How Democratic Socialism Paved the Way for Venezuela’s Totalitarian Misery

Contrary to many accounts, socialism did not arrive in Venezuela when the late Hugo Chávez took power in 1999. Actually, it had taken root in the country much earlier. Venezuela has been governed by more or less moderate socialist parties since 1958. These parties were founded by a generation of leaders whose political history dates back to 1928 and who took power for the first time in 1945 through a coup. They all attempted to implement socialism, understood as the direct or indirect control by the state over the means of production and bring strategic sectors under supervision in order to centrally plan the economy. More…