It wasn't until the president of my country said a few days ago that he was happy because the U.S. was finally accepting the socialists ideas voiced by one of the U.S. presidential candidates, that I realized I have a voice to tell the truth.
About 19 years ago, a socialist idealist ran for president in my country, Venezuela. His name was Hugo Chavez, some may know him as the one who referred to a U.S. former president as Satan during a speech given on a UN forum, or some of you may not know who he was. He divided the Venezuelan people into two groups: the “people” for those who supported him, and the “anti-people/terrorists/oligarchy” to anyone that wouldn’t share his ideals.
Hugo Chavez was the head of a military coup where at least 143 people were killed. He was arrested and imprisoned. In his statement he said that the coup had failed “for now.” But how did a criminal end up in the presidency?
Well, he spread his socialist ideas around not only Venezuela but also all of Latin America. He offered free education, free health care, socio-economic justice and so many other things. Everyone fell into his socialist trap because that what everyone wanted: no tuition fees, no health care fees, fewer taxes for the poor and more for the rich. A country where you didn’t need to work for anything.
If only someone had told us that socialism is no more than empty promises to reach corruption without any obstacles. More money meant more money for the government to steal; no tuition meant more people going to college to be slackers because they were not paying for their tuition so they were not wasting their money. They are right, they were not wasting their money; they were wasting the country’s money.
Socialism led Venezuela to the biggest inflation rate ever seen in the world. Venezuela is one of the richest countries in the world. We are a country that produces over 2.5 million of oil barrels daily at a current price of $49, meaning that Venezuela produces daily $122.5 million dollars a day. But this is how my country looks today because of socialism.
Lack of food in every supermarket in the country due to the government prize restrictions.
Patients with cancer can't be treated because the free health care is no longer viable and if you are willing to pay there is no medicine anyway.
Venezuelans have to wait in line for hours to buy first need products like toilet paper, food, shampoo, medicines, diapers, and well, technically anything they need.
By the time you finish taking a shower, a Venezuelan would have died due to insecurity.
I love my country more than anything else in the world, but I am realistic and I lost my country to socialistic ideas when I was just a baby. So, excuse me if I don't support the so-called socialism that is trying to be implanted in the American minds. I have more than one reason to not like socialism, but if I could give just one, it would be this: I might be able to see my country recovered from the disaster that these socialist leaders caused, but socialism will never give me my childhood or teenage years back. If socialism was so good I wouldn't have chosen to come to America for college, but I chose freedom.
Just, remember nothing is free. You might get free tuition and accessible health care, but at what price?
