I live in Venezuela (in probably the worst part of the country) and as I was watching this video there was an electrical blackout. I think that sums it up.
@@arturojose16 IT'S TRUE MOST 3RD WORLD DON'T HAVE NUCLEAR PLANTS TO GIVE RELIABLE POWER MOST USE OIL COAL OR NATURAL GAS WHICH MORE SUSCEPTIBLE TO BROWNOUTS OR BLACKOUTS VENEZUELAN MAIN SOURCE IS A DAM WHICH CAN BE UNRELIABLE SINCE WATER LEVELS CAN DROP THEY ARE UNABLE TO BUILD NEW PLANTS EASY BECAUSE THE PARTS NEEDED ARE IMPORTED AND THERE'S A HUGE OF AMOUNT OF DEVALUTION AND NOW SANCTIONS IT'S NEAR IMPOSSABLE TO GET THOSE PARTS
I’m from Venezuela, my parents saw what was coming and decided that we should live in a better country, so now we live in the US and have been since 03. Although the US has an insane amount of flaws I still prefer to live here than over there.
Good on your parents for being smart and leaving that place. A GORGEOUS country, and so incredibly sad to see it being reduced. But the US, despite its flaws, is great because hard-working, dedicated people like your parents make it so.
I sincerely hope that you and your family have a backup plan, because the US is probably going the way of Socialism in the next few years, if these ANTIFA actors have their way.
I’ve lived in Venezuela all my life, there’s no ambiguity or grey areas tbh, he was (and continues to be because of his legacy) a destroyer and the worst, no doubt.
Simon is left leaning and he is kinda whitewashing Chavez. Problem is CHavez loyalist and lefty kids in western countries love him like Castro as a Messiah to end the rich.
skuarf “to end the rich” that’s peak irony right there with Chavez and Co. being probably some of the richest people in the world, but yes I get what he represents for those kind of people, and yet I cringe from the almost divine status some of them give him, even here still (I mean people here, obviously the state propaganda seems to exist for the very purpose of glorifying him) some people really just married the State owned media version of reality and have been living in deplorable conditions depending on the governments handouts for too long and they’re afraid to lose even that since they’ve lost everything else as well, and by lost I mean of course that the system took it away along with any opportunities for improvement, that’s our reality here
micolash Scream I think you’re preaching to the choir, you should probably be telling that to those “leftist” you mention, they’re the ones making you all look bad, just my personal opinion.
My mom was born in Cúcuta, Colombia and mainly lived in very remote parts of Venezuela and Barinas in the 60's since my grandparents were American missionaries there. They had dual citizenship and left around the time the iron industry was nationalized since my mom had too many complicated health issues that were not addressed properly there. There are some ignorant Americans here who think Chávez was great. The way Simon presented him was a bit ridiculous and sort of reminds me of that same ignorance.
A friend of mine from Venezuela who moved to Finland around 2014~15 doesn't have much (read: near zero) in the way of good things to say about the Venezuelan government and their handling of the economics. Says it was an absolute shitshow with basically no opportunities for the ordinary folk. Firm in his opinion that anyone who unironically clamors for that kind of socialism hasn't actually experienced it first-hand.
Finland and many of the states with access to the North Sea have become home to many Venezuelans. Same with the Gulf Coast of the US. These are the very people in the middle class who were driven out of their country, but took with them the highly-sought skills of petroleum engineering, development, construction and other aspects of the industry. Chavez once famously fired thousands of employees of PDVSA (the state oil company) on his TV show and replaced them with party loyalists who had no idea what they were doing - literally. And thus began the collapse of the country's energy sector.
The middle and upper class from any colonial oligarchy that gets up-ended are angry about it. Had they cared to make a more equal society, instead of holding onto wealth and power while large numbers of indigenous poor stayed on the fringes of society, maybe their country wouldn't have needed to radicalize. Please note this isn't a defense of Chavez etc, just a response to those expats who never seem to look at themselves and what their class created or accepted.
.... Do you know Jesus Christ can set you free from sins and save you from hell today Jesus Christ is the only hope in this world no other gods will lead you to heaven There is no security or hope with out Jesus Christ in this world come and repent of all sins today Today is the day of salvation come to the loving savior Today repent and do not go to hell Come to Jesus Christ today Jesus Christ is only way to heaven Repent and follow him today seek his heart Jesus Christ can fill the emptiness he can fill the void Heaven and hell is real cone to the loving savior today Today is the day of salvation tomorrow might be to late come to the loving savior today Romans 6.23 For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. John 3:16-21 16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. 17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. 18 He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. 19 And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. 20 For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. 21 But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God. Mark 1.15 15 And saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel. 2 Peter 3:9 The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. Hebrews 11:6 6 But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. Jesus
While Venezuela is a great example of what not to do as a oil country, Norway is the polar opposite, with about 1 trillion us-dollar saved up for rainy days and a big effort to try and keep the economy diverse. *edit spelling.
@@MasterMalrubius it's "gated" because hardly anyone migrates to extreme cold countries. There is nothing banning you from moving to norway. Same goes for Alaska, Sweden, FInland...
@Carleton Rutherford Yeah I´m sure with no embargoes Chavez politics and planned economy would have brought Utopia. Ask any venezuelan and they'll tell you how dumb you are. Take your tinfoil hat off.
@Carleton Rutherford The embargos only serve to get the elite not as rich. The people were never going to see that money ever. It's the same as Cuba. You guys always say Embargo is why Cuba is poor. No it's not. The government took the money, made everyone poor, unless you were a high ranking official within the Cuban party. Unfortunately, that's what Communism is in South America or more so Socialistic Dictatorships. Not that the original governments the countries had were much better. But it is a lesson people need to learn. If you abuse, people rise up and go "well misery loves company". Then a new group of elite, gain power. In the case of Cuba, most of the ones that maintained control including Castro were upper-middle class or even the upper class. Hell, he studied in the US. In Venezuela, not as much. But, it is a lesson that Americans and the world should see. You go too far far to the right, and you will end up too far to the left. In another abusive form of government.
The funniest (or saddest) part of the Venezuelan failure, is that there are still plenty of Venezuelans praising Chavez and Socialism... as homeless beggers in Colombia.
@@niadonnis Thats because the US isn't responsible for this particular shitshow. That was the result of a socialist populist destroying business confidence by nationalising everything and destroying the rule of law, followed by huge public spending based on high oil prices. Once the oil prices collapse, so does the spending unless you can borrow it or generate it other ways. No one was willing to lend to a populist socialist who nationalises everything and won't pay you back, and he hadn't bothered developing industry. A popululation used to being given free money saw the taps turned off and crime soared. Printing money to turn them back on just led to hyperinflation destroying the purchasing power on those lucky enough to still have a job. It was inevitable sooner or later in any case with the drive to end global oil use by....socialists mainly.
@@niadonnis as a Venezuelan that had to relocate to the US in 2016. I lived Chaves regime and maduros follow up. All the money Venezuela produced was robbed by the government and just used enough to keep the poor happy thus keeping power.
@Temer1ty please, talk to us when you get to pay for a house and your children, when you have ACTUAL responsibilities...then maybe lefty propaganda and "Muh capitalist state" won´t matter to you that much. Or just ask anyone who lived in a communist state. It wasn't pretty. the quote was perfect for ideologs and fanatics who are empty of ideas yet follow a messiah or opinion leader.
Así es mi pana.. pero coño chamo yo sinceramente siento que empezó con una idea más de pinga pa Venezuela de lo que resultó ser el país de hoy. El bicho se convirtió en senda lacra megalomaniaca, y de eso tamos claros... especialmente cuando le dio poder al mamaverga de Nicolás, asegurando que Venezuela continuara en su descenso a la mierda putrefacta que es hoy; un estado narco-militar encabezado por el Cartel de los Soles. Me sorprende que Simón el Silvón no haya hablado ni de ese peo ni de Diosdado.. ese csm es la mente detrás de toda esa vaina ahorita.
God created the world in six days He can also save you from hell and have a personal relationship with him today He can give you his Holy Spirit to guide and teach and comfort you today Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Come to Jesus Christ today Jesus Christ is only way to heaven Repent and follow him today seek his heart Jesus Christ can fill the emptiness he can fill the void Heaven and hell is real cone to the loving savior today Today is the day of salvation tomorrow might be to late come to the loving savior today John 3:16-21 16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. 17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. 18 He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. 19 And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. 20 For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. 21 But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God. Mark 1.15 15 And saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel. 2 Peter 3:9 The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. Hebrews 11:6 6 But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. Jesus
I will admit that history in South America is not something I know nearly as well as European and American History so it is always nice to learn about events and important figures in other parts of the world. Great stuff Simon -- thanks for the effort and quality you put in!
I remember every democrat and socialist praising Venezuela and Chavez, almost getting off to mention of his name. Now that the country is failing they say it wasn't real socialism.
That is why I call Democrats subhuman leftists, both politicians and voters.. no logic no morality just subhumanity. The rape Melania compaign started after the 2016 election was the red pill for me.
@James Tennant you do realize every big democrat mouthpiece praised him right? Every leftwing actor from Sean Penn to Danny Glover, not to mention film makers Michael Moore and Oliver stone praising him and many meeting him. Also, lefty professor Naom Chomsky wrote a book on socialism where he praised Hugo. Chavez held up that book at the UN which made it a best seller. Sorry. You dems did praise him
"There's an ineffable creepiness to a society where the leader never pays a political price for what he says, no matter how plainly crazy or illegal it may be."
@@johnstevenson9956 you tell me because I can think of quite a few people that statement can apply to, but I'm guessing you have someone very specific in mind. So please, share with the class.
@@jamesstaggs4160 Someone didn't get the broad hint. But why would anybody have to elaborate? It wouldn't change your opinion in the slightest. Right now you're already laying the groundwork with whataboutism and distractions all just so you don't have to confront the fact that this quote from the past applies EXACTLY to your man. And I get it. You love him and you hate everybody else, especially those who don't respect Dear Leader enough. But so did the supporters of Chavez and Maduro and Duterte and Johnson and Kim, so did Stalins and Mao's men and Mussolini's goons. Every dictator in history was only enabled by those who blindly and passionately followed him no matter what. You'll never change your mind. In your eyes he can never do wrong. And everything that counters this narrative is just fake news. And so, ironically, you proove the point of the quote oh so right.
.... Do you know Jesus Christ can set you free from sins and save you from hell today Jesus Christ is the only hope in this world no other gods will lead you to heaven There is no security or hope with out Jesus Christ in this world come and repent of all sins today Today is the day of salvation come to the loving savior Today repent and do not go to hell Come to Jesus Christ today Jesus Christ is only way to heaven Repent and follow him today seek his heart Jesus Christ can fill the emptiness he can fill the void Heaven and hell is real cone to the loving savior today Today is the day of salvation tomorrow might be to late come to the loving savior today Romans 6.23 For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. John 3:16-21 16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. 17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. 18 He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. 19 And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. 20 For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. 21 But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God. Mark 1.15 15 And saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel. 2 Peter 3:9 The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. Hebrews 11:6 6 But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. Jesus
@@jayrodr897 Yeah im sure venezuela is all super good now with massive salaries and wealth everywhere, Chavez really saved them frm prosperity. Some of my closest friends are form there and they were all humble working class not "elite", no one, NO ONE talks good about chavez, not a single venezuelan ive met in my life. Maybe get your marxist class war propaganda out of your ass.
Grew up with Cubans in North Jersey in 1980s & 1990s... heard their stories.. Now im living in Houston area.. Venezuelans telling me same stories.. Yea socialist is just Communist with patience.
@@Ivanmaradonaaa No, it's not because of the US, long before the Americans even started to put sanctions in Venezuela it was economically declining, Chavez was a major reason of the crisis today we're living in this country and so it was the vast majority of governments since 1958, year when General Marcos Perez Jimenez was forced to abandon his charge as president. US has little to nothing to do about our present and I can tell you as a citizen living in Venezuela today's hell is well founded on this socialists.
@@unraton6845 expect leftys to blame USA for anything but never their beloved revolutionary dictators for ruining their own countries. Castro and CHavez were supposedly visionaries who could have solved the poverty problems, just ask any activist in University haha. In fact Chavez blamed USA non stop daily until his voters believed it.
@@skwervin1 Neither Venezuela or Australia are truly socialist though. Socialism (TM) in Venezuela is just used as a marketing tool to get votes. What kind of socialist (Chavez & cronies) has billions of looted state oil money stashed away offshore which now belongs to his daughters?
@@skwervin1 Hate to tell you, but you're not. You live in a social-democracy. You Westerners and your stupid glorification of communism and socialism. Socialism is what happened to Eastern Europe - look at it now. Stop glorifying that stupid ideology.
Given that Venezuela used to be one of the richest countries of South America and now it's the poorest and most unstable where people can't even get basic groceries, I don't think there's any reasonable argument for him being a "savior".
Before he took power it was one of the poorest in the area then he built up the Economy and later ruined it by investing too much Into the oil industry because that's when their economy collapsed when oil prices dropped. Also the long history of us sanctions didn't help the economy either
@@elyjah6380 The US sanctions have literally nothing to do with the economic demise of venezuela. Venezuela was already in a somewhat weird state before he got to power and he just made the economy totally focus on one thing that's so volatile as oil.
Remember how the world's left championed this guy all the way up to 2008/09. You would have thought he was Jesus 2.0 and except that I knew Venezuelans at the time...and that they had nothing good to say of the man and his rule...man, I was confused for the truth in those days.
ideologs defend their same-orientation dictators no matter what, leftys defend their commie or socialist dictators that ruin countries... the right does the same with conservative and religious tyrants.
If you would of listened to Clinton supporters who left to Canada in 2016, they would tell Canadians that Trump was a dictator from the start and that the whole country is oppressed. Polling people who go to the U.S is not a good way to find out how people in the country feel.
Seriously, the Left in '08-'09 (especially the dim bulbs in the USA) would not shut up about how supposedly great this Chavez guy was. Even as a relatively politically newbie centrist/moderate at the time (now I'm just an extremely jaded "pox on everyone's houses" centrist) whenever I looked at their praise of the dude and compared it to what he was actually _doing_ to Venezuela I had to do a "WTF kind of drugs are you on?" double-take. Looking at you 2008-2009 Bernie Sanders!
Dear Simon, Lula da Silva, a former Brazilian president, could be a good name for Biographics. In brief: he came from abject poverty to the presidency; became the most popular president of the Brazilian history; was arrested under corruption allegations; and now he was released from prison. Like it or not, he has a fascinating life trajectory.
Lula has lost 3 elections and not once did him or his supporters engage in violent behaviour afterwards, despite the right loving to claim the left as violent and petulant. How ironic.
Breads and circuses can only work for so long. The problem is that Venezuela became solely reliant on oil. Instead of re-investing into the country to diversify it's economy, they only doubled down. They drove out anyone willing to invest money into the country and anyone who had money within the country.
That's the best criticism of the situation I've heard. It's true they should've found new ressources to invest in. When it comes to paranoia of foiregn investment I can understand why, you wouldn't want that investment to be a trojan horse for something else.
It didn't help that Chavez killed off whatever diversified economy Venezuela had with price control and nationalization in the process of becoming solely reliant on oil.
@@thrillathakilla it is great because of the fact that I am able to not have to pack a beretta down the road and I can eat, however it is different and everybody is difficult on the politics at the moment
Venezuelan here. This video is dead on the nail except for the part where he said he never rigged an election. One of the very first moves Chávez did was create an “independent” centralized national elections committee (CNE) Whereas before elections were organized by independent state electoral institutions, Chavez quickly got rid of that and heavily appointed this new elections committee with party officials. To perfectly surmise this, on his election to reseat the newly created National Assembly in 1999 even though Chávez had only won with 56% of the vote a year prior, he somehow won over 90% of the seats in the assembly. This was explained away as a statistical quirk named “el kino” after the countries largest lottery ticket company. Essentially, for this new election the new centralized elections committee (CNE) hired two European trained mathematicians Nelson Merendes and Ricardo ríos (who ironically were given state sponsored scholarships by the same puntofijista establishment they sought to bring down. (On a further note, while puntofijismo ignored droves of people, that was really caused by local crises of economic management in Caracas and demographic failures where millions migrated to Caracas, Valencia and Maracaibo while these cities had no capacity to maintain them or provide jobs in a formal economy. However, puntofijismo governments did establish a widespread social welfare net that many people relied and benefited upon until the crises of Keynesianism and fordism in the 70’s/80’s. My family grew up dirt poor and most of them were able to receive state funding to study overseas or at the best universities back in the 70’s.)) to design a distribution of candidates amongst voter lists that ensured the ranked ballot system used for the election heavily favoured official candidates. They used mathematics to dilute the chance of opposition governments to have a seat. That’s a rig in my opinion. More importantly, this CNE moved venezuela to become the first country in the world to organize national elections fully held with voting machines, which were all run and operated by the CNE, which again, was heavily staffed by party officials. While they did have support, a good chunk of it was conditional; state employees were forced to vote and fired if they abstained or vote against the party, the government would give out money from trucks and bikes at government marches, and again made houses and or the forms of support conditional on voting for the chavistas. Also a good chunk of these social programs just became avenues for corruption and money laundering. Especially the houses which were built to shoddy construction standards in a highly seismic area like Caracas and at hyper inflated budgets. When massive floods and rains washed away approximately 300,000 peoples houses in the late 2000’s/2010’s the government just expropriated a mall and packed as many people in there as they could. That’s all they did, most ended up invading abandoned buildings. Venezuela has the largest vertical slum in the world, in what at the time of construction was the continents 4th tallest tower, today a sad vestige of what Venezuela could’ve been, but became instead.
The tile is misleading - it should be "Hugo Chaves: Venezuela´s Savior AND Destroyer" with retouches further provided by former bus driver Nicolas Maduro. Socialism at his best....
Probably the fairest assessment of the man. As Simon pointed out he legitimately did some good for the poor of Venezuela. But he did poorly to make sure it was sustainable. And considering it was the same mistakes made by the elites he kicked out makes it all the sadder.
I lived in Venezuela as a kid, in 91-92, and I remember there being couple times we had to stay home because of a coup. Second time was apparently orchestrated from prison, but didn't fare any better.
I'm a Venezuelan, I haven't seen the video yet, but there's something in my genes and based on my experience being born there and living/suffering from Chavez's time as a ruler and all he did that forces me to write this right now: HE'S A DESTROYER AND A LOT MORE. He could've had an amazing opportunity to make a difference, but instead he chose to become an ally with Cuba and that mixed with his own resentment lead to make one what was once of the most richest countries in Latin America... one of the most poor, corrupt, miserable countries in the entire world. Venezuelans in general are amazing, don't get me wrong, they're an example of extreme resilience. But the group of people that hold the power, the ones left after Chavez died, and what he himself did left a country that has one of the worst and most corrupt economy and government in the world. There are a bunch of both political and social reasons Chavez won, same reasons why "left" candidates have become more and more popular in Latin America and why populism is a big deal now, but please, please understand this: nothing, no matter what argument you might have, NOTHING good comes from left/communist/socialist candidates who get such amount of power. Communism and Socialism are a lie, I've lived it myself and don't say "that's because this wasn't real the real thing" if you haven't been there, if you didn't grow up listening to this man speeches filled with hate, if you we not personally affected by the politics this man and the now "president" of Venezuela have made, you really can't talk about being a socialist or a communist... Now that I've taken this off of my system, I'll watch the video. Thank you :)
Not coming to his defense, but so was Hitler, and so many others before him. His big mistake was that he alienated the middle classes and the moderates.
Thank you for being fair on history here, Venezuela is a tragedy and everybody from abroad should see better. Never believe in a populist leader, neither a socialist one. After all this video comes short on many other terrifying things venezuelans had to endure under Chávez and Maduro's rule.
the problem comes from kids and teens on 1st world countries who never knew or lived under socialism or communism lecturing people about the downfalls of capitalism when they know jackshit.
@@iansmith8783 true democracy is horrible its two wolves and a sheep voting on who is for dinner. That is why we have constitutional representative government . The constitution should keep the wolves from voting to eat the sheep. Of course over time they in power warp everything to gain more power. The tree of liberty needs to be watered from time to time. Peace out.
@@skuarf so what you’re saying is people like Trump and the rest of the GOP who can’t even find Venezuela on a map much less experience living there, but decry “socialism” as bad are 100% correct. Meanwhile people who constantly go through all the evils of capitalism and criticize it have no idea what the heck they’re talking about? Interesting… and yes clown, I wrote this on an iPhone, thought I’d spare you the mantra
Been watching for a couple weeks and feel like you'd deliver a fair portrayal of Louis Riel - the Canadian Métis leader who made it so provinces weren't just resource states run from Ottawa but made sure they had their own power. He, along with many other indigenous obstacles to colonization were portrayed through the view of colonizers and Louis is often just labelled as "crazy."
Yes as today, it will almost double (there was already a reform to change 000, so honestly it's x200), a WoW token worth 110,529 gold, while an US dollar is 196,922 bolivares.
Simon, you disappoint me. Like every subject in the real world, Hugo Chavez was neither a savior nor a destroyer. He was simply a man. A man who for a time had his country's destiny in his hand and came into the moment with good intentions...then paved his country's decent into anarchy and despair with it. Venezuela's problems predate Chavez and go hand in hand with what is known as the resource curse; they are the result of a corrupt system created and nurtured by the country's wealthy elite and their allies...and the masses conditioned to exist in such environment (many of whom have learned its worst habits and now employ them with glee). As they saying goes; to those who evil is done, will do evil in return. This is a variation of an all-too-common story, which we have seen many times before: Patrice Lumumba in Zaire (Congo-Kinshasa); Thomas Sankara in Burkina Faso; Ahmed Sékou Touré in Guinea-Conakry; Salvador Allende in Chile; Mohammad Mosaddegh in Iran and the list goes on…To reduce someone like Hugo Chavez to a binary choice of Saint or Villain is a disservice to both saints and villains.
Also add in the US sanctions and there result in decimating the Venezuelan economy along with Chavez's own follies... I will say this Chavez repaid Haiti's (then secret) loan to Simon Bolivar for their revolution and even built large housing complexes for the Haitian people and gave us oil for dirt cheap prices
Honestly, probably he would have a been a great baseball player, everyone loving him and we may have Irene Sáenz as president. It doesn't sound bad to me.
Venezuela would probably still be in the same situation today to be honest, maybe there would be a little bit more democracy but it would be totally corrupt elites for sure. Both the capitalist and socialist governments relied too heavily on crude oil with the backdrop of a weak economy for decades. Would probably be even worse economically for the majority under a capitalist one at least Chavez did something for the poor, albeit cynically.
@@thunderwarrior1 the economy was in tatters well before that. When Chavez was elected oil price was USD 20.00 per barrel, when he died between 80 to 90 dollars and except for 2008-2010 price was never below 80. Basically he used the "oil golden years" in long term impossible social programs (in order to buy votes and give jobs to unskilled people) and giving assistance to the "Bolivarian dream" in Argentina, Bolivia, Cuba, etc. Obviously when the oil hike ended the economy crash hard.
@@Gatotsu2009 And rather than allow those that owned the oil enterprises and knew how to run them to actual, you know, run them, he had the government run them. Which meant allowed them to fall apart while screaming "traitor" and "U.S. stooge" at anyone who told him he was making a mistake. Not only did the price of oil drop but their ability to actually produce oil dropped dramatically. This is the problem of Socialism. Allow the government which has no financial restraints due to their sovereign right to print money to run a business which is restricted due to budgeting. As in all cases it fails.
@@MasterMalrubius I will not say Socialism is the root of the problem. Chavez thought he was the "new Bolivar" and the idea of unify everything like Bolivar in the past (a dream), in order to do that the government became more and more corrupt. That can happen with any kind of country. The difference (in the end) is who gains more power.
People loved him because he gave them the bare minimum to survive, but kept them poor. They loved him because he made it seem like he cared, meanwhile he enjoyed the riches he spoke ill of and faulted the opposition for. He "invested" in education, which looked more like indoctrination. Not only the quality, but even the topics at times discussed in public schools included ways to make him seem like a god. Chavez was constantly seen as an entity beyond human for his supporters, who remained poor until the end and completely dependent on the "missions" he implemented. Sincerely, a Venezuelan who hasn't seen his country in a decade.
Well researched. However modern Venezuela started when Venezuela placed all its eggs in one basket: oil; Chavez didn't change this. No profound change ever occurred in Venezuela, one corrupt, inept, and populist form of government was changed for another one. One elite, the descendants of those in power in the 1920s was changed by another one, those that grew up with resentment against the former people in power. One foreign country with power above local laws (the US and its companies) was changed for another one (Cuba and its professional indoctrinators and infiltrators). A different head on the same corrupt body, not a real revolution, just a change of elites.
It is Americas fault. and now you had to crawl back to to beg for oil and lift sanctions. Doubt you are gonna hear many stories about Venezuela in the years to come.
Did the video do justice? And what's your view on Julius Malema if you have time? He was a big fan of Venezuela and want(ed) South Africa to follow Venezuela's example.
Well after all it's a good resume of what happened here in Venezuela, but let me tell you it comes short. There's many other terrifying things the chavista regime has done to it's people, not only by being a extremly corrupt government, but also a brutal one. I was shot in the arm by the national guard on 2017's protests and a friend of mine was shot dead by the police on a demostration. But it gets really worst on lower social classes. In the slums all around the country there's no human rights, people who get into politics to defy chavismo are disappear by the political police, militar personel who have rebel are being capture and torture in infamous ways. I am a journalist so i'm telling you, I know this first hand. Hope nobody ever hace to live under a dictatorship, always mistrust any politician who talks with resentment or vengeance because those are populist and they will get their way to power and never live office.
@@armandonorig hello Man I have a 2 question? 1.) Who you support. Maduro o guiado? 2.) And also it's that true that Venezuela can plunge into civil war?
@@armandonorig Unfortunately, this channel seems more like an overview for a more casual viewer. Which is fine, but so many figures could have hour-long videos and still barely scratch the surface on them.
this man was not a saviour in any way shape or form, I am aware some people in this comment section may have grown detached from the reality of Venezuela and i do not blame you, i applaud you for watching this video and attempting to learn and/or justify his actions, however, his rule was a dictatorial one and his policies were detrimental to the nation in the long run, furthermore though i could believe socialism is a beautiful concept, the Venezuelan government throughout chaves' administration was not a strictly socialist one, though Venezuela state was a market state (i believe that is what they are called) the administration used socialist ideology to manipulate its people into a re-educating program similar to that of the soviet union, china and north Korea... when someone asks a Venezuelan what did he do to be so hated the answer is simple, he manipulated, monopolised the nation for profit, he became the most successful legally proclaimed dictator in history and he ruined what up to that point was a very promising nation. i am aware i am emotionally invested in this topic as im venezuelan, but ive tried to explain the extent of how he was so hated without including religious and cultural factors, for which he also did a lot of stuff that angered the Venezuelan public. i would also like to appologise for my grammar, spelling and punctuation, English its my second language and i am still learning how to properly redact an response. love from Cambridge England.
We were so incredibly fortunate to holiday in Venezuela back in 2010. It was a stunning country and the people on the whole were very warm and friendly We saw some of the most amazing sights ever, from La Gran Sabana to Angel Falls to the Isla Margarita to Arekuna Camp to the countless waterfalls that took our breath away with their size and power. We fished for piranha on the Orinoco and for a short time, crossed the border with Brazil, witnessing the sheer hoardes of lorries from Brazil queuing to buy the far cheaper Venezuelan diesel. We even visited a massive hydro electric dam that wouldn't look out of place as a James Bond film set that was also exporting electricity to Brazil. The country had so much to offer, it has greater oil reserves than Saudi Arabia and yet a lot of people we spoke to DESPISED Chavez and the country has deteriorated into a hellhole, it is a crying shame as it has so much to offer.
In 1993 I had a British colleague who was offered a choice to transfer to any city in the world that he wanted by the bank we worked for. Because he thought it would be fun, he chose the branch in Caracas. When he landed, he took a cab to his hotel, woke up the next morning for his first day of work and was shot at the minute he set foot out of the building. It took our company a month to find him a new post back in the UK and then get him out. The poor guy spent the entire time holed up in the hotel. He didn't step out even once and never saw another inch of Venezuela. Last I heard, he was still living safe in England.
Also when you don’t pay your debts as a government to international companies they take their business elsewhere, what a shocker, and when you take away their companies without any compensation or explanation business men tend to mistrust you in the future and not want to invest in your country anymore, shocker shocker shocker mmmhmmmm
fireblade2681 oh they gave a lot of it away to buy support from countries like Cuba and Russia, while neglecting the oil related national companies and their infrastructure, all of a sudden turns out we have no oil nor how to produce it and we have to import it from Iran, who would have thought, uh?
Everything he did for the people was with Socialism and socialism always leads to destitution and poverty. Even with the massive state controlled oil reserves Venezuela couldn’t support its own people with socialism, so why do we have to keep making excuses for it?
because left politics are the good ones and have the high moral ground...IN THEORY. In execution they ignore a lot of nuances and things like personal freedom, individuality pragmatism and logic. Also left politics started as "kill the rich/wealthier and rob them"
Wow - what a way to whitewash Chavez's legacy. "Yeah, he did horrible and evil things - but he helped some people and they loved him". Guess, what? Soviet citizens also loved Stalin during his lifetime for bringing progress and improving the lot of the common people - those who knew nothing of the evil he did. It is important to remember that Stalin was a firm believer in Socialist principles, ideals, and goals and believed that any and all means were justified in attaining those goals. While Chavez did not approach the evil of Stalin, his actions parallel those of all other Socialist dictators.
These bios are awesome. Great work. I was stationed in Colombia so I would like to see more about their history. La violencia, FARC, ELN, Mono Jojoy. Looking forward to see them. Thx.
As a Venezuelan, your analysis it’s simple and accurate. I dare to say even for his few remaining followers, Chavez’s absurd/wrong policies that have led to my beloved country to its total collapse have come as reality shock for his loyalist few. Well done!!!
As a Middleclass person I can say that........ "we Middleclass ppl helps a business to grow, help the country's economy to boost do everything what's the best for the country. But in the end, we are treated literally as 'tissue papers' by the political elites......"
@@skuarf I am a native English speaker and this is nowhere near hard. Changing the stress to the first syllable is asking for very little, especially because it distracts from the content of the video.
@@xoxoxochicago I know,but most english speakers never practice this nor are told how tildes work. Anyway it would be worse to hear Latin with english vowels.
Oh, my, did you disappoint me this time! 🤦🏽♀️ Hugo Chaves was a disgrace. He just didn't live long enough for most people to notice. They are paying the price for his disastrous politics now. And by the way, do you really believe those hight popularity numbers are real? Are you that naive?
My wife and her family are from there... Thanks to Chavez her father lost everything he had a a small farm... taken a convenience store taken.... his second home taken he was kidnapped while trying to use his car as a taxi with no other option for income now they live in the us and now in his 80’s he cries because he wants to be buried in Venezuela but that’s not the country he once knew is quite heartbreaking
Simon, thank you for this, mate. I had requested you do a video on this guy a lil while back. He was a dangerous megalomaniac who ultimately brought the place I was born in and spent most my life at to its knees.
We all need a goal farther off in the future to aim for. Mine is getting through whatever keeps coming at me so that I can live long enough to one day hear someone describe these troubled days I'm currently going through in a detached, historical context.
you should start a channel that makes documentaries about the history of countries themselves: I think people would like it since it would match well with your successful Geographics channel covering specific famous global sites and this channel covering famous/infamous historical figures! I know I definitely would subscribe to that just as I am subscribed to this channel, Geographics, and Megaprojects.
How, in the name of your Saint, do you always manage to present so ballanced and unbiased approach no matter what/who you talk about?? Respect Simon!!!! 🙌🙌🙌
Carlos Andres Perez wasn't a corrupt politician he was the only few presidents that actually wanted to help build Venezuela he just had a lot of communist enemies that built a bad image of him
I am Colombian, I enjoyed your video very much, very objective and balance, I might not agreed with some of your conclusions but it's just a matter of opinion and interpretation to the event. Thank you very much for posting, I am really enjoying your channel and your effort and dedication to inform in a balance and objective way.
Liliana Bray Maybe not as extreme as the Democrat party is now, but he was a community agitator. He was friends with a domestic terrorist. His pastor was a antiSemitic black supremacist. Sounds pretty out there to me. He said he would prefer single payer and that successful people don’t own there success to their hard work.
Obama is a skilled politician and a bit if a wacky lefty, but got away with it some. The American legislative branch did what it could to restrain him, as with Bill. He wasn't THAT bad for a Democrat. As for the present President, Clinton cleared the way, someone whom should never have been president is, again.
Not sure how anyone can come to the conclusion that Chavez or even Democratic socialism ruined Venezuela after hearing the first 10 minutes of this video.
Simon is very VERY left leaning and tried to be "neutral" or whitewash chavez. A lot of venezuelan fellows already complained in the comments about how Chavez is depicted as a "misunderstood ruler".
Biographics should do a video on Nicolae Ceausescu, the delusional megalomaniac of a dictator who ran Romania into the ground in a mad quest to emulate Kim Il Sung's cult of personality.
@@WarCrimeGaming Do we care about Arrow Cross party members and members of the Iron League? The short answer is no, the longer one is, they got what they deserved.
@@WarCrimeGaming And he paid off that IMF loan he took to build the presidential palace on the backs of his own citizens by letting them starve and freeze to death.
Get started with NordVPN today with a 3 year plan for 70% off and a month for free: nordvpn.com/biographics
Do Tzar Nicholas ll next!
Thanks! I really needed that! Still asking for Pedro II
Nord VPN isn't safe, their servers are 'serviced' by outsourcing abroad, they have no control over our data, it's a leaky farce.
Leave the politics out of your amusing little videos.
NordVPN....the guys that had the data breach in 2018? Those guys?
I live in Venezuela (in probably the worst part of the country) and as I was watching this video there was an electrical blackout. I think that sums it up.
NEWS FLASH BLACKOUTS ARE COMMON IN 3RD WORLD
@@MrDICKHEAD28 ... and I guess trying to troll and sucking at it is common everywhere (?)
@@arturojose16 IT'S TRUE MOST 3RD WORLD DON'T HAVE NUCLEAR PLANTS TO GIVE RELIABLE POWER
MOST USE
OIL COAL OR NATURAL GAS WHICH MORE SUSCEPTIBLE TO BROWNOUTS OR BLACKOUTS
VENEZUELAN MAIN SOURCE IS A DAM
WHICH CAN BE UNRELIABLE SINCE WATER LEVELS CAN DROP
THEY ARE UNABLE TO BUILD NEW PLANTS EASY BECAUSE THE PARTS NEEDED ARE IMPORTED AND THERE'S A HUGE OF AMOUNT OF DEVALUTION AND NOW SANCTIONS IT'S NEAR IMPOSSABLE TO GET THOSE PARTS
@@MrDICKHEAD28 if you press the caps lock button again it will turn off the big letters. Just fyi
@@kkloikok NAH
Someone tell Venezula that inflation is not a race
And also it ain't a healthy fetish either,incase you are wondering yeah inflation is a fetish (sad world we live in)
Darth Vader are you referring to the inflation of currency? If so, that’s a bizarre but dangerous fetish.
Zimbabwe was neck-and-neck with them, though.
Tell the us gov to stop economic sanctions
shut up inflation fetish is hot
I’m from Venezuela, my parents saw what was coming and decided that we should live in a better country, so now we live in the US and have been since 03. Although the US has an insane amount of flaws I still prefer to live here than over there.
Greetings fellow freedom loving American! Yes we have many flaws but the majority are good and decent people. Glad you're here!
@@badtexasbill5261 was gonna make a joke, saw you have a playlist of the smiths on your channel, good stuff
Good on your parents for being smart and leaving that place. A GORGEOUS country, and so incredibly sad to see it being reduced. But the US, despite its flaws, is great because hard-working, dedicated people like your parents make it so.
I sincerely hope that you and your family have a backup plan, because the US is probably going the way of Socialism in the next few years, if these ANTIFA actors have their way.
@@jblz86 but they are a terrorist organization?
I’ve lived in Venezuela all my life, there’s no ambiguity or grey areas tbh, he was (and continues to be because of his legacy) a destroyer and the worst, no doubt.
Simon is left leaning and he is kinda whitewashing Chavez. Problem is CHavez loyalist and lefty kids in western countries love him like Castro as a Messiah to end the rich.
skuarf “to end the rich” that’s peak irony right there with Chavez and Co. being probably some of the richest people in the world, but yes I get what he represents for those kind of people, and yet I cringe from the almost divine status some of them give him, even here still (I mean people here, obviously the state propaganda seems to exist for the very purpose of glorifying him) some people really just married the State owned media version of reality and have been living in deplorable conditions depending on the governments handouts for too long and they’re afraid to lose even that since they’ve lost everything else as well, and by lost I mean of course that the system took it away along with any opportunities for improvement, that’s our reality here
micolash Scream I think you’re preaching to the choir, you should probably be telling that to those “leftist” you mention, they’re the ones making you all look bad, just my personal opinion.
@@KShiro-xb7sj "preaching to the choir" would assume the choir already knew the sermon
My mom was born in Cúcuta, Colombia and mainly lived in very remote parts of Venezuela and Barinas in the 60's since my grandparents were American missionaries there. They had dual citizenship and left around the time the iron industry was nationalized since my mom had too many complicated health issues that were not addressed properly there. There are some ignorant Americans here who think Chávez was great. The way Simon presented him was a bit ridiculous and sort of reminds me of that same ignorance.
A friend of mine from Venezuela who moved to Finland around 2014~15 doesn't have much (read: near zero) in the way of good things to say about the Venezuelan government and their handling of the economics. Says it was an absolute shitshow with basically no opportunities for the ordinary folk. Firm in his opinion that anyone who unironically clamors for that kind of socialism hasn't actually experienced it first-hand.
Finland and many of the states with access to the North Sea have become home to many Venezuelans. Same with the Gulf Coast of the US. These are the very people in the middle class who were driven out of their country, but took with them the highly-sought skills of petroleum engineering, development, construction and other aspects of the industry. Chavez once famously fired thousands of employees of PDVSA (the state oil company) on his TV show and replaced them with party loyalists who had no idea what they were doing - literally. And thus began the collapse of the country's energy sector.
MosoKaiser How could any sane person state that an economy that is 70% privately run is “socialist”
The middle and upper class from any colonial oligarchy that gets up-ended are angry about it. Had they cared to make a more equal society, instead of holding onto wealth and power while large numbers of indigenous poor stayed on the fringes of society, maybe their country wouldn't have needed to radicalize. Please note this isn't a defense of Chavez etc, just a response to those expats who never seem to look at themselves and what their class created or accepted.
Thats why most of us Venezuelans that had some money for a plane ticket, are not there anymore.
There’s this thing called survivors bias, also they are still very much a capitalist country.
Chavez: "I will be around for the 2012 elections!"
Grim Reaper: "Ahh, not so fast."
LoL 🤣🤣
Sadly the medicine was worse than the disease... Maburro!
There is not a single day that someone thanks to the Gods he died the way he did: eaten up rotten from the inside by cancer.
Love it ❤️
....
Do you know Jesus Christ can set you free from sins and save you from hell today
Jesus Christ is the only hope in this world no other gods will lead you to heaven
There is no security or hope with out Jesus Christ in this world come and repent of all sins today
Today is the day of salvation come to the loving savior Today repent and do not go to hell
Come to Jesus Christ today
Jesus Christ is only way to heaven
Repent and follow him today seek his heart Jesus Christ can fill the emptiness he can fill the void
Heaven and hell is real cone to the loving savior today
Today is the day of salvation tomorrow might be to late come to the loving savior today
Romans 6.23
For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
John 3:16-21
16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. 17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. 18 He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. 19 And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. 20 For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. 21 But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God.
Mark 1.15
15 And saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel.
2 Peter 3:9
The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
Hebrews 11:6
6 But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.
Jesus
While Venezuela is a great example of what not to do as a oil country, Norway is the polar opposite, with about 1 trillion us-dollar saved up for rainy days and a big effort to try and keep the economy diverse. *edit spelling.
d puski By what possible metric?
A very nice gated community. 83% Norwegian and almost 95% white.
@@MasterMalrubius it's "gated" because hardly anyone migrates to extreme cold countries. There is nothing banning you from moving to norway. Same goes for Alaska, Sweden, FInland...
@Carleton Rutherford Yeah I´m sure with no embargoes Chavez politics and planned economy would have brought Utopia.
Ask any venezuelan and they'll tell you how dumb you are. Take your tinfoil hat off.
@Carleton Rutherford The embargos only serve to get the elite not as rich. The people were never going to see that money ever. It's the same as Cuba. You guys always say Embargo is why Cuba is poor. No it's not. The government took the money, made everyone poor, unless you were a high ranking official within the Cuban party. Unfortunately, that's what Communism is in South America or more so Socialistic Dictatorships. Not that the original governments the countries had were much better. But it is a lesson people need to learn. If you abuse, people rise up and go "well misery loves company". Then a new group of elite, gain power. In the case of Cuba, most of the ones that maintained control including Castro were upper-middle class or even the upper class. Hell, he studied in the US. In Venezuela, not as much. But, it is a lesson that Americans and the world should see. You go too far far to the right, and you will end up too far to the left. In another abusive form of government.
The funniest (or saddest) part of the Venezuelan failure, is that there are still plenty of Venezuelans praising Chavez and Socialism... as homeless beggers in Colombia.
GG your dad: communism is dope!
Also your dad: owning a business is the bees’ knees!
Me: *shocked pikachu face*
@@niadonnis Thats because the US isn't responsible for this particular shitshow. That was the result of a socialist populist destroying business confidence by nationalising everything and destroying the rule of law, followed by huge public spending based on high oil prices. Once the oil prices collapse, so does the spending unless you can borrow it or generate it other ways. No one was willing to lend to a populist socialist who nationalises everything and won't pay you back, and he hadn't bothered developing industry. A popululation used to being given free money saw the taps turned off and crime soared. Printing money to turn them back on just led to hyperinflation destroying the purchasing power on those lucky enough to still have a job. It was inevitable sooner or later in any case with the drive to end global oil use by....socialists mainly.
Yes, because the US had almost no role in the Collapse of Venezuela. Sanctions didn’t even really come into effect until 2019
@@niadonnis sanctions are in place because the country is effectively run by criminals and used as a platform to commit their crimes, ya dingus.
@@niadonnis as a Venezuelan that had to relocate to the US in 2016. I lived Chaves regime and maduros follow up. All the money Venezuela produced was robbed by the government and just used enough to keep the poor happy thus keeping power.
“Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else’s opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation.”
- Oscar Wilde
@Temer1ty please, talk to us when you get to pay for a house and your children, when you have ACTUAL responsibilities...then maybe lefty propaganda and "Muh capitalist state" won´t matter to you that much. Or just ask anyone who lived in a communist state. It wasn't pretty.
the quote was perfect for ideologs and fanatics who are empty of ideas yet follow a messiah or opinion leader.
A great quote, and a very ironic one to quote.
@Temer1ty easy to say while not being from either venezuela or cuba
This is called narcisism
Oscar Wilde was himself an anticapitalist and would have supported Chavez.
He was what we like to call a tremendo mamaguevo
Así es mi pana.. pero coño chamo yo sinceramente siento que empezó con una idea más de pinga pa Venezuela de lo que resultó ser el país de hoy. El bicho se convirtió en senda lacra megalomaniaca, y de eso tamos claros... especialmente cuando le dio poder al mamaverga de Nicolás, asegurando que Venezuela continuara en su descenso a la mierda putrefacta que es hoy; un estado narco-militar encabezado por el Cartel de los Soles. Me sorprende que Simón el Silvón no haya hablado ni de ese peo ni de Diosdado.. ese csm es la mente detrás de toda esa vaina ahorita.
Jjajjjajajjajajaj solo para venezolanos hablando ingles 😎 “a great dick sucker”?
@Cocksucker is the closest translation....but if we are being technical is more a "testiclesucker"
JAJAJAJAJAJA
God created the world in six days
He can also save you from hell and have a personal relationship with him today
He can give you his Holy Spirit to guide and teach and comfort you today
Romans 6:23
For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Come to Jesus Christ today
Jesus Christ is only way to heaven
Repent and follow him today seek his heart Jesus Christ can fill the emptiness he can fill the void
Heaven and hell is real cone to the loving savior today
Today is the day of salvation tomorrow might be to late come to the loving savior today
John 3:16-21
16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. 17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. 18 He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. 19 And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. 20 For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. 21 But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God.
Mark 1.15
15 And saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel.
2 Peter 3:9
The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
Hebrews 11:6
6 But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.
Jesus
I will admit that history in South America is not something I know nearly as well as European and American History so it is always nice to learn about events and important figures in other parts of the world. Great stuff Simon -- thanks for the effort and quality you put in!
I remember every democrat and socialist praising Venezuela and Chavez, almost getting off to mention of his name. Now that the country is failing they say it wasn't real socialism.
That is why I call Democrats subhuman leftists, both politicians and voters.. no logic no morality just subhumanity. The rape Melania compaign started after the 2016 election was the red pill for me.
younes jorge don’t cut yourself on all the edge there
@@gostavoadolfos2023 soooooo edgy. 🙄
@James Tennant look up the salon article called "Venezuelas economic miracle" and then say that. Go on. I'll wait
@James Tennant you do realize every big democrat mouthpiece praised him right? Every leftwing actor from Sean Penn to Danny Glover, not to mention film makers Michael Moore and Oliver stone praising him and many meeting him. Also, lefty professor Naom Chomsky wrote a book on socialism where he praised Hugo. Chavez held up that book at the UN which made it a best seller. Sorry. You dems did praise him
How can you not bring up the time Hugo called George W. Bush the devil while addressing The UN
He wasn't wrong though
@B MC No, no - Bush bad; really equally as bad but more bad because Republican American bad, badder than everybody.
And he was correct.
@@christopherlittrean6497 Way to let all the worst leaders get off so easily. Nice move.
@@msshannonigans Oh great, look it's another White guilt person. You can't socialism, move to Venezuela.
"There's an ineffable creepiness to a society where the leader never pays a political price for what he says, no matter how plainly crazy or illegal it may be."
Yeah, this isn’t playing out across the world right now. Nope.
Yeah, who does that sound like?
@@johnstevenson9956 you tell me because I can think of quite a few people that statement can apply to, but I'm guessing you have someone very specific in mind. So please, share with the class.
@@jamesstaggs4160 Someone didn't get the broad hint. But why would anybody have to elaborate? It wouldn't change your opinion in the slightest. Right now you're already laying the groundwork with whataboutism and distractions all just so you don't have to confront the fact that this quote from the past applies EXACTLY to your man.
And I get it. You love him and you hate everybody else, especially those who don't respect Dear Leader enough. But so did the supporters of Chavez and Maduro and Duterte and Johnson and Kim, so did Stalins and Mao's men and Mussolini's goons. Every dictator in history was only enabled by those who blindly and passionately followed him no matter what.
You'll never change your mind. In your eyes he can never do wrong. And everything that counters this narrative is just fake news. And so, ironically, you proove the point of the quote oh so right.
It’s defined as the Cult of Personality and it’s Consequences..
1:50 - Chapter 1 - On baseball & suffering
5:00 - Chapter 2 - Black gold
8:35 - Chapter 3 - Por ahora
11:50 - Mid roll ads
13:30 - Chapter 4 - Alo Presidente
20:05 - Chapter 5 - The madman
Thanks you legend
....
Do you know Jesus Christ can set you free from sins and save you from hell today
Jesus Christ is the only hope in this world no other gods will lead you to heaven
There is no security or hope with out Jesus Christ in this world come and repent of all sins today
Today is the day of salvation come to the loving savior Today repent and do not go to hell
Come to Jesus Christ today
Jesus Christ is only way to heaven
Repent and follow him today seek his heart Jesus Christ can fill the emptiness he can fill the void
Heaven and hell is real cone to the loving savior today
Today is the day of salvation tomorrow might be to late come to the loving savior today
Romans 6.23
For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
John 3:16-21
16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. 17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. 18 He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. 19 And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. 20 For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. 21 But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God.
Mark 1.15
15 And saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel.
2 Peter 3:9
The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
Hebrews 11:6
6 But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.
Jesus
I remember that Hugo Chavez said that there had been life on planet Mars once. And that life was destroyed by capitalism!
He totally said that, what a dick he was.
Well, he was a lunatic after all......
That sounds like an interesting setup for a short story though, lol.
@@armandonorig lmao not as bad a trump
@@alilweeb7684 the americans are so funny with their first-world country problems. Chavez was surreal bad.
There is no "or" about it, he is a destroyer. Ask _any_ sane and well-adjusted Venezuelan.
Aka "Ask any Venezuelan whose parents were part of the ruling elite pre-Chavez"
@@jayrodr897 Yeah im sure venezuela is all super good now with massive salaries and wealth everywhere, Chavez really saved them frm prosperity.
Some of my closest friends are form there and they were all humble working class not "elite", no one, NO ONE talks good about chavez, not a single venezuelan ive met in my life.
Maybe get your marxist class war propaganda out of your ass.
@@jayrodr897 stop
@@skuarf Yeah. I can tell lies on the internet as well.
Grew up with Cubans in North Jersey in 1980s & 1990s... heard their stories..
Now im living in Houston area.. Venezuelans telling me same stories..
Yea socialist is just Communist with patience.
Socialism is just the waiting room for communism.
When you said "Por Ahora" it sounded like you said "horror horror ", which is what is happening in Venezuela now.
Thanks to the US
Diogenes o Sinopeus is it really though?
@@Ivanmaradonaaa No, it's not because of the US, long before the Americans even started to put sanctions in Venezuela it was economically declining, Chavez was a major reason of the crisis today we're living in this country and so it was the vast majority of governments since 1958, year when General Marcos Perez Jimenez was forced to abandon his charge as president. US has little to nothing to do about our present and I can tell you as a citizen living in Venezuela today's hell is well founded on this socialists.
@@unraton6845 expect leftys to blame USA for anything but never their beloved revolutionary dictators for ruining their own countries.
Castro and CHavez were supposedly visionaries who could have solved the poverty problems, just ask any activist in University haha.
In fact Chavez blamed USA non stop daily until his voters believed it.
@@skuarf i love watching them defend things like holodomor and the great leap forward just to defend their shitty leaders
Yes, not only a Venezuela's destroyer, was a traitor And beyond, greeting from Maracaibo Venezuela
So the USA is not responsible in any way for the suffering on Venezuelans?
niadonnis not at all
@K A Hate to tell you but Australia is a socialist country and we are doing just fine
@@skwervin1 Neither Venezuela or Australia are truly socialist though.
Socialism (TM) in Venezuela is just used as a marketing tool to get votes. What kind of socialist (Chavez & cronies) has billions of looted state oil money stashed away offshore which now belongs to his daughters?
@@skwervin1 Hate to tell you, but you're not. You live in a social-democracy. You Westerners and your stupid glorification of communism and socialism. Socialism is what happened to Eastern Europe - look at it now. Stop glorifying that stupid ideology.
Given that Venezuela used to be one of the richest countries of South America and now it's the poorest and most unstable where people can't even get basic groceries, I don't think there's any reasonable argument for him being a "savior".
Yeeeaaahhhh. "Savior" not quite.
Before he took power it was one of the poorest in the area then he built up the Economy and later ruined it by investing too much Into the oil industry because that's when their economy collapsed when oil prices dropped. Also the long history of us sanctions didn't help the economy either
@@elyjah6380 The US sanctions have literally nothing to do with the economic demise of venezuela. Venezuela was already in a somewhat weird state before he got to power and he just made the economy totally focus on one thing that's so volatile as oil.
@@elyjah6380 Long story? The sanctions started in 2017, before that the US was Venezuela's number 1 client when it came to oil.
RyoKasai25 Venezuela went into recession in 2014, 3 years before US sanctions.
Remember how the world's left championed this guy all the way up to 2008/09. You would have thought he was Jesus 2.0 and except that I knew Venezuelans at the time...and that they had nothing good to say of the man and his rule...man, I was confused for the truth in those days.
ideologs defend their same-orientation dictators no matter what, leftys defend their commie or socialist dictators that ruin countries... the right does the same with conservative and religious tyrants.
If you would of listened to Clinton supporters who left to Canada in 2016, they would tell Canadians that Trump was a dictator from the start and that the whole country is oppressed. Polling people who go to the U.S is not a good way to find out how people in the country feel.
Seriously, the Left in '08-'09 (especially the dim bulbs in the USA) would not shut up about how supposedly great this Chavez guy was. Even as a relatively politically newbie centrist/moderate at the time (now I'm just an extremely jaded "pox on everyone's houses" centrist) whenever I looked at their praise of the dude and compared it to what he was actually _doing_ to Venezuela I had to do a "WTF kind of drugs are you on?" double-take. Looking at you 2008-2009 Bernie Sanders!
Dear Simon, Lula da Silva, a former Brazilian president, could be a good name for Biographics. In brief: he came from abject poverty to the presidency; became the most popular president of the Brazilian history; was arrested under corruption allegations; and now he was released from prison.
Like it or not, he has a fascinating life trajectory.
Now he his running again and might win due to Bolsonaros unpopularity.
He’s gonna be president again!
I heard he was the best president of Brazil.
Lula has lost 3 elections and not once did him or his supporters engage in violent behaviour afterwards, despite the right loving to claim the left as violent and petulant. How ironic.
I hear he was a thug who shouldn't have been allowed to run for President.
Breads and circuses can only work for so long.
The problem is that Venezuela became solely reliant on oil. Instead of re-investing into the country to diversify it's economy, they only doubled down. They drove out anyone willing to invest money into the country and anyone who had money within the country.
That's the best criticism of the situation I've heard. It's true they should've found new ressources to invest in. When it comes to paranoia of foiregn investment I can understand why, you wouldn't want that investment to be a trojan horse for something else.
It didn't help that Chavez killed off whatever diversified economy Venezuela had with price control and nationalization in the process of becoming solely reliant on oil.
As a Venezuelan, he is the perfect backdrop for a dartboard, no wonder I'm here in the U.K. now.
How're you finding things here in the UK?
@@thrillathakilla it is great because of the fact that I am able to not have to pack a beretta down the road and I can eat, however it is different and everybody is difficult on the politics at the moment
Venezuelan here. This video is dead on the nail except for the part where he said he never rigged an election. One of the very first moves Chávez did was create an “independent” centralized national elections committee (CNE) Whereas before elections were organized by independent state electoral institutions, Chavez quickly got rid of that and heavily appointed this new elections committee with party officials. To perfectly surmise this, on his election to reseat the newly created National Assembly in 1999 even though Chávez had only won with 56% of the vote a year prior, he somehow won over 90% of the seats in the assembly. This was explained away as a statistical quirk named “el kino” after the countries largest lottery ticket company. Essentially, for this new election the new centralized elections committee (CNE) hired two European trained mathematicians Nelson Merendes and Ricardo ríos (who ironically were given state sponsored scholarships by the same puntofijista establishment they sought to bring down. (On a further note, while puntofijismo ignored droves of people, that was really caused by local crises of economic management in Caracas and demographic failures where millions migrated to Caracas, Valencia and Maracaibo while these cities had no capacity to maintain them or provide jobs in a formal economy. However, puntofijismo governments did establish a widespread social welfare net that many people relied and benefited upon until the crises of Keynesianism and fordism in the 70’s/80’s. My family grew up dirt poor and most of them were able to receive state funding to study overseas or at the best universities back in the 70’s.)) to design a distribution of candidates amongst voter lists that ensured the ranked ballot system used for the election heavily favoured official candidates. They used mathematics to dilute the chance of opposition governments to have a seat. That’s a rig in my opinion. More importantly, this CNE moved venezuela to become the first country in the world to organize national elections fully held with voting machines, which were all run and operated by the CNE, which again, was heavily staffed by party officials. While they did have support, a good chunk of it was conditional; state employees were forced to vote and fired if they abstained or vote against the party, the government would give out money from trucks and bikes at government marches, and again made houses and or the forms of support conditional on voting for the chavistas. Also a good chunk of these social programs just became avenues for corruption and money laundering. Especially the houses which were built to shoddy construction standards in a highly seismic area like Caracas and at hyper inflated budgets. When massive floods and rains washed away approximately 300,000 peoples houses in the late 2000’s/2010’s the government just expropriated a mall and packed as many people in there as they could. That’s all they did, most ended up invading abandoned buildings. Venezuela has the largest vertical slum in the world, in what at the time of construction was the continents 4th tallest tower, today a sad vestige of what Venezuela could’ve been, but became instead.
"A man who used democracy to do undemocratic things"... hmm, where have I seen that?
Nazi Germany
Soviet Russia, China, North Korea, list goes on
The whole world ? 😂
US
Barry Obama
The tile is misleading - it should be "Hugo Chaves: Venezuela´s Savior AND Destroyer" with retouches further provided by former bus driver Nicolas Maduro. Socialism at his best....
rewanji ah yes Vietnam doesn’t exist
Probably the fairest assessment of the man. As Simon pointed out he legitimately did some good for the poor of Venezuela. But he did poorly to make sure it was sustainable. And considering it was the same mistakes made by the elites he kicked out makes it all the sadder.
I know, just a little picky, but in Spanish the “h” in ahora is silent. Pronouncing it like a J makes it sound dirty. 🙂
ikr?
Ajora mismo estaba pensando escribir eso.
Makes it sound Hawaiian lol
I don’t think your being picky at all. I was cringing the whole video
My high school Spanish teacher had us pronouncing it with a voiced H.
Kinda makes me wonder what else she'd set us up for.
I lived in Venezuela as a kid, in 91-92, and I remember there being couple times we had to stay home because of a coup. Second time was apparently orchestrated from prison, but didn't fare any better.
SECOND COUP NOV92 CHAVEZ PLAYED NO PART IN IT WHILE HE WAS IN PRISON
@@MrDICKHEAD28 YOUR USERNAME WTF
@@quietindigo7027 OK? AND YOURS?
I'm a Venezuelan, I haven't seen the video yet, but there's something in my genes and based on my experience being born there and living/suffering from Chavez's time as a ruler and all he did that forces me to write this right now: HE'S A DESTROYER AND A LOT MORE. He could've had an amazing opportunity to make a difference, but instead he chose to become an ally with Cuba and that mixed with his own resentment lead to make one what was once of the most richest countries in Latin America... one of the most poor, corrupt, miserable countries in the entire world.
Venezuelans in general are amazing, don't get me wrong, they're an example of extreme resilience. But the group of people that hold the power, the ones left after Chavez died, and what he himself did left a country that has one of the worst and most corrupt economy and government in the world. There are a bunch of both political and social reasons Chavez won, same reasons why "left" candidates have become more and more popular in Latin America and why populism is a big deal now, but please, please understand this: nothing, no matter what argument you might have, NOTHING good comes from left/communist/socialist candidates who get such amount of power. Communism and Socialism are a lie, I've lived it myself and don't say "that's because this wasn't real the real thing" if you haven't been there, if you didn't grow up listening to this man speeches filled with hate, if you we not personally affected by the politics this man and the now "president" of Venezuela have made, you really can't talk about being a socialist or a communist...
Now that I've taken this off of my system, I'll watch the video. Thank you :)
Blows my mind PEOPLE still insist a socialism and communism utopia is still plausible even with examples such as this..
This isn't socialism, this is horrible economic policy.
Destroyer. It isn't a question
He was a failure.
Not coming to his defense, but so was Hitler, and so many others before him. His big mistake was that he alienated the middle classes and the moderates.
@Moerlboro Cop Liberal? 😂😂😂 Awww someone doesn't know how Luxembourgish politics work. Awww...
I am interested in seeing what wackos are going to come to his defense in the comments.....
None yet. I mean I didn't look at each one, maybe they're buried.
iT iS aLl tHe uS aNd CiA's fAuLt, cHaVez aNd mAdUrO aRe hErOeS oF tHe sOcIaLiSt rEvoLuTiOn
QuisqueyanGuy if Venezuela is socialist then so is Norway.
@@quisqueyanguy120 A loser strategy.
DeBlasio probably has a defense somnewhere.
You forgot how he exhumed Simon Bolivar’s body and had his features “reengineered” in paintings across the country.
Thank you for being fair on history here, Venezuela is a tragedy and everybody from abroad should see better. Never believe in a populist leader, neither a socialist one. After all this video comes short on many other terrifying things venezuelans had to endure under Chávez and Maduro's rule.
the problem comes from kids and teens on 1st world countries who never knew or lived under socialism or communism lecturing people about the downfalls of capitalism when they know jackshit.
muh populism bad
Isn’t populism the essence of democracy? Rule by the people?
@@iansmith8783 true democracy is horrible its two wolves and a sheep voting on who is for dinner. That is why we have constitutional representative government . The constitution should keep the wolves from voting to eat the sheep. Of course over time they in power warp everything to gain more power.
The tree of liberty needs to be watered from time to time.
Peace out.
@@skuarf so what you’re saying is people like Trump and the rest of the GOP who can’t even find Venezuela on a map much less experience living there, but decry “socialism” as bad are 100% correct. Meanwhile people who constantly go through all the evils of capitalism and criticize it have no idea what the heck they’re talking about? Interesting… and yes clown, I wrote this on an iPhone, thought I’d spare you the mantra
Remember when he went to that Ibero-Anerican summit and King Juan Carlos of Spain said to him 'callate'!
What does it mean
@@martinstip9 'Shut up'
He said 'a ver si te callas', it's not as hard, it's like 'let's see if you shut up'
Sobrevalorado i thought it was “pero por que no te callas?” (why don’t you just shut up?)
That was glorious!!!
Its interesting how the bottom of the class ended up having greater affect on his world than his peers
"Be very VERY careful with dumb people, there are always more and they can vote like you"
@@skuarf SMART PEOPLE VOTE FOR MADURO
DUMBASSES VOTE FOR THE OPPOSITION
SPECULATIVE ATTACKS IS WHAT DESTORYING VENEZUELAN ECONOMY PLAIN SIMPLE
@@MrDICKHEAD28 i love your username!!! Very relevant to what you said hahahah
Been watching for a couple weeks and feel like you'd deliver a fair portrayal of Louis Riel - the Canadian Métis leader who made it so provinces weren't just resource states run from Ottawa but made sure they had their own power. He, along with many other indigenous obstacles to colonization were portrayed through the view of colonizers and Louis is often just labelled as "crazy."
is WoW gold still more valuable than the Bolivar ?
Yes as today, it will almost double (there was already a reform to change 000, so honestly it's x200), a WoW token worth 110,529 gold, while an US dollar is 196,922 bolivares.
Héctor holy hell man 😬
@TODarkschnider420 The Bells from Animal Crossing are more valuable than the Bolivar.
Yes, also the American $ is the new unofficial currency of choice for most Venezuelans
@Carleton Rutherford We probably wont be doing that honestly. We produce the most oil in the U.S now and it would cost money to do things like that.
Simon, you disappoint me. Like every subject in the real world, Hugo Chavez was neither a savior nor a destroyer. He was simply a man. A man who for a time had his country's destiny in his hand and came into the moment with good intentions...then paved his country's decent into anarchy and despair with it. Venezuela's problems predate Chavez and go hand in hand with what is known as the resource curse; they are the result of a corrupt system created and nurtured by the country's wealthy elite and their allies...and the masses conditioned to exist in such environment (many of whom have learned its worst habits and now employ them with glee). As they saying goes; to those who evil is done, will do evil in return. This is a variation of an all-too-common story, which we have seen many times before: Patrice Lumumba in Zaire (Congo-Kinshasa); Thomas Sankara in Burkina Faso; Ahmed Sékou Touré in Guinea-Conakry; Salvador Allende in Chile; Mohammad Mosaddegh in Iran and the list goes on…To reduce someone like Hugo Chavez to a binary choice of Saint or Villain is a disservice to both saints and villains.
Also add in the US sanctions and there result in decimating the Venezuelan economy along with Chavez's own follies... I will say this Chavez repaid Haiti's (then secret) loan to Simon Bolivar for their revolution and even built large housing complexes for the Haitian people and gave us oil for dirt cheap prices
wow can you imagine how history would have turned out if Chavez had made it into pro baseball!
Honestly, probably he would have a been a great baseball player, everyone loving him and we may have Irene Sáenz as president. It doesn't sound bad to me.
sounds just like hitler!
Venezuela would probably still be in the same situation today to be honest, maybe there would be a little bit more democracy but it would be totally corrupt elites for sure. Both the capitalist and socialist governments relied too heavily on crude oil with the backdrop of a weak economy for decades. Would probably be even worse economically for the majority under a capitalist one at least Chavez did something for the poor, albeit cynically.
@@Deathkill06 Venezuela had huge problems and was impoverished fast
But the thing u finished Venezuela economy, was oil
Learning Spanish and heard it a lot from my grandparents growing up and I'm physically cringing everytime I hear my boy say "ahora" tho.
It’s so hard to listen to, I hate it
I was just thinking the same. It kills me lol. But I love these videos so I forgive him. Lol
It sounds like long fingernails scratching on a chalkboard
There's an H. You're saying it's uh-ora with a glottal stop?
@@benp9793 nope, h is always silent
Could you please do Ayrton Senna next. Please.
I vouch for this
Yes, my Brazilian father in law would love this
OLE OLE OLE OLA SENNA! SENNA!
You should spend one year living in Venezuela with their salary and the title will be destroyer, no doubt.
Hahaha like you live in Venezuela
You should see how economic sanctions affect them before blaming Chavez
@@thunderwarrior1 the economy was in tatters well before that. When Chavez was elected oil price was USD 20.00 per barrel, when he died between 80 to 90 dollars and except for 2008-2010 price was never below 80. Basically he used the "oil golden years" in long term impossible social programs (in order to buy votes and give jobs to unskilled people) and giving assistance to the "Bolivarian dream" in Argentina, Bolivia, Cuba, etc. Obviously when the oil hike ended the economy crash hard.
@@Gatotsu2009 And rather than allow those that owned the oil enterprises and knew how to run them to actual, you know, run them, he had the government run them. Which meant allowed them to fall apart while screaming "traitor" and "U.S. stooge" at anyone who told him he was making a mistake.
Not only did the price of oil drop but their ability to actually produce oil dropped dramatically. This is the problem of Socialism. Allow the government which has no financial restraints due to their sovereign right to print money to run a business which is restricted due to budgeting. As in all cases it fails.
@@MasterMalrubius I will not say Socialism is the root of the problem. Chavez thought he was the "new Bolivar" and the idea of unify everything like Bolivar in the past (a dream), in order to do that the government became more and more corrupt. That can happen with any kind of country. The difference (in the end) is who gains more power.
People loved him because he gave them the bare minimum to survive, but kept them poor. They loved him because he made it seem like he cared, meanwhile he enjoyed the riches he spoke ill of and faulted the opposition for. He "invested" in education, which looked more like indoctrination. Not only the quality, but even the topics at times discussed in public schools included ways to make him seem like a god. Chavez was constantly seen as an entity beyond human for his supporters, who remained poor until the end and completely dependent on the "missions" he implemented.
Sincerely, a Venezuelan who hasn't seen his country in a decade.
Well researched. However modern Venezuela started when Venezuela placed all its eggs in one basket: oil; Chavez didn't change this. No profound change ever occurred in Venezuela, one corrupt, inept, and populist form of government was changed for another one. One elite, the descendants of those in power in the 1920s was changed by another one, those that grew up with resentment against the former people in power. One foreign country with power above local laws (the US and its companies) was changed for another one (Cuba and its professional indoctrinators and infiltrators). A different head on the same corrupt body, not a real revolution, just a change of elites.
You know it’s real bad when it’s not even America’s fault that the current situation is so awful.
It is Americas fault. and now you had to crawl back to to beg for oil and lift sanctions. Doubt you are gonna hear many stories about Venezuela in the years to come.
I'm from Venezuela and was waiting for this video, i'm watching.
Did the video do justice?
And what's your view on Julius Malema if you have time? He was a big fan of Venezuela and want(ed) South Africa to follow Venezuela's example.
How did you find it?
Well after all it's a good resume of what happened here in Venezuela, but let me tell you it comes short. There's many other terrifying things the chavista regime has done to it's people, not only by being a extremly corrupt government, but also a brutal one. I was shot in the arm by the national guard on 2017's protests and a friend of mine was shot dead by the police on a demostration. But it gets really worst on lower social classes. In the slums all around the country there's no human rights, people who get into politics to defy chavismo are disappear by the political police, militar personel who have rebel are being capture and torture in infamous ways. I am a journalist so i'm telling you, I know this first hand. Hope nobody ever hace to live under a dictatorship, always mistrust any politician who talks with resentment or vengeance because those are populist and they will get their way to power and never live office.
@@armandonorig hello Man I have a 2 question?
1.) Who you support. Maduro o guiado?
2.) And also it's that true that Venezuela can plunge into civil war?
@@armandonorig
Unfortunately, this channel seems more like an overview for a more casual viewer. Which is fine, but so many figures could have hour-long videos and still barely scratch the surface on them.
So basically he’s the prequel to almost every political headache we have these days
Next up Himmler: sadist or visionairy?
He was actually soy boy who could only find a place to fit in with the Nazis.
to the top....
this man was not a saviour in any way shape or form, I am aware some people in this comment section may have grown detached from the reality of Venezuela and i do not blame you, i applaud you for watching this video and attempting to learn and/or justify his actions, however, his rule was a dictatorial one and his policies were detrimental to the nation in the long run, furthermore though i could believe socialism is a beautiful concept, the Venezuelan government throughout chaves' administration was not a strictly socialist one, though Venezuela state was a market state (i believe that is what they are called) the administration used socialist ideology to manipulate its people into a re-educating program similar to that of the soviet union, china and north Korea...
when someone asks a Venezuelan what did he do to be so hated the answer is simple, he manipulated, monopolised the nation for profit, he became the most successful legally proclaimed dictator in history and he ruined what up to that point was a very promising nation.
i am aware i am emotionally invested in this topic as im venezuelan, but ive tried to explain the extent of how he was so hated without including religious and cultural factors, for which he also did a lot of stuff that angered the Venezuelan public. i would also like to appologise for my grammar, spelling and punctuation, English its my second language and i am still learning how to properly redact an response.
love from Cambridge England.
'Memento Mori' should be drilled into all leaders.
unus
annus
UNUS
ANNUS
We were so incredibly fortunate to holiday in Venezuela back in 2010. It was a stunning country and the people on the whole were very warm and friendly
We saw some of the most amazing sights ever, from La Gran Sabana to Angel Falls to the Isla Margarita to Arekuna Camp to the countless waterfalls that took our breath away with their size and power. We fished for piranha on the Orinoco and for a short time, crossed the border with Brazil, witnessing the sheer hoardes of lorries from Brazil queuing to buy the far cheaper Venezuelan diesel.
We even visited a massive hydro electric dam that wouldn't look out of place as a James Bond film set that was also exporting electricity to Brazil.
The country had so much to offer, it has greater oil reserves than Saudi Arabia and yet a lot of people we spoke to DESPISED Chavez and the country has deteriorated into a hellhole, it is a crying shame as it has so much to offer.
26:44 when you claim he lifted millions out of poverty...........where are all those non poor ppl at? they are all equally poor now!
Exactly.
In 1993 I had a British colleague who was offered a choice to transfer to any city in the world that he wanted by the bank we worked for. Because he thought it would be fun, he chose the branch in Caracas. When he landed, he took a cab to his hotel, woke up the next morning for his first day of work and was shot at the minute he set foot out of the building. It took our company a month to find him a new post back in the UK and then get him out. The poor guy spent the entire time holed up in the hotel. He didn't step out even once and never saw another inch of Venezuela. Last I heard, he was still living safe in England.
Don’t believe it. That’s a socialist utopia.
Pedro II has an interesting story, I think you guys would be interested and it would attract lots of Brazillians
come to Brasil !! 🥰
Really? When you tax the rich, they just move away? That's crazy!
Also when you don’t pay your debts as a government to international companies they take their business elsewhere, what a shocker, and when you take away their companies without any compensation or explanation business men tend to mistrust you in the future and not want to invest in your country anymore, shocker shocker shocker mmmhmmmm
Imagine not wanting to tax the rich because they will leave
When you nationalize the oil does the oil move away?
they cant move if they guillotine them
fireblade2681 oh they gave a lot of it away to buy support from countries like Cuba and Russia, while neglecting the oil related national companies and their infrastructure, all of a sudden turns out we have no oil nor how to produce it and we have to import it from Iran, who would have thought, uh?
Beware socialists bearing gifts.
Everything he did for the people was with Socialism and socialism always leads to destitution and poverty. Even with the massive state controlled oil reserves Venezuela couldn’t support its own people with socialism, so why do we have to keep making excuses for it?
because left politics are the good ones and have the high moral ground...IN THEORY.
In execution they ignore a lot of nuances and things like personal freedom, individuality pragmatism and logic.
Also left politics started as "kill the rich/wealthier and rob them"
The H in spanish is silent. It hears "aora" the Ahora - XD love the efford.
The "d" in english is not there. . It is effort
@@CarlRayburg My thoughts exactly.
CarlRayburg In Germanic languages, we only use one period sign at the end of a sentence.
Wow - what a way to whitewash Chavez's legacy. "Yeah, he did horrible and evil things - but he helped some people and they loved him". Guess, what? Soviet citizens also loved Stalin during his lifetime for bringing progress and improving the lot of the common people - those who knew nothing of the evil he did. It is important to remember that Stalin was a firm believer in Socialist principles, ideals, and goals and believed that any and all means were justified in attaining those goals. While Chavez did not approach the evil of Stalin, his actions parallel those of all other Socialist dictators.
Exactly.
In the end he gave them poverty!
Not so at the end, he gave us poverty way before he died. Now its just insanely worse.
Destroyer. Absolute destroyer. No question.
Destroyer, which is evident to any objective observer. It's the latest example of the failings of Marxist philosophy.
"but that wasn´t real communism, capitalism is bad".jpeg
These bios are awesome. Great work. I was stationed in Colombia so I would like to see more about their history. La violencia, FARC, ELN, Mono Jojoy. Looking forward to see them. Thx.
Exploiting the indigenous tribes..humm... naughty...
Your presentation of biographies are impeccable Simon keep up your excellent work.
As a Venezuelan, your analysis it’s simple and accurate. I dare to say even for his few remaining followers, Chavez’s absurd/wrong policies that have led to my beloved country to its total collapse have come as reality shock for his loyalist few. Well done!!!
Could you do a video on King Michael of Romania? He had a pretty interesting life if you look into it. Thanks
Still waiting on the Ceausescu episode
STILL WAITING ON THE STALIN EPISODE
He seems like the sort of person who would shake your hand as a friend while stabbing you in the back as an enemy at the same time...
My wife is from Venezuela. Her brother described Chavez as a wolf in sheep’s clothing, and that when he laughed he laughed at the people.
As a Middleclass person I can say that........ "we Middleclass ppl helps a business to grow, help the country's economy to boost do everything what's the best for the country. But in the end, we are treated literally as 'tissue papers' by the political elites......"
The people loved Hugo Chavez the way women loved Ted Bundy.
So not at all
Last time I was this early Simon and I had hair.
You are a liar. Simon never had hair.
@@magoid He indeed has hair, the thing is that it is so glorious that us mere mortal can't even begin to comprehend it, so we see nothing instead.
💀
He was born bald but with 3 day stubble
chÁvez, not chavÉZ.. triggering from the start
Great video as always but had to stop watching. Constant mispronunciation 'Chávez' and 'ahora' too much to stand. Pity.
you guys need to understand, english speakers do not understand tildes and spanish accent easily.
@@skuarf I am a native English speaker and this is nowhere near hard. Changing the stress to the first syllable is asking for very little, especially because it distracts from the content of the video.
@@xoxoxochicago I know,but most english speakers never practice this nor are told how tildes work. Anyway it would be worse to hear Latin with english vowels.
@@skuarf Slight nitpick, but the only tilde in Spanish is in Ñ. The line above Á is called an "acute accent".
FFS, Simon. You defend Chavez but repeatedly call LeMay a monster.
You really don't like America, do you?
How did he "defend" Chavez?
Oh, my, did you disappoint me this time! 🤦🏽♀️
Hugo Chaves was a disgrace. He just didn't live long enough for most people to notice. They are paying the price for his disastrous politics now.
And by the way, do you really believe those hight popularity numbers are real? Are you that naive?
Why dosen't anyone acknowledge the US's interference in Venezuela's affairs,,in particular the NASTY CIA.
I don't think I've ever seen a bad video in the ever expanding Simon Whistler universe.
My wife and her family are from there...
Thanks to Chavez her father lost everything he had a a small farm... taken a convenience store taken.... his second home taken he was kidnapped while trying to use his car as a taxi with no other option for income now they live in the us and now in his 80’s he cries because he wants to be buried in Venezuela but that’s not the country he once knew is quite heartbreaking
Expect extreme lefty kids to tell you Chavez saved you all by ending wealth and the rich. It breaks my heart the propaganda.
Simon, thank you for this, mate. I had requested you do a video on this guy a lil while back. He was a dangerous megalomaniac who ultimately brought the place I was born in and spent most my life at to its knees.
wow - Owen Wilson
'Front salad. Back salad. Front blunt.'
- Owen Wilson
Damn, all of this sounds really familiar.
We all need a goal farther off in the future to aim for. Mine is getting through whatever keeps coming at me so that I can live long enough to one day hear someone describe these troubled days I'm currently going through in a detached, historical context.
This quote is real history
This is the intellectual equivalent of a fidget spinner.
please do a video on Rodrigo Duterte, we don't know much about him
Wish a lot of these vids didn’t have so much bias they could be so informative
you should start a channel that makes documentaries about the history of countries themselves: I think people would like it since it would match well with your successful Geographics channel covering specific famous global sites and this channel covering famous/infamous historical figures! I know I definitely would subscribe to that just as I am subscribed to this channel, Geographics, and Megaprojects.
How, in the name of your Saint, do you always manage to present so ballanced and unbiased approach no matter what/who you talk about?? Respect Simon!!!! 🙌🙌🙌
People you should do videos on next:
Patrice Lumumba
Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle
Warren G Harding
Who?
Carlos Andres Perez wasn't a corrupt politician he was the only few presidents that actually wanted to help build Venezuela he just had a lot of communist enemies that built a bad image of him
I am Colombian, I enjoyed your video very much, very objective and balance, I might not agreed with some of your conclusions but it's just a matter of opinion and interpretation to the event. Thank you very much for posting, I am really enjoying your channel and your effort and dedication to inform in a balance and objective way.
Obama was working through the same playbook as Chavez. Obama’s bible was “Rules for Radicals”
It’s adorable that people think Obama was ‘radical’. For most countries he was a centrist at best.
Liliana Bray Maybe not as extreme as the Democrat party is now, but he was a community agitator. He was friends with a domestic terrorist. His pastor was a antiSemitic black supremacist. Sounds pretty out there to me. He said he would prefer single payer and that successful people don’t own there success to their hard work.
Obama is a skilled politician and a bit if a wacky lefty, but got away with it some. The American legislative branch did what it could to restrain him, as with Bill. He wasn't THAT bad for a Democrat. As for the present President, Clinton cleared the way, someone whom should never have been president is, again.
Finnaly something good about Venezuela
Most videos are just “Socialism is bad” or “America imperialism”
Not sure how anyone can come to the conclusion that Chavez or even Democratic socialism ruined Venezuela after hearing the first 10 minutes of this video.
Simon is very VERY left leaning and tried to be "neutral" or whitewash chavez. A lot of venezuelan fellows already complained in the comments about how Chavez is depicted as a "misunderstood ruler".
On a related note Venezuela has some beautiful women!
Damn right they do!
More and more Venezuelans are migrating to Texas so I have had my fair share of Venezuelan women. 😍👌🏾
@@Kenxclout Elder brother. Please show me the way!
That’s not related at all.
I might lose my mind if I hear him annunciate the "h" in "ahora" one more time
SAME. That, Chavez, and Puntofijismo I was trying not to lose it. I like the vids but the repeated mispronounciations just really takes me out of it.
Could you do a video on Alexander Hamilton.
Biographics should do a video on Nicolae Ceausescu, the delusional megalomaniac of a dictator who ran Romania into the ground in a mad quest to emulate Kim Il Sung's cult of personality.
Agree. Ceausescu removed human rights in Romania, killed every political enemy and his personality cult.
@@WarCrimeGaming Do we care about Arrow Cross party members and members of the Iron League? The short answer is no, the longer one is, they got what they deserved.
@@WarCrimeGaming
And he paid off that IMF loan he took to build the presidential palace on the backs of his own citizens by letting them starve and freeze to death.