I've posted this a few times so apologies for the length, but it's always fun to hear people push this lie.

Venezuela has experienced multiple severe food storages - even before the oil crisis ruined the spending spree (not that it stopped, Chavez just used loans instead) and well before this embargo by the US. During non-shortage times they enjoyed 1970s Russia style ration-like low variety, with half empty supermarkets

> In 2005, Chávez announced the initiation of Venezuela's own "great leap forward", following the example of Mao Zedong's Great Leap Forward.[32] An increase in shortages began to occur that year as 5% of items became unavailable according to the Central Bank of Venezuela.[33] In January 2008, 24.7% of goods were reported to be unavailable in Venezuela

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shortages_in_Venezuela

> Since the 1990s, food production in Venezuela has dropped continuously, with Hugo Chávez's Bolivarian government beginning to rely upon imported food using the country's then-large oil profits.

(they have tons of farmland, the farmers were the ones who pushed the hardest for Chavez)

> Such currency controls have been determined to be the cause of shortages according to many economists and other experts [25][26][27]. However, the Venezuelan government blamed other entities such as the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_Venezuela

Much of the policies targeting the rich to help the poor completely failed and everyone just got poorer:

> The Chávez government overspent in social spending, however, and did not save enough money for any future economic difficulties.[6] On 31 March 2000, Chávez initiated policies that resulted with the Venezuelan government spending more than it received as oil prices began to rise.[40] Poverty in Venezuela began increasing going into the 2010s.[41] During Chávez's campaign before the 2012 presidential election, he tripled Venezuela's deficit while on a "spending spree".[42] In 2014 El Universal reported that in the previous five years that included years under Chávez's policies, purchasing power for those with minimum wage jobs had dramatically decreased compared to other countries in the region, supposedly due to the high inflation rate and the multiple devaluations of Venezuela's currency. [authors comment: this being the consequences of mass debt and little value to replace it, clearly the west made them do it!].

The only country that goes on a massive spending spree for the poor and makes them poorer.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economic_policy_of_the_Hugo_Ch...

Their entirely centralized economic system has long been busting at the seems.

Besides from a few dictators almost no foreign investment comes in because they keep robbing the "evil capitalists" of their entire business, creating a byzantine system of price controls to keep things 'cheaper' (lol) and administrative controls at both the industry and company level:

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/55/Ve...

Of course they've continuously blamed a grand western conspiracy for all of their problems since the early 2000s (a few yrs after the previous economic production kept things afloat temporarily, but after reality hit). But that's been the automatic excuse for a long list of other failed states like Nicaragua, Soviet Russia, etc so it's not surprising even when its 50% true. No one forced them to do disastrous price controls, scared away all of their smart people, and ruined every industry they centralized.

When you threaten to shoot people who cross a border to buy fruits and vegetables something is seriously wrong.

Keep in mind this a country that would otherwise be the richest per capita in the region had they followed traditional economic policies.

Nigeria will soon pass them in GDP per capita.If Maduro stays the future doesn't look bright: https://www.statista.com/graphic/1/371876/gross-domestic-pro...

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b8/Venezuel...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_proven_oi... (VZ is #1)

Finally: Iran (which has 80M people vs 31M in VZ) = $18,504/GDP per capita. Iraq = $5,165/per. Venezuela = $2k/GDP per capita. Oman, Bahrain, Kuwait, take your pick all have higher per capita GDP.

I wonder what they did differently....