[rolandog]

Yeah, I'm wondering if the Nobel Peace prize has anything to do with peace for people, or for her neoliberalism stance of protection of the free market that would usher peace for the business interests of oil companies [0].

I must confess I am no Venezuelan political expert, and it always gives me pause whether the economic siege that has been laid against Venezuela with the sanctions is about democracy, or about access to unrestricted markets (a la United Fruit Company — now Chiquita — and Standard Fruit Company — now Dole plc).

[0]: https://www.instagram.com/reel/DKU-8MCO10P/

[pjc50]

The problem in South America is that both versions are true. The outside exploitation pressures are extremely strong, so any vaguely socialist government succumbs to the temptation to squash the outside agitators .. and any local opposition who actually have a valid point or real anti-corruption objections. Running a moderate social democrat centrist country in that situation is not stable, instead you get pendulum swings from left to right and back again, with significant human cost along the way.

(exception maybe Costa Rica?)

To be clear, Venezuela is long past the "popular socialism" phase and decayed into the "strongman holding on" phase.

[kipchak]

There is also a substantial amount of mostly unexploited rare earth elements like Coltan.