Yearbook 2010
Venezuela. In the September 26 congressional elections, President Hugo Chávez failed to win the two-thirds majority he sought, despite his party’s Partido Socialista Unido de Venezuela (PSUV) winning 96 of the Congress’s 165 seats. However, the PSUV is still the largest party and the overweightness of Chávez in public opinion was still evident. Opposition Alliance Mesa de la Unidad Democrática (MUD) got 64 seats, and Chávez’s former backing party Patria Para Todos (PPT), who has now joined the opposition, got two seats. According to COUNTRYAAH, Venezuela has a population of 28.87 million (2018). Particular attention was drawn to María Corina Machado, who is considered to have the best chances of defeating Chávez in the 2012 presidential election. Because of the constitution’s constitution, the election result meant that the opposition was given disproportionately few seats.
In response to Colombia’s defense minister Gabriel Silva’s claims in July that the Venezuelan government is protecting members of the Colombian guerrilla movements FARC (Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia) and ELN (Ejército de Liberación Nacional) in its territory, President Chávez refused to prove the installation of the new Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos August 7. Relations with neighboring countries have long been chilly, especially during the resignation of President Álvaro Uribe. But as a sign that at least Chávez was hoping for better relations, he received the newly elected President Santos in Caracas in early November.
- Abbreviation Finder: Check to see how the two letter abbreviation of VZ stands for the country of Venezuela in geography.
At the end of November, the coastal areas were hit by the worst rainfall since 1999, when at least 10,000 people were killed. The death toll this time was considerably lower, but nearly 60,000 people were affected by the storm and half were evacuated from their homes.
In February 2014, the United States and the right-wing opposition launched fierce protests against the government. The right wing established roadblocks in affluent neighborhoods in the capital, scattered party seams that punctured vehicle tires and attacked public buildings. The inspiration came especially from Ukraine, where armed right-wing gangs dropped the country’s government. Politician Leopoldo López quickly took the lead in the riot riots. He also played a pivotal role during the CIA coup attempt against Hugo Chavez in 2002. stated the “arrest” of the country’s then interior minister. In response, López was jailed on Feb. 18. In February, Venezuela expelled US diplomats from the country because of their role in destabilization and protests. While the Latin American governments almost unanimously supported Maduro and the Venezuelan state, the United States and most other (anti-democratic) Western countries condemned Venezuela. Already in March, the United States began imposing sanctions on Venezuela.
The protests erupted around June 2014, but the country’s economic crisis was exacerbated by falling international oil prices. In 2014, the United States and Saudi Arabia halted their oil production to destabilize Russia, Iran and Venezuela, all of which were economically dependent on their oil exports and at the same time on the US enemy list.
The protests made the sharp class divide in the country embarrassingly clear. According to softwareleverage, Venezuela has always been characterized by deep class contradictions, but it was Chavez’s takeover of the government in 1998 that brought the bourgeoisie to the barricades. The protests in 2014 were led by the bourgeoisie’s politicians, its young people and co-workers from the affluent parts of the middle classes. Faced with this were the working class and the country’s poorest, who had the most to lose if the citizenship coup attempt was to succeed. However, the events also revealed that Maduro was far from having Chavez’s rhetorical and political endeavor to mobilize the working class and its allies. Therefore, support for Maduro declined during 2014, and although the coup attempt and destabilization of the US and the Right did not immediately lead to a regime change,
On December 10, 2014, the United States Congress passed a sanctions package aimed at Venezuela. The package was intended to promote the destabilization of the country. The move was immediately condemned by the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR).
Venezuela received per. January 1, 2015 seat of the UN Security Council for a 2-year term, designated among the Latin American countries.
In an effort to promote chaos in the country, in March 2015, US President Obama issued a decree stating that Venezuela was a “security threat” to the United States. Now it was not Venezuela that had tried to overthrow the United States government, as the United States had tried to overthrow the Venezuelan 14 years earlier. Obama used the alleged security threat to impose targeted sanctions on 7 government officials.
As a result of the globally historically low oil prices and the US economic blockade, the economy shrank by 5.7% in 2015. The US was lucky with its economic destabilization.