Socialist-Run Venezuela Descends Into Chaos

It wasn't supposed to turn out this way. Venezuela was going to be a workers' paradise. President Hugo Chávez said so and declared early into his first term, in 1999, that Venezuela and Cuba would sail toward the same “sea of happiness.” Not surprisingly, Venezuela is now a workers' hell. Authoritarian and dysfunctional, the oil-rich yet impoverished South American nation of 31 million people suffers dire food shortages; soaring levels of violent crime (28,479 deaths reported last year); and epic levels of corruption and drug trafficking. Unemployment is soaring – not surprising given that large swaths of the economy have been nationalized. Venezuela's court-ordered seizure of a General Motors plant is the latest such calamity.

 

Now Venezuelans are venting their anger like never before, and this includes protesters who were once the bedrock of Chávez's political base – the poor. In recent weeks, tens of thousands of Venezuelans have staged massive anti-government protests that turned streets and highways into seas of humanity. Security forces and armed pro-government militias – Chavista enforcers riding motorcycles -- have met the protesters with force: rubber bullets, tear gas, and deadly gunfire. More than 30 people have died and hundreds injured and arrested. Protesters are demanding fresh elections and the restoration of an independent parliament. Human rights watchdogs and neighboring countries are voicing concern over the unfolding crisis.

 

The protests are aimed at President Nicolás Maduro, the bus driver-turned politician who succeeded the late Hugo Chávez. Maduro has double downed on Chávez's policies. Now he embodies all the traits of a dictator in an oil-producing country whose coffers hit rock bottom as oil prices tanked. Venezuela produces little for itself. It is dependent on oil. Petrodollars, however, can no longer pay for Venezuela's traditional style of governance: statism and bread-and-circuses populism. Maduro, for his part, blames the chaos on an "economic war" being waged against him by Washington and Venezuelan elites. 

 

Besides massive protests, a humanitarian crisis is unfolding as thousands of refugees from Venezuela flood into neighboring Brazil on a quest for food and medical care now unavailable to ordinary Venezuelans thanks to shortages created by Venezuela-style socialism. Yet amid the chaos, well-connected Venezuelans and officials are getting rich thanks to epic levels of corruption and drug trafficking. Tareck El Aissami, Venezuela's vice president, is accused by U.S. authorities of being a drug “kingpin.”

 

Portents of the coming chaos were obvious (or should have been) months into Chávez's first term 18 years ago, even if Washington turned a blind eye to it. First came Chávez's words, his anti-Americanism and leftist rhetoric – words that some in the Clinton administration naively believed were mere bluster. They wanted to believe Chávez was a democratic reformer who would take on Venezuela's endemic statism and corruption. But then came Chávez's actions.

 

Once in office the former Army lieutenant colonel, who had led a disorganized and aborted coup in 1992, surprised many voters who had elected him in a landslide. They had believed his campaign pledge – that he was a moderate anti-establishment reformer who would steer a “Third Way” between capitalism and socialism. 

 

“I am not a socialist,” Chávez told reporters.

 

Yet months into office, Chávez betrayed that promise. He began to describe himself as a “revolutionary” in the mold of 1960s-era Marxist guerrillas, some of whom ended up in his administration. Believing that U.S. hegemony is bad for the world, he sought to develop a military and economic alliance to balance that influence. Chávez's anti-American tirades became increasingly apparent as he consolidated his power, rewrote the constitution, and even renamed the country Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, after South American independence hero Simón Bolívar. Until Chávez anti-Americanism had been a mere sideshow in a nation which enjoyed friendly ties with the U.S., its biggest oil customer.