{"id":143,"date":"2025-06-17T07:27:59","date_gmt":"2025-06-17T11:27:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/people.bsu.edu\/econbriefs\/?p=143"},"modified":"2025-06-17T07:27:59","modified_gmt":"2025-06-17T11:27:59","slug":"venezuelas-election-fraud-and-economic-collapse-by-dr-cecil-bohanon-and-dr-john-horowitz","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/people.bsu.edu\/econbriefs\/2025\/06\/17\/venezuelas-election-fraud-and-economic-collapse-by-dr-cecil-bohanon-and-dr-john-horowitz\/","title":{"rendered":"Venezuela\u2019s Election Fraud and Economic Collapse \u2013 by Dr. Cecil Bohanon and Dr. John Horowitz"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>Originally written on 8\/20\/2024<\/em><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Venezuela has been in the news lately because of its corrupt election. Its national election commission declared that the incumbent of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela, Nicol\u00e1s Maduro, won by a 51-44 margin against the challenger, Edmundo Gonzalez. However, the commission has not released tallies from the polling places. Polling places where the opposition obtained the results showed that Gonzalez won overwhelmingly.\u00a0<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Most people in Venezuela and the world view this as fraud and are refusing to recognize Maduro&#8217;s reelection. <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/world\/americas\/putin-congratulates-venezuelas-maduro-election-win-2024-07-29\/\"><span data-contrast=\"none\">A notable exception is Vladimir Putin, who sent a note of congratulations telling Maduro he was always welcome in Russia.<\/span><\/a><span data-contrast=\"auto\"> The Maduro government reacted to widespread protests in <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/thedispatch.com\/article\/venezuelas-darkest-hour\/\"><span data-contrast=\"none\">Venezuela by killing 20 and detaining over 2000 of its citizens in the first week.<\/span><\/a><span data-contrast=\"auto\">\u00a0<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">According to the <\/span><i><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Economist <\/span><\/i><span data-contrast=\"auto\">magazine, Venezuela\u2019s 2022 GDP has shrunk by 75% since 2013. The more subjective but widely used U.N. Social Progress Index (SPI) shows that Venezuela &#8220;has seen the biggest drop of any country in its SPI rank between 1990 and 2020.&#8221;<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;335559731&quot;:720}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">We have previously argued in this column that the issue of whether Venezuela was socialist was primarily rhetorical: &#8220;Print up money, confiscate private property, and impose price controls, and you too can make your economy a basket case in the name of any ideology you choose.&#8221;\u00a0<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">But we now recant a bit on that position. Given a <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.statista.com\/statistics\/1336340\/views-socialism-capitalism-us-age\/\"><span data-contrast=\"none\">2022 poll showing that a plurality of USA 18-29 year olds<\/span><\/a><span data-contrast=\"auto\"> favor socialism over capitalism, the issue is not purely a matter of rhetoric. A recent <\/span><i><span data-contrast=\"auto\">New York Times <\/span><\/i><span data-contrast=\"auto\">story (not an editorial!) stated in its coverage of the Venezuelan election: <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/07\/28\/world\/americas\/venezuela-election-results.html\"><span data-contrast=\"none\">&#8220;\u2026in recent years, the socialist model has given way to brutal capitalism, economists say, with a small state-connected minority controlling much of the nation&#8217;s wealth.\u201d<\/span><\/a><span data-contrast=\"auto\">\u00a0<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\"> But the Venezuelan<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\"> system didn\u2019t change. Anti-democratic authoritarianism and elite control of wealth are inherent in Venezuelan socialism, which is willing to confiscate private property. Interestingly, Maduro <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/07\/28\/world\/americas\/venezuela-election-results.html\"><span data-contrast=\"none\">routinely praises the Communist Manifesto.<\/span><\/a><span data-contrast=\"auto\">\u00a0<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;335559731&quot;:720}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Before Venezuela\u2019s economy collapsed, news reporters showed positive images with glossy pictures of the self-proclaimed socialists feeding hungry children. Once the policies of the self-proclaimed socialists created Venezuela\u2019s great depression, 8 million Venezuelans emigrating, and widespread starvation, they became brutal capitalists. As our friend, Columbia University economics PhD student and Venezuelan dissident Daniel Di Martino, says,<\/span> <span data-contrast=\"auto\">&#8220;It&#8217;s classic <\/span><i><span data-contrast=\"auto\">New York Times<\/span><\/i><span data-contrast=\"auto\"> to celebrate the socialist policies that destroy a nation and then call them capitalist when they fail.&#8221;\u00a0<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;335559731&quot;:720}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Originally written on 8\/20\/2024 Venezuela has been in the news lately because of its corrupt election. Its national election commission declared that the incumbent of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela, Nicol\u00e1s Maduro, won by a 51-44 margin against the challenger, Edmundo Gonzalez. However, the commission has not released tallies from the polling places. Polling [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":112,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[202],"tags":[1388,505,412,1395,350,1390,1387,1394,1392,1396,211,1386,1391,768,1398,515,1397,1393,1389,1385],"class_list":["post-143","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-geopolitics","tag-authoritarianism","tag-capitalism","tag-corruption","tag-daniel-di-martino","tag-economic-collapse","tag-edmundo-gonzalez","tag-election-fraud","tag-emigration","tag-gdp-decline","tag-ideology-and-economics","tag-new-york-times","tag-nicolas-maduro","tag-political-repression","tag-property-rights","tag-protest","tag-socialism","tag-south-america","tag-un-social-progress-index","tag-united-socialist-party","tag-venezuela"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Venezuela\u2019s Election Fraud and Economic Collapse \u2013 by Dr. Cecil Bohanon and Dr. John Horowitz - Econ Briefs<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/people.bsu.edu\/econbriefs\/2025\/06\/17\/venezuelas-election-fraud-and-economic-collapse-by-dr-cecil-bohanon-and-dr-john-horowitz\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Venezuela\u2019s Election Fraud and Economic Collapse \u2013 by Dr. Cecil Bohanon and Dr. John Horowitz - Econ Briefs\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Originally written on 8\/20\/2024 Venezuela has been in the news lately because of its corrupt election. 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