Food Riots in Venezuela
Reading about the history of Venezuela, there was a similar period of instability when the neoliberal-aligned government imposed strict austerity measures to comply with conditions set by the IMF in return for a bailout. This instability was what allowed socialists to gain control in the first place
‘We want food!’ Looting and riots rock Venezuela daily • 2016 Jun 12 • Girish Gupta and Alexandra Ulmer • Reuters
So maybe it isn’t socialism per se that is responsible for Venezuela’s woes.
Maybe it’s the legacy of centuries of colonized exploitation followed by decades of strongman rule and the corruption, crony capitalism, and outright kleptocracy that is part and parcel of such conditions instead.
But that doesn’t serve the narrative, does it?
See also:
[In 1998, President Carlos Andrés] Pérez resorted to a neoliberal agenda of austerity. He also accepted loans from the International Monetary Fund in an about-face from his campaign, in which he called the IMF a “neutron bomb that killed people but left buildings standing.”
Carlos Andres Perez • 2011 Jan 10 • Dan Fastenberg • Time