YouTube has the video Bernie Sanders: Nicaragua Interview (8/8/1985).

Interview with Burlington Mayor Bernie Sanders (I-VT) following his trip to Nicaragua in summer 1985.

This video shows how I got the impression that Bernie Sanders had a good understanding of Latin America back in 1985. This is why I was so surprised that he couldn’t take a much stronger stand in support of the elected government of Venezuela in the face of what Trump is trying to do to that country.

Foreign Policy has the article How Venezuela Struck It Poor.

The tragic — and totally avoidable — self-destruction of one of the world’s richest oil economies.

This article gives a quite different look at the issues in Venezuela than what I have been presenting on this blog. I don’t endorse it, nor do I deny what it is saying. I just add all this information into my big storehouse in my brain in the hopes that someday I may figure something out.

As I read this story and its contradictions to my previous held beliefs, I did also notice some self contradictions in the narrative it was weaving. However, I do not consider these self-contradictions enough to discredit the article. Of course, I can detect the story’s bias against socialism and its preference for oligarchic capitalism, but I still try to keep an open mind.

YouTube has the video Venezuela Explained with Jimmy Dore.

Jimmy Dore fills in for Jesse Ventura. Producer Brigida Santos and Jimmy Dore explain the crisis in Venezuela where opposition leader Juan Guaido has declared himself interim president in an effort to unseat sitting president Nicolas Maduro. RT Host Rick Sanchez talks about the history of Venezuela and the impact of US involvement in Latin America.

Even RT’s “expert” does not seem to be aware of what Chavez and Maduro have tried to do to solve the problems that the “expert” mentions. Both Chavez and Maduro have been trying to diversify the Venezuelan economy. The fact that Venezuela does not have an oil refinery is not a choice that Venezuela made. The choice was decided by USA oil companies who controlled Venezuela’s oil industry in collusion with Venezuelan oligarchs before Chavez . The reason for that choice was that it made Venezuela incapable of showing any independence in their own oil industry. It was the USA who encouraged Venezuela to buy all its food from foreign sources rather than developing a domestic food industry. Chavez and Maduro have tried to change that policy and tried to foster a domestic food supply.

YouTube has the movie The Revolution Will Not Be Televised, Chavez, The 2002 Coup.

THE REVOLUTION WILL NOT BE TELEVISED
DIRECTED AND PHOTOGRAPHED BY KIM BARTLEY AND DONNACHA O’BRIAIN IRELAND, 2003
74 MINUTES IN SPANISH WITH ENGLISH SUBTITLES
HUGO CHAVEZ ELECTED PRESIDENT OF VENEZUELA IN 1998, IS A COLORFUL, UNPREDICTABLE FOLK HERO, beloved by his nation’s working class and a tough-as-nails, quixotic opponent to the power structure that would see him deposed. Two independent filmmakers were inside the presidential palace on April 11, 2002, when he was forcibly removed from office. They were also present 48 hours later when, remarkably, he returned to power amid cheering aides. Their film records what was probably history’s shortest-lived coup d’état. It’s a unique document about political muscle and an extraordinary portrait of the man The Wall Street Journal credits with making Venezuela “Washington‚s biggest Latin American headache after the old standby, Cuba.”

I have heard the phrase “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised”, but I never knew where this came from. On YouTube there are only 6,700 views. We must make this go viral with widespread sharing. Just think what the USA will be like if the oligarchs get any more control of our media. This is what will happen to Bernie after he becomes President if we are not careful.