RE: ADSactly World - A Brief Overview of the Events that Triggered the Current Venezuelan Crisis
Great article. You have a great job summarizing some of the main issues leading to my country's current crisis.
The saddest thing about this situation is that after so many years of brain washing and subjection to scarcity and limitations, the current population is less suited to take wise electoral decisions than the one that put Chavez in office.
Venezuela's most talented people have left, very unlikely will they return any time soon, even if there were a change of government today.
You have to walk our streets and talk to people to see the real tragedy. A population without hope, without a clear definition of what it means to live in democracy, of what having rights and demanding government's accountability entails.
Chavez did a great job at exploiting people's resentment and the international community, especially the countries with enough power to end this tragedy, contributed to that.
When you see the government's media (which are the one left) you can see how they exploit Europe's and America's mistakes to corroborate to the average Venezuela that those who want to end the Bolivarian revolution are evil.
Every instance of racism, corruption, political manipulation, international cover-up, betrayal, corporate screw-up, self-interest (diplomacy?) etc. is used to reinforce the thesis that Chavez (and the left in general) was always right and that it is better to have something bad that you already know (got used to) than something new you have no idea (well, the government has planted some) what evil will cause.
The greatest damage done by the chavista regime was not to the economy or the rule of law, it was to the moral fiber of the population. We are a lost generation driven only by survival instincts, the same instinct that prevent a group of professionals from protesting or make men in uniform to corrupt themselves and contribute to the corruption of the whole system.
The politicians who may substitute Maduro will have a very hard time trying to convince people that populism and lazyness is not the way to fredom and prosperity.
That's a possibility, which is why the solution seems to be only through the application of international force.
The current government did great damage to the moral fiber of the people, just as you say, but that can be restored, although it will be very challenging.