Socialist Paradise of Venezuela Moves Deeper into hell

God often works in ironic ways.  Or, I should perhaps say more accurately, God allows the ironies of our perversions from His Truth to play out in deeply ironic ways.

As an example, the more man rejects God, the more hellish a society he tends to create.  Some of the most horrific monstrosities ever created by man as governments or societies have been ones deliberately founded not just on atheism but on a kind of anti-Christianism most closely associated with secular leftist regimes.  Nazi Germany, Soviet Russia, Maoist China, Castro’s Cuber, Pol Pot’s Cambodia, the Paris Commune, the French revolutionary government……all visited unbelievable horrors on people, all in the name of some great service to mankind!

Venezuela is only one of the latest nations to be added to the list of countries that have descended into a man-made hell as a result of their embrace (or their government’s embrace) of hardcore atheistic Leftism.  In spite of years of record-high oil prices and sitting on one of the largest oil reserves in the world, socialist policies have left not only Venezuela’s government bankrupt, but mired what was once one of the more prosperous nations in Latin America in such dire poverty and want that even obtaining enough food to live is almost impossible for millions.  While the government fantasizes about right-wing plots and imaginary “hording” (something, anything to deflect the blame from where it squarely belongs, on the government itself), most Venezuelans can’t find any food on store shelves to buy, and when they can, looting, rioting, and chaos most frequently result.

The situation has gotten so bad that Venezuela’s President Maduro has now decided to nationalize the food supply, placing the military in charge of its importation and distribution.  Welcome to hell, Venezuela-style:

Venezuela’s military is getting a major promotion as the socialist-run country struggles to combat severe shortages and stave off food riots.

President Nicolas Maduro on Monday created a new government initiative to boost production and guarantee the smooth distribution of food supplies in the face of what he called economic sabotage by his opponents. He said the Great Mission of Sovereign Supply will be headed by Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino, who will coordinate the work of every ministry. [This is nothing but national-level state-imposed food rationing, the kind that can only result from the sort of economic implosion that socialism is so good at achieving, contrary to its false promises of a humanistic paradise]

As part of the new campaign, control of the country’s five biggest ports was handed to a top military official Tuesday. Maduro said he was tapping army Gen. Efrain Velasco to head the nation’s port authority in order to root out corruption and mismanagement at the point of entry for imported food. Previously, the agency had been under civilian control.

Maduro said he was acting under the authority of an economic emergency decree he declared earlier this year. [Exactly the kind of vast, self-appointed powers we see our own president enacting in his own favor]

As food shortages have worsened this year, Maduro has leaned more on the military and community groups of government supporters[state funded militant leftists] to organize food distribution and ease the blocks-long lines that are a focal point for spontaneous unrest and bouts of looting when hungry shoppers are turned away. He has also tried to tighten a rationing system that gives Venezuelans access to staples only on certain days. [To the extent there is hording and manipulation of the availability of foodstuffs, the evidence indicates it is the government or its allied groups that is doing the hording, projecting it’s own actions onto its perceived adversaries.  Sound familiar?]

It’s not clear if the strategy is working.

In June, there was an average of 24 protests each day, according to a study published Tuesday by the local group Venezuelan Observatory of Social Conflict. About a third of the protests were sparked by severe food shortages.

Coming soon to a country near you?  It’s hard to believe that a nation possessed of such enormous bounty as this nation could ever endure food shortages caused by disastrous leftist policies, but it’s certainly happened many times before, in the Ukraine, in Zimbabwe, and now in Venezuela.

It just confirms, when men reject God and try to create their own version of Heaven, hell almost inevitably results.