It would be tragic if the governments of Venezuela, Bolivia and Ecuador were to fall, for they are equalising societies, writes Shannon Ebrahim.
This week’s visit by the deputy president of Venezuela Aristobulo Isturiz was greeted with the sounds of “Amandla!” from South Africa’s leftist movements, while the feathers of others were duly ruffled.
Isturiz pulled no punches when he claimed the leftist parties in Latin America and even in Africa were under threat from “imperialist powers”.
What is clear from the challenges faced by leftist governments in Latin America is that their project of “power to the people” is definitely being sabotaged by outside forces seeking to bolster conservative parties that will uphold the Washington consensus.
Argentina saw an end to 12 years of leftist leadership in November with the loss of Christina Fernandez de Kircher to Mauricio Macri.
Reversing what became known as “the pink tide of leftist administrations” that had swept Latin America, Macri has promised to realign Argentina’s foreign policy away from Venezuela and towards the US.
The moderate government of Dilma Roussef in Brazil is being shaken, and destabilised from within, and the governments of Venezuela, Ecuador, and Bolivia – which embrace what they call 21st century socialism – are also being targeted. These three countries together with Cuba form the core of the political and trade alliance known as ALBA.
What remains to be seen is whether the remaining left-wing governments will be able to withstand the pressure being exerted on them at a time when oil prices have plummeted and many are heavily dependent on oil exports. Oil has gone from $100 (R1 500) a barrel to $20 a barrel.
In addition to their economies constricting due to low oil prices, natural disasters have also caused severe social suffering.
Ecuador endured a devastating earthquake, and the severe drought in Venezuela has drastically reduced the levels of key dams that supply hydroelectric power to the nation, resulting in critical electricity shortages.
The energy crisis in Venezuela is so bad that civil servants have been told to come in to work only on a Monday and Tuesday in order to save electricity, and Friday has been declared a holiday, with even schools closed.
The Venezuelan government is doing its best to deal with the crisis by keeping food prices down, introducing a minimum wage, and continuing to pay pensions, even when countries in Europe have cut their pension payouts. It has a good track record on social services and has managed to reduce poverty from 64 to 19 percent, making it the least unequal country in the region.
It is therefore understandable why Venezuelan President Nicholas Maduro, Hugo Chavez’s hand-picked successor, still has significant support among the poor, even though his party lost dismally in December’s parliamentary elections, where the opposition won two thirds of the seats.
Maduro’s term only ends in 2019, and Venezuela’s opposition alliance is now using a multi-pronged strategy to dislodge him from power, declaring a six-month time frame to get him out of office.
They are using street protests, referendums, and pushing for amendments to the constitution.
The government claims this strategy is being financed by the Americans in order to destabilise the country and make it ungovernable.
The conservative opposition in Venezuela, as in Ecudaor and Bolivia, relies largely on the private media, the Catholic Church and the US to help mobilise support against the leftist governments.
In all three countries, the opposition has been deemed “disloyal” in that they have been bent on accusing the governments in power of authoritarianism, have refused to support any government initiatives, and have actively sought to delegitimise them.
Left-wing governments in Latin America, however, have never been more united than they were over the past decade. Converging into a 12-member bloc called the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR), these countries have displayed their solidarity on a number of occasions.
They blocked attempts to topple Bolivia’s first indigenous President Evo Morales in 2008, and Ecuador’s President Rafael Correa in 2010.
Following the US-backed coup in Honduras in 2009, UNASUR blocked that country’s admission to the Organisation of American States (OAS). A large majority of delegates at an emergency OAS meeting last year also expressed concern about US President Barack Obama’s March 9 executive order last year declaring Venezuela a threat.
It would be tragic if the progressive governments of Bolivia, Ecuador and Venezuela were to fall, as they have inspired hope by incorporating previously marginalised people such as the indigenous, those of Afro-descent, peasants, women and workers into decision-making. Under these regimes, even informal sector workers get the same benefits as those in the formal economy.
While it is true that these societies have seen heightened social conflict and polarisation, they have successfully managed a careful balancing act of equalising their societies while maintaining strategic alliances with the business sector.
Key to their strategy has been introducing moderate reforms slowly over time to deepen social change, rather than pursuing fast radicalisation.
* Ebrahim is Independent Media's Group Foreign Editor
The Star