The ongoing crisis in Venezuela is a calamitous one indeed. The country has faced widespread unemployment, shortages of food and medicine, hyperinflation, high crime rates, disease, and power cuts, among other deficiencies. Consequently, people have wondered why Venezuela has undergone such a rapid decline. One of the most common responses that emerges from this wonder, is that Venezuela is a socialist state, one that has been thoroughly decimated by socialism itself. This claim, however, is rather dubious considering Venezuela is a military kleptocracy rooted in right-wing authoritarian governance, which has led to democratic backsliding, censorship in its different variants, and infringements on basic civil liberties, all of which are clear features of authoritarianism.
Critics of socialism believe that Venezuela is a socialist state for one simple reason: they say they are. But just because Venezuela says it is socialist, by no means follows that it is, in fact, socialist. Just as North Korea is clearly not a People’s Democratic Republic, as they claim to be, and just as The Nazi Party was clearly not that of National Socialism, as they claimed to be. In other words, Venezuela does not espouse socialist principles, nor does North Korea promote even the most basic democratic principles. And the Nazi Party was a vicious regime that held all human life, outside of its kin, as diseased and…
