Once there was a South American country with a promising future, it had a functioning democracy, a rapidly developing economy, and a growing middle class.

All the important indicators, including education, healthcare, and foreign investment, were pointed in the right direction.

It was far from perfect, but the mood was hopeful and with good reason.

But now all that promise is gone. The country is a failed state, a hollowed-out shell of its former self.

Services like power and water are sporadic. The most basic consumer goods from bread to toilet paper are in chronically short supply.

Crime has skyrocketed. Freedom of the press is almost nonexistent. Democracy has been replaced by a virtual dictatorship.

The country is, I'm sorry to say, my beloved Venezuela, a place in which my family has deep roots.

I can tell you what happened to it in one word, socialism.

In 1999, then candidate for president Hugo Chavez promised to lead the people of Venezuela to a socialist paradise.

His theme was Esperanza Gambio, hope and change.

Venezuela is a nation of great wealth. Chavez said, but it's being stolen from its citizens by the evil capitalist and evil corporations.

This wrong would be righted, he assured the voters, if they elected him.

And they did. To their everlasting regret.

Chavez drew inspiration from his mentor, Fidel Castro.

Like his mentor, he enjoyed giving speeches that sometimes lasted as many as seven hours.

He even gave himself his own weekly television show, where he would spontaneously break into song.

Here's a rule.

When your nation's leader starts singing on national television, you're in trouble.

Under Chavez, the government of Venezuela took over industry after industry.

The government, he assured everyone, would run these businesses better than private enterprise.

And the profits would be shared by the people. With great fanfare, he tore up contracts with multinational oil and gas companies

and demanded that they pay much higher royalties. When they refused, he told them to leave.

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