[WashingtonPost] For the second consecutive spring, Venezuela is a powder keg.
For weeks, demonstrators have been protesting the unpopular government of President Nicolás Maduro, and the country’s food shortages and foundering economy. The catalyst for this year’s demonstrations came in the form of the government shutdown of the opposition-controlled National Assembly.
Opposition leaders are pushing for early presidential elections, presenting the option as a means of avoiding further strife — and more deaths. But bans and threats against opposition politicians have sparked more protests, fueled by pent-up outrage at the prolonged economic recession. Opposition-led protests are gaining traction within Venezuela’s working classes, including urban centers that were once strongholds of Maduro’s predecessor, Hugo Chávez.
With few allies in the region and Venezuela’s international reserves dropping to new lows, Maduro is coming under increased pressure to negotiate an electoral solution.
Here are five areas to watch:
1) Maduro can try to hunker down, but it won’t be easy
Last week, Venezuela gave its formal notification to withdraw from the Organization of American States. The exit costs for this authoritarian regime are already very high, and leaving the OAS may be a sign that the Venezuelan government is preparing for a fierce battle. This hunker-down scenario faces the formidable challenge of economic collapse.
2) Maduro made huge blunders and has not bounced back
The double blunder of shutting down the Assembly and then backtracking on made Maduro look weak — and opponents capitalized on a humiliating video of protesters pelting the president with eggs at a pro-government rally.
3) Looting is on the rise — but what message does this send?
Looting generally does not signal pro-opposition support, but if it takes place in parallel with political protests, such co-occurrence can give a powerful message that the authorities are to blame for the meltdown. The looting, along with disruptive protests and a growing sense of instability and lawlessness, creates further problems for the government’s political legitimacy.
4) The military remains tolerant, if not actively supportive, of Maduro
Venezuela’s military is also a conglomerate of business interests. The high command manages the critically important food import sector, has been accused of profiting from food shortages and has interests in the strategic state oil and mining industries. If popular discontent continues to swell, creating the need for the army to step in, there could be a major change in the political leanings of the military high command. The army may be corrupt, ideological and pro-government, but it may not be willing to radically change its professional role to repress Venezuelans on behalf of a discredited government.
5) There is growing international pressure for an electoral solution
Venezuela’s formal notice to exit the Organization of American States will launch a two-year withdrawal process. But international support for dialogue is growing stronger, with Latin American countries calling for the Vatican to resume suspended international mediation. The end goal of an internationally supported dialogue would be a commitment to the democratic process — and published dates for regional and presidential elections, along with the participation of international monitors to ensure free and fair elections.
With more protests and countermarches from the government announced for the weeks ahead, the clashes seem likely to continue. What we have learned is that whether Venezuela reaches a tipping point depends not only on popular mobilization but also on whether the government cracks under the combined international political and economic pressure.
[The Hill] IS THE GAS TAX ON THE TABLE? President Trump on Monday floated raising the gasoline tax to pay for a roads and bridges improvement package, adding a new twist to the upcoming congressional debate over spending on infrastructure.
In an interview with Bloomberg News, Trump said he would "certainly consider" a gas tax hike "if we earmarked money toward the highways."
The gas tax last went up under President Clinton. There is little appetite among most conservatives for raising the gas tax now, though some Republicans have supported proposals to increase it, as many states have done.
Trump has made passing a $1 trillion infrastructure package a top priority for his first term in office. He is also pushing for an overhaul of the federal tax code, though he did not include a boosted gas tax in the proposal the White House released last week.
#1
also pushing for an overhaul of the federal tax code, though he did not include a boosted gas tax in the proposal the White House released last week
Not sure how the tax code and the budget are related, Mx. Journalist, but the boosted gas tax might reduce the deficit, which might save one of your progressive pet projects, at least for this year.
Posted by: Bobby ||
05/02/2017 7:53 Comments ||
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#2
Wasn't the gas tax money already earmarked for infrastructure?
#5
Fuel taxes are generally cents per gallon, which helps keep revenue flow stable when prices are wildly fluctuating, but in a generally inflationary environment the tax revenue does not keep pace. What to do, what to do? Aha! A ratchet tax, set at percentage when prices are rising and cents per gallon when they are falling!
#6
Effective 1 November 2017, the California excise tax on gas goes to 30 cents per gallon, with another 9.8 cents sales tax on the total amount (yes. Sales tax on the underlying excise tax). This 12 cent per gallon increase was passed so the Peoples Republic of California could repair the existing roads that rival Guatemala for their condition. We were promised it would oh be for Two years and then would revert back to existing levels by Jerry, so I'm sure the Prez will exempt us from even higher gas prices. No really.....
#8
And by raising the gas tax those that have electric cars don't have to pay for the roads they use. Since Tesla already gets massive government subsidies this is like double screwing the taxpayer.
#9
Funny how California needs more money to fix the roads yet when I drive around Southern California I notice that Orange County is finding the money to keep their roads rather nice while Los Angeles appears to pay people to destroy the highways or something.
#10
Never was about the roads RJ. Just before they raised taxes they were begging Washington for money to pay their current bills. Now that they have raised taxes to repair "roads", the beggars have stopped begging.
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/02/2017 14:57 Comments ||
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#13
We don't have a revenue problem. We have a spending problem.
But if you want to discuss gas taxes, OK. Let's start by adding up all of the current taxes on fuel, then accounting for where that existing money is going. Let's publish that data so that every American knows how much he is paying and what he is getting for that money. If Americans still support raising the gas tax after that, then so be it.
#14
Remembering that every mention of something President Trump is pondering is the opening move in a negotiation, with whom is he negotiating here, and about what?
[Breitbart] Every nation is free to vote for the political leaders it wants, said Pope Francis Saturday, while Europe itself is in danger of "falling apart."
"Every country is free to make the choices it believes are right for itself. I cannot judge if it is making this choice for this reason or another, because I do not know its internal politics," Francis said, in reference to the upcoming French presidential elections.
We must "respect people’s opinions, honest opinions of a political discussion," he said.
During the return flight from Egypt to Rome on Saturday, the Pope granted a press conference to the journalists aboard the papal flight, during which he was asked about the populist movements expanding in Europe.
Virginie Riva of the French group, "Radio Europe 1," made direct reference to the French presidential elections, claiming that French Catholics "are being forced to vote for either a populist or an extremist, and they are divided and confused." Late last month, a first round of elections reduced the list of presidential candidates to Marine Le Pen of the Front National party and Emmanuel Macron of the "En Marche!" party. The final, run-off vote will take place on May 7.
Francis confessed that "I do not understand French internal politics," but repeated the principle that every country is free to make the choices it believes are right for itself.
#1
Europe would be better served and more stable if it were served by a common culture and religious sensibility than it has been by a common currency.
Pay attention to that and to the Muslim invasion, Your Holiness.
Posted by: no mo uro ||
05/02/2017 6:37 Comments ||
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#2
So true nmu. You can't have a successful democracy without a demos, a people with a common culture and understanding of the world in which they live.
If you try and force a conglomeration of tribes together you get trouble. Europe has never been united enough to have a common government but there are always those willing to act as the "interim" dictator.
#5
Pope should promote uniting African countries where they have real issues that could be resolved if they truly believed in something greater than their tribe.
#8
This is the same pope that said Europe should welcome all the Islamic refugees and let them into Europe homes. He is more in line with anarchists than he is with Christians.
Posted by: 49 pan ||
05/02/2017 12:12 Comments ||
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#9
Strange, the Pope has been soft on the invasion of Europe by northern Africans and Mid-eastern immigrants into Europe and now he is concerned about Europe falling apart? That's kind of like Obama saying he is sorry that police officers are being shot and yet he has encouraged this via his anti-police policies.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[The Hill] IS THE GAS TAX ON THE TABLE? President Trump on Monday floated raising the gasoline tax to pay for a roads and bridges improvement package, adding a new twist to the upcoming congressional debate over spending on infrastructure.
[Breitbart] Every nation is free to vote for the political leaders it wants, said Pope Francis Saturday, while Europe itself is in danger of "falling apart."
