Well, yeah. Who would’ve thought that a couple of incompetent leaders placing all the country’s chips on a single commodity would have resulted in disaster? Add to that the fact that Maduro didn’t have close to the charisma of Chavez to make up for no longer being able to hand out the burritos empanadas (although he couldn’t resist sneaking a bite of one off camera). Lacking the ability to build a personality cult, he instead used heavy-handed authoritarian tactics to maintain his power, and of course things went into a death spiral.
While travelling through South America earlier in the year, I met quite a few educated refugees from Venezuela who were working as waitresses, parking valets, etc. They all said they missed their home terribly, but that going back was not an option as long as this clown and his cronies are in power.
