Opponents of socialism often point to Venezuela as a cautionary tale. But thinking of Venezuela as a democracy gone wild or just as an example of the failure of socialism fails to fully capture the causes and consequences of the country’s predicament. To the Editor: Re “Yes, Venezuela Is a Socialist Catastrophe” (column, Jan. 26):. Once ranked as the richest South American country thanks to its oil reserves, in 1998 Venezuela elected a socialist … What failed is a policy that kept Venezuela dependent on oil revenue, a policy that guaranteed the profits of bankers and businessmen, while the people suffer from hunger. Venezuela is a woeful reminder that no country is so rich that it can’t be driven into the ground by revolutionary socialism. The politics of Venezuela occurs in a framework explained in Government of Venezuela.. Venezuela has a dominant-party system, dominated by the United Socialist Party of Venezuela amidst other parties listed in the following section. Miguel Pizarro is a quasi-socialist whose crusade against Venezuela’s ruling regime might spark “a doomsday confrontation. Venezuela is clearly having its moment in the American conservative mediasphere. Venezuela’s unfettered embrace of socialism now is ripping that nation apart, but the term has lost all ideological substance as it is currently bandied about in U.S. politics. A common misconception, reinforced recently by U.S. President Donald Trump, is that the crisis in Venezuela is the natural result of a socialist system of government. Slowly, it will destroy America, too. True Stories The Secret Pact That Launched Venezuela’s Democracy. The country’s catastrophic collapse is, we’re told, all we need to know about the terrifying dangers of socialism. The government based itself on the armed forces, in a permanent state of emergency that grows more repressive with time. Venezuela was my home, and socialism destroyed it. 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