The Metastases of Fascism and Venezuela
Elio Delgado Legon
HAVANA TIMES — No honest person in the world today has any doubt that fascism is the cancer of society. Born in Europe in the early twentieth century, it tried to conquer the world – and would have accomplished this, had it not been for the heroic perseverance of the Soviet army and people, who, at the cost of 10 million lives, forced it to retreat to Berlin in utter defeat.
It looked as though this ideology, characterized by genocidal and xenophobic tenets, further to the right than what we consider the extreme right today, would never again resurface. In view of its cancerous nature, fascism had to be extirpated from society entirely and prevented from reemerging anywhere in the world through legislations that outlawed any expression of fascism or neo-fascism, criminal currents that have absolutely nothing to do with democracy.
There are plenty of well-documented incidents of the resurgence of fascism around Europe, but I will focus on the phenomenon in Latin America, where the majority of countries has endured it in one way or another.
Because of its elitist nature, fascism has found near unconditional support in domestic oligarchies, as these regard such regimes as a guarantee they will be able to maintain their privileges and continue to live as parasites that feed on the wealth of countries (wealth they must share with transnational corporations), while the vast majorities eke out a living in conditions of extreme poverty.
The most eloquent examples of fascist regimes can be found in the time of Latin American military dictatorships, which remained in power through bloodshed and resulted in the murder, torture and disappearance of millions of people – governments which, tellingly, received the unconditional support of successive administrations of the superpower that proclaims itself a champion of democracy around the world.
Today, Latin America’s political landscape has radically changed thanks to the selfless and sustained struggle of its peoples and the emergence of left-wing leaders who have been capable of interpreting their longings and needs.
Latin America’s current political map evinces numerous countries with left-wing or nationalist governments that span nearly the entire sub-continent, including the insular Caribbean.
In a previous article, published in Havana times on April 25, 2013, I stressed that:
“We have more than enough examples of this, should anyone have doubts. The bloodiest was the fascist coup that took place in Chile in 1973. More recently, I can think of the failed coup in Boliva, where there was even an attempt to divide the country in two; the coup attempted in Ecuador, which almost cost President Correa his life; the coup in Venezuela, which was reversed by the people and loyal armed forces, and the oil industry strike, which cost the country billions of dollars. All have been desperate attempts by the Right, seeking to take power at any price.
More recently, following the Venezuelan presidential elections which resulted in Nicolas Maduro’s victory, the opposition, in an openly fascist move, attacked supporters of Chávez’ revolutionary project, leaving behind eight dead and dozens of injured citizens.
How many more attempts at overthrowing the Left in power through fascist violence will we have to endure?”
In recent days, we’ve seen acts of vandalism in the streets of Venezuela which have resulted in the destruction and burning of State properties, while the United States issues warnings and threatens the Venezuelan government, accusing it of repressing the people. It is the same script used in Libya and Syria: support for fascist vandals and threats leveled at the government that was legally elected by the people.
The fascist cancer has again metastasized in the land of Bolivar and Chavez, but the people of Venezuela will not allow it to ruin what they have accomplished and will again come out victorious.
Wow. Thorazine. STAT.
How Capriles fits “statism”? Very easy: their State is American – half of military budget of the whole world at the service of the corporations that control it. Dollars for corruption and for treason. Chavez, etc. recreate NATIONAL State so to give the countries back to their own peoples instead of maintaining them in underdevelopmet on purpose. The biggest massacre in the History of Venezuela was performed 25 years ago by the neoliberal Carlos Andres Perez.
You’re a total ignorant. “Freedom and democracy” is JUST another ideology producing the same kind of fanatics and the American Establishment beat Nazism and Stalinism by crimes against humanity long ago. Venezuelan rich Aryans saw “their” oil money taken away from them and the bank accounts affording their luxury at expenses of people’s misery. Libya went from having highest GDP in Africa with health-care for free to immigrant workers to a giant Guantanamo. Support to Bashir al-Assad in Syria is 70%. The whole thing of “arab spring” is the Internet-and-drone replay of the Condor Operation in Latin America, Libya, Syria, Ukraine, Venezuela are the replay of the Bay of Pigs, Guatemala and the coup against Mossadeq in Iran. This is what peoples stand against supporting their no matter how flawed governments: the right TO BE HOME and TO LIVE IN PEACE in their own countries. But you either don’t seem capable to conceive that majority of every people can ACTUALLY support that and to be aware of it, either you simply hate the “populace” and support any brainwash justifying any genocide in the name of no matter what.
Very true. Fascism and Marxism (including all of its various forms, ie Leninism, Stalinism & Trotskisim) are simple different forms of “socialism”. They are not identical ideologies, but they do all spring from a common root and share common methods.
“Hitler …(said) that he had admired much of the thinking of the revolutionaries he had known as a young man; but he felt that they had been talkers, not doers. “I have put into practice what these peddlers and pen pushers have timidly begun,” he boasted, adding that “the whole of National Socialism” was “based on Marx”.
Marx’s error, Hitler believed, had been to foster class war instead of national unity – to set workers against industrialists instead of conscripting both groups into a corporatist order. His aim, he told his economic adviser, Otto Wagener, was to “convert the German Volk to socialism without simply killing off the old individualists” – by which he meant the bankers and factory owners who could, he thought, serve socialism better by generating revenue for the state. “What Marxism, Leninism and Stalinism failed to accomplish,” he told Wagener, “we shall be in a position to achieve.”
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/danielhannan/100260720/whenever-you-mention-fascisms-socialist-roots-left-wingers-become-incandescent-why/
Fascists venerate the state, adore a strong leader (and elitists) and embrace militarism. How do student protestors fit that description? How does it fit Capriles? Lopez? Machado et al? They and the people on the streets are the “pueblo” exercising their constitutional right to express dissatisfaction. To label them facist is lazy. Fascism is neither left or right, it is a movement that is the antithesis of a democracy that eschews basic individual human rights in favor of the collective; the state (read the history—Sorel, Corradini, Marinetti, Plenge,). You are correct about the cancer, it has spread from the banks of the Almendares and the tumors that have grown in Caracas are known as Chavez, Maduro and Cabello.
The list of democratically elected leftist governments by U.S. Imperialism is long and disgraceful. To name just a few: Mohammad Mosadddagh in Iran in 1954 (See what the ultimate consequences of that was!), Jacobo Arbenz in Guatemala in 1954, Juan Bosch in Santo Domingo in 1965, Salvador Allende in Chile in 1973, Jean-Bertrand Aristide in Haiti in 1991–and again, in 2004, Manuel Zelaya in Honduras in 2009. Democracy is fine when it suits the interests of U.S. Imperialism; otherwise, it is expendable. The antidote? Implacable defense of democracy and revolution as ruthless as Maximillein Robespierre’s beloved Committee of Public Safety (although successful this time)!
Like they say elseqhere…No pasaran!
Look at your own backyard. You´re living in a world that you have no say in. Don´t teach others what fascism means to you. You have no idea how Venezuelans have struggled because of Cuba´s hellish export, inefficient Statism.
However “leftwing” they claim to be, the two governments most closely resembling fascism are venezuela & cuba. Period. We have seen in venezuelan “left” journalism attacks on opposition canditate Capriles, himself a center-left social democrat, bringing up his jewish backround. Sounds like fascism to me. Both cuba & venezuela are countries where the military is permitted to interfere in civilian affairs, indeed they are an essential facet of public life. That would be the defination of fascism.
Elio forgot to mention the 100,000 barrels of oil that Cuba’s nursemaid Venezuela sends to Cuba to sustain the Castro regime. Cuba knows that without Maduro as puppet-in-charge, the onset of ‘Special Period Version 2’ is a reality for Cuba. It is in Cuba’s direct interest that the Maduro regime regain control in Venezuela.
“It is the same script used in Libya and Syria: support for fascist vandals and threats leveled at the government that was legally elected by the people.”
Wow. Elio could not have found two worse examples of regimes to defend than Libya and Syria, neither of which had governments legally elected by the people.