Venezuela in Crisis: Socialist Perspectives

by Anderson M. Bean (Editor), Anderson M. Bean (Translator)

Overview

In this essential intervention, Venezuelan socialists analyze the origins and causes of their country’s crisis and offer a critique of the Maduro regime.

Venezuela in Crisis brings together a diverse array of Venezuelan thinkers and activists to grapple with the question of how and why the aspirations for what Hugo Chavez deemed “socialism in the twenty-first century” gave way to the deepest economic collapse in all of South America. While recognizing the devastating impact of sanctions, this collection’s authors reject the simplistic view that all would be well if not for US meddling. Rather, they argue that from governmental mismanagement to rising repression, the regime of Nicolás Maduro deserves a significant share of the blame for Venezuela’s ongoing crisis. 

With chapters focused on the Maduro government’s economic policies, its continuities and breaks from the Chávez era, its erosion of democratic processes in the country, and its doubling down on extractivism, Venezuela in Crisis is an indispensable guide for international solidarity activists and for anyone looking for a nuanced understanding of Venezuela’s crisis.

Writing from an anticapitalist, anti-imperialist, and anti-authoritarian perspective, this volume never loses sight of the need to stand with the Venezuelan people rather than their government—even when it claims to be struggling to build socialism. 

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9798888905050
Publisher:	Haymarket Books
Publication date:	02/17/2026
Pages:	336
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.00(d)

About the Author

Anderson M. Bean is an assistant teaching professor of sociology at the North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State Universityin Greensboro, North Carolina. He is the author of Communes and the Venezuelan State: The Struggle for Participatory Democracy in a Time of Crisis. 

Anderson M. Bean is an assistant teaching professor of sociology at the North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State Universityin Greensboro, North Carolina. He is the author of Communes and the Venezuelan State: The Struggle for Participatory Democracy in a Time of Crisis. 

Table of Contents

Part 1: Continuities and Ruptures in the Bolivarian Process

 

1               Introduction                                                                                    
Anderson M. Bean

 

2               The Venezuelan Economy During the Bolivarian Process 1999-2024
Oly Millán Campos

 

3               A Comparative Analysis Between the Governments of Hugo Chávez and Nicolás Maduro

Roberto López Sánchez

 

4               Continuities and Ruptures in the Bolivarian Process

Gustavo Márquez Marín

 

5               The Workers’ Movement During the Bolivarian Process

Roberto López Sánchez

 

Part 2: Crisis in Venezuela

 

6      Bureaucracy and Lumpencapitalist Management in the Maduro Government

         Gonzalo Gómez

 

7      Revolution and Counterrevolution in the Bolivarian Process: The Authoritarianism of the government of Nicolás Maduro

         Carlos Carcione    

 

8      US sanctions as a factor exacerbating the crisis and stagnation of the Venezuelan economy

         Omar Vázquez Heredia

 

9      Orinoco Mining Arc as an expression of the end of a cycle: right-wing turn and the economics of dispossession in the Bolivarian process

Emiliano Terán

 

10    Human Rights Violations of the Maduro Government

         Ana Sofía Viloria and Juan García

 

11    Essequibo: Vortex of Confrontations

         Simón Rodríguez

 

12    Conclusion

         Gonzalo Gómez