Socialist Venezuela Edges Closer to Chaos as 'Drone Attack' Strikes Near Dictator
Most people with common sense (read: not far-left Democrat socialists) understand that socialism simply does not work on a large scale.
In a small group of a dozen or so people? Sure. Socialism could work for a short while.
But an entire country? Absolutely not. And Venezuela is blatant proof of that.
The once-wealthy country is broke and starving. Venezuelan currency is horrifically devalued. Would it be any wonder if national pride was in shambles?
Annual devaluation of Venezuela's currency on the black market this year. The math says it can't go below -100%. It's been between -99.08% and -99.83% since April. https://t.co/ejhDUUGlZW pic.twitter.com/J41earBfsG
— Girish Gupta (@jammastergirish) August 3, 2018
And, unsurprisingly, people aren’t too happy with the country’s leadership.
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro’s image hit a new low on Saturday when what the government described as a “drone attack” disrupted a presidential speech in the capital of Caracas.
#BREAKING: #Venezuela: New video of #Maduro security personal protecting him during tonight's assassination attemp pic.twitter.com/qDEetVp0fQ
— Amichai Stein (@AmichaiStein1) August 5, 2018
“This was an attempt to kill me,” Maduro later said, according to The Associated Press. “Today they attempted to assassinate me.”
Maduro blamed “far right” political foes for the attack, although the exact nature of the incident has been brought into question. According to the AP, firefighters on the ground said there appeared to have been a gas explosion in a building near where the speech was taking place.
Still, opposition leaders were also quick to warn that Maduro could use the “attack” to further consolidate power, AP reported.
“We warn that this confused event could be used as an excuse to repress the constitutional rights of the people to continue protesting for the defense of their rights,” a statement from the Broad Front opposition alliance read.
It’s fairly common practice for the Venezuelan government to immediately blame opposition parties despite the deep-rooted unpopularity of Maduro.
Further muddying the exact nature of what happened, a virtually unknown group calling itself “Soldiers in T-shirts” took responsibility for the attack.
“We showed that they are vulnerable,” the group said in a tweet, according to the AP. “It was not successful today, but it is just a matter of time.”
Maduro also pleaded with the United States and President Donald Trump to aid in tracking down the alleged terrorists.
In an interview on “Fox News Sunday,” National Security Advisor John Bolton told host Chris Wallace that the United States had nothing to do with the incident, but would be open to hearing from Venezuelan authorities. He also made it very clear where the Maduro government stood in the Trump administration’s eyes, and it’s not good.
“I can say unequivocally there was no U.S. government involvement in this at all,” Bolton said. “If the government of Venezuela has hard information that they want to present to us that would show a potential violation of U.S. criminal law, we’ll take a serious look at it, but in the meantime I think what we really should focus on is the corruption and oppression in the Maduro regime in Venezuela.”
While the exact events are still a relative mystery as Sunday afternoon one thing has become abundantly clear.
Socialism doesn’t work and is an enemy of the people. The chaos of modern Venezuela, including Saturday’s incident and the ripple effects it is having, is stone-cold proof of that.
Truth and Accuracy
We are committed to truth and accuracy in all of our journalism. Read our editorial standards.
