Red Emma’s

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.

Anderson Bean is a sociology professor at North Carolina A&T State University, a North Carolina–based activist, and a member of GRS and the Tempest Collective. He is a contributor and editor of Venezuela in Crisis: Socialist Perspectives as well as the author of the book Communes and the Venezuelan State: The Struggle for Participatory Democracy in a Time of Crisis.

Simón Rodríguez is a Venezuelan socialist writer and journalist, a founder of the Partido Socialismo y Libertad (PSL), and a former professor at the Universidad de los Andes. He is a founding member of Laclase.info and Venezuelanvoices.org and has published in NACLA, The New Arab, Rebelión, and numerous other outlets. His work has been translated into six languages, and he is coauthor, with Miguel Sorans, of Why Did Chavismo Fail? A Left-Opposition Balance Sheet.

Oly Millán Campos is an economist, professor at the Central University of Venezuela, and former minister in the Chávez government. She held numerous positions related to economic planning, development, and popular economy initiatives between 2000 and 2006. Since 2013, she has been active in the Citizen Platform Against Embezzlement of the Nation and the Citizen Platform for the Defense of the Constitution.