Are Venezuelans so thoroughly locked down they dare not speak out against their government, seems they have more in common with N Korea. No nuclear bombs though yet.
They have more oil than Saudi Arabia but Hugo Chavez went from a corporal in the Army to an estate of $5 billion now owned by his surviving daughter. Nicolas Maduro, a former bus driver, cannot keep the utilities working. The cops are criminals gangs as they rob to support themselves since they are not paid so much. They put everything out of business by nationalizing it. They grocery stores are even more empty than ours are now. A weapon of socialism/communism is to starve the people. They have been out of toilet paper for years. Occasionally they open the border with Columbia and Venezuelans go into Columbian grocery stores and start crying. Tens of thousands have fled to other countries, including the USA. Cuba, Russia, China, and Iran are all operating in Venezuela. Caracas is the major shipping point for narcotics from Latin America to Europe. Russia had hoped that the charismatic Chavez would lead a popular uprising in Latin America but he died of cancer. The Russians looked at Fidel but he was dying and finally died and his brother Raul has the personality of a mafia don. They looked at Daniel Ortega in Nicaragua but he is a child molester. They looked at Evo Morales in Bolivia but he lacked charisma and finally lost an election in Bolivia and is on the run although he is still a close friend of Pope Francis--Morales was a drug cultivator before he became President. They had hoped a little in Rafael Correa in Ecuador but he, too, lost an election and lost power. Then there was Christina Kirchner in Argentina, close to the Iranians and a Peronist (fascist) like Pope Francis but she is so crooked that she is always just one step from jail in Argentina, a country ruined by Italian fascist socialism 100 years ago. Latin America, a dumpster fire. Even AMLO, or Andrés Manuel López Obrador, President of Mexico is a communist but he is not in the style of Castro and Pope Francis as he seems to be a Mexican patriot although no one wants to invest in Mexico until he finishes his term.
Latin America went left and it backfired.
