@steamdan I agree with some of the points that you make here. Socialism, like any other group in power, is only as good as the people in charge. The evidence of that, in my view, is ultimately not heavy machinery and shining cities, it is the life conditions of the average people. The US. for one example, have plenty of heavy equipment and huge cities, although their infrastructure is decaying because public money is siphoned off to the military and the richest 1%. The US poor are living in abject poverty and dying for lack of health care in arguably the richest country in the world. For many of them the choice is grinding poverty or joining the military, and that's no accident. But there were times, such as after the second world war, when life conditions in the US were good.

Socialism likewise can go either way. Mao, the Khmer Rouge and others were obscenities. Today Russia and China are both experimenting with a socialism with capitalist overtones. Both have brought up the average standard of living, but both are lacking in human rights. Russia especially was devastated by the West in the nineties and Putin has had an uphill battle reversing that. He has greatly brought up the standard of living since the Yeltsin treachery, although he appears to be stumbling now.

Maduro has made errors, one of the greatest is civil repression. But it's hard to fault him for wanting a strong military with the US thirsting for Venezuelan oil.

Many arguments are put forth on both sides of this issue and can be a distraction. A clearer picture can be gained by stepping back and observing the major forces in conflict here.

First of all, capitalism by definition is the harvesting of wealth created by workers and passing it to nonworking share holders. Therefore it is by its very essence repugnant to an egalitarian. What good is the biggest refinery complex in the world when the profits from it go offshore to the multinational owners?

Secondly, the US supports the Venezuelan opposition and is in fact the main antagonist. US intentions are better discerned by ignoring their propaganda and looking at their track record. For the last number of administrations, all since the second world war (Even Carter's administration was guilty of hegemonic intervention) have subverted and violated every part of this Earth, and their behavior is no different today.
One example out of many is Haiti, the only country on earth where the slaves managed to free themselves. When they elecedt their first democratically chosen leader Jean Bertrand Aristide, the US organized a multinational force to physically remove him at gunpoint, kidnapping him to Africa.

You are right that as a Venezuelan you have a much closer physical vantage than me; I have never been to your country. However I live in Canada, the sycophantic lackey of the US. Our special forces, police and especially our politicians were directly involved in the Aristide travesty, among many other criminal interventions, so I have a close perspective on the workings of the US hegemon and its 'friends'.
Sometimes one can be too close to a situation to see the larger picture. If yoiu think the patron of the Venezuelan opposition has good intentions towards your country, have a look at past performance; Libya would be a good place to start because it is also an oil-rich country that moved away from the petrodollar monopoly.

Do some research, but you may want to avoid the West's corporate press because of their inherent bias. Just for starters I would suggest Informationclearinghouse, wsws, consortiumnews,Caitlin Johnstone, theintercept,Llee Camp and I could refer many others, including sputnik and rt. And while we're on steemit, have a look at informationwar here, there's often some good stuff there.
Read broadly and make up your own mind.