Venezuela Adam, Chris, and Rachel
Vision for Peace - Institutional structures that are conducive to the peaceful resolution of conflict - Trustworthy, democratic government - Diversified economy - A move away from oil, and the development of resources in an environmentally conscious manner - Everyone will be environmentally conscious so that the country will be clean and free of pollution - Economic equity: every citizen, regardless of race/socioeconomic class identity has the ability to make a living wage - Guaranteed human rights for all citizens and travelers in the country - Harmony between all racial and social class groups - Every citizen has the right to an education
Tools Used Political Race and Social Class Economy ● Democratization ● IGOs and Rule of Law ● Sustainable development ● Sanctions ● Human Rights ● Economic equity ● Peace Education ● Education ● Non-violence ● Peace Education ● Reconciliation
Political Issues Chávez’s rise to power ● Chávez elected in December of 1998 ● Created constitutional assembly to rewrite constitution ● March towards centralized power Shift when Maduro becomes president ● When Maduro came to power he lost popular support ○ Led to increased voter fraud and suppression Oil’s Impact on Corruption ● Mass corruption surrounding the oil industry
Historical Significance of Political Issues ● 1960s ○ Transparent democracy to be looked upon as political model ● 1970s and 80s ○ Oil boom led to graft and corruption ○ Carlos Perez created “The Great Venezuela” which led to financial and social disaster ○ Venezuela fell into into large national debt to international banks ● 1990s ○ Chávez took part in attempted military coup, then imprisoned for participation ○ Chávez created the “Fifth Republic”, a new political party with the goal of enacting socialist policies ○ Chávez then elected in 1998
Strategy for Solving Political Issues Overarching Tool: Democratization Order of following tools: 1)Sanctions 2)Peace Education 3Non-violence 4) Reconciliation ● Sanctions ○ Used as a tool to decentralize oil industry ● Non-violence ○ Peaceful protest to push back against current administration ● Peace Education ○ Used as a tool to aid opposition parties ● Reconciliation ○ Create a culture of forgiveness between citizens who support Maduro administration and citizens who support opposition
Race and Social Class Issues ● Mestizaje - ideology denies the existence of social classes ○ says that by mixing the different races, the elimination of racial difference is possible ● To be “white” in Venezuela is to be thought of as beautiful, rich, pure, and sophisticated and being “black” means that you are a symbol of ugliness, poverty, impureness, and unsophistication (Cannon 2008: 736) ○ Prevalent in the media ● Non-white majorities have limited access to good, formal employment (Cannon 2008:738) ○ lack of equal distribution of wealth and employment solely based on race ● Racism plays a key role in the employment rates, wealth, taxation, and the distribution of social benefits in Venezuela (Cannon 2008:738) ● Indigenous people are scapegoats for Venezuela’s economic failures when racist discourse began to re-emerge between the upper and middle classes (Cannon 2008:736)
Historical Significance - Racism since colonial era - In the colonial times, it was believed that “the darker a person’s skin, the poorer that person will be” (Cannon 2008:734) - From the beginning of the colonization period of Latin America, Venezuela had to import laborers through slavery due to the fact that there were not many indigenous peoples already present relative to other countries in the area (Cannon 2008:735). - Direct violence between white settlers and indigenous people - It ties into the “ideology of the mestizaje” in the way that the racial discrimination is justified due to the elitist class believing that they are pure and can use slave labor
Strategy for solving Race and Social Class Issues Tools and steps: 1) IGOs and ROL; 2) Human Rights; and 3) Education and Peace Education ● IGOs and ROL must be implemented together, because IGOs can also ensure that the state is acting as the ‘fair and impartial arbiter’ and not letting criminal activity ‘slide under the radar’ ○ ROL is applied to EVERYONE ○ Kritz (2013:278) “the formalist theory requires that the law be applied to everyone equally, that it is clearly set forth in advance and is available to the public, that it applies clear and fair procedure, and that it is adjudicated by a fair and impartial arbiter” ● Human Rights -- denial of HR is the denial of positive peace (Barash and Webel 2018) ● Two ways to promote human rights (Barash and Webel 2018) ○ Include public statements made by government officials ○ Include symbolic acts ● Education is important because it deters rebels, especially in civil war circumstances (Ishiyama and Breuning 2012) ○ By providing equal education opportunities, especially for the higher level of education for all the citizens of Venezuela, the government would effectively be deterring rebels from causing conflicts ● Peace education’s goal is to deter racial and social divide and create an environment of understanding and open-mindedness so that citizens are not discriminated against
Economic Issues ● Poverty & Violence ○ 82% of households live in poverty ○ Extreme inflation resulting from faltering economy ○ Wealth gap leads to direct and structural violence ■ Direct violence related to political affiliation, which is linked to economic status ■ Structural violence in form of lost opportunity, lack of food and health care, etc. ● Oil ○ Venezuela is dependent on oil revenue ○ Makes up 95% of exports ○ Dependence makes the country subject to the ups and downs of oil prices
Historical Context of Economic Issues ● Venezuela has suffered from poverty for its entire modern history ● Poverty in the country was reinforced by the oil industry, which pressured the government in the 1920s to not enforce resource profit laws for land owners. ● Programs to alleviate poverty and build the economy have been linked to oil revenues since the Jimenez regime used them to improve infrastructure in the 1950s. ● By 1996, poverty had risen from 17% to 65% ○ This increase helped to propel Chavez to power in 1998, as his support base was mostly poor Venezuelans.
Strategy for Solving Economic Issues Order of tools: 1) Sustainable Development 2) Economic Equity ● Sustainable Development ○ Used to diversify the economy, and move it away from oil dependency. Broadens the availability of employment, and will decrease poverty in the country. ○ Decrease environmental damage caused by the Venezuelan economy. ○ Improve the lives of poorer Venezuelans disproportionately affected by environmental problems. ● Economic Equity ○ Used to ease the wealth gap in the country which leads to direct and structural violence. This will eliminate the difference in opportunity that leads to economic violence.
Critique ● Sanctions have a larger negative impact on the poor than elites. ● Relying on peace education and non-violence to win elections may take a long time.
Critique ● If ROL groups do not have outside, foreign support, they will not be successful (Kritz 2013:93) ● Kritz (2013:282) finds that “Often, in a conflict or post conflict setting there exists a severe lack of well-trained and qualified lawyers, judges, [and] security sector personnel” ○ Makes the implementation of ROL difficult ● Debate on whether human rights are universal or culturally relative ( Le 2016) ● Education and peace education take a long time to become effective tools ● Salomon (2011) presents four challenges to peace education ○ 1) the challenge that people of older generations might not want to change their opinions of other races, religions or ethnicities ○ 2) peace education programs often only last a few months – in order to be effective, they must last longer ○ 3) there must be different programs for different sides of the conflict; this is often difficult to do because there is a lack of funding for the programs and other challenges ○ 4) facilitating the application of peace education is a challenge within itself because, similar to the first problem, all people will not be open to accepting the education
Critique ● Economic development to diversify the economy and remove oil as the primary revenue source, may not be effective in the long term, and the economy may suffer in the short term. This may lead to a resurgence of violence. ● Sustainable development will limit what natural resources Venezuela can develop, which will limit how its economy can grow. ○ A lack of economic growth may lead to a resurgence of violence by leaving some people out of the economic growth that is happening.
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