[July 13, 2017] From a practical viewpoint, leaders should be free from ideology, dogma, and preconceived ideas so they will behave properly and make the best decisions possible. In the case of the current leadership of Venezuela, that is not the case. President Nicolás Maduro, successor to socialist leader Hugo Chávez, is blinded by his anti-capitalist Marxist ideology.
Maduro believes in the view that capitalism is the root of all evil and therefore should be destroyed; only in this way can the common man be relieved from his burdens. It follows that only in doing so can the paradise afforded by socialism endure and sustain all who believe. In part this explains why Maduro’s monetary policies have failed and his citizens have suffered for so long.1
“I am convinced that the way to build a new and better world is not capitalism. Capitalism leads us straight to hell.” – Hugo Chávez, past Venezuela President
We should all remember what Maduro said last year… that it was “terrorists” who were destroying Venezuela’s economy, causing a soaring crime rate, and calling for people to protest in the streets.2 The country’s brutal recession where people cannot buy enough food to eat, medicine to treat illnesses, or even toilet paper, is now being blamed on an “economic war” against him personally by pro-opposition businessmen and Washington.3
Venezuela continues it slide into chaos. The spiral continues downward as Maduro tightens his grip by seeking to create a new legal body called the Constituent Assembly which would have powers to rewrite the Venezuela constitution and dismiss the current opposition-controlled legislature. He claims this is the only “immediate path we Venezuelans have to overcome violence, hatred, and intolerance.”4
The anti-Maduro coalition and associated street protests have been growing but Maduro is blind to their grievances despite acknowledging their struggles. He simply believes they have been politically co-opted and manipulated. By all measures, however, Venezuela President Maduro is so focused on the righteousness of his socialist ideology that everything else is either against him or irrelevant.
Maduro continues to blame others for his personal failure as the Venezuelan president and will continue to do so. This strategy is lifted from the pages of various socialists and is one of the theoretical underpinnings of Karl Marx and those who favor Communism and socialism. Good leaders know, however, that blaming others for failure simply does not work in the long term.
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- Like so many dictators, especially those inspired by the readings of Karl Marx, President Maduro was also a thug in earlier life. His brutality against his own citizens is another reason for his decisions that have hamstrung his citizens who try to do business, grow crops, or simply make a living and feed their families.
- https://www.theleadermaker.com/venezuela-a-leadership-death-spiral/
- http://www.reuters.com/article/us-venezuela-politics-idUSKBN19U0S6
- https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/may/01/venezuelan-president-nicolas-maduro-police-protests