We haven’t heard much about Venezuela since President Obama’s pal Hugo Chavez left the building two years ago. But unfortunately for the citizens of that country, the dearth of news coverage doesn’t mean that all is well in the Marxist paradise. In fact things are downright awful; the economy is pretty much imploding – Venezuela rations food as oil crisis starts to bite ~
 

 
Things were already deteriorating rapidly last spring, mostly thanks to the state taking over large segments of the private sector, muzzling free speech and stifling dissent. Now, pushed by the rapid world-wide drop in oil prices, the nation is teetering on the edge of bankruptcy.
 
As Business Insider reports, according to UBS (a Swiss global financial services company) ~

… the country has an 82% chance of collapsing within a year. Venezuela will no longer be able to make payments to foreign investors without oil revenue at its historic levels.

It’s hard to fathom how things have gotten so bad in such a an oil-rich nation…

Venezuela has the world’s largest oil reserves. But it produces mostly thick, heavy crude that has to be mixed with lighter oil to make it usable. Problem is, Venezuela’s seriously mismanaged state-run oil industry isn’t pumping enough light crude […]
 
“You’ve got a country that has more oil than Saudi Arabia. And Saudi Arabia can easily produce 11 million barrels a day. Venezuela can’t even produce 3 million barrels a day.”

Last fall they actually had to start importing foreign oil (!) – two million barrels from Algeria. (Even worse, Qatar is now cozying up to the South American country, loaning them billions to prop up the economy: Venezuela: Qatar gives a band-aid. That can’t end well.)

Beleaguered Venezuelans have Chavez and his communist cronies to thank for crushing the middle class and for the destruction of what used to be a fairly stable economy.
And while we certainly sympathize with their plight, we should also be grateful for the clear object lesson Venezuela’s downfall represents. Since the transformation occurred so quickly, it’s not difficult to identify the direct cause for the disastrous effect (- as well as the ominous parallels in our own country…).

 
In fact, just this past week, a group of Catholic bishops was valiantly trying to let the rest of the world know what happens when a Marxist dictator takes over a country ~
Venezuela’s Bishops Have A Message For Pope Francis on Communism~

In a refreshingly powerful and direct statement, Venezuela’s bishops Monday blamed “Marxist socialism” and “communism” by name for the horrors and chaos gripping their country, according to a story in El Universal.
 
The bishops said the long lines of people trying to buy food and other basic necessities and the constant rise in prices are the result of the government’s decision to “impose a political-economic system of socialist, Marxist or communist,” which is “totalitarian and centralist” and “undermines the freedom and rights of individuals and associations.”
 
The Venezuelan bishops specifically stated that the private sector was critical for the well being of the country. The document, read by Monsignor Diego Padron in Spanish, said the country needs “a new entrepreneurial spirit with audacity and creativity.”
 
So not only did these bishops diagnose the cause of the misery correctly; they also warned that communism harms the poor most of all.

 
Let’s hope the pope – and other well-intentioned but misguided social-justice types – pay attention to the bishops’ message about the sad state of their country. Free-market capitalism may not be perfect, but marxism-socialism-communism is infinitely worse, especially for the poor and needy.