Viva Chávez! In 2014, just a year after the demise of Hugo Chávez, I travelled to Venezuela, the land of beauty queens and socialist dreams. Chavez was still everywhere, his face and his slogans shouting from dozens of billboards, walls and paintings. My taxi driver on the beautiful drive between jungle and mountains from the airport into Caracas immediately started to talk politics: The USA were the nemesis of poor Venezuelans. They had been portraying Chávez without any reason as “socialist monster”. After all, his country needed redistribution of wealth and justice. With his last sentence I could not agree more.Not just my taxi driver – all Venezuelan Joe Sixpacks I talked to on the street, confirmed that Chávez was still incredibly popular among the poorer part of the population. No wonder because Chávez championed them during his 14 years in power, used his nation’s wealth to lavish money on social programs. Levels of poverty and unemployment in the country saw a steady and impressive decline, at least according to some statistics. 

In 2014 prospects in Venezuela had not yet seemed to look that bad. However, probably due to reports about hyperinflation and scarcity of goods (my taxi driver claimed there were totally exaggerated), I felt like the lonesome tourist. From Caracas my driver took me on a passable highway to Ciudad Bolivar. Again, I was the lone foreign tourist. After wandering through the historic center with its cobblestone streets, colorful houses with wrought-iron balconies and dozens of roasted chicken stalls (delicious!), a small aircraft took me to Canaima where a cluster of mighty waterfalls spectacularly drop into an amphitheater-like lagoon. Further five hours in a a boat, past lush jungle framed by a beautiful array of Gran Sabana table mountains, brought me to the base of Salto Angel. Not just here, under the world’s tallest waterfall, I found Venezuela as one of South America’s most spectacular and diverse countries, full of resources so that under normal conditions  each and every citizen should be able to lead a decent life. I was wondering: Was it just bad governance or could Chávez’ policies have worked if the United States would not have been so panic-stricken about socialism and purposely courted Chávez’ enemies?