Venezuela, one of the richest countries in the world in terms of natural resources, is currently paying a Stupidity Tax. Ideology, and the corruption it excuses in the name of the Ideal ... ALWAYS DESTROYS EVERYTHING.
If governance is not PAINFULLY BORING ... you're not doing it right. Good governance requires a merciless commitment to the mundane: Filling potholes; making sure the trains run on time; and ensuring that Part No. 3401842 A is in stock ... for nations are systems of minuscule interactions and such minutia are the sinews of society.
Once leaders decide to become 'rockstars' instead of 'ringmasters' ... you've got a problem. The more systemic problem, though, is that South America has a long-established love of Caudillos and Chavez and Maduro are merely the latest incarnations of want-to-be Bolivars.
As Churchill once said, "People get the government they deserve."
Quill
Yep. I have to give it to you, man. It has been our historical malaise.
Proof of that is that all the contenders in the last 5 presidetial elections had been the most populist/close-to-the-people's discourse of the pack.
This people have been bewitched, is the new mantra. No logical explanation can account for such tremendous display of collective stupidity