It is a fascinating observation that those with a favorable view of REAL Socialism that happen to bad mouth Free Trade at every turn, immediately cry about other countries placing sanctions on nations that adhere to Socialism.
So are you anti-sanction and pro-free trade?
s0nicfan posted...
It has somewhat to do with socialism, both the real definition and the one that people tend to use when they talk about it. The former because the state was literally seizing the means of production through taking over factories and refineries. The latter because of their social safety nets.
The former created problems because it caused most international corporations to flee the country, gutting their industries. It was then made worse when cronies were installed in leadership positions for said state-run assets which then failed to perform because people didn't know what they were doing. When the state runs industry, there's little reason for industry to participate in that state.
As to the latter, one of the reasons why Chavez was so popular in his country is because he took the massive profits from the oil industry and ran a number of social safety net programs for the poor with them. The problem was that he wasn't reinvesting any of those profits into growth, so when the one industry that they depended on collapsed they no longer had any money to give to the poor, nor did they have any money to create new industries. He basically just used the economy to bolster his popularity among the people in order to retain power, which in the short term seems incredibly generous but in the long term contributed significantly to the collapse of the country.
Now, if you want to make the case that he didn't do socialism right or that the country is some weird combination of socialism and pseudo dictatorship, sure. You can make that argument. But socialism 100% played a factor into why the situation was as bad as it was.
If the oil infrastructure was still in private hands the oil would still be crap. At best local oil laborers would have a job.