Venezuela continues to be one of the great humanitarian crises of our times. Every day brings new horrific headlines of starvation, violence, and chaos. Not only should this tragedy serve as a reminder of the true evils of socialism, but is vivid illustration of what hyperinflation looks like in the modern world.
While the Venezuelan government has tried it hands with modern gimmicks - like the largest cryptocurrency scam since Prodeum - the citizens continue to struggle with the realities of a currency so worthless that thieves don’t even bother picking it up off the floor.
The question now is simply how long this horror story continues.
Elections in the country are set for May, but of course no one expects politics to offer much hope for the Venezuelan people. What’s interesting here is that it provides another fascinating example of how dangerous the United Nations truly is.
Stalin is credited to have said, “It's not the people who vote that count, it's the people who count the votes.” Understandably his ideological heir, Nicolás Maduro, feels pretty good about his re-election chances in Venezuela. His opponents have no delusions to think elections will be handled fairly, and are calling boycotting elections.
In enters the UN, who is considering sending in observers to ensure the integrity of the election process. Of course this is precisely what the Maduro government desires. After all the Venezuela people, beaten and starved, are unlikely to take the presence of a few foreign bureaucrats as the protection they need to stand up to their oppressive leaders. The UN’s presence will only serve to prop up Maduro, at least until complete economic collapses leads to military intervention – which some analysts think could be in the next 12 months.
Still, the fact that the UN would ever consider serving the desires of Venezuela’s socialist government is simply another reminder that the UN is worse than useless.
Of course, at the end of the day, any inevitable change in leadership in the country will not solve the plight of the country without a revolution in ideology. As Jose Nino has noted in several great articles for us, socialist ideology was a Venezuelan problem before Hugo Chavez, and risks outliving the rein of Maduro.
