About Venezuela…

Perry de Havilland (Prague) · Latin American Affairs

Some interesting contextualising information from Daniel Di Martino, who is a Venezuelan‑born economist, writer, and activist:

January 4th, 2026 |

7 comments to About Venezuela…

• Mr Ed

  January 4, 2026 at 6:40 pm

  A useful perspective, apparently recorded before Mr Maduro encounter with US Federal law enforcement, aided by the military power of the United States.

  However, Mr Maduro has a couple of rays of hope, his nephews were pardoned by the Biden Administration and released, and he can always hope for a New York jury to be, well, a New York jury.

  So to keep his spirits up, I am working on a carol for Mr Maduro, it doesn’t scan quite yet, so far I’ve got: ‘On the Tenth Day of Christmas, the Trumpster gave to me, A trip to a Federal Penitentiary.‘.

• Paul Marks.

  January 4, 2026 at 7:58 pm

  Yes Mr Ed – I believe the sheer perversity of Big City juries (not just New York – and not just in the United States) is not yet fully grasped, the “education” (indoctrination) system, and the “mainstream” media (including the entertainment media) has horribly corrupted a vast number of people.

  As for the socialist regime in Venezuela – it is not its corruption that was the problem (although corrupt it was and is), after all “Boss Tweed” and others of Tammany Hall were very corrupt, but New York City prospered. The problem with socialist regimes is – their socialism.

  Someone could be a saint, and if they practiced socialism, price control and so on, the society would still decline and decline – till it collapsed into horror.

• Paul Marks.

  January 4, 2026 at 8:00 pm

  That millions of people, MILLIONS, of people were driven from Venezuela is ignored by the left – and also, tragically, by some of our libertarian brothers and sisters.

  I am old enough to remember when Venezuela was famous for prosperity, not food shortages, for television contest beauty queens, not refugee prostitutes.

• Mr Ed

  January 4, 2026 at 9:09 pm

  I am old enough to remember when Venezuela was famous for prosperity, not food shortages,

  Me too: In the early 1980s, in Portugal at a bureau de change I saw quoted the Venezuelan Bolivar (of that time), it was the third currency from the Americas quoted (after USD and Canadian dollar), because so many Portuguese went to Venezuela (before Portugal was in the EEC) to work as guest workers. Even in the late 1990s, I met Portuguese who had learned Spanish in Venezuela, despite living 20 miles from the Spanish border.

• llamas

  January 4, 2026 at 9:46 pm

  I believe that Triggernometry host Francis Foster has a Venezuelan mother, spent a significant part of his childhood in Venezuela, and speaks fluent Spanish. This may be why the Triggernometry podcast has had consistently-good coverage of the true situation in Venezuela, dating to well-before the current sutuation.

  llater,

  llamas

• Roué le Jour

  January 4, 2026 at 11:46 pm

  Paul,
  You make an excellent point which bears repeating. If the government is corrupt but leaves the people alone, both may prosper.

  Remember kids, collectivism kills!

• Paul Marks.

  January 5, 2026 at 6:36 am

  Mr Ed – yes indeed I remember you saying this.

  Roue le Jour – yes if politicians are corrupt and steal money for themselves this is bad, but if they steal money for other people (“Social Justice”) it is vastly worse – as they will, by necessity, have to steal far more money to give to “the masses” than they would have to steal to just have a luxury life style for themselves and their family.

  A society can bear a few corrupt people – but not a vast number of people (“the masses”) living by plunder – benefits and public services.

  The largest Latin America nation, Brazil, has become such a society – and this will end badly.

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