Venezuela’s Bonfire of Dogma: How Chavistas are Adapting to U.S. Domination

(Crisis Group) The new year began with what appeared at first to be a fatal blow to chavismo, the movement that has ruled Venezuela and defied U.S. supremacy in Latin America for the past quarter-century. On 3 January, U.S. special forces carried out a lightning raid in Caracas, capturing Nicolás Maduro, the president since 2013, along with his wife, and spiriting them away to jail in Brooklyn to face charges of drug trafficking and other crimes. An audio message seemingly recorded just days later by Maduro’s former vice president, Delcy Rodríguez, who is now Venezuela’s interim president, soon circulated among the chavista political base. In it, Rodríguez warned that difficult decisions to guarantee the movement’s survival lay ahead. Followers should thus proceed “with patience and strategic caution”. To secure the release of Maduro and the first lady, to preserve peace, and to maintain control of Venezuela, chavismo would need to adapt, she said. Adaptation has since morphed into a bonfire of historical doctrine. In conversations with Crisis Group over recent months, government officials and supporters of chavismo have described the justifications for what would appear to have been a wrenching, soul-crushing set of changes: the shift from an avowedly socialist, anti-imperialist, proudly sovereign posture, supported by allies including China, Russia and Iran, to submission before the dictates of Washington. By way of reassurance, a number of Venezuelan officials have taken to citing the words of Vladimir Lenin: “Everything is illusory except power”. Chavismo, they believe, can survive compromises upon the pillars of its creed, including national ownership of natural resources, sovereign independence and a state oriented toward the needs of the poor – not least because these principles had already been tarnished over years of bruising political conflict and economic collapse. But the consensus within the movement is that one goal surpasses all others: the imperative of keeping a grip on state office, or at the very minimum, the importance of determining the pace and conditions under which it might be relinquished. – Venezuela’s Bonfire of Dogma: How Chavistas are Adapting to U.S. Domination | International Crisis Group