What would the shade of El Libertador think today surveying his beloved Venezuela? He would certainly be shocked at the dubious honor his country has been granted for claiming the number one spot on the world Misery Index for 2015. He would also surely wonder how the land of the intellectual font of Latin American liberation came to find itself as the 161^st least corrupt country (out of 175 countries) in the world. He might then start to put a few questions to Senior Maduro—and perhaps the ghost of Chavez past. Questions like, what gross economic mismanagement led to the recent modification of a trade deal with Uruguay forcing Venezuela to use oil to pay for desperately needed foodstuffs? Or, why Venezuela now has one of the highest inflation rates in the world? Or, why North Dakotan missionaries, devoted to assisting the Venezuelan people, were needlessly threatened and detained for several days?  Or, finally, why opposition leader Leopoldo Lopez has been rotting in jail for over a year? 

Explaining to Bolivar the general conditions that have allowed for Venezuela’s implosion is not difficult, nor does it take much time. All it takes—and this has been hard for some Western intellectuals—is an ability to understand that Venezuela has, for some time, been ruled by a cracked, authoritarian leader who simply does not care about the welfare of his people. Once one grasps this important point, the recent, and not-so-recent turmoil, becomes clear as a Caracas day.