Why Linda McQuaig is so wrong about Venezuela?

The article of Linda McQuaig about Venezuela is so wrong in so many ways. First, she distorts the facts to portray the Venezuelan tragedy as "a bitter class war, with millions of poor people committed to defending a revolution carried out in their name."  Second, she took sides to defend a corrupt and criminal regime, repeating the hollow rhetoric of Nicolás Maduro and his cronies about the "economic war against a nation" that does not exist. Actually, the only war is the one that the regime of Nicolas Maduro is waging against his own people.

But Linda McQuaig suffers from ideological blindness. She cannot see what is happening in Venezuela because she bought the arguments of Maduro to justify his wrongdoings. She forgot to mention that the policies of the Maduro regime - following the same populist prescriptions instituted by Hugo Chávez - have caused the free fall of the economy: deep recession in the last four years (minus 10 GDP this year), hyperinflation rising to three digits (expected to rise to 14,000 percent this year), maxi devaluation of the currency, and the destruction of the national oil company PDVSA.

She cannot see either that Venezuelans are living a truly humanitarian crisis. Hunger is a real problem. Malnutrition among the poor, particularly children, has been widely documented. Venezuelans are also dying or suffering because they don't have access to medication and basic medical services.

Linda McQuaig is blind to the reality that Venezuelans live under a violent and cruel regime. During four months of protests the Maduro regime murdered more than 100 people. Or that there are still almost 300 political prisoners, many of them civilians submitted, illegally, to trials in military courts. She did not say that the political police of the government, Sebin, does not comply with judges ordering the release of prisoners and extorts them and their families, asking for large sums of money in US dollars to "buy" their freedom. Or that the poor are enslaved through the CLAP system, a perverse program of social control through the distribution of food bags. She forgot to say that crime is out of control. More than 20 thousand people are murdered each year. Prisons have become the paradise of criminals, under the control of gang leaders, thanks to the complicity of government officials.

Linda McQuaig is so wrong about Venezuela that she does not know the history of the country. Chávez did not nationalize the oil industry, as she wrongfully wrote. The oil industry was nationalized in 1976 during the first government of Carlos Andrés Pérez. Nevertheless, this should be a "minor" detail for someone who dares to defend a regime that is the source of suffering and horror for millions of Venezuelans.