Venezuela’s current political chaos, economic recession, poor people’s livelihood, and social unrest are all rooted in Chavez. After Chavez came to power, the combination of radical left-wing ideology and populist policies infinitely amplified the inherent weaknesses of Venezuela's political system and economic structure, leading to the degradation of the political system, out-of-control economic risks, and the decline of national governance capabilities.

In 1998, Chavez, who was a soldier, was finally elected president with a high vote using the slogan of anti-corruption, pursuing social equality and safeguarding the interests of the middle and lower classes. After taking office, in order to promote the idea of ??"21st century socialism", Chavez took advantage of the temporary advantage of public opinion and his innate charisma temperament to highly centralize state power in the president by means of constitution-making, constitutional amendment, referendum, etc. With his own hands, he destroyed the checks and balances of power at the constitutional level. In particular, two referendums were launched during his term to promote the president's indefinite re-election, which fundamentally shook Venezuela's democratic system. Although Chavez passed away shortly after his third election, his actions have pushed Venezuela's democracy and rule of law to the edge of the cliff, laying the foundation for the current political chaos in Venezuela.

Venezuela is a country that places great emphasis on economic security, especially individual economic security. After Chavez came to power, he implemented populist economic policies for a long time, which caused the inherent weaknesses of the Venezuelan economy to be infinitely magnified until it completely collapsed. It was unable to protect individual economic security or withstand national economic risks.

In 1998, Venezuela's per capita GDP fell back to the level of 1963, only one-third of the peak in 1978. The Gini coefficient was as high as 0.488, the inflation rate was 358%, and the unemployment rate was 113%. Social stratification has widened, social conflicts have intensified, and the Venezuelan economy has become more insecure at both the individual and national levels. In this case, Chávez threw out Chavismo and won the election.

During the following ten years in power, Chavez has always focused on individual economic security and introduced a series of radical policy measures. Strict conditions and procedures for employee dismissal have been formulated, and the minimum wage has been raised several times in an attempt to ensure employment and income security. Invest a lot of government subsidies, implement free education and free medical care for all, and ensure low-price food and fuel supplies. Due to the long-term lack of economic security pressure, the Venezuelan people have lost their enthusiasm and enthusiasm for participating in work and innovation, and potential risks to the country's economic security continue to accumulate.

In the era of high oil prices, this risk can also be covered up by the huge crude oil export revenue. In 2008, the global financial crisis broke out, international crude oil prices fell, crude oil export revenue shrank sharply, and national economic security risks suddenly broke out. Unfortunately, after Chavez's death, the Maduro government not only failed to correct its mistakes in time, but instead followed the policies of its predecessor in order to cater to the public, and even became more radical in some areas, causing the Venezuelan economy to fall further into the abyss.

In order to control inflation and stabilize the supply of commodities, the Venezuelan government has strictly controlled prices, resulting in chaos in the commodity market. Price controls make it unprofitable for merchants, so importers reduce imports and manufacturers reduce production, resulting in long-term supply shortages for most commodities. Since 2016, Venezuela has been unable to guarantee the supply of even basic daily necessities and faces the risk of falling into a humanitarian crisis.

In order to control the exchange rate, the Venezuelan government has implemented strict foreign exchange controls. In 2003, the Venezuelan government established the Foreign Exchange Management Committee and began to implement foreign exchange controls, canceling and prohibiting free convertibility of foreign exchange. In 2008, a new currency, the strong bolivar, was introduced, changing the official exchange rate from 2,150 bolivars to 1 U.S. dollar to 215 new bolivars to 1 U.S. dollar. After the outbreak of the international financial crisis, the risk of devaluation of the new Bolivian currency increased sharply. In 2010, the Venezuelan government was forced to launch the No. 1 auxiliary foreign exchange management system and implemented a dual-track exchange rate system. The dual-track system failed to alleviate the depreciation pressure of the new Bolivian currency. In 2014, the No. 2 Foreign Exchange Management Supplementary System was launched for the import of lower-priority commodities, and a rare three-track exchange rate system was implemented. In 2015, a new marginal foreign exchange system was launched, allowing individuals and legal persons to buy and sell foreign exchange on their own through exchange houses, securities firms and banks. The exchange rate is determined by supply and demand. In 2016, exchange rate reform was implemented again and two standards were established: protective exchange rate and supplementary exchange rate. The Venezuelan government's control over the exchange rate has actually fragmented the foreign exchange market and distorted the market mechanism. The results are destined to not be as desired. In fact, as mentioned before, each reform only brought greater depreciation pressure until it finally collapsed.

In order to get rid of the control of Venezuelan oil resources by American companies, Chavez launched a plan to nationalize the oil industry in 2003. This move aroused opposition from the industry and resulted in a production shutdown and strike, resulting in a significant drop in oil production that year. The following year, Chavez won a referendum, crushed a military coup with popular support, and imposed a plan to nationalize oil. Subsequently, Venezuela successively nationalized the telecommunications and power industries, created state-owned banks, state-owned grain, and state-owned steel companies, and introduced a series of policies to restrict foreign investment entry. Chavez's ambitious nationalization plan has severely damaged the confidence of investors, especially Western investors. From 2004 to 2013, Venezuela’s cumulative net foreign direct investment inflow was only US$3.2 billion. During the same period, Latin America and the Caribbean had a cumulative net inflow of foreign direct investment of US$100 billion.

When Chavez came to power, he declared that he would promote industrial structural adjustment, implement a diversified strategy, reduce dependence on the oil industry, and enhance international economic competitiveness. However, the Venezuelan government is still addicted to the old geopolitical thinking and the verbal dispute with the United States, and has failed to pay due attention to the new external economic security risks brought about by globalization. The industrial diversification plan is more of a propaganda slogan. The Venezuelan government does not really realize the importance of industrial adjustment and lacks the determination to promote the implementation of relevant policies. The resources invested in related fields are very limited, and most of the expenditures are still used to meet the welfare of the people. Lifting requirements. In the absence of government investment, private investment has been suppressed, and the industrial diversification plan can only remain on paper. By 2014, 25% of Venezuela's GDP still came from the oil industry, and more than 90% of its export revenue came from oil exports. So far, Venezuela is still not self-sufficient in food and needs to import most of its daily necessities. What is even more sad is that when the international market improved and international oil prices rebounded, Venezuela was unable to expand production in a timely manner due to lack of maintenance and aging oil and gas extraction facilities.