South America isn’t quite known for its stable governments or unified people, each country seems to stick to itself for the most part. Don’t even get me started on the Guianas of South America, they’re so detached from the rest of the continent that they do not even participate in the Soccer WorldCup; French Guiana even goes as far as to consider itself part of the original, European France.
However, as divided as South America might seem, they’re quick to jolt back together when a threat faces them all. (except for the Guianas, of course) A great example of this is the revolts against the Spanish Empire back when that was still a thing. But governments can’t always see when a threat has such a large potential of getting out of hand. Now, what is this threat that is supposedly so large? You may be asking, well the answer is short and simple.. Chavismo
Chavismo, what is it? On a simpler view, Chavismo is a left-wing populist political party inspired by other leftist views such as Communism, Socialism, and of course, Marxism. Chavismo started in Venezuela after a supposed Nationalist fooled the people into voting for him and turned out to actually have been a passionate believer of Marx’s work the whole time. The downfall of Chavez’ golden reign over the people’s hearts started when he went to Cuba to attend an arranged meeting with Communist dictator Fidel Castro, many say he was always left-leaning, others say he was brainwashed by the Commies, either way, Chavez had taken full control of Venezuela, and he brought his supporters, the Chavistas down with him.
Chavez died in a hospital located in Caracas, Venezuela after a heart surgery went horribly; Leaving all his power to Nikolas Maduro. Maduro is the current Venezuelan dictator who of course shares the same views as Chavez. While dictatorships seem to be the issue here, let’s take a look at what a dictatorship actually is.
A dictatorship is, by definition, a single person holding all power, many ancient ideologies were dictatorships, like the monarchies of Europe, and the Imperialism of China to the east, a dictatorship either makes or breaks a country, it sets all responsibility to a single person, and if something goes wrong, no matter who was involved, the leader gets the people’s outrage. Venezuela’s economy was once the greatest in the world, reaching to be stronger than the dollar. Caracas, the capital, was a golden city of luxury; The common people were walking around nonchalantly wearing the most expensive accessories on the market, and it was all thanks to a dictatorship.
It is clear that a dictatorship was not behind the downfall of Venezuela, but instead, the issue at hand is Marxism. Marxism has been shown to crumble countries down to the core and failed in every way imaginable all 36 times it has been attempted. But how is this all relevant to the rest of the continent? Well, for the answer we have to begin at the core of the issue, Venezuela has been suffering a mass influx of immigrants out of the country to many other Latin American countries, some bringing Chavismo with them along the trip and spreading it to wherever they go to. The Chilean Socialist party is peaking in votes and more Marxist-derived parties are showing success in a lot of other countries in the continent.
If something more successful in tearing down entire regimes than war and disease exists, it has to be modern-day leftism.
By: Santiago Carvajal
