Killed by collapsing oil prices, just like other big oil-dependent nations. (Russia, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, ... or in the US, look at Alaska, Louisiana, etc.)<p>Before Chavez, Venezuela was nominally a democracy, with two parties, AD and Copei, but in practice, for 2–3 generations, both parties colluded to keep state power in the hands of party officials, see <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Punto_Fijo_Pact" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Punto_Fijo_Pact</a> – several of the presidents immediately preceding Chavez were hugely corrupt (even doing prison time for it), and the Venezuelan people were entirely fed up with the longstanding political order, which was why Chavez as an outsider was so popular. The general economic problems throughout Latin America in the 1980s – cf. <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Latin_American_debt_crisis" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Latin_American_debt_crisis</a> – and the <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Venezuelan_banking_crisis_of_1994" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Venezuelan_banking_crisis_of_1...</a> didn’t help.<p>I find Chavez’s particular brand of populism deeply problematic, but he doesn’t exist in a vacuum, and Venezuela’s main challenge at the moment isn’t lack of “high school economics” understanding.