The tragedy unfolding in Venezuela serves to prove a point long-settled by the failures of communist China, the former Soviet Union, Cambodia, Zimbabwe, and so on. We have known for some time that a mixture of massive government spending, nationalisation of business, politicised monetary policy and other government intrusions into the economic affairs of a country’s citizens achieves nothing other than the horror now being played out in the nation that possesses the largest proven reserves of oil. There are people who deny that the sad state of affairs in Venezuela is due to the ideological turn of the government in that country. Others believe that the US and other international forces are trying to undermine the government. This would seem a peculiar way to try and salvage the tatters of Bolivarianism — the revolution that was meant to build an inter-American alliance for nationalism and a state-led economy — as one of its aims was to rid Venezuela of such influence, therefore, it...

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