Hugo Chavez stole the election because god ol Jimmy (I never met a communist dictator I didnt love) Carter certified him as winner.
This after Chavez used migrants from Cuba, Columbia, Nicaragua and El Salvador wielding baseball bats to beat his opposition into submission
There is a lesson in there somewhere. Especially since Obama and the rest of the Radical Democrats are using the Hugo Chavez model to gain perpetual control of this country
I lived and worked in Venezuela in the early seventies. It was the most prosperous nation in South America. However its government was corrupt. It was no less corrupt than our government today in the USA. The people were fed up with corruption and thus voted for the charismatic Marxist Chavez.
Chavez brought Marxism to Venezuela. Venezuela then failed.
Venezuela should be a warning to us as is California.
I worked in their oilfields. We produced great wealth for Venezuela. Today Venezuela sits on the greatest oil reserves in the world and is an economic failure due to Marxism. Their oil production dwindles year by year. Those with skills to extract this great wealth now work in Columbia, Brazil, the USA etc. They did not want to leave their nation. They simply made wise choices based on economics.
It saddens me greatly to see this in a once lovely nation full of very good people. Those left behind with no great skills suffer greatly.
ps
Chavez did win his first election. He did not win the second election as this was all fraud endorsed by our ex President Jimmy Carter. After Chavez died, Maduro (a damned Marxist bus driver) became president. His election after Chavez was a total farce. Jimmy Carter was silent.