The Daily Signal - He Lived Under Socialism in Venezuela. That’s Why He’ll Never Support It.

Episode Date: April 7, 2021

Andres Guilarte is a university student who lived in Venezuela under a democratically elected socialist regime. Guilarte says food shortages were a daily occurrence. Venezuelans also endure massive blackouts, political persecution, and a lack of access to health care due to the socialist government. Guilarte joins "The Daily Signal Podcast” to share his experiences of living in socialist Venezuela. "Living in Venezuela is way worse than people might think that they see in the news, or maybe on documentaries," he says. "You just picture that you start convincing yourself that maybe eating three times a day is not necessary, and that the quality of the food that you have to eat probably is not that one that you expect it to be," he added. "So, you have to get used to, like I was when I was in college, that if I had that breakfast, most likely I didn't have lunch. If I had lunch, it's because I skipped breakfast." We also cover these stories: The Senate parliamentarian announced Monday that Senate budget rules allow the process known as reconciliation to take place more than once in a fiscal year. A 38-year-old Navy medic reportedly shot and seriously wounded two Navy sailors Tuesday morning at a business park in Frederick, Maryland, before being fatally shot himself a short time later at Fort Detrick. President Joe Biden has moved up the goal for when all American adults will be eligible to be vaccinated against COVID-19. Biden now says that all adults should be eligible for the vaccine by April 19, two weeks sooner than the original goal.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This is the Daily Signal podcast for Wednesday, April 7th. I'm Virginia Allen. And I'm Richard Deltudis. Andreas Ski-Lakte is a university student who lived in Venezuela under a democratically elected socialist regime. He joins the Daily Signal podcast to share what socialism and action looks like and what he personally experienced living under socialism. And don't forget, if you're enjoying this podcast, please be sure to leave a review or a five-star rating on Apple Podcasts and encourage others to subscribe. Now onto our top news. The Senate parliamentarian announced Monday that Senate budget rules allow the process called reconciliation to take place more than once in a fiscal year. In other words, Democrats can pass another budget bill without any GOP support.

Senate Democrats now have a path to pass new spending legislation with only 51 votes instead of the usual two-thirds majority. Democrats use budget reconciliation to pass President Biden's $1.9 trillion COVID-19 stimulus package earlier this year. It appears that Senate Democrats could now approve a budget resolution for the 2022 fiscal year that would support Biden's infrastructure agenda and also revise the fiscal 2021 budget. A spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York, said Monday, while no decisions have been made on a legislative path forward, the parliamentarian's opinion is an important step forward that this key pathway is available to Democrats if needed. A 38-year-old Navy medic is believed to have shot and wounded two people Tuesday morning at a business park in Frederick Maryland. The Navy tweeted, the U.S. Navy can confirm there was an active shooter incident at Fort

Dietrich Maryland involving U.S. Navy sailors. The shooter, a Navy hospital corpsman, is deceased. We will continue to update with additional details as the situation evolves. President Biden has moved up the goal for when all American adults are eligible to be vaccinated. Biden now says that all adults should be eligible for the vaccine by April 19th, two weeks sooner than the original goal. White House press secretary Jen Saki announced Biden's new plan Tuesday morning, noting that 150 million COVID-19 shots have been given per the Hill.

We've reached 150 million shots in arms since entering government, and that by April 19th, all adult Americans will be eligible to get the vaccine. That doesn't mean they will get it that day. It means they can join the line that day if they have not already done that beforehand. The president has said that he expects America will return to somewhat normal life by the 4th of July. The CBS News Show 60 Minutes is underwent. for a misleading portrayal of a recent exchange with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis about the rule out of the COVID-19 vaccines in his state. The edited segment with 60 Minutes reporter Sharon

Alfonzi implies that DeSantis, a Republican, favored grocery store chain Publix with the vaccine doses because Publix had donated to the governor's campaign. Here is the edited exchange and the full exchange via the daily caller. We wanted to ask Governor DeSantis about the deal, but he declined our request for an interview. We caught up with them south of Orlando. Public's, as you know, donated $100,000 to your campaign and then you rewarded them with the exclusive rights to distribute the vaccination in Palm Beach. So first of all, what you're saying is wrong. How is that not paid a play? That's a fake narrative. I met with the county mayor. I met with the administrator. I met with all the folks at Palm Beach County and I said, here's some of the options.

We can do more drive-through sites. We can give more to hospitals. We can do the publics. And they said, We think that would be the easiest thing for our residents. But Melissa McKinley, the county commissioner in the Glades, told us the governor never met with her about the public's deal. The criticism is that it's paid a play, governor. It's wrong. It's a fake narrative. I just disabused you of the narrative, and you don't care about the facts because obviously I laid it out for you in a way that is irrefutable. And so it's clearly not. Isn't there the nearest public?

No, no, no, you're wrong, you're wrong. Yes, sir. That's actually a fact. So first of all, what you're saying is wrong. That's, that's a fake narrative. So first of all, when we did the, the first pharmacies that had it were CVS and Walgreens, and they had a long-term care mission. So they were going to the long-term care facilities. They got vaccine in the middle of December. They started going to the long-term care facilities the third week at December to do LTCs. So that was their mission. That was very important. And we trusted them to do that. As we got into January,

to expand the distribution points. So yes, you had the counties, you had some drive-through sites, you had hospitals that were doing a lot, but we wanted to get it into communities more. So we reached out to other retail pharmacies, Publix, Walmart. Obviously, CBS and Walgreens had to finish that mission. And we said, we're going to use you as soon as you're done with that. For the Publix, they were the first one to raise their hands, say they were ready to go. And you know what? We did it on a trial basis. I had three counties. I actually showed up that weekend and talked to seniors across four different publics. How was the experience? Is this good? Should you think this is a way to go? And it was 100% positive. So we expanded it and then folks liked it. And I can tell you, if you look at a

place like Palm Beach County, they were kind of struggling at first in terms of the senior numbers. I went. I met with the county mayor. I met with the administrator. I met with all the folks at Palm Beach County. And I said, here's some of the options. We can do more drive-through sites. We can give more to hospitals. We can do the publics. We can do. this. They calculated that 90% of their seniors live within a mile and a half of a publics. And they said, we think that would be the easiest thing for our residents. So we did that. And what ended up happening was you had 65 publics in Palm Beach. Palm Beach is one of the biggest counties, one of the most elderly counties. We've done almost 75% of the seniors in Palm Beach.

And the reason is because you have the strong retail footprint. So our way has been multifaceted. it has worked, and we're also now very much expanding CVS and Walgreens now that they've completed the long-term care mission. Yes. And it's wrong, it's wrong, it's a fake narrative. I just disabused you of the narrative, and you don't care about the facts because obviously I laid it out for you in a way that is irrefutable. And so it's clearly not. No, no, no, you're wrong, you're wrong. Now stay tuned for my conversation with Andreas Guilarte on what living under socialism is like. Americans use firearms to defend themselves between 500,000 and 2 million times every year. But God forbid that my mother has ever faced with a scenario where she has to stop a threat to her

life. But if she is, I hope politicians, protected by professional armed security, didn't strip her of the right to use the firearms she can handle most competently. To watch the rest of Heritage expert Amy Swearer's testimony on assault weapons before the House Judiciary Committee head to the Heritage Foundation YouTube. channel. There you'll find talks, events, and documentaries, backed with the reputation of the nation's most broadly supported Public Policy Research Institute. Start watching now at heritage.org slash YouTube. And don't forget to subscribe and share. I've joined today on the Daily Signal podcast by Andreas Kulark Day. I'm Andreas. It's great to have you on the Daily Signal podcast.

Thank you for a much for a invitation. Well, it's great to have you with us. So you're a university student. You've lived in Venezuela. So before we get started talking about Venezuela, can you tell us about yourself and what you studied? Sure. I mean, my name is Andres-Gilarte. I'm 26-year-old. I graduated in 2018 from International Relations back in Venezuela.

And, you know, I still feel like in some way I'm still a college student, especially because my job right now here in the U.S. traveling to college campuses. Well, I used to before the pandemic and now also online. you know, telling students what actual socialism is like, what from my personal story back in Venezuela, because I lead through that my whole life, telling them what the actual crisis is,

and just, you know, trying to make warnings to people. Make warnings that what you think is good policies in the end might make for terrible results. So that's basically what I'm doing right now, coming back from what I used to do in Venezuela, what I used to be a political activist against the matter, rural government and you're not fighting for freedom but now in another country. Well, what was it like living in Venezuela?

Can you tell us about things that you experienced on a daily basis? Well, living in Venezuela is way worse that people might think that they see in the news or maybe on documentaries. I mean, you just picture that you start convincing yourself that maybe eating three times a day is not necessary. and that the quality of the food that you have to eat probably is not the one that you expected to be. So you have to get used to like I was when I was in college, that if I had back breakfast, most likely I didn't have lunch. And if I had lunch, is because I skip breakfast.

So even until this day, sometimes I just get used to that. I skip one meal, which I shouldn't. But it's something that you have to get used to when you're living in a country where, you know, the minimum wage is less than $4. And even if you find money, the possibility of finding food is every day it just grows harder and harder. You know, a typical day was just before going to college, getting up with my mom at 4 a.m. and go to a supermarket and start making a line.

And that line could go up for to five hours or even to the almost half the day, waiting on a supermarket. And sometimes you may enter and you may find something, Or sometimes you may enter, and they will tell you, well, sorry that you have to wait, but there is nothing more for you here. So, you know, that's just one of the hundreds of stories that I can tell people of what is actually seems to be and what is like living in a country where you don't have choices. I mean, all your choices are dependent on someone else in an office in government,

telling you what you should do. And that's what it's like living in a country like that. It is terrible. Wow. Well, that was one of my follow-up questions actually was, did you experience food shortages? And did you know other people who did? And it sounds like that was something that was, I mean, would it be fair to say food shortages were almost a daily occurrence for you? Well, yes.

I mean, like I was, you know, linking to what I was saying. I had to get used to stuff like that. For me, well, it played out well in the sense that I didn't dismay during college classes. But it was common to, you know, to have some friend, you know, going through the hallways in college and suddenly just, you know, starting making a lot of fatigue and some people dismay. And when you ask, what was wrong? Well, I didn't eat today or I haven't eaten since lunch yesterday. You have to know that something also one, at least one of the good things that is being forced upon you in these countries is that you have, you start being more charitable with people.

You start being more kind to people. You understand that your struggle is the struggle of a whole country. So it was coming to share your food with other people, to find or to buy something for your friends if you have the money, or if you didn't, you know, trying to find some way to help your classmates. And that's just the spring college. I mean, when you go out to the street, it's way worse, especially in states out around the country. I used to live in the capital. and in the interior of the country is even way, way worse.

So one of the other things that, you know, it was common for me to going from my house to college is that it was like a really long commute, like a 40 to 50 minutes commute. And it was, you know, common to also see people in garbage in the street. And people may think that that's something that doesn't happen, but it was really, really coming back 2015, 2016 and forward to see families, you know, gathering behind a restaurant.

because they knew that garbage was coming out. So they wanted to be the first in line to see what something hot was coming from the garbage. And, you know, that's not life or all. That's a complete attack on these people's human dignity, of a whole country dignity. And that's the purpose of the regime there is to humiliate people, to make them feel that they're nothing, that they don't have an identity. So it's easier to control.

Well, Venezuelans endure blackouts, political persecution, and a lack of access to health care due to the socialist government there. And I just wanted to hear from you. Have you experienced those things or similar experiences when you lived in Venezuela? Yes, absolutely. And it was common also to have not only shortages of electricity, but also of water. So we could, you know, be in a normal day and suddenly there is no electricity for five to six hours, maybe one or two days. And the problem is that the electricity, mainly all the neighbors in the country, is completely run by the government.

So they're the ones to have to fix it, and they are terrible doing it. So you have to wait for them to have the wheelings to go there and fix the electricity problem. So that could take over one, two or maybe three days. And in 2019, thankfully, I was not in Venezuela, but since my whole family is over there, when the blackout happened in that year that almost lasted for a week. It was like seven, six days without any electricity, 95% of the country. You know, I felt like I was there. You know, getting called to my mom telling me that, you know,

she didn't have any food because the refrigerated diet. So there was no power to maintain food for the coming days. People in hospitals, if you get sick, you most probably going to go to a hospital where doctors were going to have to use flashlight from their cell phones. You know, it's something that is someone. just edit a horror movie. It will probably feel something like Venezuela.

You know, I don't even think that Stephen King can make something so horrible that when people have to go through everyday basis in many places in Minnesota. Well, Andrea, speaking of health care and the situation there, you mentioned how doctors, you know, a lot of times had to use their cell phone lights to light up the room to light up the rooms they were working with patients. And how is socialized health care in general working out for Venezuela? Well, it's working terrible. It's working terrible because the premise of the regime that they have to socialize medicine

because we have to reach the poor people, the people that didn't have access to clinic and hospital. Well, if you put it that way, that's awesome because we all want for people to have more access to health care because we only need health care in order to have a life and in order to improve you. Well, the problem is that once it started socializing, and by socializing, I mean, enacting laws that have to be public to gain power of hospitals, to have less private clinics, to have something that they created, that was like a small clinic that was run by Cuban doctors, which the problem is that the Cuban doctors,

they may have willing to help people, but the Cuban doctors that were brought by Chavez in this plan of socializing medicine, they were not first-care doctors or like pre-care doctors, so they were not meant to cure you for its illnesses. They were meant only to prevent you from having them. And at some point, it helped people, but in many, many ways,

it went just standardized health care in that way that Chavez-Did and Maduro. is still doing, the quality starts going, going, going down because you don't allow the healthcare workers, you're allowed the hospitals that cleaners to find a way to improve their services by their own means because they have to rely on sort of government officer to tell them what to do. So these doctors that have to use flashlight is because they don't have generators that are working in those hospitals. So when there is a major blackout, they're created by a crisis in management by the government,

there is no other way that these hospitals can rely on themselves because they depend on the government. So that's one of the many examples of how a socialist terrible management works like. Well, I know Venezuela is also under consistent civil unrest. The Guardian just had a piece out this week about how thousands are fleeing from the country because of a rebels clash with Colombia. Do you know what's going on here?

And even if not, I mean, have you experienced the civil unrest when you lived in Venezuela? Well, what's going on in the border with Colombia is just plainly terrible. I mean, it's the perfect image of a country that is not sovereign anymore on its own territory. So what people have to understand, not only about the whole economic crisis in Venezuela, but also understanding the political and security problem in the country, is that the government doesn't have power in many areas in the country. Many areas are grown by paramilitary groups, by guerrillas, like the FARC, EOM, which are Colombian guerrillas. And they are working in Venezuela because their regime allows them to do it.

They allow them because they are working together in drug operations. That's why the Department of Justice, in back to Maduro and many officials. officers two years ago. So when you understand what's happening and the center nature of the problem, what's happening right now in the border is that it seems that there is a power struggle between forces of the paramilitary groups and the military from the government, which, you know, in many ways they are basically the same thing because they don't care about the population, they only care to have the power in the area, so they have the power in the transportation, means of drug, and therefore they get the dividends from that drug operations.

So what's going on over there is just they are fighting insurer, and people in the middle of that is just, you know, having to experience an already war situation that they have because of the economic crisis. So they have to flee. They're going to go and get. Some people are going to Brazil. Some people are just, you know, waiting for it to have to go away. But that tells you that, you know, the government can't.

actually respond a situation like that because they're so involved with the people doing that, which are the paramounted their groups. There is just no way that they actually can reinforce the security in the territory because they don't have the means to do it anymore. Well, Andreas, you shared a little bit about your personal story, but I would just, I'd want to ask, you more to top level, how has socialism personally impacted you and you look back at, you know, what you've learned and experiences you've had to go through. How has it made a personal impact on

your life? Well, Rachel, I mean, for me, socialism feels like really, really personal, basically because when I was a young student in high school, I used to identify myself as a socialist, basically because of few reasons. One, because the whole education system in Venezuela from primary to high school is meaning to make you feel that, that the U.S. is the problem, that socialism is the way that Chavez is the basically God on Earth or was God on Earth. And you know that the revolution of Chavez and Maduro is the way forward. So they tell you all that through your education. And the second reason is also where I used to live in Petare, which is a huge district in Venezuela.

It was really influenced by the Chavez regime. And also some members of my family, close members. of my family following the lives of Chavez. So I used to believe that I was a socialist, but that's the key word. I used to believe. I didn't actually knew what actual

socialism was. I was just repeating stuff that all the people were saying. When I went through college, and I started hearing other ideas from other people, and I started having friends that didn't think at all like me, and I started reading what actually Marx

said, what Lenin said, what Hegel said, and they also did gave me the insight of what Nises said, hijack, and all these people, I still think that, well, I have the correct values. I wanted to help people, but the only means that socialism was given me was actually just making it worse. So I do a whole 180-degree switch and it started to became a political activist against socialism and against the regime. I entered students for liberty groups in Venezuela. I answered the political movement against Maduro. I started a chapter of a student group in the university

to teach people, teach students more about the freedom, literature. So, I mean, for me, it feels personal also when I go here and speak to students that they may feel that they are socialist. Because I know what it's like to be wrong in that way. I know what it's like to believe that you want to help people, you want to help the people that don't have the same means that you do, but what the actual theory of socialism is going to take you to, if you follow it, like they did in Venezuela, is to completely take those people to even worse situations with misery.

And you're going to bring down the people that are doing good to also misery, because the optimal goal of socialism is to make everyone equally miserable. That's happened in Minnesota. It happened in Cuba, and it's going to happen everywhere. Well, Andreas, I wanted to ask, how does living in the United States compare with living in socialist Venezuela? Well, I mean, I cannot begin to, you know, picture

what the contrast is of, you know, just to give you an example, every single new year in Minnesota, everyone has traditions with their family. So one of the religions in my family is that you receive a new year by holding a small, a small miniature car in one hand, and in the other hand, you used to grab a dollar.

And, you know, the symbolism of that is, and you may receive the new year with a new car and with more money. But you never hold a believer in those traditions. Never. I never hold a believer. They always used to hold a dollar because we knew what the actual value of that was. So when I came here, the U.S., and the first thing that I do in the airport was,

going to X place and buy something to eat. And when I saw my dollars, you know, giving to that work and for exchange of that, you know, feeling it was the first time that I paid something using dollars. Coming from a country, what I used to say, one bill of dollars was one dollar in my room. And I didn't touch that for the whole year because if you touch that, maybe you run out of luck. So you just imagine the conference of someone, not only need, but thousands of Venezuela and people in other countries living in the same situations, where you actually realize how lucky is people that live already in this country, start borrowing freedom, that they do everyday stuff like having running water, having food, having dollars to buy anything if they want to. And if they don't have the means, they can achieve them if they have the willing to do it. You know, when you realize that you understand how lucky is that people and how lucky I have to be here.

Because it's also a way that I can help my family over there. Well, as you mentioned, Andreas, and you well know, given all the outreach that you do, college campuses across the country, as well as a lot of politicians on the left, are elevating socialism as a solution to issues in this country when it comes to health care and education. what is your message, Andreas, to them since you've lived socialism in action? Well, my message will be to stop using that war. For God's sake. I mean, it's a terrible PR situation for everyone in this country to start using socialism for basically anything.

From the Democrats, you start seeing from that far left from some politicians that thankfully right now we think it's a minority, who knows in the future. But they start calling everything that they do socially. And that brings all the bad way that goes behind socialism. And that also takes Republicans to call everything that they do at socialism, which will add that I know what actual practice is of those theories. I know what actually pure socialist policies are. Many of the policies that are being called socialism here, probably they're not. But the place that where you start calling everything socialism that you do

and you tell, like some politicians, like you said, are saying that, well, socially is the way that is going to cope the United States, and even some of the socialist politicians, you used to say before the crisis in exporting Venezuela, that Venezuela was building paradise on earth, that what was going on in Venezuela was awesome. Well, and eventually they had to go backward because that was not the case in my country.

Well, I will tell them it's not using the world like that, Because people are being confused a lot. I have spoke with students that they say that they're socialists, but when you start speaking with them, they have no idea what socialism is. They think like Denmark and Sweden are socialist countries. And we all know that Denmark and Sweden are free market countries with a strong welfare state.

If that works or doesn't work, any those people in Denmark know about that subject. But you can tell, you can be sure that in Denmark, No one is saying that their own government is socialist. But actually social it looks like. He's in Venezuela, it's in Cuba. He was to use to be Chile decades ago. It was in their mouth.

We all saw that, and that's what actually socialism is. So I will have to say that everyone, when I speak to people, is first to understand why they want socialism, to understand what is their values, their principles, and what is affecting their lives to the point that they believe that the problems in the U.S. are because of capitalism. And since they hear in the media, they're hearing politicians in their universities, everyone uplifting socialism.

Of course they think, like, well, is capital a problem? Let's go to socialism. And that's not the reality. The reality is that the problem in the U.S. of many, many sectors, is actually too much government intervention, which is not capitalism at all. So that will be a message to, you know, we have to fight against the actual misconception of socialism through actually understanding why so many young people specifically and well people across all ages are used in that term and in many ways in a wrong way. Wondres, this has been a fantastic conversation. Thank you so much for joining us on the Daily Signal podcast.

Thank you so much, Rachel, for invitation. Thank you so much. And that'll do it for today's episode. Thanks for listening to the Daily Signal podcast. You can find the Daily Signal podcast on Google Play, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and IHeartRadio. Please be sure to leave us a review and have five-star rating on Apple Podcasts and encourage others to subscribe. Thanks again for listening and we'll be back with you all tomorrow. The Daily Signal podcast is brought to you by more than half a million members of the Heritage Foundation.

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