Venezuela is a beautiful tragedy, Eunice. Although it has proven capable of shooting itself in the foot for many years, since long before Chávez. I was there in the 1990s, when Rafael Caldera was in power. An old-school centre-right politician whose economic policy was essentially dictated by the IMF - almost the opposite of left-wing populism.

One big problem is over-reliance on oil, which means that infrastructure splurges happen, and are then left unfinished when prices drop, and other sectors are left undeveloped. Gold, iron, fruit, coffee, tobacco, even tourism - but Venezuela relied almost entirely on oil for its foreign currency inflows.

When I was there, Chávez had just been released early from jail following his attempted coup. The idea was to stop him becoming a martyr figure for the opposition. That didn't work out too well...

I fear that corruption and incompetence span the entire political spectrum, and the boom and bust nature of a fragile oil economy (Venezuela is reliant on outside equipment and expertise to make its low-grade crude marketable) just exacerbate those deficiencies and allow firebrand politicians to gain traction.

That said, the USA is hardly immune to their appeal, despite all its economic advantages.