Venezuela: The Kidnapping of a Nation

The Houston Courant ^ | February 21, 2020 | C. Montiel

[The Houston Courant]

Venezuela, a nation that was once the richest country in Latin America and a paradigm of democracy in the region, now bears the ravages of authoritarian socialism. An abundance of photographs, videos, and statistics appearing in the media reveal a modern-day genocide, however stubbornly many of those same media refuse to use the term. We can clearly see that government violence as well as a dearth of food and medication are killing Venezuelans; even the country’s own data show deaths from maternal mortality, infant mortality, and malaria rising rapidly. Nearly a fifth of children are reportedly malnourished and nearly four-fifths of households lack reliable access to healthy food. A once prosperous and free nation has fallen to tyranny and destitution.

The “smart set” insisted this couldn’t happen under socialism. No less a supposed intellectual than Jack London predicted this: “[S]ocialism, when the last word is said, is merely a new economic and political system whereby more men can get food to eat. In short, socialism is an improved food-getting efficiency.” How perfectly wrong socialism’s champions have been! And what terrible suffering it has taken to prove them so.

The misery inflicted on Venezuelans by President Nicolás Maduro and his predecessor, socialist icon Hugo Chávez, has resulted in an exodus of at least four million Venezuelans, according to the United Nations Refugee Agency. A citizenry that treasures community and family has seen its way of life unravel as many depart for any opportunity to provide for themselves and their loved ones back home. This is among the gravest humanitarian crises in the world, brought about by an ideological movement always claiming—yet never managing—to uplift the downtrodden.

[humblegunner]

What stopped you from posting the whole thing?

[teeman8r]

we don’t need to read the whole thing to know what the end is with socialism...

history sure do rhyme.

[ronnie raygun]

All it takes is a pied pier and stupid people

[Brooklyn Attitude]

A campaign commercial consisting of Venezuela before and after socialism would be devastating to the RAT party. Especially since it is a recent example of what happens when socialists take power. Too bad the Republicucks wont make one.

[sockmonkey]

I am sure the sanctions by the US have really helped those suffering in Venezuela. /S

[PIF]

before Venezuelan, Cuba. Next in line: the US with Sanders

[PIF]

All it takes is a pied pier and stupid people

---

pied pier = sanders
stupid people = millennials

[1Old Pro]

This is among the gravest humanitarian crises in the world, brought about by an ideological movement always claiming—yet never managing—to uplift the downtrodden.

Coming to a city near you if you are a Democrat and support Sanders.

[DrPretorius]

If all the stupid people in Venezuela are commies and all the smart people are capitalists, then why have the stupid commies taken over Venezuela with zero serious pushback from the smart capitalists? After all these years and all this misery, wouldn’t you expect to see some kind of revolution being kicked off by the smart capitalist Venezuelans who want freedom and liberty instead of death and ruin? What’s up with that?

Might it be that there aren’t any smart capitalist Venezuelans? Venezuela is just reverting back to the “brown mean” of the pre-colonial era before the Spanish arrived.