Posted on 01/03/2026 11:54:06 PM PST by UMCRevMom@aol.com
Pablo Escobar was elected alternate representative to the Congress of the Republic of Colombia in 1982. Upon receiving the news of his victory, he told his wife: “Get ready to be the First Lady . . . the doors of the presidential palace will open for us.” The most notorious drug trafficker in history dreamed of becoming president of his country.
To realize that dream, Escobar oversaw a reign of terror that included bombings, assassinations of judges, police, and presidential candidates, and mass kidnappings. The exact number of victims is unknown but estimated to be around 50,000. The Colombian drug baron aimed to bend the authority of the state, transforming it into both a shield and a platform for his business. Yet despite his efforts, he did not succeed. Colombia’s institutional framework acted as a bulwark against his incursions. The Supreme Court, armed forces, media, and citizens confronted Escobar and prevented organized crime from taking over their country. Democracy prevailed.
FORTY YEARS LATER, HOWEVER, ESCOBAR'S VISION BECAME REALITY IN VENEZUELA. Nicolás Maduro achieved what Pablo Escobar never could. On 25 July 2025, the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control identified the Venezuelan dictator as the leader of the Cartel of the Suns, a network of high-ranking military officers and officials that ships tons of cocaine abroad.
Maduro is the mafia boss in this story. He has succeeded in merging political power with criminal power into a single apparatus. He colonized the Venezuelan state and has bent it to serve international organized crime, destroying his country’s democracy along the way.
(Excerpt) Read more at journalofdemocracy.org ...
Thank God our type of governance is not democracy.
ARTICLE
The Roots of Venezuela’s Failing State
OSU.EDU
By John Polga-Hecimovich
April, 2017
https://origins.osu.edu/read/roots-venezuelas-failing-state
.
LESSONS FOR THE FUTURE
“Venezuela’s misfortune offers a number of lessons.
Politically, it suggests that free and fair elections are necessary but not sufficient for democracy, and that democracy requires effective ongoing citizen participation, political representation, and political equality.
Similarly, it also shows how easily states can move among dictatorship, democracy, and hybrid regimes. Countries with shallow democratization or limited representation like Venezuela are at a greater risk of democratic backsliding than places where voters possess high political efficacy and feel represented. Economically, this experience offers a case study of the dangers of resource dependency—especially in the context of underdeveloped institutions. Oil grew Venezuela’s economy, but generated a reliance that has undermined development.
THE COUNTRY’S WEALTH, LIKE THAT OF SO MANY COMMODITY-DEPENDENT PLACES, WAS MORE ILLUSORY IN THE 1970s AND THE 2000s THAN MANY BELIEVED. This also suggests that a rise in oil prices right now would be palliative rather than curative, since the same structural problems would continue to plague the economy. Resource-dependent countries need to find a way out of the vicious cycle of the resource curse in order to build their productive economy.
Lastly, Venezuela’s crisis shows the real and immediate effects that dogmatic policy-making has on economies and societies. There are plenty of oil-dependent, weakly democratic states in the world, but none that has experienced the type of implosion that Venezuela has.
Hugo Chávez, Nicolás Maduro, and the PSUV made—and continue to make—reckless political and economic decisions. Just as the current depths of Venezuela’s crisis were avoidable, so too is its occurrence in other places.” (Excerpt)
[Editor’s Note:
Boom and bust. That economic cycle has happened repeatedly in places dependent on one natural resource, like Venezuela and petroleum. The history behind the most dramatic economic and human rights crisis in the Americas.]
“Thank God our type of governance is not democracy.”
Absolutely.
I am amazed when people spout off about “democracy”. That form or government is nothing more than mob rule. Socrates, found out the hard way, democracy sucks buttermilk. There is nothing good in democracy. A republican government is the best. It is what we have in these United States. Democracies slide into marxism or military dictatorships far to easily.
I am more interested in how our country became a gangster state.
Great article. Thx for posting it.
Al Capone would be laughing right now.
Don't get your panties in a wad every time you hear the word just because you think mob rule is the intended meaning.
Most of the time, when someone says "defend democracy," they’re not advocating mob rule; they’re talking about preserving free elections, rule of law, and constitutional protections.
Communist nations have “free” elections.
Name one communist country that has “free” elections.
When democrats refer to the United States as democracy it is a tool for giving them legitimacy and the elimination of our constitution. Mob rule. I will not be lumped in with those people. Our republic comes with checks and balances not present in democracy. Everyone has an equal vote in democracy that does not exist in United States. You can change laws here, you cannot take away rights. Democrats want to take away rights, for your own good. The equal voice B.S. None for me
Venezuala.
Thanks for the post! Very informative.
Do we have “free” elections in these United States?
It just shows what happens in a Democracy when the bad guy can steal elections. I have little doubt Chavez not only stole his election but the referendum that turned Venezuela Socialist.
In modern usage, when people call a country a ‘democracy,’ they almost always mean representative democracy under a constitution with checks and balances—exactly the kind of limited, constitutional republic we have.
Huh?
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