Is Venezuela a socialist or communist country?

Neither. It is a combination of socialism and capitalism, just like it is in virtually every country in varying degrees. Let me explain.

Communism is a classless and cashless society, that you can not find in Venezuela or anywhere in the world. You still have the rich and the poor in Venezuela. Also, the state or the people are not in control of all the means of production. So communism is out of the question.

Socialism stresses the people’s ownership of means of production and capitalism streeses on individual ownership of means of production. None of the two (socialism and capitalism) gave any opinion on market economy (aka free market ) or none market economy. So you can be a socialist state and still have free market. You want proof? PepsiCo, McDonald’s, Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co and GM are US companies in Venezuela, of course, they are there to make money, which they won’t make in a communist or socialist state.

Venezuela has the largest oil reserve which is owned by the people. People often confuse dictatorship, totalitarianism and corruption in otherwise acclaimed socialist states as socialism. Venezuela has had its own share of bad governance and external interferences which altered their path to progress.

Again, with large deposit of oil, the government and the people tend to neglect other economic sectors like agriculture, technology etc. They have the sell oil, make money and share it mentality. It is retrogressive at best.

Of course, when the people put a lot in the hands of the government, without a proper checks, there will be abuse and consolidation of power.

Venezuela is more of a capitalist state than socialist state as more than80% of their GDP is in private hands. They are no more than socialist than the United States. The notion that Venezuela is socialist is not based on facts.