Do you wonder why the situation in Venezuela is not the lead story on every major newscast? Or why it is not on the front page of every large newspaper in America? Of course not: to report it would be to admit that socialism leads to poverty for most people. The socialist does not anticipate being one of most people. He expects to be in charge. Plenty of food for those in charge.
Sounds like they had been living off of redistribution of oil income.
Which worked fine until Saudi Arabia put its oil on fire sale.
They aren’t even set up for capitalism as such.