What the West gets wrong about Venezuela: it doesn’t need ideology, it needs urgent care

Those taking to the streets aren’t protesting Maduro’s ideology, but his failure to deliver on a promised vision. These people don’t have money to feed their families or buy basic goods.

By Stefano Pozzebon

Supporters of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro gather at Bolivar square in Caracas to take part in a signature campaign to urge the United States' to put a halt to intervention threats against Maduro's government, on February 6, 2019. - US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Wednesday demanded that Venezuela's military let in US-backed humanitarian aid, which President Nicolas Maduro has alleged is a cover for invasion. (Photo by YURI CORTEZ / AFP) (Photo credit should read YURI CORTEZ/AFP/Getty Images)

“There is nothing socialist about Nicolas Maduro. The guy is a fraud. This government is not progressive – it’s a government that represses workers.” These are the words of José Bodas, a workers’ union leader, who has spent more than 30 years fighting for workers’ rights. When I visited him last year in Barcelona, a city in eastern Venezuela, he was standing in front of a portrait of Vladimir Lenin.

Bodas has worked for PDVSA, Venezuela’s state oil company, his whole life. He led pickets demanding fair wages for his colleagues in the pre-Chavez era of private enterprise, and continues to do so now, despite 20 years of “socialist” revolution. His colleagues are still underpaid, receiving the minimum wage of 18,000 bolivars ($6.70) per month.