[News] Economic Warfare Doesn’t Kill Governments?

[Anti-Imperialist News]

  Economic Warfare Doesn’t Kill Governments?

By Luis Britto Garcia, September 23rd 2013
http://venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/10040

/Acclaimed Venezuelan historian, writer and dramatist Luis Britto Garcia 
argues that the Venezuelan economy is being subjected to deliberate 
economic sabotage and that “a war isn’t won by pretending it doesn’t 
exist”./

1

War is a continuation of the economy by other means. Capitalism is the 
rapaciousness of everyone against everyone. All warfare is economic; it 
seeks to destroy and confiscate the adversary’s means of production. The 
bombing of defenceless cities forces the civil population to stop 
production in order to tend to the wounded. The objective is not to do 
away with soldiers, but with supply.

2

During the IV Republic [in Venezuela, from1958 – 1998], the most invoked 
value by Democratic Action [one of the country’s two governing parties 
during the IV Republic] was [Food] Supply. In my book /The Language of 
Demagogy/ I analyse texts where [Venezuelan President Romulo] Benacourt 
[1945 – 1948, 1959 - 1964] mentions supply 112 times, state power 90, 
salaries 49, elections 30, and production just 26 times. With this 
discourse the two-party system kept power for various decades, until it 
declared Economic Warfare on itself, by signing a Package with the 
International Monetary Fund [in 1989]. Thanks to that, in little time 
[then President] Carlos Andres Perez went from Great Third World Leader 
to a recluse in Los Teques.

3

There has been Economic Warfare against every revolution, including 
bourgeois ones: against the English revolution and the French. There has 
also been [economic warfare] against the real ones: against the Soviet 
revolution, the Chinese, the Cuban, the Vietnamese, and the Sandinista. 
They all confronted sabotage and blockade. War was waged against the 
democrat [former Chilean president] Salvador Allende. Henry Kissinger 
swore that he would make the Chileans “cry from misery”. The 
sociological espionage of “Plan Camelot” revealed their weaknesses. The 
hoarders created strategic shortages, the ladies of the oligarchy banged 
pots and pans, suicidal unions launched strikes against the government 
that protected their rights. Allende was assassinated with three 
thousands other Chileans; the rest of the population had their social 
security, free higher education, labour rights and freedom taken away.

4

Not even the strongest economy resists organised and unchecked pillage. 
The National Institute of Statistics informs that during the last 14 
years 62.5% of public spending has gone toward social ends. This 
finances dramatic improvements in health, nutrition, education, housing 
and culture. Jose Gregorio Piña points out that from 1997 until today 
the minimum wage has increased 110% above inflation, that over 80% of 
workers earn above minimum wage, and that in 14 years the government has 
benefitted more than 2.2 million pensioners with [pensions] the 
equivalent of minimum wage. However the fullest sack is emptied if it 
has tears. Subsidised food is taken as contraband to Colombia by 
/bachequeros /[those who buy up products in shortage or with regulated 
prices to later sell in Colombia or Venezuela at a higher price], 
dollars assigned for remittances and travellers end up in fantasy 
destinations and /vendecupos /[those who sell their allocated dollars on 
the black market]. Foreign currency granted for imports benefit managers 
of fictitious imports, which causes the disappearance of 20 billion 
dollars [from the Venezuelan economy], a similar magnitude to the damage 
of the oil sabotage of 2002 – 2003. Sentences from international courts 
condemn us to pay even more. Premeditated sabotage damages refineries 
like Amuay and cuts off water and electricity services. These open veins 
of the Venezuelan economy should be sown up with the correct measures 
and example-setting sanctions.

In supermarkets, snobbish ladies ask how there can be shortages in such 
a rich country. It should be explained to them that in a mixed economy 
the private sector sells the majority of basic food and products, and 
decides shortages, high prices and strategic hoarding. This explanation 
is not made because, for one reason or another, the best defenders of 
Bolivarianism have been disappearing from public service media. It’s 
like removing iceberg lookouts from the Titanic. To the sharp-eyed, 
watch out: an iceberg approaches, and it’s the size of the Empire.

6

A war isn’t won by pretending it doesn’t exist, silencing those who 
defend us or treating the adversary who attacks us as an ally. The war 
that isn’t won is that which isn’t fought.

/Translated by Ewan Robertson for Venezuelanalysis.com/

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