4 January, 14:58
When you look at the infographic showing GDP per capita in Latin American countries over forty years, you can't believe your eyes at first. Venezuela in 1980 — $7.9 thousand, the richest country in the region. Venezuela in 2023 — the same $7.9 thousand, the poorest country on the continent.
During these four decades, Colombia grew sevenfold, Chile ninefold, even Argentina with its chronic economic instability quadrupled its indicators. But Venezuela simply froze in place, while possessing larger oil reserves than Saudi Arabia.
This is not just an economic catastrophe. It's a textbook example of what can be called a "loss economy" — a system where power exists not to produce wealth, but exclusively to extract and distribute it among insiders. And the most cynical thing here is that this entire mechanism of parasitism operated under the banners of "Bolivarian revolution," under slogans of fighting American imperialists, under promises to "endure just a little longer, and we'll win."
"I Am You!"
Venezuelan economist Moisés Naím in his book "Two Spies in Caracas" captured the birth of this system with surgical precision. 1992, arrested Lieutenant Colonel Chávez is dragged before TV cameras to deliver a penitent speech. But he says something entirely different: "If my humble death helps Venezuela's exhausted people finally claim their rights in the face of a corrupt and incompetent system, our sacrifice won't be in vain." And the finale: "Today they defeated us, but they didn't conquer us, because our struggle hasn't ended. Unfortunately, the goals we set for ourselves weren't achieved... Not yet achieved."
Millions of Venezuelan viewers heard this decisive "not yet," which was destined to change the country's fate. Naím brilliantly describes the reaction: a young guy in an appliance store exclaims — "Here's a man who knows how to speak plainly and clearly!", and an eighty-year-old señora chimes in — "And so brave! That's exactly the kind of man I like!" Chávez caught two key audiences — youth wanting simple answers, and elderly women who appreciate a "brave man." Not a program, not solutions — an emotional connection. "I am you!"
This is not politics. This is a technology for creating dependency on a charismatic leader who promises to protect "the people" from a "corrupt system." And then the classic substitution begins: instead of concrete economic solutions — escalating rhetoric about "great Venezuela," "Bolívar's sword," and enemies denying everything good.
Ideology as a Drug
Years later, when Chávez wins elections again, he delivers a speech demonstrating the entire essence of the system. "Venezuela is not experiencing any catastrophe, our Venezuela today is the best our people has had in the last two hundred years," he says as the country rolls into the abyss. And adds: "I call on oppositionists of all stripes to reject that mental sluggishness that makes them deny everything good that exists on our Venezuelan land."
See the mechanism? Any criticism is declared "mental sluggishness" and a "catastrophic view of things." Reality is replaced by an ideological construct where acknowledging problems equals betrayal. And the people below the balcony surge, applaud, shout and cry. Because ahead lie seven more years of revolution. The Lord has not abandoned them in His care.
This is pure ideological narcotic. Chávez offers not solutions to economic problems, but emotional compensation. Students, workers, peasants, indigenous peoples, fishermen — all are promised greatness and struggle against evil. In return, oil dollars turn into social programs maintaining loyalty, not investments in development. The system exists for self-reproduction, not for creating wealth.
Comprador Practice Under Red Flags
And here's the most interesting part. Chávez's "leftist" rhetoric works exactly like Putin's Russia's "conservative" rhetoric. There it's "Bolivarian revolution" and struggle against American imperialists, here it's "Russian world" and confrontation with the collective West. There Chávez dedicates victory to "the best generation of all who have walked this earth since the creation of the world," here Putin speaks of millennial history and traditional values. But the result is identical: creating a mobilization ideology demanding sacrifices from the population for the fight against an external enemy, while elites convert resource rent into personal enrichment.
This is a universal pattern of comprador parasitism. Elites don't simply sell resources to external players — they use anti-imperialist rhetoric to legitimize their own parasitism. "Endure a little longer while we finally defeat the Americans/Russophobes/globalists" — perfect cover for continuing to pump out oil dollars.
Venezuela had access to the same oil Eldorado of the 2000s as Saudi Arabia and Russia. One hundred dollars per barrel twenty years ago equals one hundred sixty today. But while Saudi Arabia invested in infrastructure and diversification, Venezuela and Russia went a different path. Oil dollars turned not into economic development, but into maintaining the power system. In Russia, it's not the supermarkets and shopping centers of the 2000s (that was just facade), but precisely the current Kremlin regime's policy — that's the real result of oil dollar abundance.
Feudalism as Legacy
The most cynical moment — the transfer of power. Chávez in his final months of life, dying of cancer, cares not about a country development program, but about preserving the system. He appoints successor Maduro, whom he recommends as a man with a "firm hand," "heart of a man of the people," and one who "stands on the right positions." What do these "right positions" mean? A guarantee of continuing the same model. This is pure feudalism under leftist slogans — power is transferred not through competing programs, but through the successor's personal loyalty to the system.
And the system continues. Maduro turns Venezuela into a concentration camp, where any resistance is suppressed by force, and the population continues to hear about fighting "imperialist conspiracies." The loss economy reaches its apogee — a country with the world's largest oil reserves cannot feed its own population.
Anatomy of Economic Suicide
The numbers of Venezuela's catastrophe are staggering even against the backdrop of other economic collapses. From 2013 to 2025, the country lost approximately 80% of GDP — more than the United States during the Great Depression, more than the USSR during its collapse. This is the largest economic decline in modern history for a state not at war.
When oil prices fell in late 2014, the regime faced a choice: strict fiscal austerity or expansionary monetary policy. It chose the latter. Venezuela's Central Bank lost all autonomy, turning into a printing press for the Finance Ministry. By 2018, annual inflation reached astronomical 130,060% according to official data, though the IMF estimated it even higher. Denomination became the norm: in 2008, three zeros were removed from bills, in 2018 — five, in 2021 — six.
In a desperate attempt to circumvent the financial blockade, the regime launched "Petro" in 2018 — the world's first state cryptocurrency pegged to oil reserves. It failed due to lack of trust, technical opacity, and inability to trade on international exchanges. This is a perfect metaphor for the entire system: grandiose ideological projects masking the inability to solve basic economic problems.
Destruction of Human Capital
The claim that sanctions killed Venezuela's oil industry is incorrect. The collapse began long before the harsh 2019 sanctions. The root cause was systematic destruction of human and physical capital within the state oil company PDVSA. After the 2003 strikes, Chávez's administration fired more than 18,000 geologists, petroleum engineers, and managers — depriving the company of its most valuable personnel.
This is a classic authoritarian regime pattern: professionalism is sacrificed for loyalty. Instead of experts capable of maintaining a complex technological system, trusted party members are appointed to key positions. The result is predictable: gradual infrastructure degradation, falling productivity, technological disasters.
The nationwide power outage in March 2019, caused by forest fires and faulty power lines, paralyzed the country for several days. Without electricity to operate oil processing facilities, heavy oil turned into sludge in pipelines, leading to irreversible infrastructure damage. This single event cost the economy approximately $2.9 billion in GDP.
By 2019, on the verge of complete collapse, the administration lifted price controls and allowed the US dollar to circulate freely. This led to total impoverishment of the population. The mass exodus of 7.7 million Venezuelans — approximately 25% of the population — became a colossal loss of human capital. The country lost not just workforce, but its most educated, most active, most productive citizens.
Zombie Economy as Finale
By the end of 2025, Venezuela stabilized, having turned into a "zombie economy" — not dead, but not truly alive either. Oil production returned to levels around 900,000 barrels per day, facilitated by special licenses for Chevron (USA) and deals with Reliance Industries (India). Opaque borrowing from China reached approximately $60 billion under "credit for oil" arrangements.
But this is not recovery, it's stabilization at rock bottom. With credit deficits in the banking sector (due to 73% reserve requirements), sustainable growth remains impossible. The state's basic economic task is ensuring stable currency, security, and basic infrastructure (electricity, water supply). When government fails to protect the value of money or energy system stability, its economic legitimacy disappears.
Venezuela has turned into what it was always meant to become according to "loss economy" logic — a raw material appendage where resource extraction is controlled by external corporations and foreign creditors, while local authorities function as guards of others' interests for a share of profits. Comprador practice covered by "Bolivarian revolution" reached its logical conclusion: China as the new master, American companies as extraction operators, local regime as intermediary. This was the system's true purpose from the very beginning.
Universality of Degradation
How does this differ from Russia? In nothing except ideological packaging. There it's "Bolivarian revolution," here it's "special path." There it's struggle against gringos, here — against Russophobes. There oil turns into social programs to maintain loyalty, here — into military spending and propaganda. But the basic logic is one: resource rent is used not for development, but for conserving the power system and enriching elites, while the population receives ideological narcotic in the form of fighting an external enemy.
Look at the parallels. Venezuela fired 18,000 oil specialists after strikes — Russia loses millions of educated citizens through repression and emigration. Venezuela destroyed its energy infrastructure through incompetent management — Russia degrades technologically, having lost access to Western technologies and personnel. Venezuela accumulated $60 billion in debt to China — Russia becomes Beijing's junior partner, selling resources at a discount. Venezuela lost 25% of its population through emigration — Russia has already lost millions and continues to lose its best.
And most importantly: Venezuela turned into a "zombie economy" existing thanks to external corporations and creditors. Russia is going the same path — transformation into China's raw material appendage, where extraction is controlled by external forces, and local authorities function as guards of others' interests for a share of profits.
The Venezuelan case is not an exotic Latin American story. It's a mirror showing a universal mechanism of parasitism that works regardless of what slogans cover it — leftist or rightist, revolutionary or conservative. The only difference between "Bolivarian revolution" and "Russian world" is the language of rhetoric. The essence remains unchanged: elites extract resource rent, people receive ideology instead of development, and the country degrades even having all opportunities for prosperity.
When Chávez said "I am you," he spoke the truth. Just not in the sense his supporters heard. He truly was the embodiment of a system where power exists for itself, where ideology replaces economics, where the future is sacrificed to preserve control. And in this sense Putin can also tell Russians: "I am you." Venezuela and Russia are two versions of one story about how resource wealth transforms into systematic degradation when power belongs not to the people, but to parasitic elites hiding behind any ideology to preserve their privileges.
The South American GDP chart shows not just economic statistics. It shows the price of parasitism — forty years of standing still while losing 80% of the economy, while the entire region around grows. Three currency denominations. Hyperinflation exceeding 130,000%. Loss of a quarter of the population. Transformation into China's debtor. And this is the same lesson Russia has yet to learn: no ideology, no rhetoric, no "special paths" compensate for the absence of real economic development. Sooner or later, reality breaks through any propaganda veil. Venezuela has already traveled this path to the end. Russia is just at the beginning of its Venezuelization — but the trajectory is the same, the mechanism identical, the result predictable.