I didn't mean otherwise. A free market economy is one of the main wishes for government change (ie. a non socialist gov). The second wish is to stop criminality. When Chavez was in power, the constitution was replaced and the balance of powers skewed (even more) towards the executive. Under the strongman, things more or less worked, but after his death the "appointed successor" (Maduro) destroyed the economy. Before Chávez things weren't perfect either (which is how they came to power in the first place, out of voters anger of the previous system); but in the end they replaced a corrupt "social-democrat" system by a hyper-corrupt "socialist" system. They still think they can command the economy, like the former socialist bloc under the Soviet Union, a mistake that even the Chinese learned to fix, more or less...

What Venezuela has never seen, is a classic liberal system. I'm sure something along those lines would cure things quickly. What Venezuela has always had in its history, is an omnipotent State with powers heavily concentrated in the executive. Of course the opposition is mostly composed by social democrats (not unlike those from the past) which is why the people have lost hope many times (provoking mass exodus), and their inadequate reaction (or lack of action) against socialism.

For instance: in the last 20 years, only a single economist has been in the government cabinet, during the years 2002 and 2003. This person left because he opposed someone's else proposed idea to "control the foreign currency exchange" by pegging the bolivar to the US dollar. As any half decent economist would, he warned then president Chavez against the dangers of what ultimately led the country to this current state. Of course the socialists had their way back then (because "the rich are evil, and the poor want redemption...") and he was thrown away. A decade later, the poor are poorer, and sure there are less rich, but those few rich got richer thanks to the system corruption. For example: Who gets to import the goods the State distributes to the poor? Who gets to transport the goods from abroad? Obviously those few who bribe their way in...

You see Maduro increasing the minimal wage, yet to pay those wages he orders the central bank to "create" money (not even blockchain based money, or paper for that matter), provoking the out of control inflation that has, in effect, reduced the average salary from 250 USD a month in 2008 to 8 right now. What is the point of having such a ridiculous minimal wage? Just get rid of it entirely! Let the individuals choose their wages and working conditions with their employers, a gov should at most ensure any valid contract privately signed between parties is respected by both. But no, Venezuela has a "workers law" with such conditions no business would want to hire anyone, and if they absolutely must, it would be the minimal possible because not only they are very expensive, but almost impossible to "legally" lay off later. End result: Less employment. Who suffers most? The poor, not the rich.

Anything the politicians try to control, ends producing the opposite effect. Fixate renting prices? Make it real hard to evict people? Nobody rents homes anymore. Who suffers? The poor that could barely afford to pay rent, or those who could buy the house? But they fixated the prices in the name of the poor, and they made it almost impossible for the owners to evict non/low paying people to "protect them".

I could go on and on, why all those "socialist" ideas sound so pretty in paper, but end producing the exact opposite effect in the end. Of course we know, we are living it...