Five Ways Capitalist Chile is Better Than Socialist Venezuela

The contrast is remarkable.

by Marian L. Tupy and Alexander C.R. Hammond
May 16, 2019

Since Nicolas Maduro was sworn into his second term as President of Venezuela in January 2019, stories of civil unrest and economic hardship from the small Latin American country have dominated the media headlines. In the build up to his controversial re-election, Maduro prevented opposition parties from freely and fairly competing for public support. Because of those electoral shenanigans and the human rights violations that followed, most Venezuelan citizens, as well as most Western governments, refuse to recognize Maduro’s legitimacy as President.

As widespread protests continue into their fourth month, one thing has become very clear: Venezuela’s experiment with socialism has been a resounding failure. The annual inflation is more than 80,000 percent and it is estimated that almost 90 percent of Venezuelans now live in poverty. Mass food shortages mean that the average Venezuelan has lost over 11kg in weight, despite Maduro’s …