Dilemmas of post-neoliberal ecosocialism and resistance of social movements against the neo-extractivist model in Venezuela

Abstract

From an analytical and critical perspective of the environmental movement, which is composed of the environmental, indigenous and human rights movements, study is intended to identify contradictions and the high social and environmental costs of the developmentalist and extractive" economic model posed by the 21st Century Socialism in Venezuela  to guide the post-neo-liberal transition during the period 1999-2013. Such contradictions are related to the following factors: a) the lack of coherence between the accentuation of the extractive model imposed from above, which is the financial support of the political model, and the discourse of participative democracy and sustainable endogenous development implicit in the nation's development plans and agendas defended by the Venezuelan Government in international forums; b)  the inability of the Government to control  the strong negative impacts deriving from the application of this model of development in indigenous communities and the areas of greatest biodiversity and ecological vulnerability and, c) the fact that development policies and plans have been designed without taking into account neither the environmental and indigenous constitutional rights nor expectations and demands of the environmental movement so they have generated strong resistance.  In addition, in a rentier  economy  based on the exploitation of hydrocarbons such as the Venezuelan, the need for revenues to feed the social missions which are essential to reduce poverty and achieve social inclusion, has prevented transcend globalizing capitalism.   In this context, the environmental movement is threatened,  not by the political model which share in the majority of cases, but by the logic underlying the extractive economic model which originates high social and environmental costs.