Elon Musk on Venezuela: without Chávez and extreme socialism the country would be prosperous

Magnate Elon Musk, owner of companies such as X and Tesla, said this Thursday that the collapse of Venezuela , one of the countries with the greatest natural wealth in the world, is due to the extreme socialism imposed by the late socialist leader Hugo Chávez , predecessor and mentor of the dictator Nicolás Maduro .

“Venezuela has great wealth in natural resources,” Musk wrote in X, in response to a report that blamed socialist ideas for the crisis in the South American country.

“If Chávez had not destroyed his economy by increasing the role of the government to extreme socialism, the country would be very prosperous,” stated the magnate.

Venezuela is, in objective terms, one of the richest countries in the world considering its impressive natural resources . It has the largest oil reserve in the world, the second largest gold reserve on the American continent and other important reserves of minerals and precious stones such as diamonds, nickel, iron, bauxite , among others.

Likewise, with an estimated 1,325 cubic kilometers of fresh water, Venezuela is among the 10 countries in the world with the largest water reserves .

Despite all its natural wealth, Venezuela is one of the countries with the highest poverty rates in the region, with more than half of the population living in multidimensional poverty, according to the most recent Living Conditions Survey (ENCOVI). .

Furthermore, due to the economic, social and humanitarian crisis, more than eight million Venezuelans fled the country over the last decade . It is the largest exodus in the world.

The Venezuelan economic disaster, which generated at the time one of the worst humanitarian crises in the world, came after Hugo Chávez, first; and Nicolás Maduro, later; destroyed the country's private sector through expropriations and developed an economic model with high state intervention that depended on oil revenues.

In a matter of years, the country's private sector was pulverized and, as oil prices began to drop, the Venezuelan economy suffered at levels never seen before . Corruption, no foreign investment due to the lack of legal security and inflation did the rest. In previous years, poverty in Venezuela reached more than 90% and malnutrition levels were among the worst in the world.

María Corina Machado, leader of the Venezuelan opposition and persecuted by the Maduro dictatorship, cited Musk's publication and assured that Venezuelans continue to fight against the Chavista dictatorship .

“The Venezuelan people are fighting for freedom and democracy against the extreme socialist regime imposed by Chávez 25 years ago,” Machado wrote. “Venezuela's vast wealth of natural resources will be harnessed to rebuild the nation into a prosperous country with a modern market economy and rule of law, open to global investment in all sectors, once we overcome the Maduro dictatorship. ”.

“And then we will bring our children back home!” declared the leader of the Venezuelan opposition.