That was a clear facemask <| sep |> Seriously , I recommend you read the article . It ' s really sophomoric to reduce an entire country to a single word you can rally against . Understanding Venezuela ' s failing state as just another failure of socialism , and of statism generally , is ahistorical . Venezuela before Chvez was often extravagantly statist . Corruption has been a major problem in every era . Even dire food shortages are not new . These things happened under capitalism , too , as did intense political repression . Today ' s crisis is for most people the worst in memory , but it is not all about socialism . The predatory state , the extreme insecurity , the sheer weakness of the rule of lawthese are problems more profound , at this stage , than a traditional leftright analysis can clarify , let alone begin to solve .