In 1999, Socialist Hugo Chavez became President of Venezuela and leader of the Fifth Republic Movement political party (Socialism).  In 1997, he merged it with other parties to form the United Socialist Party of Venezuela.  He wielded power and lived lavishly from the oil-rich country.  That’s how Socialism begins.  Someone promises “pie-in-the-sky”, such as free health care, prosperity, redistribution of wealth, green care and free this-&-that care, care for all.  But, the reality of Socialism is that the rich get richer and more tyrannical, while the poor get poorer and more oppressed … the middle class vanishes.  Chavez died in 2013, leaving the once-wealthy country in a mess.
Chavetz’s protégé and successor, Nicholas Maduro, tightened his hold over the Venezuelan people.  The oppression of Socialism and the dictatorships, which  always go along with it, destroyed the once-beautiful and once-wealthy country.  Venezuela has more oil than Saudi Arabia and more poverty than Columbia.  It’s plagued with shortages of everything from toilet paper to anti-biotics to food.  Inflation is at 1-million-%.  Maduro massively lowered the official exchange rate of the bolivar to keep up with the black market … and … lopped-off five zeros of its currency.
Because of Venezuela’s economic crisis and crackdown on dissents, 3-million of its 32-million population have fled.  In 2018, the pseudo-presidential election of Maduro is seen by the country’s National Assembly as a charade.  Before he closed-down the Assembly and jailed most of its membership, Assembly Pres. Juan Guaido was chosen to replace Maduro, pending new elections.  The U.S. and 50 other countries consider Guaido’s presidency to be legitimate.
While literally starving his people, Maduro has deepened ties with his authoritarian allies, such as Russia, China, Turkey, Iran and Cuba.  China is there in hopes of collecting some of the huge amounts of money it loaned Venezuela.  The others are there because they know “low-hanging-fruit” when they see it and absolutely love the idea of being in such close proximity of the United States.  Maduro has hundreds of generals; so, for now, he’s bought their loyalty.  The U.S. and E.U. have imposed sanctions against Maduro’s human rights abuses, political repression, graft and corruption.  Maduro has illegally jailed 5 Americans and ordered the 72 Americans at our embassy to leave immediately.  Russia has joined Maduro on that demand.  However, as this piece is written (2/2019), the U.S. has truckloads of food and other humanitarian aid on its way to the starving Venezuelans.  Maduro and his allies have set-up barricades on the roads and airports to stop it.
In addition to the Venezuelan horrors and the crisis on our very own southern border, Fake News and the Left are not reporting them to the American people.  God bless Pres. Trump, though; he’s getting information to us via tweets and FOX News outlets.  The best place for current information on Venezuela can be found on Trish Regan’s evening show on FOX Business.  Thank you, Trish and Mr. President, for allowing the truth about Socialism; it’s caused the deep downfalls in Venezuela and other starving countries in Latin America, all of which is in dangerously close proximity of the United States.