 The government thinks that they are more smartest than the people. The government thinks that they are more powerful than thinking, so the people can't think. So they stole medicines, they stole toys, and this is a kind of virus or something that can infect the society. I saw with my own eyes. Hi, I'm Lawrence Reed, the president of the Foundation for Economic Education, or FI, which is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia. I'm here today to interview Javier Garcia Hernandez. Javier, who is 37 years of age and a native born Venezuelan, is here in Atlanta to talk about his experiences in Venezuela, a country racked by socialism and by hyperinflation and what some would say is near ruin economically. Javier, welcome to Atlanta and to FI. Thank you, Mr. Reed. I really appreciate it. We're glad to have you, and I know that in the course of our brief interview we'll be talking about events in Venezuela and what some of the recent very sad developments are, but first a little bit more about you. You're 37 years of age. Yes, sir. You're an architect. Yes. And tell me more about how you came to ideas of liberty. Since I was a kid I always loved liberty and I never can imagine that I would be a socialist in dictatorship. So that's why right now I'm here fighting for liberty, justice and freedom. I became acquainted with you about a year or so ago through Facebook and then we communicated by other means as well, but I didn't meet you in person face to face until just yesterday, the 2nd of January, here in 2016. I have to say I've been very impressed with what a thoughtful person you are, that you've come through some very difficult times in Venezuela and that you really are not too optimistic about the near term for Venezuela. Things seem to be getting worse. Well, I think Venezuela, for me, I love Venezuela. Actually, I am here. I am not the only voice that you are hearing. You are here, the voice of millions of Venezuelans who are suffering the consequence of being a country socialist and communist support by Fidel Castro and that ideas of Hugo Chavez who discriminate all the people who think different and the people right now it's suffering the consequence of that and the economy and the human rights and all that stuff are right now very, very in a bad situation. Actually, I was reading the news and the church, Catholic church and the Pope say that we have to still in the fight with a Pacific protest, but in a in a deepless way, you know, in a hard way, much more aggressive, more powerful protest in a Pacific way. It's a constitution right and we are in the right side of the history. Well, I know that before our interview is finished, I certainly want you to tell us more specifically about what life in Venezuela is like today, but let's turn the clock back a little bit first. How did Venezuela get into this mess where the whole world is watching it descend into economic ruin? How did it go from being one of the richest countries in Latin America to now one of the poorest? Well, I guess I can resume that, you know, one word is socialist. Another word can be populist of left. The Venezuelan has has suffered in many of the populist different ways. First in the past was the populist of right and now is the populist of left, but Venezuela has never been in a liberty. Right now is a communist and a military without food, without medicines, with the highest inflation of the world. And this is a big problem because there's not many people dying right now. There's a lot of people in jail like Leopoldo López and Daniel Ceballos. They are good people. They are in jail with no thrill, no justice just put in the jail for thinking different. So that's why I'm here right now telling the world because it's a wall building by the communist socialist regime and the people can receive the information about Venezuela. Well, how would you respond to an American or anyone from outside of Venezuela who might say, but this was a matter of choice. Venezuelans voted for Chavez, they voted for Maduro, so they're simply getting what they were promised. Yeah, unfortunately it's a consequence, the populist of right, and that's why the people voted for Hugo Chavez. And right now the people didn't know because we are, we never suffer socialism, communism, and Castro ideas. It's the first time I guess the people right now know what socialism is and the people, it's too late because the dictatorship is very, very powerful because they have the guns, we have the power of the military, they have the money and they have a change control of the economy and they have the, it's more than 100 people in jail right now and the people are afraid, the borders are closed, you just can't walk from Colombia sometimes, and I think it's gonna be worse because the people are tired to fight this, more than 50 year fighting for his rights and now the people are very weak. Within the past month or two Americans saw many stories coming out of Venezuela and I wonder if you'd care to comment on a few. One is the story about the seizure of millions of toys intended for children that the government seized and then later redistributed somehow. And the other prominent story has been Venezuelan inflation that in an effort to somehow deal with that the Maduro government announced that all of the 100 Bolivar notes in circulation which is about 80% of the money supply would be withdrawn and you had only a matter of days before you could turn them in even though they had no plan to replace them. Then they had to extend that into January of 2017. Can you tell us what you think of those events in the context of the larger struggle that you've seen under socialism? Are they in any way emblematic or are they out of the blue you know strange occurrences you weren't expecting? Well the first event that you say that the government stole the toys that's right that's right that's one part of the expropriation that the government does against the private companies and they say you are guilty by our economy disaster so I can stole your toys. So it's not the first expropriation right? No, in the industry of food, the industry of medicines, the industry of construction and all the private you know the communists and the socialists thinks that the capitalist is a problem in the world you know and the companies private companies are the enemy or something you know so that's why the the government takes those companies and now the toys which now the toys the populist have left and what did they tell the people they gave the toys to remember us at election time or or were special worship us? That was for Christmas time you know yeah yeah for kids for Christmas time. The government is Santa Claus. Yeah Santa Claus the government thinks that they are more smartest than the people the government think that they are more powerful than thinking so that the people can't think so they stole medicines they stole toys and this is this is a kind of virus of something that can infect the society I saw with my my own eyes. What about the the inflation and specifically the demand that people turn in their 100 boulevard notes by a certain date you care to comment on that? Yeah that's a good idea of you it's I guess the inflation is the most highest inflation in entire world sorry entire world so it's generated by the control of change and the destruction of the all the companies private companies and the government just live for oil so we don't have a free market so that's why I guess that's the inflation the most highest inflation in entire world so it's a consequence of the socialism populist and communist ideas sorry that happened in entire world in every country who has tried that system. But if if I were speaking to Mr. Maduro your president or any other official in the Venezuelan government they would say it's not socialism that's causing these problems it's the United States or it's yeah the capitalism that they have left which is minimal tell me what's the reaction that what is your reaction to that charge that they're in this fix because of capitalism or because of the United States in some way? Well I think the people in Venezuela is one of the most um fighter and smarter people and they know that it's not true um it's like a history of Fidel Castro always guilt in the United States you know and the people can't believe that right now but I think it's too late in a kind of way because now it's a dictatorship um aggressive and hostile and we don't have any choice we try to get some votes and elections and the government always do what they want to do so I think one of the messages for uh people elsewhere in the world about this is don't let the concentration of power get out of hand yeah at the moment you start down that path we're gonna give government a lot more power we're gonna expect a lot more from it we're gonna rely on ourselves less and on government more you set an emotion these forces that ultimately with the concentration of power you might wake up one day and find yourself unable to deal with the situation or to escape it that's what Venezuelans are now finding yeah that's what's happening in Venezuela right now yeah uh can you tell us uh more about uh for the ordinary Venezuelan who may not have very much and and may not even have enough to buy a plane ticket to leave the country what's he thinking right now is this is this a permanent way of life is chaos it's a totally chaos right now and that's why Leopoldo Lopez calls the salida the exit the exit of socialists Leopoldo being the imprisoned activist who something could be and should be president of Venezuela someday yeah someday a hope so also it's Antonio Ledesma, Daniel Ceballos and many people are here right now because they call to the elections they call to the the exit La Salida and they want to another Venezuela another Venezuela in a free market in a liberty in in a force of the people that is more powerful than the government and I guess we are still in the fight for a right and we are going to do more work for that because there are a million of people and what you say that how is every day in our country it's a disaster it's a chaos because people die about medicines without medicines the people don't have any food the people can stay in the line about two or three days just for a packet of rice or chicken or something and the people is more more when time go fast and the time go forward the people came to a in a limbo or something the people stay like what are we going to do now so they depend to the government and they demand to the government for the medicines people are very weak right now but we're still in the fight you know you've had almost 20 years of radical socialist rule under Chavez and now Maduro I'm interested in what has the government done in the education system over those years what kind of freedom is still left if any in education can you do you have private schools do you have homeschooling are you are schools able to teach what they want or is the government trying to tell them what they can teach well the Venezuela has two systems one is private and the other one is the government the government system right now the government system just eliminate biology and maths and physics and all the stuff and include even daily Catholic church in schools this is at any grade level or for everybody eliminating biology math physics and what are they putting in its place marks and socialist ideas and fidel Castro ideas and over Chavez ideas and stuff oh boy there's so much more you could tell people but if you could tell Americans in a couple minutes what they should learn from what's happened in Venezuela what would that be I think the states are very lucky and the people maybe don't know about it the people I invite I say go to Venezuela and see what happened in socialism and I was talking about those walls building by the government to the people can't know the truth but now you can find on your foundation or many foundations on social media many information about it so I guess the people of the United States get get information about and start to enjoy why look here in this country with liberty that you have well you say to Americans that they should go to Venezuela and see socialism firsthand well there have been some Americans who have done that some noted celebrities from Hollywood like Danny Glover and Sean Penn who came back to from their visits to Venezuela a few years ago and said this is a great thing that's happening there how do you respond to that well money can do anything I guess it's for money when champagne comes to Venezuela he comes to my state touch it he went to La Fria it's a city near of my city and when I was there I was looking medicine for my mother and I say oh this guy say Venezuela it's amazing because he don't have his mother sick in this country trying to find some medicines I guess it's just for fame or or say I was with Hugo Chavez and stuff and I got some friendship over there some like a ego certain ego ideas or maybe money I don't know many actors of Hollywood has paid and this is not a secret Hugo Chavez paid millions of dollars like was yours and that was my money yeah and I don't want to pay for it so they took my money and say hey man take some kind of dollar so this is not justice this is not liberty because the people died from food medicines and all the stuff one last question for you Javier if you could look ahead in your crystal ball how was this all going to be worked out is Venezuela headed to a violent revolution or to some North Korea style permanent stagnation in tyranny or what's ahead I think God can do any miracle when he wants it looks like he's going to take one I believe I believe in God I believe in Jesus and I pray all days for those people down there you know I can be in peace here thinking about my country thinking about my people and I wish Venezuela could be get out of that system that's so serious and but it's too many years infected the kids are infected by ideas for example the kid who has five years old and Hugo Chavez was alive and now they have 20 years or 25 years listen United States are the enemy United States are the guilty about our disaster and economy and I'm afraid that that can bring several consequence negative well we certainly hope for the best and all of us here at fee want to express our appreciation to you for sharing your story and like you we hope that Venezuela someday will be a free country once again yes I I I want to thank you and thank the fee foundation for all your hospital in what you do it's an amazing job and I pray every day for God that someday we can have a nice country has used to be Venezuela before the socialists and Hugo Chavez thank you thank you we've been talking today to Javier Garcia Hernandez 37 years of age from Venezuela a country wracked by socialism hyperinflation and the increasing tyranny at the hands of the government of Nicolas Maduro we hope for the best hope to see Venezuela free again thank you