Juan Orlando Hernรกndez, convicted of drug trafficking, in 2024, thanked the Lord for being ‘a free man’ and then Trump for ‘changing my life’. What is it with the conversion to Griftianity seen so frequently in wealthy people accused of serious crimes? What does the historical record of US and UK drug trafficking reveal?
Some of the most important available data on health care and public health are as following [iv],[v],[vi]:
*infant mortality dropped from 25 per 1000 (1990) to only 13/1000 (2010);
*An outstanding 96% of the population has now access to clean water (one of the goals of the revolution);
*In 1998, there were 18 doctors per 10,000 inhabitants, currently there are 58, and the public health system has about 95,000 physicians;
*It took four decades for previous governments to build 5,081 clinics, but in just 13 years the Bolivarian government built 13,721 (a 169.6% increase);
*Barrio Adentro (i.e., primary care program with the help of more than 8,300 Cuban doctors) has approximately saved 1,4 million lives in 7,000 clinics and has given 500 million consultations;
*In 2011 alone, 67,000 Venezuelans received free high cost medicines for 139 pathologies conditions including cancer, hepatitis, osteoporosis, schizophrenia, and others; there are now 34 centres for addictions,
*In 6 years 19,840 homeless have been attended through a special program; and there are practically no children living on the streets.
*Venezuela now has the largest intensive care unit in the region.
*A network of public drugstores sell subsidized medicines in 127 stores with savings of 34-40%.
*51,000 people have been treated in Cuba for specialized eye treatment and the eye care program “Mision Milagro”; has restored sight to 1.5 million Venezuelans.
The Venezuelan Government built 5.1 million social housing units between 2011 and 2024, in spite of the US sanctions.
The Great Housing Mission (GMVV), launched in 2011, has built or delivered close to 5 million social housing units by late 2024, with official figures nearing this milestone (around 4.9 million by May 2024) and a target to reach 7 million by 2030, providing homes for working families through state support, community self-construction, and sometimes pre-fabricated methods, though facing criticisms regarding transparency and quality.
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"U.S. sanctions can lead to loss of life by eroding targeted countries' health systems, creating shortages of essential goods like food and medicine, and causing broad economic decline that impacts public welfare. Research published in The Lancet Global Health estimates that unilateral sanctions have been associated with an annual toll of over 564,000 deaths, comparable to the mortality burden of armed conflicts."
Sanctions are a weapon that causes ordinary people real harm, a weapon that makes Governance in those countries way more difficult that it should ever be..
I ask people to imagine Cuba without Sanctions these past 70 odd years, what kind of condition would they be in? Likewise Iran and Venezuela?
My understanding is that they would be healthier, more at ease, and their citizens would not be living under such chronic stress and distress - indeed if our own Governments were more socially oriented, less concerned with meeting the needs of Wealth-as-Power and Billionaires, how would we be faring?
Fair questions, to zone in on long term grass roots political thinking.
The two main waves of emigration from Venezuela.
1. The first wave was Colonial Wealth middle class fleeing to preserve their wealth, almost as soon as Chavez won his second election. This group took their wealth with them to set up in USA and EU. They support the US Sanctions and the undermining of the Bolivarian Revolution.
2. The second wave was after the illegal, amoral US sanctions crashed the economy by 60%. It was mostly young impoverished, educated people who went to find work in neighbouring countries. Others, who had less education undertook the long trek through Mexico to the US Border to find labouring work. American construction and agriculture uses cheap South American labour to run its factories.
A large majority of those people would likely return if the sanctions were lifted and Venezuela was then able to rebuild its economy using Oil revenues to build infrastructure, Healthcare, Education, Public Services and continue the successes of the past 25 years.
Trumpo characterised those people as 'they are sending the worst of their people, muderers, rapists, drug dealers to destroy America.'
Venezuelan Elections.
Venezuela built the one of the most transparent democratic electoral systems anywhere.
Venezuela employs one of the most technologically advanced verifiable voting systems in the world, designed to protect voters from fraud and tampering and ensure the accuracy of the vote count. Accuracy and integrity are guaranteed from the minute voters walk into the polls to the point where a final tally is revealed.
"The system Venezuela uses has some of the most advanced and voter-friendly security features in modern elections. Voters use a touch-sensitive electronic pad to make and confirm their choices. After confirmation, the electronic vote is encrypted and randomly stored in the machine's memories. Voters audit their own vote by reviewing a printed receipt that they then place into a physical ballot box."
'Oppression' in Venezuela.
The covert and overt operations run by the US UK and EU caused chaos, violence was deployed, criminal networks were deployed and the Venezuelan government had to respond to that internal threat, and they did so, robustly. That was characterised by the US UK and EU as generic oppression. It probably was very messy in places - responding to people willing and capable of doing violence is a messy business. The source of that violence and its impacts is always ignored by US UK and EU Ruling Class. Their objective is to prevent Venezuela proving that a country with Oil reserves that manages those reserves independently can succeed in building a democratic social contract base economy.
If Venezuela was allowed to do so, it would disprove the claims if US UK EU NeoLiberal Ruling Class that NeoLiberalist Economics is the best of all current possible systems. It would show others that there is a viable path away from US UK and EU Neoliberalism.
Trump is not Hitler, the System is.
Hitler emerged out of the European Warring Competing Powers dynamics.
He was NOT an anomaly, he was an expression of that dynamic...
Did those Competing Warring Powers hold themselves accountable?
They did not, they laid it ALL on Hitler. None of it on themselves.
SO here we are a century later and the exact same dynamic of competing warring European states is driving the world to a precipice.
Comparisons with Hitler are feeble - comparisons with the inter state warring rivalry of history are on point.
That kind of system will ALWAYS breed more warfare, kill more children, eat more flesh.
There's too much wealth and power to be made for them to stop it of their own accord.
The dominance of such system relies on the majority never attaining a level of human solidarity that builds bridges across borders, languages, genders, creeds, orientations and socio-economic comfort or discomfort.
It is on us, you, me, your mother, your neighbours, the lads down the pub, your golfing buddies, etc, to build that solidarity.
That's on us. No excuses now.
