How Venezuela was Destroyed 

Venezuela could have become the Latin American equivalent of Norway if it chose to create a large rainy day fund with its oil wealth instead of giving away all of its earnings like there’s no tomorrow.

I lived in Venezuela for 23 years, and personally I think the country is a lost cause. I am glad i was able to leave to Spain 3 months ago despite all the obstacles i had to go through. Exiting Venezuela as a Venezuelan is harder than entering Spain in my experience.

I'm an American but spent around a year living in Ecuador. Not as a tourist but just like any other Ecuadorian. The amount of Venezuelan migrants I saw was staggering. It's really pretty sad especially seeing how well run a country like Ecuador is (not perfect but you have the basics in good order).

Venezuelan here. I find it hilarious you used Tropico’s music lol. Your review is highly accurate (even when your pronunciation isn’t but it’s alright)

Sucks that Venezuela ended up from a promising oil-rich Latin American nation to the worst ending

The moral of the story is: When nation building, never ever ever ever ever leave all your eggs in one basket.

I was born and raised in Venezuela, I've lived abroad, I have travelled across the world, and still I won't surrender to the crisis, I will continue working and give opportunities to my people. I dont criticize those who have left nor try to convince people who stay, but I do ask that wherever they go, help other Venezuelans, because not everyone can withstand migrating without help.

I've been living in southern Brazil for over a year now and i get an existential crisis and a "is that how i used to live" moment everytime I remember my country. Truly sad that not everyone has the opportunity to escape

If this channel doesn’t tell you how critical keeping the corruption and elite accountable to the people is, idk what else will.

Thanks for making this video! I'm a Venezuelan diaspora currently visiting my grandparents. My entire family was anti-government from the very beginning, my mom was at the 2002 Protests when she was shot at by pro-Government forces in the Llaguno Overpass. She managed to get out uninjured. We left in 2010, but our grandparents stayed in Margarita Island. Since 2010, the situation has become critical. Venezuela is a beautiful country plagued by corruption and tyranny. God bless you for this video. Love from Margarita Island ❤

I am half Venezuelan and my Venezuelan grandfather talks about how amazing the country was when he lived there, but is now ashamed to be Venezuelan due to the events that took place. He always says it is a slippery slope what the government did and what many do today. Mind you, he grew up very poor. I wish to one day visit Venezuela and see its nature. Maybe some time soon

The full story is always more complex than anyone with a political agenda wants to admit or even bother finding out.

As young Venezuelan who left the country pretty recently , this is accurate to a certain extent , some of the numbers are off , our diaspora has been on part with the Syrians after the Arab spring of 2011 , but without going on the details is a summary. We had intellectuals like Uslar Pietri (famous Venezuelan scholar) that promoted and exhaustively demanded to cultivate oil (diversify the economy and promote other sectors besides the oil sector) but never actually made it and the anti-elitist , far left economic measures on Chavez-Maduro regime eroded whatever other industries were left in the country by expropriation and mismanagement. To whomever is fascinated by the events that led to Venezuela’s downfall , it is still being studied because it’s modern downfall on catastrophic levels. People lost jobs, businesses , family, savings, quality of life , freedom and hope and yet the country stands , our people dance , party, study, marry and live despite the utter chaos but any Venezuelan (that is not under the thumb of the party that runs the government or still indoctrinated ) will tell you about the social, economic and political erosion that has happened and how it has affected them in their daily lives, no matter their class or part of the country they are from.

As a Venezuelan, I gotta say this is one of the better takes. Though, that's kind of a low bar, since most try to oversimplify this to either "Socialism" (a word that basically means nothing anymore), or US Sanctions (which are indeed exacerbating the country's problems, but aren't the actual cause).

As a Venezuelan, I want to congratulate you because you know more about the economics of Venezuela than a common Venezuelan, I think that's the problem most of the people in my country are just stupid, and candidates that offer a bag of food are more likely to win than others, thanks for the vid

Fun fact: Not sure if it's still the case, but the Venezuelan currency was actually worth less at one point than the gold in Old School RuneScape, due to in-game gold "farmers" making more IRL money for themselves than they could at a real job for Venezuelan bucks.

A little correction. The actual number isn't 3 million, but 6 million who have left the country in the last decade.

Venezuela has the standart latin american mentality on steroids, and I say this as a Brazilian, we are on election year and honestly, both major candidates are populists using lame ass speeches about god, family, gender rights and etc to classify themselves as either right or left wing candidates. Both are corrupt ones, and the people know it, some choose to ignore it, but deep inside they know it, but since the country isn't in deep shit, we are complacent about it, that's until things start falling apart, and they will. We sacrifice long term prosperity for some 3-4 years of "golden years" fueled by public spending and corruption, just for it to bite us in the ass later on.

Hey thanks a lot for the video, I've lived here my entire 20 years of life and I honestly don't imagine myself living here 5 years from now on. We have reached a point where we can survive but the long term future seems bad

As a Venezuelan, I think our people is dammed from the beginning, we only care about money, money and more money and didn't take the good opportunities to invest in education, science and more technology, we are just a bunch of people surviving in other countries and in our own country...and it's painful to see it

He mixes education and funny quotes which rhyme really well. You are having fun and also learning something! I also absolutely love that he represents countries as its national animals,so clever! Keep it up

The ballad of Heisenberg at the beginning killed me

As a Venezuelan, I am glad to see videos like this that go over this without some sort of agenda and looking for a political punching bag.

Dutch disease is a concept that describes an economic phenomenon where the rapid development of one sector of the economy ( particularly natural resources) precipitates a decline in other sector

Every single Latin American country should be fully developed. The current situation is absolutely insane!

I will say it again: the success of a society does not come from its resources but from the quality of its government.

It's scary how the horrible decisions of a few can condemn a country of millions with so much promise, to lives often misery

H0ser: explains why and how Venezuela got to where it is today Me: is the background music the sound from breaking bad

I used to work with a bunch of Venezuelans back in the mid-80s in Dallas TX, they always talked about how great, rich and educated Venezuela was, and how everyone else in South and Central America were ignorant peasants who couldn't even speak proper Spanish. I wonder how they are doing now?

This channel has taught me more than 18 years of history / social studies

I gotta say, hoser actually makes some really good content. No BS, controlled bias. good shit.

Venezuela is like this person who had everything. He later had a car crash and his mood changed drastically cause he had a brain damage. After he started to have heavy drinking, and he causes vandalism in his town. Tell me what Venezuela is like in your opinions.

This was a great insight for understanding the situation of my Venezuelan neighbors. Consider doing Peru next, we also had hyperinflation and violence during the 80s but managed to recover. Over our 200 years of independence our economy has been based on extracting natural resources like guano, rubber, copper, etc. Might be cool for a video.

Thanks for this. I'm viewing rhis from Venezuela's nearest island neighbours, Trinidad. This video clip gives a clear description of Venezuela's path over the lastt two hundred years or so. It reminded me that nothing occurs in a vacuum.

You really nailed it, they never found democracy before greed aka oil. Politicians in Venezuela literally went for office just to be like “aight how am I gonna sell oil and not give a shit about anything else going on”

That's why I follow this channel, you didn't take the cheap and easy out by blaming Chavez. Don't get me wrong he sucks but is a symptom, not a cause

One very interesting development is that with the remittances of so many people abroad, the economy has stabilized(just a little) not enough to stop the inflation but enough to eliminate the scarcity of basic resources like food and medicine but in USD, so assuming you have a relative sending you some money for food you can survive, but that is were it ends, The country has become a lawless land, at this point, the government doesn't care about it citizens so you are on you own, no water? tough luck you better drill a water well for that, No electricity, Well you can buy an electric generator if you have the USDs, The police AND gangs are robbing you? well non of my business you can always buy a gun Not a very nice place to live or visit, for my part the best desition of my life was to leave in 2019, not to the best country(Colombia) but light years away better than Venezuela

Man when you hear your country’s natural beauty being complemented, you know you’re in trouble

I'm from Belo Horizonte, a city in Brasil (a bit close to São Paulo and Rio de janeiro), and my city has a LOT of venezuelans. It's a sad situation because a lot of them ended up in the streets, but still, our government has a few welfare programs for them and society as a whole wants to help, offering shelter, food and jobs. I can only imagine what the cities near the amazon are facing, since mine is more than 1500km from Venezuela and we are still able to see the consequences of the regime.

I’m part Venezuelan. My parents are Venezuelan. My dad’s parents are Columbian and they moved before my father was born. I’m born in the US. My grandfather had a good life in Venezuela until it was in shambles.

As a Venezuelan, I'm glad this video exists

This series is amazing. I never thought I would enjoy watching videos that concerned economies and governments, but you do such an excellent job packaging it up in an ‘easy to swallow pill’, the images are a plus. Excellent job!

U remind me of a old youtuber id watch back in the day. Nice vids keep up the great work

As a Peruvian is kinda sad how our venezuelan brothers are doing right now, they used to the a freaking Norway in south america, I hope that those times where everyone here used to say "Dam, I would wish to move to Venezuela" come back one day

Venezuela is like the popular kid that peaked in high school but fell off afterwards

you are one knowledgeable person !!!! and I love your style of teaching subjects that could at times be boring ..big thumbs up

i swer this channel has teached me more about history then the entirety of history class

This is why Saudi Vision 2030 aims to decrease they're dependence on oil. It's impossible to stay rich forever if you get all your money from one industry.

The discovery of massive oil reserves in Venezuela can be compared to someone winning millions of dollars in a lottery and spending it recklessly. There have been numerous stories of major lottery winners blowing all of their huge fortune and going deep into debt and misery. Some of those winners have ended up going homeless, being dependent on welfare, suffering a divorce, becoming a drug addict and even committing suicide etc. If you ever win a huge prize, you should hire financial advisors and lawyers to inform you how to manage your new riches.

Honestly, the fact that a foreigners recap of my country and the things that I see everyday is some of the only reliable sources of information I have to understand shit without bias in it's really depressing, but I'm already Venezuelan so...

I used to speak to a lot of venezuelans when playing oldschool runescape. usually nice guys who just wanted their country to be less of a joke

I subscribe to a lot of history, geopolitical, and news-centric channels, and this is one of those that I always click on first after I get home from work when I see it in my feed. I'm sure it'll hit 250k subs before too long because these videos are consistently pretty good and informative, even for me who is a history buff.

One tiny error you commit, the official number of emigrees is 6 million by international estimates, though the suspected unofficial approaches the 9 million mark. One fourth/third of Venezuelans have left, this comment as a Venezuelan myself.

If your in latin america always expect to have a corrupt government

Great videos! Learning lots! Keep it up

Venezuela is a cautionary tale of why you should not be so reliant with a single source of income. We've seen this pattern so much in history. Yesterday was the Congolese Empire, today it's Lebanon (and Venezuela), and Saudi Arabia might be the next one.

The way he pronounced Arepa was the biggest tragedy in this video

hey h0ser, you're video on Venezuela has been very enlightening on the history and difficulties in Venezuela that plague the countries society to this day, it has also made very interested in my own country, the nation of Malaysia, and its history as has also benefited from oil wealth as well. I would love to see a video on Malaysia as might give a more nuanced understanding on oil wealth as we aren't exactly a Norway but we are a relatively successful state but also really screwed by certain actors, ideas and people over the decades

always love seeing political discussion without bias, just a genuine passion for learning about people, nations, and how all that works and what's happened so far in human history. I think they call it anthropology.

am binge watching your chanel right now, your stuff makes me crak uppppp and learn - just a comment though, I don't know if you talk fast naturally or are trying to keep the audience engaged, but I think you can slow down a bit :) I've put it to .8 speed and that feels comfortable and I actually understand it haha

Good luck to my brothers from Venezuela, here in Brazil we are at the edge of the abyss too, but we will die fighting for our country 🇧🇷❤🇻🇪

@h0ser This is my first time watching one of your videos and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I thought your use of sound facts, witty sarcasm, decent music, decent animations, and well structured out analysis culminate in a quality video. That being said, I have one, critical yet constructive complaint. I thought your pace of talking was to fast. Personally, I could follow. However, I love history and already have a rough understanding of the history of Latin and Central America. One of my personal favorite you tubers who is in the same niche as yourself is Kraut. He is the polar opposite and utilizes a very slow, yet precise and intentional use of language. I prefer it because it opens the marketability of the video to those who are new to the field of historical analysis and also enables him to dissect topics over a longer period of time and to highlight interesting and intelligent views that appeal to ardent historians. Anyways, I look forward to watching more of your videos!

As Venezuelan u are by far the best and most accurate video essay shit about Venezuela I’ve seen, thank u so much for translating that shit show so nicely

Thank you for this video. Very insightful and impartial. Love how it does not glorify or excuses socialism or capitalism. Just explains the downfall.

Damn, this one is personal. my poor country :(

I like the point of view about not having mature democratic institutions before the oil discovery... thanks

@h0ser could you provide the credits for the background music? It's so good, I have an earworm now.

Nice video and explanation, so accurate

I feel bad for the people

One of my mom's friends is from Venezuela. Thanks to the regime Hugo Chavez put in place she lost every single penny she had because according to the government she doesn't need money to survive and took her business too so she couldn't make more money, she had to gather what little she had left and come here to the states for a better life.

Did you just put the Heisenberg corrido for a Video of Venezuela?

Just to remember Venezuela gov was anti imperialism. Before oil money went to the outside, now it is going to internal elites. Only downfall was these elites not reinvesting the money into the country development, but what could you expect of SA bourgeoisie...

Can you make a video on Syria? I would love that because your videos are quite informative, concise and not as boring as history class.

Fun fact: there once used to be a German colony in modern Venezuela, called Klein-Venedig And this video reminds me on how the Kongo Kingdom was dependant on exporting slaves and the Saudis depend on exporting oil.

These videos must take a lot of time and research to make, good job

Is it just me or was that The Ballad Of Heisenberg playing in the background in the beginning?

My parents are from Venezuela and I am so thankful they left to Canada

Thank you for this objective evaluation instead of solely blaming socialism like your average American news outlet.

The mexican music in the background 😆

i watched one video now i love this channel

as Venezuelan i'll add that other reason of the actual situation is because Chavez and Maduro didnt learn about the mistakes commited in the past "or" They wanted that sussy oil from the begginings, which ended up doing the country more dependent of petroleum and being more corrupt than ever. I would like to tell other things but i dont want to do a bible, so nice vid and God bless Venezuela.

There are too many historical errors in this video, there are also misrepresentations of various facts.

Now, with Venezuela trying to expand towards Guyana because the latter had oil, this would be another problem for them.

I’m a catalan history student and last quatrimester we talked about that. The Conquistadors were nobles and rich people from all Europe, not only Castille and Aragon, who bought a license to the iberian monarchy in order to get the right to go to the “new world” and conquer ir for them. Then they were allowed to forge hiciendas in that land. The funny thing is that this whole process didn’t cost a Damm coin to the monarchy. And about Cortés, he did it without a licence. The monarchy wanted him dead, but he was quick enough to dedicate “his conquests” (which cannot have happened without the locals who joined his Army as the Federation of the three cities (the mexica/aztecs) were universaly hated) to the crown, so they just accepted and gave him a remote hicienda. It was a moment when the “encomenderos” of Colòmbia and Veneçuela tried to rebel and become hereditary lords like the nobles of Europe, but that failed. It seemed like the natives prefered to fight for the crown that to fight for the “encomenderos” who were the ones directly above them. Maybe they thought like the remences in catalonia that siding with the crown would mean the end of the hiciendas… Another thing, the conquistadors tried to invade places which already had some organization in order to suplant it. That explains things like the fact that the Yucatan peninsula in Mexico wasn’t properly “civilized” until the independence of Mexico, as the Mayan city-stat system collapsed before Columbus sailed to the Caribean thinking he was on the indic sea, or that when the castilians saw How similar the cultural supremacism of the incans was to their own, they decided to respect the quechua people more than the other conquered ones (the quechuas tried to form a homogenizing empire in the Andes making many smaller cultures dissapear into them). The independence of the americas might have been changed If the Bourbons remained faithful to the constitutions of Cadiz after the napoleònic wars. There is much there that was liked by the natives in america. The think they liked the most was that it would grant them all spanish citizenship and make them legally Equal to the encomenderos. Of course that was also because the constitutions of Cadiz said that every man older than 20 could vote when in France and USA only the richest could. That idea was really powerful. In fact there was many natives that fought for the crown, as independence would mean that the criollos would rule the countries and they would be far worse than before. There are lots of terrifying histories of natives being persecuted after the independence wars to be punished for siding with the crown.

Oh my country, I hope it can recover its glory someday. Thanks for making a video about it 🇻🇪

As a nigerian i understand how big of an oppurtunity venzuela missed its similar to nigeria , does oil always have to be a curse

Hi, I am actually from Venezuela, thanks for the video. I really don't know if exist a way to resolve the problems of my country, but so many people do the best for survive everyday, maybe there is the solution, one time I heard something " never waste a crisis" if a country of have experience to learn our us

Good video, and I liked the art. I learned a lot about Venezuela, thanks!

on today’s episode of ‘the spanish managed their colonies so horribly and with such arrogance that we still feel the consequences today’: venezuela

I'm Venezuelan. From the beginning, Simón Bolívar was a dictator, yes, like the traitor of Miranda and Paez. During the period of Gomez and Perez Jimenez, most of the Venezuelan infrastructure was built. However, they were heavily criticized because they used prisoners as labor and were not well known for upholding current human rights. For Venezuela it was impossible to diversify from oil if they lacked the necessary infrastructure to do so and they knew it, also the Venezuelan universities were improved in an attempt to expand the economy in the future. But unfortunately, later came the "democracies" that never had anything of democracy, they were a bunch of populist parties, since now they should not get power with a coup, but by offering any kind of free or better thing in the most socialist and populist way. It was a race to see who would be the new dictator. Of course the central nor central left won with the promises to improve the quality of life in the simplest way; with public spending this led to the part you mention in the caracazo. Most Venezuelan politicians have always been on the left, but the final blow was with Chavez's extreme left. Where the generation like mine from 1990 to 2010 had nothing to do with the boomers who voted for him, but we pay the consequences of those who voted for him and by the wat, fled the country after a few years looking for a better place like the US. From abroad people always criticize that the Venezuelan people do nothing to get rid of Maduro, but the reality is that there are countless dead and missing people of my age and even minors who tried to protest or demonstrate against it. But it is impossible without military help. Venezuela is one of the Latin American countries with the best army, even better than other countries outside of Latin America, and as you know, they are on the side of the government. In Venezuela it used to be legal to use weapons like in the United States, but this was abolished by one of the Venezuelan "democracies" and only organized crime, military and police cartels can have weapons, all on the socialist side. Not even the lowest seat: the police are on the civilian side, all the great positions in this country are bought, but what hurts Venezuelans the most is that the supposed presidency of Juan Guaido is also corrupt. In Venezuela there is no true leader, only people aspiring to be the new dictator... So there is no way that a civil war will happen in Venezuela either. The most serious thing that could happen, and what many Venezuelans really want, is an intervention, like the Panamanian one. Those who really do not agree with an intervention are the politicians and Venezuelans affiliated with Guaido, another politician of the bunch. Personally, I think it will never be done until there is a good Venezuelan leader. However, I already resigned myself to the fact that Venezuela will be like Cuba.

Great video, writing, entertaining and informative.

Im South American. The sad thing is in the 80s people would rather vacation in Caracas than in Miami. Now no one wants to go there.

Awesome video. Keep up the great work! Could you do Colombia too?

Well, a foreigner talking this explicitly, though, respectfully about our situation is kinda refreshing. I would contribute the cause of the instability was and still being the power-hungry and egotistical notions behind the ideals of the politicians. Every turn since 1946 resume in some various intents to form democracy and peace being obliterated by politic sectarism, corruption, populism and mainly greed. The rise of Chavez is the infamous consequence of all the past mistakes; above all, wanting that savior-like figure that the average venezuelan sees in the military men

If I may ask, what is the background music during the first part of this informative video? What is the name of the instrumantal play? Thnx in advance.

I was working in Venezuela in 1992 when Chavez attempted his failed coup. I couldn't believe when only 6 years later the people there voted him as their president! I told my new Venezuelan wife back then "are you people crazy?" Wtf? I said to her "you'll never get him out of office once he's president. Ever!" Worse than that, they continued to vote for him election after election until he died of cancer. Personally, I don't feel empathy for the Venezuelan people. They knew what he was when they willingly handed over the reigns of power to him. Similar to how I feel if our own failed coup plotter is voted into the WH in 2024. We have brought whatever comes our way on ourselves. Why are so many people so darn naive?

Who knew putting one export at a high % would turn out to be a bad idea. Also the reckless public spending. Money doesn’t grow on trees

The Yom Kippur war was an Arab-Israeli war not a Palestinian-Israeli war

One of my favorite artist on DeviantArt used to live there and lost contact for almost 3 years...

I live in South Africa and the story of Venezuela stresses me out as I see my country headed that way.