Who Is to Blame for Venezuela's Collapse?

PanAm Post ^ | May 9, 2016 | by Carlos Sabino

[Oldeconomybuyer]

Citizens turned out in massive crowds to add their signatures to the recall referendum against Venezuela President Nicolas Maduro.

And for good reason. The country is in a state of paralysis: frequent blackouts; food, medicine and vaccine scarcities; closed-down factories and frequent looting. Chaos and anarchy hang over the nation that not so long ago was the most rich and advanced in Latin America.

Without a doubt the fault of the country's dire situation is on the late president Hugo Chávez. His socialist policies devastated Venezuela's flourishing economy.

But in a less obvious way, Venezuelan citizens are also to blame. Not only because they supported a military officer who had originally taken his position by coup in 1992 - giving him 56 percent of the necessary votes in February 1999 - but because they also supported him in illegally changing the constitution to give him even more power.

[Oldeconomybuyer]

Citizens turned out in massive crowds to add their signatures to the recall referendum against US President Hillary Clinton.

And for good reason. The country is in a state of paralysis: frequent blackouts; food, medicine and vaccine scarcities; closed-down factories and frequent looting. Chaos and anarchy hang over the nation that not so long ago was the most rich and advanced in the world.

Without a doubt the fault of the country's dire situation is on ex-president Barack Hussein Obama. His socialist policies devastated America's flourishing economy.

But in a less obvious way, American citizens are also to blame. Not only because they supported a known radical socialist who had originally taken his Senate position by unsealing court records on his opponent in 2004 - then giving him 53 percent of the necessary votes for president in 2008 - but because they also supported him in illegally changing the constitution to give him even more power.

[jmaroneps37]

Socialism

[HarleyLady27]

Oh did Jeb Bush pull the drug cartel out of there?

[sparklite2]

If the citizens voted for what they got,
then they are to blame for what it became.

[Celtic Conservative]

I’ll take “socialist Venezuelan pinheads” for $1000, Alex.

CC

[A CA Guy]

No self reliance mostly got them.

[dsrtsage]

George Bush, Duh

[stephenjohnbanker]

You won

[ozzymandus]

Those dirty anti-communists, no doubt.

[Jack Hammer]

Marx, Engels, Trotsky, Lenin, and their fans and enablers.

Sanders and Hillary come to mind.

[Lurker]

Venezuelans.

Next question.

L

[Celtic Conservative]

Kewl!

CC

[BloodScarletMinnesota]

It seems pretty stupid for a slave in a communist dictatorship to sign one's name expressing a lack of solidarity with the socialist revolution.

The secret police may not be able to arrest and imprison every single person, but the government can let it be known that anyone who signed shouldn't be surprised if the government comes knocking at 3AM.

[Robert DeLong]

No it was socialism, period. They were one of the wealthiest nations before Hugo Chavez ran on democratic socialism (though I believe he called it 21st century socialism). But socialism by any name is still the same thing, and it leads to the same outcome. Destruction of the country. The truly amazing thing is that it only took 17 years to totally destroy the country.

He knew what the ultimate outcome that was to come because as part of the plan, gun control was put into place. Starting with registration, than restricting gun ownership for criminals (meaning criminals were barred from possessing or owning guns), and then finally confiscation.

Things are so bad there now that people are killing dogs, cats, pigeons and whatever else they can find. Humans may be next.

[Travis McGee]

Our mis-education system has done its work so well, millennials are drawn to Bernie's cool new idea called "socialism."

[Travis McGee]

[Opinionated Blowhard]

But in a less obvious way, Venezuelan citizens are also to blame. Not only because they supported a military officer who had originally taken his position by coup in 1992 — giving him 56 percent of the necessary votes in February 1999 — but because they also supported him in illegally changing the constitution to give him even more power.

The citizens supported him in the beginning when he was taking from the "rich" and giving to the poor. Everyone likes to live the good life on someone else's dime and this legal robbery created a huge wealth transfer to the lower classes. We are at that point in America too. There is a lot of support for taking wealth from the "rich" (whatever that means) and handing it out to the Dems' favorite constituencies. They will support it until the goose that laid the golden egg -- the American capitalist economy -- finally can't take the strain and collapses. Then they will piss and moan too. But at that point the wealth will be gone.

[PJBankard]

Socialism

Ding! Ding! Ding! We have a winner.

[tflabo]

I call it ‘Castroism’ since Hugo adored and modeled the nation after aka the bearded dictator. Where are Sean Penn and Danny Glover now extolling the paradise of Venezuela? Hollyweirdo frauds.

[ameribbean expat]

How come everybody always leaves out the Roman Catholic bishops? See the Bozo in the Vatican? He’s pretty much standard issue in Latin America. Rome could do an awful lot of good in Latin America if it would get its act together. But I won’t be holding my breath.