Two Decades of Socialism Destroyed Venezuela

During the 1950s, oil-laden Venezuela was the second-largest producer of crude oil and the fourth-richest nation in the world as measured by gross domestic product (GDP) per capita.

From 1960 to 2000, Venezuela remained a stalwart supplier of oil, averaging nearly three million barrels of production per day. During this period, Venezuela’s GDP per capita steadily increased, as did its population.

Sadly, this all came to a crashing halt when President Hugo Chavez came to power in the late 1990s.

“We have assumed the commitment to direct the Bolivarian Revolution towards socialism and to contribute to the socialist path, with a new socialism, a socialism of the 21st century, which is based in solidarity, in fraternity, in love, in justice, in liberty, and in equality,” Chavez declared in 2006.

In 2007, Chavez nationalized the oil industry.

Unsurprisingly, in the two decades since, the Venezuelan economy has crumbled, oil production has plummeted, poverty has surged, inequality has skyrocketed, and millions have fled the once-wealthy nation.

After two decades of socialism, Venezuela is currently the poorest nation in South America.

As of today, more than 90 percent of Venezuelans live in poverty. Nearly 70 percent are stuck in extreme poverty.

From 2014 to 2021, Venezuela’s GDP decreased by almost 75 percent. For years, hyperinflation has wreaked havoc.

Since 2014, Venezuela’s oil production has “starkly declined” under the state-run company. Meanwhile, nearly eight million Venezuelans have fled the country because access to food, medicine, toilet paper, and other bare necessities has been severely limited.

In 2017, things got so bad that the average Venezuelan lost 24 pounds due to malnutrition.

While the vast majority of Venezuelans have suffered since socialism was introduced about two decades ago, a very few have become extraordinarily wealthy.

In 2025, DOJ Attorney General Pam Bondi announced that the United States had seized more than $700 million of assets from illegitimate "leader" Nicolas Maduro, including “two multimillion-dollar jets, multiple homes, a mansion in the Dominican Republic, several million-dollar homes in Florida, a horse farm, nine vehicles, luxury cars, and millions of dollars in jewelry and cash.”

The story of Venezuela’s twenty-first century experiment with socialism is extremely sad but not shocking in the least.

Throughout the twentieth century, many countries experimented with many forms of socialism.

Yet, the fact remains that every time and place it has been implemented, socialism has resulted in abject poverty, mass murder, social misery, and political repression.

This is not coincidence, bad luck, or due to circumstances. Rather, it is the inevitable outcome of a governing and economic system that is antithetical to human nature.

Free enterprise, personal freedom, and private property rights are not merely modern social constructs; they are inherent to human flourishing and societal progress.

Socialism rejects these profound principles under the false assertion that the government can create wealth and equality.

However, despite multiple attempts, no socialist state has come even close to achieving equality.

For centuries, socialists have made excuses and cast blame against the likes of the bourgeoisie and capitalists for the failure of command-and-control economics.

Collectivists always claim that the next socialist experiment will succeed with a little tinkering.

Amazingly, even in America, twenty-first-century socialism is on the march in places like New York City and Seattle.

For now, the Big Apple and the Emerald City can afford to dabble in socialist ideology. But over the long haul, no matter how rich and prosperous the city or country is at the outset, socialism will destroy motivation and erode wealth.

In about 20 years, socialism devastated a once-thriving Venezuela, turning a tropical paradise flush with oil reserves into a poverty-ridden hellscape.

Believe it or not, the same fate awaits those in New York City or Seattle if they keep treading down the socialist road.

Chris Talgo ([email protected]) is editorial director at The Heartland Institute

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