas. Mexico’s state oil company, Petróleos Mexicanos, is currently being privatized, much in the way that PDVSA was before Chávez halted the process. Petro Caribe hobbles on. PDVSA is indebted and practically bankrupted”.

It is totally wrong to pretend this collapse only came about after Chavez died. Of course Maduro’s ineptitude has added to the tragedy but Venezuela’s economic and social collapse already existed.  Maduro, after all, was Chavez’s chosen successor.  

Grandin ends his eulogy saying:  “Chávez, in death as in life, continues to transcend the polarisation. According to a recent poll, 79 per cent picked him as the best president the country has ever had. A slightly smaller but still large majority say he was Venezuela’s most democratic and efficient leader”. This is ridiculous. Only a poll paid by the government could have claimed such a monstrous lie.

This review by Greg Grandin confirms the existence of a group of fellow travelers intent in creating a Chavez myth. Venezuelan reality shows that the popular memory of Chavez is growing more and more negative, as the country remains under the effects of his demented policies.