A deeply corrupted bipartisanship. The natural course of democracy.
One guy finds out he can steal from the public treasure. His friends find out they can make deals with him and get rich too. Then the friends of the friends, and the corruption rings expand. Then everybody tries to live off the state when the state has destroyed everything in its path.
Before oil, circa 1920, we were cocoa and coffee growers, 90% of the people lived rurally. Once oil started flowing, the state started building infrastructure, universities, dams, highways, ports, airports, etc. and corruption money went to the hands of politicians and cronies creating a powerful ruling class, the caracas elite. People started migrating to the cities and professionalizing.
Then we got our Pinochet, General Perez Jimenez was dictator for ten years, the best years of our whole history in development as a nation, not so much in human rights. Socialists and communists started plotting to take over the government and they succeeded in 1958. We saw twenty more years of oil bonanza while corruption slowly was metastasizing. Dams, subways, bridges, more industry. Half of the money was invested and half was stolen. Slowly the investment half was shrinking and the stolen half growing bigger. More handouts for the poor, mostly migrant from conflictive neighbors in all latin america. The state was growing incontrollable. Everybody wanted to belong to the two most important parties so they could get political positions, employment, easy credits, international scholarships, etc. We were rich and we blew it.
The eighties and nineties were the beginning of the collapse. With ten more million immigrants growing the rings of misery and poverty around big cities, more handouts were given in order to win elections. Populism and demagoguery took the driving seat in the political train and the whole country wanted to end the corruption that was destroying our beautiful nation.
We thought bringing another military iron fist like Pinochet would eradicate corruption but oh boy were we mistaken. We picked a socialist ignorant mentored by Castro, and he took advantage of his intellectual weakness promising him grandeur like our independence liberators, and chavez believed it. Psychopath with delusions of grandeur. He started buying political support with oil handouts to every single country and island in the caribbean (they have one vote in OAS so he could buy all votes all the time) and handouts for the poor in the form of social missions. Everything was stolen, every single penny. Nothing was built, not a dam, not a school not a hospital, everything stolen.
He gave billions of dollars for his socialist ideal, they stole trillions. Billions for worker coops, stolen. Billions for social programs, stolen. Billions for tourism, stolen, for social industries, stolen, social banks, stolen. Every single penny, stolen.
Then he died. The destruction of the productive apparatus was already in full swing with all the expropriations, socialization, regulation and control from the state. Capitals flew out of the country while oil revenue was malinvested and stolen.
Then came maduro and his cronies to steal and destroy what was left. More than fifty family members of his wife took state positions and they stole everything. Their two nephews charged with drug trafficking in New York had million dollars yachts and private jets. All from stolen money.
You have no idea how much money has been stolen without zero investment, only the necessary to keep the electoral machinery greased and the propaganda mill running 24/7.
The result? Shortages, blackout, riots, criminality, and no signs of stepping down. As long as a single drop of oil comes out of the wells, they'll steal it all till the end of times.
We became a kleptocracy, thieves in power.
