Guarding Our Freedoms: Venezuela’s cautionary tale

The images of courageous Venezuelans being brutally repressed by Chavista’s repressive forces fill many Americans with both awe and pain. For 25 years, Venezuelans have suffered the consequences of one bad national decision at the ballot box, one that condemned the formerly prosperous democracy into a ruined tyranny from which 8 million people have fled.  

While Venezuela is far away from America, the story of its downfall serves as a cautionary tale about what happens when people let paternalistic government paired with a dictator destroy the institutions that guard freedom. 

Venezuela was not always the crisis-ridden country we see today. On the contrary, for decades, it was one of the most prosperous nations in Latin America, the preferred destiny of thousands of migrants from across the world who found a home to build their new lives.  

Yet, two socialists leaders took power, and everything changed. Hugo Chavez and Nicolas Maduro waged a war against free enterprise and imposed a socialist economic system that brought the economy to its knees, condemned millions to live in abject poverty, and forced more than a quarter of their people to flee.  

When Venezuelans protested, they quickly found that the institutions that were supposed to guard the economic and political freedoms of Venezuelans were working for the government, not the people. Leaving Venezuelans with no voice, no recourse, and no vote.  

No country is immune from this. Not even the strongest and oldest of democracies. Not even America. 

After all, Venezuela was an example of prosperity and democracy in a region filled with tinpot dictators and economic chaos.  

The downfall of Venezuela  

For decades, Venezuela was—by the standards of Latin America—a stable democracy and a prosperous country. It was a case study of political freedom in a region hostile to democracies and inclined  to military dictatorships.  

Yet, in 1998, everything took a turn for the worse. Hugo Chavez was a soldier who led a failed military coup in 1992. Capitalizing on people’s discontent with corruption and the democratic system, he won the election promising a revolution.  

He won and fulfilled his promise— just not how people thought.  

He quickly rewrote the constitution, packed the courts with his cronies, stacked the military with his political friends, and made the national electoral board an appendix of his political party.  

After that, he opposed private businesses and destroyed the national economy with socialist policies, putting the country on the path to bankruptcy and hyperinflation. Venezuela went from being a prosperous tropical paradise into a place where people had to stand hours in queue top buy a bag of rice, and where prices doubled in a matter of days.  

When Venezuelans bravely protested, the regime responded with brutal repression. When they voted, the government stole the elections.  

Millions of Venezuelans fled the country, as they saw no future in the hellish economic crisis Chavez and Maduro created. 

A cautionary tale  

America is a much, much stronger democracy than Venezuela was. It has the oldest and wisest constitution of the free world, and it enjoys unmatched prosperity.  

For almost 250 years, Americans have remained steadfast to the founding principles outlined in the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution. This solid commitment to these values made America an example for the world. That commitment to freedom made the U.S. the biggest creator of prosperity in history.  

American prosperity and uniqueness attracted millions of people from all across the world, including millions in the Americas, to come and build a better future for themselves.  

Yet, even the strongest and mightiest buildings can collapse if they are not constantly maintained.  

America is a unique country but is susceptible to threats to liberty. It is the responsibility of all Americans to work hard to keep this country a beacon of liberty for everyone worldwide.  

The pillars of liberty are the separation of powers, free speech, and free enterprise. We must work hard to keep them strong. 

President Ronald Reagan famously said, “Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction.” 

In Venezuela, this saying proved eerily and regrettably accurate.  

It’s the work of Americans to make sure that warning never becomes true at home.