The shocking capture and extradition of former Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife over the weekend is the culmination of months of US pressure on the regime. President Trump and other administration officials have labeled Maduro and his close associates “narco-terrorists, accusing him of leading a huge criminal organization and profiting by violating US laws, selling large quantities of illegal narcotics which may have potentially killed Americans.
But while the future of the Venezuelan regime is uncertain, it is worth taking a few minutes to understand how Venezuela got to where it is today and what Americans can learn from its descent into a tyrannical/criminal regime.
The time for a warning may be especially appropriate. Zohran Mamdani’s election as New York City’s next mayor and Katie Wilson’s election as mayor of Seattle, both late last year, have people worrying about a surge in socialist sentiment across the US. Both Mamdani and Wilson openly campaigned as democratic socialists who believe: “No problem is too big, no issue is too small for the government” and “We will replace the frigidity of rugged individualism with the warmth of collectivism.”
Many with a lick of sense correctly criticize the naivety of these socialist economic policy ideas and collectivist sentiments. But fewer recognize the true horrors that can be unleashed by entitled college graduates voting for massive wealth redistribution.
The tragedy of Venezuela serves as a cautionary tale.
Socialism plays the major role in the story of Venezuela’s descent into poverty, desperation, and organized crime (Tren de Aragua). David Friedberg, a venture capitalist and a member of the All-In Podcast, recently interviewed Nobel Peace Prize winner María Corina Machado about the fraudulent 2024 national election in Venezuela — highlighting the tragedy of socialism and the resulting tyranny in Venezuela.
Twenty-five years ago, its GDP was roughly $4,800 per person. In 2014, it was nearly $16,000. But the latest estimates for 2024 and 2025 are about $4,000 per person — roughly 20 percent less than in 2000 and a shocking 75 percent less than in 2014. Poverty rates in Venezuela have skyrocketed from less than a quarter of its population to over half. Yet, Venezuela has the largest known oil reserves of any country in the world – an estimated 300 billion barrels — 10 percent more than Saudi Arabia and seven times more than the United States.
GDP per capita in Venezuela, 1960-2024. World Bank data.
At least seven million Venezuelans have fled the country in the past ten years, most of them college-educated. The Maduro regime was a criminal enterprise. Besides Maduro himself, several of his family members have been arrested for trafficking cocaine. The government stole the property of its people as well as plundering the country’s natural resources. The regime has also been accused of cooperating with drug trafficking and cartel activity — hence the Trump administration’s focus on Venezuelan gangs, and trafficking described as “narco-terrorism.”
Venezuela’s 2024 presidential election showcased remarkable courage and ingenuity on the part of those who opposed the Maduro regime. It was also the clearest expression yet of how utterly criminal and corrupt Maduro was. The main opposition candidate, María Corina Machado, after a resounding victory in the primaries, was prohibited by the government from running.
Her lesser-known proxy, Edmundo González, still won overwhelmingly. And we know he won because Venezuelans documented their election results in incredible ways and reported those results to the rest of the world. The European Union, the European Parliament, and Human Rights Watch all rejected Maduro’s victory, as did other election watchers, who declared González the winner.
Yet today, González is in exile, and many of those who worked on the campaign are in prison or worse. Maduro claimed victory, against all evidence, and threw dissidents and those who supported them, or even associated with them, into prison. We see truly Mafia-like behavior in disappearing and blacklisting people simply for doing business with the “opposition.” A United Nations report found “evidence of unlawful executions, enforced disappearances, arbitrary detentions and torture” in Venezuela under the Maduro regime.
The state of things in Venezuela is dire and complicated. Much has been written about the highly tenuous legality of military strikes on Venezuelan drug traffickers. And much more will be written about the apprehension of Maduro and his wife in the dead of the night. While the Trump administration should do more to align with constitutional norms and the rule of law, this is not exactly a repeat of the drug war of the 1990s.
The Maduro regime was actively supporting oppressive parties across Latin America as well as strengthening drug cartels that, in many countries, basically constitute paramilitary forces. Those who want to advance freedom, property rights, and prosperity across the western hemisphere should not overlook the geopolitical force of Venezuela.
It’s tragic how far Venezuela has fallen. From a prosperous, successful, cultured society, it has become destitute, crime-ridden, and ruled by military thugs. But its initial step towards modern serfdom was much more innocent — and should serve as an eerie warning for the collectivist inclinations of the young and entitled.
Hugo Chávez, the architect of Venezuelan socialism and tyranny, paved the way for Nicolas Maduro to rule by military fiat. Chávez, though, was popularly elected and portrayed himself as an outsider and a man of the people — someone who would refuse to go along with the corrupt “neoliberalism” that he claimed had disenfranchised so many.
Sound familiar?
There has been a lot of talk about how hard young people have it in the US. Buying a house is more difficult, because homes are more expensive and financing costs are high. Unemployment among 20-24-year-olds is more than double the unemployment rate for the rest of the population. Student debt continues to rise at an alarming rate — both in aggregate and for individual young college graduates.
But the recent interview with María Corina Machado reveals how the young and entitled, and their sympathizers, miss the central justification of a free society. Machado notes that the young socialists in Venezuela when they were warned to watch out, would “always answer, ‘Venezuela is not Cuba. That’s not going to happen to us.’ And at the end, look at the disaster and devastation.”
Socialists have exploited this discontent. In New York City, Mamdani tapped into the frustration with housing, with jobs, with rent, with prices, and with uneven wealth gains in the stock market. Income and wealth inequality frustrate many young people. Declining income mobility frustrates them. They increasingly feel like the deck is stacked against them.
Although such concerns are real, they hardly justify a socialist impulse — and not just because socialism won’t fix these problems. What these young idealists (or entitled ignoramuses) don’t know is the story of Venezuela and nearly a dozen other countries who’ve tread this path already. In Venezuela, they don’t just have an expensive housing problem, or an income mobility problem, or an income and wealth inequality problem.
They have much deeper problems: lack of hope and lack of opportunity. In the United States, even with the challenges mentioned above, people can still find jobs, even if those jobs pay less than they would like. They can usually choose to work more hours if they want to make more money. They can move about freely. They are not beaten or imprisoned for social media posts or for supporting the “wrong” candidates. They can improve their lives. They can build for the future. Even if achieving success has become harder than in the past, that is far different from success not being possible.
And that’s the real danger, and the real tragedy, of Venezuela. Socialism isn’t just about inefficiency and becoming poorer — though it does cause both those things. Socialism leads to tyranny where the worst rise to the top, civil society is destroyed by political power, and the opportunity to improve one’s life doesn’t just diminish, it is extinguished.
Although Venezuelans’ future prospects have brightened considerably with the removal of Maduro, we should continue to point out the dangers of socialist regimes with increasing urgency to generations of people who know little about history or global affairs, care even less, and are merrily traipsing down the Road to Serfdom.
