Smeshie

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I worked in/with Venezuela in the late 1990s and early 2000s, and I heard so many versions of this, in all industries, from locals—the government and party were a giant local thug operation that had gone national: shakedowns, bribes, taking what they wanted. The Chavistas won then, legitimately, because the prior ruling class was seen as the same thing, but more refined about it, with their bribes not extracted at gunpoint on the streets, but in offshore bank accounts, like a proper modern crime gang. The Chavistas also showered some of their gifts on groups who rarely got gifts showered on them, and arguably deserved far more—mostly the poor high up in the hills around Caracas. By the late 2000s the thuggery had gone from "above average" to endemic and systematic, and coupled with an exodus of anyone with any expertise, all the basic stuff that keeps a country running began falling apart. You can't milk a dead cow, is what they would say, but they kept kicking the cow demanding more milk, until they gave up and then started carving up the carcass.