He was one of the most passionate propagandists for Hugo Chávez’s Bolivarian revolution: a feisty leftist TV personality who spent more than two decades singing the movement’s praises on his state-funded show, The Razorblade.
asserted
who → spend → show
Mario Silva’s devotion was such that he often hosted his programme with Chávez’s portrait behind him and he had El Comandante’s curly signature tattooed on to his left wrist.
asserted
he → host → wrist
But nine months after Venezuela’s political landscape was scrambled by Donald Trump’s abduction of Chávez’s heir, Nicolás Maduro, Silva’s show has been cancelled, and its host is livid about the revolution’s direction under Maduro’s former deputy, Delcy Rodríguez.
asserted
host → scramble → deputy
“[I feel] a lot of disappointment – depressed … and sometimes I wake up and feel like the world is collapsing around me,” the 66-year-old said during a rare interview at his home studio in the mountains outside the capital, Caracas.
asserted
old → feel → capital
Silva has spent recent weeks railing against Rodríguez’s interim administration on YouTube, his home since his programme on state TV was axed, berating those he blames for Venezuela’s “shameful and utterly illegitimate surrender” to the US.
asserted
he → spend → US
Since January, a parade of high-ranking US officials – including the head of the CIA, the chair of the joint chiefs of staff and the energy secretary, Chris Wright – have visited Caracas, while Trump recently trumpeted striking “the biggest oil deal in world history” with Rodríguez’s regime.
asserted
Trump → rank → regime
Last week, Rodríguez and Trump met on the sidelines of the UN general assembly, posing for a smiley photograph that left diehard Chavistas such as Silva aghast.
asserted
that → meet → Silva
“I thought it [the photo] was artificial intelligence or something like that.
asserted
it → think → that
But it’s surrealism, utter surrealism …
asserted
it → ’ → ?
It’s impossible to understand,” Silva fumed on YouTube as a red flag emblazoned with the faces of Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels and Vladimir Lenin hung behind him.
asserted
flag → ’ → him
“They have surrendered this country and surrendered it the most vile and despicable way,” Silva went on.
asserted
Silva → surrender → it
“Honestly, they are dragging the country’s name through the mud.
asserted
they → drag → mud
They are dragging Chávez’s name through the mud.”
asserted
They → drag → mud
In another broadcast, Silva seethed about the cosy post-Maduro relationship that has developed between one-time anti-imperialist flagbearers in Caracas and Trump officials: “Traitors and lackeys, you will have to answer for this!”
asserted
you → seethe → this
Silva is not the only Chavista loyalist struggling to comprehend the ideological U-turn being executed by Rodríguez, who was Maduro’s vice-president but has engineered a historic rapprochement with the US since his rendition on 3 January.
asserted
who → struggle → January
Elías Jaua, a vice-president and foreign minister under Chávez, is also up in arms, and claims the feeling is widely shared.
uncertain
feeling → claim → arms
“What I hear from comrades across the country is bewilderment, disagreement and indignation,” said Jaua, who believes Trump’s oil deal “amounts to an act of pillage against an entire nation”.
asserted
deal → hear → nation
Juan Barreto, a former member of the ruling Socialist party (PSUV) and mayor of Caracas, said such an agreement would have been unimaginable when the Bolivarian revolution began after Chávez’s 1998 election.
asserted
revolution → rule → election
He said Chavistas, who had once vowed “Not a drop of oil to the empire if Venezuela is attacked!”, were now in effect saying: “All of the oil reserves [for the US], for as long as you want!”
asserted
you → say → US
“The current situation is one of tutelage,” Barreto said.
asserted
Barreto → say → tutelage
Rodríguez has defended the deal, claiming it will create more than $209bn (£158bn) in revenues that will help improve healthcare and education.
asserted
that → defend → healthcare
“We are thinking of Venezuela’s future,” she said in a recent TV broadcast.
asserted
she → think → broadcast
Héctor Rodríguez, another prominent Chavista politician, has sought to deflect criticism of Venezuela’s interim government by recalling how Chávez was forced to make a tactical retreat after his failed coup attempt in 1992.
asserted
Chávez → seek → 1992
“No one can tell me Chávez was a coward.
asserted
Chávez → tell → me
He understood that the balance of power had shifted … and decided to take a step backwards,” Rodríguez said recently.
asserted
Rodríguez → understand → step
Last week as Delcy Rodríguez met Trump in New York, thousands of people joined a pro-government rally in Caracas, where supporters parroted the slogan “Delcy avanza, tú tienes mi confianza!” (“Move forward, Delcy.
asserted
tú → meet → confianza
I trust in you!”).
asserted
I → trust → you
“No matter how much they kick and scream, there’s nothing they can do to try to cover up the success of President Delcy Rodríguez’s visit to New York,” her interior minister, Diosdado Cabello, told the crowd.
asserted
minister → kick → crowd
Unlike at previous marches, there was scant mention of Maduro and few calls for him to be released.
asserted
him → be → Maduro
The depth and potential consequences of Chavista anger over Rodríguez’s embrace of Venezuela’s longtime foes in Washington remain unclear.
uncertain
depth → remain → Washington
Orlando Pérez, a Latin America expert from the University of North Texas at Dallas, recognised there was indignation at what some considered a sellout of their anti-imperialist ideals.
asserted
some → recognise → ideals
“There are Chavistas that are pissed off, there’s no question about it,” he said.
asserted
he → be → it
“There are Chavistas who see this as a betrayal of Hugo Chávez and the betrayal of the movement.”
asserted
who → be → movement
But Pérez believed that for many Chavistas who had remained in power after Trump’s invasion, the “pragmatic reality” was that working with Washington was “a necessary evil” if it meant keeping Venezuela’s opposition out of power.
asserted
it → believe → power
“If that means negotiating with Trump, if that means dealing with the CIA etc, it’s fine,” he said.
asserted
he → mean → CIA
I suspect most of them are gritting their teeth and just going along with this process as long as they can stay in power and keep their jobs.
asserted
they → suspect → jobs
I think for most it’s as simple as that: it’s about their material wellbeing.
asserted
it → think → wellbeing
However, Pérez believed Rodríguez’s government would need to demonstrate to supporters “tangible benefits to the cooperation” with the US in order to avoid a backlash.
asserted
government → believe → backlash
“They’re going to have to show that these things have a material consequence to the lives of their social base … if you don’t deliver, then it is going to get very volatile,” he warned.
asserted
he → go → base
But Silva claimed the government’s new direction and economic policies could eventually trigger a social uprising and protests.
uncertain
direction → claim → uprising
…and 10 more, not listed.
The Aporia
