Venezuela + oil + US propaganda = hysteria

Let's forget for a moment the Petro and the current economic crisis in Venezuela. Let's see some FACTS:

• Venezuela has a strongly democratic Constitution and is a liberal democracy.
• Their electoral system, introduced in early 2000s, was defined by US ex-president Jimmy Carter "the best in the world" (Carter was an international observer during elections in dozens of countries).
• Private property is protected under the law, exactly like in any other liberal democracy.
• Private media (that includes several TV channels, newspapers and websites) are mostly controlled by the opposition.
• In Venezuela you have debates defining Maduro a dictator and the government a "regime" on TV, every day.
• They have dozens of political parties: some belong to the government coalition, some are opposition parties. All of them can (obviously) participate in free, secret, universal elections.
• Venezuela guarantees the right to demonstrate and protest, free speech and press freedom are protected by the law.
• Only in the last year Venezuela held 3 different elections: Constituent Assembly, Mayors and Governors.
• On April 22nd, 2018, Venezuela will have the Presidential Election and the electoral campaign has already started.
• If you like McDonalds or Burger King, you can find them in Caracas.
• You can actually find any other major multinational brand and, among them, many US companies operating in Venezuela.

Therefore Venezuela is definitely not a "communist dictatorship", not even close.
Venezuela is a liberal democracy with elected governments that the US have tried to overthrow (undemocratically) for 20 years.

Many people fail to analyse Venezuelan political and economic situation, without falling for narratives that are unsupported by facts. I can't blame them. Some of them have no idea but repeat what they heard. Some are influenced by 20 years of massive propaganda by the US funded opposition and the US. A minority (mostly middle and upper class Venezuelans) have reasons to think that their privileges and interests are not supported, as they've always been, under Chavez and Maduro. And last but not least, radical anti-socialists or fascists of the world developed a biased judgement based on their ideology and hatred towards anything that uses the word "socialism".

The guy whose wife is Venezuelan (cbair3) admits he has "strong opinions" for that reason. Sure, middle class Venezuelans (mostly white) grew up in an environment of toxic propaganda (and sometimes outright racism), mostly after Chavez was first elected. Many middle class Venezuelans dream to be a sort of American surrogate, and they are: they idolise the model of the masters (the de-facto rulers of the country for a century), dreaming a life of consumption that the vast majority of Venezuelans cannot even afford to imagine. This happens in all Latin American countries and represents a major effect of US imperial power over the continent.

We see this power reflected in the anti-chavista propaganda that you can find on a daily basis on all major TV networks and news outlets. rme's post is one in a million: you can find tons of posts like that in social media. Why? Where do the lies and hysteria come from? Why people hate so much the government of Venezuela and not, let's say, the government of Colombia, where life conditions for millions are catastrophic and political assassinations a daily reality? Very simple: Colombia has a puppet government controlled by the US and is militarily occupied by the US with several military bases, so everything's "fine" in Colombia (despite 5 decades of civil war, tens of thousands of deaths, death squads, paramilitaries violence, massive drug trade, massive political assassinations etc).

I let you analyse the news on Venezuela that you can find on CNN, BBC, The New York Times, The Washington Post and so on, in the last 20 years. And then compare all that with what actually happened in Venezuela in the last 20 years, by only relying on the facts. Take your time.