"Prominent Venezuelan sociologist and intellectual Edgardo Lander says while it’s correct to oppose U.S. intervention and interference, Left media should not minimize the responsibility of the Maduro government for the economic crisis..."
Lander has some deep doubts about how Chavez chose to implement socialism in Venezuela:
Left Media Coverage of Venezuela Questioned
"EDGARDO LANDER: ... In the Venezuelan case, one of the severe problems that has led to the current crisis is the fact that the
Chavez government in the first place identified socialism with state control, and many, many enterprises were nationalized and came under state control.
"So what happens?
"For the state, it became widespread in control of many, many, many activities, but it became weaker.
"It did not have the capacity to manage or deal with so many enterprises.
"It gave priority to ideological purity over technical competence in leading these enterprises.
"And as a consequence, a huge proportion—and when I mean huge, I mean the great, great majority of those corporations, or small companies, or whatever—went bankrupt, and they only subsisted, they only survived, as a consequence of money that was put on from the oil rent."
