Black Agenda Report
Black Agenda Report
News, commentary and analysis from the black left.

  • Home
  • Africa
  • African America
  • Education
  • Environment
  • International
  • Media and Culture
  • Political Economy
  • Radio
  • US Politics
  • War and Empire
  • omnibus

Trump-Appointed Venezuela Coup Leader Plans Neoliberal Capitalist Shock Therapy
Ben Norton
06 Feb 2019
🖨️ Print Article
Trump-Appointed Venezuela Coup Leader Plans Neoliberal Capitalist Shock Therapy
Trump-Appointed Venezuela Coup Leader Plans Neoliberal Capitalist Shock Therapy

Venezuela’s US-appointed coup leader Juan Guaidó plans to privatize state assets and give foreign corporations access to oil, the Wall Street Journal admitted.

“Guaidó plans to implement the neoliberal capitalist shock therapy that Washington has imposed on the region for decades.”

The Wall Street Journal reported that Venezuela’s US-appointed coup leader Juan Guaidó has already drafted plans for “opening up Venezuela’s vast oil sector to private investment” and “privatizing assets held by state enterprises.”

The report confirms what The Grayzone previously reported.

“Juan Guaidó, recognized by Washington as the rightful leader, said he would sell state assets and invite private investment in the energy industry,” read the Wall Street Journal’s January 31 article.

The paper noted that Guaidó plans “to reverse President Nicolás Maduro’s economic polices,” explaining:

“Mr. Guaidó said his plan called for seeking financial aide from multilateral organizations, tapping bilateral loans, restructuring debtand opening up Venezuela’s vast oil sector to private investment. It includes privatizing assets held by state enterprises … He also said he’d end wasteful state subsidies and take steps to revive the private sector.”

In other words, Guaidó plans to implement the neoliberal capitalist shock therapy that Washington has imposed on the region for decades.

“Guaidó seeks to adopt an aggressive “structural adjustment” program.”

Using funding from US-dominated international financial institutions like the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the Venezuelan coup leader seeks to adopt an aggressive “structural adjustment” program, enacting the kinds of economic policies that have led to the preventable deaths of millions of people and an explosion of poverty and inequality in the years following capitalist restoration in the former Soviet Union.

In a speech, Juan Guaidó even echoed rhetoric that is popular among US conservatives: “Here, no one wants to be given anything.”

It is clear that the coup leader’s priorities reflect those of Venezuela’s capitalist oligarchs and right-wing politicians in the United States. Economic liberalization is the Venezuelan opposition’s first and most important goal; democracy is just a pretense.

This article previously appeared on The Grayzone Projectsite.

Regime Change Venezuela
Venezuela

Do you need and appreciate Black Agenda Report articles? Please click on the DONATE icon, and help us out, if you can.


Related Stories

Movement for Social Justice
The MSJ Unequivocally Condemns the US Military Buildup in the Southern Caribbean
26 August 2025
The U.S. is a purveyor of global violence, as illustrated by the intensifying militarism in the Caribbean and targeting of Venezuela.
Black Alliance for Peace Haiti/Americas Team
BAP Haiti/Americas Team Condemns US Government Attack on Venezuelan Sovereignty
20 August 2025
The US issues a $50 million bounty on President Maduro while Sanctioning the Venezuelan people and starving Gaza.
Roger D. Harris
US Human Rights Report on Venezuela Doesn’t Pass the Mirror Test
20 August 2025
The U.S.
Roger D. Harris
Ballots and Bias: How the Press Framed Venezuela’s Regional and Legislative Elections
11 June 2025
Roger D.
Internationalist 360
Marco Rubio Travels to Guyana to Entrench U.S. Colonial Rule
02 April 2025
U.S.
Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
The Ghost of Jimmy Carter
08 January 2025
Hagiography is inevitable when presidents and other prominent people die.
Organization for the Victory of the People
No Deployment of US Troops or Bases in the Caribbean
18 December 2024
The United States seeks to buttress its power in the Caribbean by deploying troops to Trinidad and Tobago, using this geostrategic position to
Redacción Cultural
Our full support for the Anti-Fascist International
25 September 2024
A constant in two centuries of U.S.
Jesús Chucho García , Clau O'Brien Moscoso
AfroDescendientes En Acción 7 Aug '24
11 September 2024
While the far-right attacks in Venezuela backed by imperialist forces may have died down, the threat the opposition poses still is very present
Brasil de Fato
Venezuela suffers national blackout, government denounces “sabotage” to electrical grid
04 September 2024
The outage began at 4 am on August 30 and affected several states in the country, including the capital Caracas.

More Stories


  • asdf
    Glen Ford, BAR Executive Editor
    Katrina Victims: Relocated or Forced into Exile?
    27 Aug 2025
    Black Agenda Report's late Executive Editor, Glen Ford, gave this interview a decade after Hurricane Katrina to explore how the narrative of "starting over" is being used to whitewash the forced…
  • asfd
    Glen Ford , BAR executive editor
    Katrina Victims: Relocated or Forced into Exile?
    27 Aug 2025
    In this 2015 Real News Network interview the late Glen Ford, Black Agenda Report co-founder and Executive Editor, analyzed why an article in The New Yorker marking the 10th anniversary of Hurricane…
  • Hurricane Katrina man on car
    Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
    Why We Remember Katrina
    27 Aug 2025
    Twenty years ago, the world witnessed more than the suffering of hurricane Katrina's victims. The United States was exposed as a failed state controlled by the cruelties of racialized capitalism.
  • Editors, The Black Agenda Review
    ESSAY: This is Criminal, Malik Rahim, New Orleans, September 1st, 2005
    27 Aug 2025
    “It’s not like New Orleans was caught off guard. This could have been prevented.”
  • Jon Jeter
    From Jim Crow to Katrina to Gentrification, Tracing the Rise and Fall of New Orleans Working Class
    27 Aug 2025
    A forgotten history of cross-racial labor solidarity in 1890s New Orleans offered a glimpse of a potential future. Its deliberate destruction set the stage for the city's modern transformation into a…
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us