My point was that, pre-Chavez, Venezuela was "a terrible place for millions". In 1999, over 50% of Venezuelans lived in poverty - despite Venezuela being amongst the richest Latin American countries. It had a large GINI Coefficient, indicating massive wealth inequality. The vast majority of natural resources, land and businesses that were in private ownership were owned by a combination of Venezuela's elite and US corporations. Infant mortality in Venezuela was 20/1000. Due to a poor and underfunded education sector, only 48% of Venezuelans were enrolled in secondary education. Unemployment was 14.5%.
But I guess a Venezuelan's view of both the position pre-Chavez, and the reforms Chavez brought in, are going to be skewed by their socio-economic position before 1999.
Forgive me if I'm wrong here but, as you've been able to emigrate, I'm going to hazard a guess you weren't one of the poorest pre-Chavez. So I can understand if you only see negativity.
Whilst I reiterate I'm not an uncritical Chavez fan (his government had massive faults*), by 2011...
Venezuela had the lowest GINI Coefficient in South America.
Most US/Venezuelan elite ownership of land, capital and natural resources had severely diminished.
Free universal education and healthcare was brought in, allowing millions of poorer Venezuelans access to each for the first time (% of Venezuelans in secondary education had increased to 72%).
Infant mortality fell to 13/1000
Unemployment fell to 7.6%
* He fucked up the oil industry by sacking experts and appointing apparatchiks, resulting in plunging output and resulting revenues. Indeed, the nepotism across his government was extensive, with the corruption that goes with that. Social projects were aimed at his supporters whilst other groups were neglected. And there's the old authoritarianism and curtailing of personal freedoms. Post-Chavez it's gone totally to shit
https://www.cnn.com/2013/03/06/business/venezuela-chavez-oil-economy/index.htm
https://www.businessinsider.in/home/heres-why-millions-of-venezuelans-loved-hugo-chavez-photos/slidelist/21264222.cms#slideid=21264230
https://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2012/oct/04/venezuela-hugo-chavez-election-data
https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/democraciaabierta/inequality-persists-in-chavista-venezuela/
Well, I don't forgive you when you're blatanty wrong. First, you try to explain how life was in the country where I lived for 30 years and miss on a daily basis just because I migrated, assuming that I am affluent just because of the vision I have of my country? Dude, offended is an understatement. What's next? I am rich just because I write English fluently?. I'm old enough to remember the pre-chavez, during chavez and maduro's eras, the experiences I lived through, you have no clue about, and I really wish you never get to experience.
But alas, it is not that simple. It always looks cool to cite numbers given by the government in charge about what was the past and what is happening now, is not like they can't make them up. One thing that I mention clearly before, the hardships I lived and my relatives who are still back home have lived through the years of the revolution never happened during the pre-Chavez era.
Why should I justify my economic status before, during or now that I'm out, to make a point to someone who has no clue?
Do I have to mention that half my extended family is out of the country, and all of them had to get out by foot? That I have relatives who have or are considering crossing the Darien gap to try to get an opportunity for a better living in the states? That none of my friends live in Venezuela anymore because each one had to migrate to a different country at a different point? OR that I still have my parents, siblings, nieces and nephews over there, trying to make ends meet?
I won't explain that, you have no clue man.
For your Information:
- Education (1870) and healthcare (1970's) were already free in Venezuela before Chavez, kids would get benefits from going to school (clothes and food stamps, even free school lunch like I did when I was little).
- Mortality infant rates weren't as bad as you make them see compared with the region.
- Ownership of land, capital and natural resources that you mention so vehemently just changed hands to the government cronies who own everything, destroyed manufacturing and are now finding loopholes to bring the money they stole back to the economy for two reasons, they can't spend it elsewhere because of the US Sanctions (which btw, are not given to the country but to the government officials) and it is what has given some sort of stability to the country. We still don't have the infrastructure we had before Chavez anymore, so this new economy is just a bibble that will burst in no time.
- Did you know that Venezuela has one of the biggest dams in the world, which at its height was once the largest worldwide in terms of installed capacity. Now it is in savage decline because the government changed all the experts for their cronnies, destroying it, and now there are cities that get daily blackouts of up to 8 hours every day or at least a few days a week, when we used to sell electricity to Brazil.
Why don't you use actual numbers? ah right, because the government doesn't publish anything anymore.
I could go on and on all day, but I don't have the energy. Your Chavez and Maduro's tinted glasses doesn't let you see beyond your nose, plus you most likely have never been there. Next time, find better points to undermine my opinion and gaslight me.
