SOCIALIST VENEZUELA IS BREATHING IT'S LAST

I have been covering the story of Venezuela rather closely over the past year, some of my previous posts can be found here and here, and in short articles for those that follow me on Facebook. To review some pertinent facts: Venezuela is governed by incompetent Socialist dictators that have ruined the nation and it's economy. The misguided dictators have nationalized private property and control almost all the means of production within the nation, and they compounded their foolish decisions by setting price controls and creating massive hyperinflation. The situation is so terrible, Venezuelans are fleeing their country by the hundreds of thousands.

 The only hope the Venezuelan government ever had at accomplishing anything with their economic boondoggle was the money brought in by PDVSA, the state owned oil company. However, even that has been a complete failure. The state owned oil company owes many of it's assets to properties seized from private businesses. Many of the skilled laborers and technical experts needed to run the company departed when the government began seizing properties, and they were replaced by overwhelmed, incompetent, and starving, ruling party favorites. As a result of this total calamity, Venezuela's oil production has fallen from 3.4 million barrels a day to less than 1.4 million barrels a day. But, the situation has only gotten worse. In a first of it's kind legal action, ConocoPhillips has seized properties owned by PDVSA. The US and other nations froze various assets owned by the Venezuelan government, and Venezuela's creditors are now filing lawsuits in order to gain access to those assets.

The mindless idiots of the Socialist party that control Venezuela have made a great many stupid decisions, and have left the nation, it's economy, and it's people in a state of ruin and despair. They owe billions of dollars to individuals and companies from whom they seized assets, in what can be compared to armed robbery. It is most likely that money will never be paid back, and what properties were seized by the power hungry Socialists will be lost forever. Perhaps the only chance Venezuela has for any sort of positive future is for the public to realize how badly the Socialists have botched the situation, and to unite and vote them out of office. However, things have been so bad for so long, it will take several decades for Venezuela to recover from the last 19 years of bungled government.