[El Universal] Radicalization and seizure. These are the tips of Alan Woods, the new ideological adviser of Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez, to ensure a successful Bolivarian revolution. "As long as key points of the economy remain in the hands of the bankers, landlords and capitalists, they will use their economic power to sabotage the Revolution. Therefore, there must be a sense of urgency. (...) As long as this situation is allowed to continue, there can be no question of a planned economy, and therefore of socialism in Venezuela." Woods' words in his analysis "Where is the Venezuelan revolution going? released last October 29 is the roadmap seemingly followed by President Chavez after the election for parliament.
"It is quite alarming that the advisors to the President of the Republic are people who mean nothing in the world of ideas; this is the case of (Heinz) Dieterich and now the case of Woods," sociologist and Master of Political Science Carlos Raúl Hernandez said.
Hernandez thinks that the brand-new ideological adviser "is a very peculiar person, because he always represented a minority, a minority in international communism, for being closely related to Trotskyism (...) his is a hardcore leftist vision."
Based on Woods' analysis of the Venezuelan situation, "the September election showed increasing unrest and impatience of the masses about the slow pace of the Revolution and the way of winning it is by taking action to expropriate big capitalists. They must be convinced that the revolution is invincible."
Luis Vicente León, the director of pollster Datanalisis, agrees with Woods. "The only possible answer for Chavez under current circumstances is total radicalization in the political field and absolute control of institutions (...) He cannot leave anything free if the election scenario gets complicated."
In the opinion of political expert Edgard Gutiérrez, the government faced a dilemma when pondering on the results of the parliament election on September 27. "Radicalization means the possibility of losing strong support and the abstention of Chavez's supporters could be a signal, whereas relaxation meant fading away and losing the toughest voters. However,
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However...
judging by the latest events, it seems that the Woods Doctrine prevailed."