Venezuela

Nothing to say about the government granting companies the right to sell arms to Venezuelan government while at the same time condemning the Venezuelan government for using those arms, Annie?

That's hypocrisy.

Rubbish, Annie, Corbyn condemns the selling of arms to any country, and you know it.

Jen, Corbyn condemned the selling of arms to Saudi Arabia, not a squeak about selling arms to Venezuela.

Venezuela simplified.

uk.businessinsider.com/venezuela-was-latin-americas-richest-country-heres-how-it-fell-apart-2017-7

uk.businessinsider.com/us-oil-sanctions-could-bankrupt-venezuela-2017-7

This is the indefensible.
Venezuela was the richest country in South America until oil prices plummeted.
Chavez used oil money to help the poor. 95% of Venezuelan exports were oil.

The US doesn't like socialist countries. It is now trying to bankrupt Venezuela by using oil sanctions.

Can anyone see a problem with the UK government allowing weapons to be sold to the Venezuelan government while at the same time the US sanctions its citizens from dealing with Venezuela?

I do wish that Tories wouldn't be so damned defensive about what trump is trying to do to Venezuela.
Where do you get your information from, roses?

Chavez is dead, by the way.

I do wish that Socialists wouldn't be so damn defensive about what is happening in Venezuela, you can't defend the indefensible.Corbyn is doing what he always does when uncomfortable with outcomes....quietly ignores it.

A country of concern regarding human rights? Surely not !

We know if/when Corbyn gets power it certaintly will continue , he refused to condemn his friend Chavez

"Government figures show military equipment was approved for sale from UK-based companies to Venezuela’s armed forces as recently as September last year, despite the Foreign Office listing the country as “of concern” regarding human rights.

Overall, £2.5m of military goods have been sold to the country since 2008, including components for military radar, weapon sights and military aircraft engines. In the last year of figures, to March 2016, licences for goods worth more than £80,000 were approved, including equipment for crowd control to be used by law enforcement agencies.

The revelations will prompt questions about why the government continues to allow arms sales to countries the Foreign Office lists as having a poor human rights record, from Venezuela to Saudi Arabia."

www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/aug/11/uk-criticised-over-sales-of-military-equipment-to-venezuela

Any thoughts on the Tory government selling military equipmemt to Venezuela?

Thank you Petra,

www.theguardian.com/world/2017/jul/29/observer-profile-nicolas-maduro-venezuela-hugo-chavez

annie
There is a programme about Venezuela on the BBC news channel tonight at 9.30.

This weeks edition of the Economist features a leader article and a briefing analysis of Venezuela. It's an interesting but very sad read.

There may be something in the US story, you can never tell where and how they intervene really until years afterwards. Ironically, the opposition guy mentioned in the Guardian article was arrested the day it was published.

Apologies: wrong link:

www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/feb/18/venezuela-protests-us-support-regime-change-mistake

There are other views with regard to what is happening in Venezuela, and what has been happening over many years. In 2014 this opinion piece appeared in the Guardian:

www.gransnet.com/forums/news_and_politics/1239006-Venezuela

For those who prefer not to read links, here are some extracts:

US support for regime change in Venezuela is a mistake
by Mark Weisbrot
The US push to topple the Venezuelan government of Nicolas Maduro once again pits Washington against South America

"When is it considered legitimate to try and overthrow a democratically-elected government? In Washington, the answer has always been simple: when the US government says it is. Not surprisingly, that's not the way Latin American governments generally see it.

"On Sunday, the Mercosur governments (Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, and Venezuela) released a statement on the past week's demonstrations in Venezuela. They described "the recent violent acts" in Venezuela as "attempts to destabilize the democratic order". They made it abundantly clear where they stood.

Of course we all know who the US government supports in Venezuela. They don't really try to hide it: there's $5m in the 2014 US federal budget for funding opposition activities inside Venezuela, and this is almost certainly the tip of the iceberg – adding to the hundreds of millions of dollars of overt support over the past 15 years.

"Although the past year or so has been rough, the past 11 years – since the government got control over the oil industry – have brought large gains in living standards to the majority of Venezuelans who were previously marginalized and excluded.

"It took a long time for the opposition to accept the results of democratic elections in Venezuela. They tried a military coup, backed by the US in 2002; when that failed they tried to topple the government with an oil strike. They lost an attempt to recall the president in 2004 and cried foul; then they boycotted National Assembly elections for no reason the following year. The failed attempt to de-legitimize last April's presidential election was a return to this dark but not-so-distant past. It remains to be seen how far they will go this time to win by other means what they have not been able to win at the ballot box, and how long they will have Washington's support for regime change in Venezuela."

This is certainly not the first instance of governments being de-stabilised if, under a socialist administration, they attempt to take control of their own oil resources.

Apparently this has happened due to 'an acute crisis of capitalism' according to a Venezuelan lecturer writing in the Socialist Worker.
She does not live there, she lives in America.

This thread is about Venezuela, the fact that Corbyn & Co praised the way the country is run cannot be ignored , well by the corbynites it will be thus making it slips off the bottom, same old

MaizieD
It's probably just a coincidence then that a relatively rich country went tits up after the despot that was Hugo Chavez took over with his United Socialist Party of Venezuela.

I wasn't comparing them, Jalima. I clearly stated that. I was just pointing out that it was possible for a country to be nominally rich, and not socialist, and still have citizens suffering hardship.

Now I see where this thread is going I'm bowing out.

I know that the UK is not comparable with Venezuela in the extremity of their difficulties

Difficulties is an under-statement.
And no, the UK and Venezuela are not remotely comparable under any of the governments we have had, Labour or Tory.

It was started because a man who wants to be the next P.M. Of this country and his shadow Home Secretary and shadow chancellor hold Venezuela as an example of all that is good , worrying

Ah now I see why this thread was started

Thank you primrose.Reuters is Not what I consider right wing source or C4 news.

Corbyn and Abbot have gone very quiet about Venezuela being utopia