Jeremy Corbyn finally broke his silence on Venezuela this week, but in the manner of a man who has his head buried in a very large bucket of sand. He condemned violence ‘on both sides’, painting the country’s problems as a battle between factions rather than a case of a repressive government snuffing out popular protests. No one would know from the Labour leader’s words that President Maduro’s regime is engaged in what the UN Human Rights Office described this week as a ‘widespread and systematic use of excessive force’.
More revealing still was Corbyn’s reply when prodded on the economic and social conditions which led to the protests. The economy needed to diversify away from oil, he suggested, adding: ‘but we also have to recognise that there have been effective and serious attempts at reducing poverty, improving literacy and improving the lives of the poorest people’. It is hard to believe that he was speaking about a country where, according to the IMF, the economy shrank last year by 8 per cent, inflation hit 481 per cent, unemployment was 17 per cent, and where malnutrition is now widespread.
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