Dakota Beacon

Hugo Chavez was born to a middle class family in Sabaneta, Barinas, Venezuela. After becoming a career military officer, Chavez led an unsuccessful coup d'etat against Venezuelan President Andres Perezin in 1992. He was imprisoned and pardoned after 2 years in prison. He then founded a political party known as the Fifth Republic Movement. Chavez aligned himself with the Marxist-Leninist government in Cuba, as well as the socialist governments of Bolivia, Ecuador, and Nicaragua and self described himself as a Marxist and his policies as anti-imperialist.

Chavez was elected President of Venezuela in 1998 with 56.2% of the vote, re-elected in 2000 with 59.8% of the vote, in 2006 with 62.8% of the vote, and in 2012 with 55.1% of the vote. He died of cancer on March 5, 1013 at the age of 58 in Caracas.

After record high oil revenues of the 2000s he nationalized key industries, established “Communal Councils”, and used oil revenues to address poverty, literacy, income inequality and other social issues. After deficit spending, price controls, suppression of the press, manipulation of election laws, exile of government critics and government sponsored propaganda during the first decade of the new century, combined with falling oil prices, Chavez declared an “economic war” on Venezuela's upper classes.

Poverty, inflation, shortages, increases in the murder rate and rampant corruption within the government followed.

The constitutional changes implemented under Chavez included transfer of Central Bank control the President, prohibition of large land estates, elimination of elections for state governors, reduction of the work week from 44 hours to 36 hours, reduction of the workday from 8 hours to 6 hours, lowering of the voting age from 18 to 16 years of age, prohibited foreign funding of political parties, and banned discrimination base on sexual orientation.

Chavez's successor, his Vice President, Nicolas Maduro, a former bus driver and trade union leader, after serving temporarily, won a special presidential election in 2013 with 50.62% of the vote as the “United Socialist Party of Venezuela” candidate. He had ruled by decree since 2015 through powers granted to him by the ruling party legislature. He continues to maintain power through the “Supreme Tribunal”, the “National Electoral Council” and the Venezuelan military despite election of an opposition-led “National Assembly” in 2015. In 2017, the Supreme Tribunal removed power from the elected National Assembly.

Maduro's 2018 re-election was extremely corrupt and he is currently not recognized as President by multiple nations. Under Maduro, over 9,000 people have been killed without due process and four million Venezuelans have fled the country. China, Cuba, Russia, Iran, and Turkey support Maduro.

The USA, Canada, most of Latin America and western Europe recognize Juan Guaido, the President of the National Assembly, after he declared himself interim president on January 23, 2019.

National Assembly Representative Alejandro Pizarro Miguel Rodriguez, Gauido and others are actively working to create international pressure for Maduro to step down, along with his Cuban and Russian operatives that control the various elements of the government in Venezuela. Don't hold your breath for that to happen.

Curiously, NPR's News hour interviewed Venezuelans, including a Maduro party member. Seems that Venezuelans blame “a few people” for their troubles, including Juan Gauido for failing in his efforts to replace Maduro. But the Maduro party member is receiving boxes of food each month in return for his support of Maduro…

But who is really to blame? What about the average 58.5% of Venezuelans who elected Chavez on four separate occasions? Surely they must have known he was an avowed Marxist.

Julia Reichert, the communist who won the Oscar for the documentary “American Factory” has warned us with her plea “Workers of the World… Unite”! So the question before the entire Democrat Party and its supporters is… do we want to risk turning our country into another Venezuela by voting in the primaries for the seemingly harmless Senator Bernie Sanders?

I have personally respected Senator Sanders for being honest in describing himself as a democratic socialist, honesty being one of his few redeeming qualities; but my sixty-four thousand dollar question for all Americans is... are any of the other Democrat candidates for president honest or are they all socialists without the honesty to admit it? We Americans do not have the excuse of illiteracy that Venezuelans peasants can rely on to explain their poor choices at the ballot box.

Socialism – the Equality that is Poverty itself...