Maggie's Farm

Lefties will tell you that Bernie Sanders was talking about Scandinavia, not Venezuela. While Bernie was close to obsessive in his praise for Latin American despots from the '60s through the '80s, he was relatively silent when he was in the Senate. If he was asked about Venezuela during the 2016 campaign, his stock reply was "no comment" or the like.
If you want to tee off a lefty, bring up this nugget from Bernie Sander's Senate website: 2011:Close The Gaps: Disparities That Threaten America. Lefties will call bringing this up "false," "unfounded," say what you will. But it's from Bernie's Senate website! If it's on his Senate website, he agreed with it, I would think. Telling us that "the American dream is more apt to be realized " in Chavista Venezuela is telling us that Chavista Venezuela should be a model for the US.

How valid was it in 2011 to bring up Venezuela's inequality statistics as a Chavista accomplishment? Chávez was elected in 1998 when Venezuelan oil was selling for ~$11/BBL. How did the economy perform when he was in office? By 2007-2010, oil was fluctuating between $60 -$100/BBL. In 2011, when Bernie made the inequality statement, economic data for 2009 would have been available. Perhaps 2010- but as 2010 was a bad year for the Venezuelan economy, I will use 2009 and compare how Venezuela did from 1998-2009 compared to other countries.

GDP per capita, PPP (constant 2011 international $), % increase 1998-2009
Upper middle income 72.7%
East Asia & Pacific 67.8%
South Asia 66.5%
Middle income 64.5%
Low & middle income 61.4%
Sub-Saharan Africa 32.5%
World 29.3%
Latin America & Caribbean 15.2%
Venezuela 11.0%

Even with oil rising to ~ $60-$100 BBL in 2007-2009, and all that oil revenue to deal with, the Venezuelan economy’s performance compared to the rest of the world was abysmal-pathetic- near bottom of the barrel.
The pathetic performance of the Chavista economy would tell most that those improved inequality figures were smoke and mirrors, as they weren’t backed by a good economy. As such, Bernie Sanders was a fool.

A further point about inequality is that Chavista honchos like Diosdado Cabello or assorted Boliburgués were stealing left and right. Those increased incomes were not reported. Had they been reported, inequality would have been a lot higher.

Chávez died in 2013, when Venezuelan oil was selling for $100/BBL. Compared to the rest of the world, the Chavista economy continued to lag behind in economic growth.

GDP per capita, PPP (constant 2011 international$), % increase 1998-2013
[i]East Asia & Pacific (excluding high income) 192.1%
Upper middle income 109.3%
South Asia 102.4%
Middle income 96.1%
Low & middle income 91.7%
Lower middle income 83.4%
Least developed countries: UN classification 67.5%
World 44.5%
Sub-Saharan Africa (excluding high income) 42.4%
Middle East & North Africa 39.5%
Latin America & Caribbean 30.1%
Venezuela 15.2 %

World Bank Data

While Maduro is a dictator and Bernie Sanders is not, it is interesting how they sometimes think alike. Both Maduro and Bernie disliked the impeachment of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff and likened the impeachment process to a "coup"-an impeachment process that followed Brazilian law. Apparently following the law is, to a lefty, a coup.
Venezuela's left-wing government condemns impeachment of Brazil's Rousseff as a 'farcical coup' and accuses 'imperial forces' of overthrowing her as South America rejects socialism (I heard Maduro say this on YouTube, but without translation.)


Sanders Condemns Efforts to Remove Brazil’s Democratically Elected President.
Both Bernie Sanders and Maduro said much the same about Dilma's impeachment, though Bernie waffled the "coup" statement by saying “to many Brazilians and observers.” Birds of a feather flocking together?