A fairly good insight, with a kernel of truth, IMO.
The thing is, none of us really know anything about Venezuela - almost none of us has ever set foot in the country, almost none of us actually knows a Venezuelan, and you really cannot obtain knowledge about a nation by reading the opinion columns of old, white dudes in the Wall Street Journal or the national review. It is always remarkable to me how quickly a lot of us turn into arm chair experts about topics we are not really qualified to speak on as experts.
My impression of Venezuela is that it has been a basket case since at least the early 1990s, when I went there. A wonderful country, a beautiful country, but as with most of Latin America dealing with decades, even centuries of exploitation, crony capitalism, authoritarian generalissimos, ruthless land owners, a quasi-serf economy, some phony leftist and Maoist revolutionaries, lack of an adequate functioning legal system, the meddling of American governments and western oil companies, and more. There is a reason the Nazi leadership fled to South America after WW2 - the continent had a long history of providing cover for rightwing authoritarians, colonial exploiters, and quasi-feudal societies that favored the rich and powerful over the poor and landless.
Naturally, it is a huge continent, with many positive advancements balancing the obvious problems. But the problems of Venezuela are obviously complex, cannot be boiled down to soundbites, nor can we really gain any insight by reading an opinion column by a white dude in a rightwing newspaper.
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