21st Century Socialism: Rest in Peace?

21st Century Socialism: Rest in Peace? / Cubanet, Miriam Celaya
Posted on March 9, 2016

Cubanet, Miriam Celaya, Havana, 25 February 2106 — The crisis of the
ghostly 21st Century Latin American socialism has been demonstrated once
again with the negative outcome of the referendum on the reform of
Bolivia's constitution that sought to legitimize the candidature of Evo
Morales in the 2019 elections. The controversial petty king aspired to
remain screwed to the presidential armchair at least until 2025… but
most of his countrymen, including native ethnic groups, have given him
the brush-off.

So far, and despite the maneuvers that — according to what opposition
sectors of the Andean country claim — the Morales government is taking
advantage of to reverse its resounding defeat, everything indicates that
the NO vote is irreversible.

Within a few months, the decline of the leftist leadership — which
started in Argentina with the fall of Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner in
the presidential elections, followed by the loss of Chavismo in last
December's parliamentary elections in Venezuela and now with the refusal
to allow Evo to hijack power in Bolivia — shows plainly that the
lifetime aspirations of the leaders of XXI century socialism are being
left in the lurch.

With this new knockout to the Hemisphere's progressive leaderships, it
has been demonstrated that, in actuality, populism movements with
Castro-Chávez-Marxist leanings are neither all that popular nor have
they brought with them the changes that voters were hoping for,
including the poorest sectors, the supposed "beneficiaries" of "the
model." The rejection by the majority of citizens of the new and,
paradoxically, the already exhausted paradigm, makes clear a truism: the
neoliberalism of the '90s deepened the schism between the richest and
the poorest of this continent, heightening the deep social conflicts and
ruptures that have historically marked relations between governments and
the governed. This gave way to the emergence of socialism of the XXI
century, but, before long, it became clear that it is not the holy
ointment to heal all of the region's ills. Instead, it makes them worse.

The late Hugo Chávez was the highest representative of the model he
attempted to implement, and it is expected that, together with his
model, another ghostly excrescence will also disappear: ALBA, the
Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America, currently
unmentioned, as a relative who has brought disgrace to the family. ALBA
is a colossal pipedream, devised by the leader from Barinas himself in a
recipe inspired by unadulterated selfishness, a mixture of leftist
ideology, anti-imperialism, egotism, messianic in nature and spiced
throughout with plenty of corruption. A pipedream stirred into the sea
of ​​oil taken from Venezuelans for more three decades with the sole
purpose of artificially supporting allies in the region, something that
has become unsustainable in the current economic crisis in Venezuela,
the largest in its history, born in the shadow of the doctrine of the
new socialism.

Without a doubt, the matrix of the radical left has been taking on
setbacks of late, almost without pause: scandals involving corruption,
drug trafficking, influence peddling, patronage and other similar bits
and pieces that keep many leaders under the magnifying glass of public
opinion. It's not so easy to keep people's eyes under wraps. It is no
wonder that the effusive president of Ecuador, Rafael Correa, has
discreetly lowered his profile, putting away his fervent speech for some
other symbolic occasion. The Central American drunkard, Daniel Ortega,
is also not being seen around much these days. It's not a good time for
the leaders of the operetta.

However, it is still too early to place the tombstone on the tragic fate
of 21st century socialism. At least we Cubans know very well how not to
underestimate the capacity for survival, not of populist-type
ideologies, so entrenched in Latin American veins, but in its
"idiocrats" (or should I say idio-rats).

Behold smart aleck octogenarians of the Palace of the Revolution in
Havana, who have had so much to do with the harmful leftist regional
epidemics. They have been keeping anti-imperialist trappings under their
thrones to enter into friendly lobbying ­precisely with "the natural
enemy of the people," Yankee imperialism.

And so, while Cristina has vanished from the political scene, Maduro
continues his hysterical tantrum in the swampy Venezuelan panorama, and
Evo seeks solace for Sunday's setback, ruminating one after another his
coca leaves in the Palacio Quemado, [The Bolivian Government Palace],
the druids of the olive green gerontocracy are decked out in their
finery, ready to receive the highest representative of the brutal
capitalism whose hard currencies leftist leaders are so attracted to.

Of course, we should not be suspicious. Perhaps it is not a betrayal on
the part of Cuba's General-President and his claque of Marxist and
Castro-Chavista principles in Our America, as claimed by some of the
ill-intentioned, but a reshuffling of the action in view of the new
circumstances. Over half a century of experience as successful pedigree
conspirators supports the survivors of these chameleonic "Marxists."
We'll see how they will recycle slogans and anthems of the proletarian
Internationale as soon as leaders of the Castro regime succeed in laying
their hands on dollars, since, when it is all said and done, it seems
that the end does justify the means.

Because, without exaggerating, the so-called "socialism" with an
autocratic soul is like a disease that cannot be cured and often kills.
It's like a mutant virus that changes in appearance and succeeds in
multiplying in order to continue making human societies sick. The bad
news for Cubans is that such an infection is cured only with a strong
dose of democracy, a medication that has been in short supply in Cuba
for more than six decades.

Translated by Norma Whiting

Source: 21st Century Socialism: Rest in Peace? / Cubanet, Miriam Celaya
| Translating Cuba -
http://translatingcuba.com/21st-century-socialism-rest-in-peace-cubanet-miriam-celaya/