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For good information on Venezuela
and Latin America in general, here is a list of some of my favorite
websites. Some are in English, some in Spanish.English
Venezuelanalysis.comZnet's Latin America Watch
Global Exchange
Oilwars.blogspot.com
Spanish
Rebelion.orgMexico City's La Jornada
As for excellent news in general, try these:
DemocracyNow!
Le Monde Diplomatique
Znet
Here are some other favorite sites of mine:
www.globalissues.org
www.chomsky.info
www.chomskytorrents.org
www.globalresearch.ca
Check out the site of the Bolivarian Circle in Denver, Colorado: Americans-for-Chavez
Here's an excellent blog on Venezuela with some great analysis and information: Oilwars.blogspot
Recommended reading:
Venezuela and the United States: From Monroe's Hemisphere to Petroleum's Empire
by Judith Ewell
This gives an
excellent background to how the United States has looked at Venezuela
over the last 200 years. It gives the picture of how
Venezuelan-U.S. relations have evolved throughout history, and what the
U.S.'s specific interests have always been. From the days of
independence, to current times, U.S. actions in the region have only
changed in relation to their own interests. Long before finding
oil in Venezuela, U.S. politicians were worried about "radical"
politics in the country. Washington maintained close relations to
the elite class, and saw the poor majority as inmature and
irresponsible. The study ends with an interesting history of the
development of the hydrocarbon economy that was formed in the second
half of the 20th century.Ewell provides many references to what U.S. politicians were saying and thinking about throughout different moments in Venezuelan history. At the same time she shows what Venezuelan nationalists wanted, and how they viewed their powerful northern neighbor. The various quotes and exerpts from diffferent U.S. ministers, politicians, and business leaders throughout give a good idea of what their interests really were in Venezuela. In my opinion, this book gives a great background to what the conflict between Caracas and Washington is all about today.
Hugo
Chavez and the Bolivarian Revolution
by Richard
Gott
An excellent introduction to contemporary Venezuela, this book gives the history of Hugo Chavez and the political situation that gave birth to his movement. It puts the current events of Venezuela in historical perspective and gives a good understanding of what Chavez wants to do in Venezuela, and how he is going about doing it. This edition also gives a brief account of Washington's recent attempts to subvert the revolution, and the most recent developments in Chavez's government.
Gott, a British journalist and author, is a Latin American specialist, and a follower of Latin American revolutions. He has been studying and writing about Latin America since the 1960's and he, if anyone, can give a good historical view of what is currently happening in Venezuela, and Latin America in general. And since he is a true believer in the revolutionary process, his is a good book to read to understand the view the revolutionary left has of Latin America's history, and it's future.
Economic
Democracy; The Political Struggle of the 21st Century
by J.W. Smith
Smith basically repaints the
history of the world. He shows why the history of the world has
been the history of the control of trade. It continues today with
NAFTA, CAFTA, FTAA, the World Bank, IMF, the World Trade Organization,
and others. The powerful nations, throughout history have always
sought to control the terms of trade in ways that have benefitted them.
The English sought to dominate the American colonies, and for
that the United States fought for its independence. The Spanish
controlled Latin America for centuries, getting rich off the
exploitation of those countries. They eventually fought for their
independence too, but never achieved economic independence. The same
general story continues today with the developed world controlling and
exploiting the resources of the underdeveloped, poor countries.
Economic democracy, that is, freedom from economic oppression, and the freedom to choose their own economic system and economic policies, is what is needed for poor, underdeveloped nations. They have never been allowed to choose their own path of development, nor have they ever been freed from economic domination. (IMF, World Bank, FTAA, WTO) In short, the underdeveloped world has never been allowed to develop significantly to achieve economic independence. The developed world sees the development of the underdeveloped world as a threat to their position of hegemony. Economic democracy is what the nations of the third world need to eradicate poverty, and it is exactly what many of them are fighting for!! (Venezuela is a good example!) This book is definitely worth taking a look at, as it will give you a new perspective on history, and how things really work!
Read more about the book and download a copy of this book for free here.
Las
Venas Abiertas de America Latina (The Open Veins of Latin America)
By Eduardo Galeano
(Available in English and Spanish)This is the history of Latin America, taken from a little different perspective. It is the history of the exploitation of these lands, with the premise that this exploitation was a large part of what has allowed the development of richer nations. Here I have translated a few paragraphs:
"The history of the underdevelopment of Latin America makes up, as has been said, the history of the development of world capitalism. Our defeat was always implicit in another's victory; our wealth has always generated our poverty in order to feed the prosperity of others: the empires and their native cronies. In the colonial and neocolonial alchemy, the gold transforms into scrap iron, the the food converts to poison."
"The rain that irrigates the imperialist centers of power drowns the suburbs of the system. In the same way, and symetrically, the wellbeing of our dominant classes --dominant inside, but dominated from the outside-- is the damnation of our multitudes of condemned beings, to a life of beasts of burden."
"The force of the collective imperialist system rests on the necessary inequality of the parts that form it, and that inequality assumes magnitudes each time more dramatic."
