Tankies in Caracas: the DSA goes on revolutionary tour

First-World socialists sure do love misery tourism.

Tankies were riled up online this week, as the Democratic Socialists of America visited Caracas for a regime-sponsored, revolutionary tourism trip. You see, to these First-Worlders, the starving nation once touted as the bastion of 21st century socialism is like a socialist theme park.

These kind of propaganda trips are a quite successful way to get privileged idealists to come back to their countries (or Twitter) and defend authoritarian regimes abroad, blaming all evidence of the horrors of socialism on “US imperialism” and “the CIA.” They were a common propaganda tool used by the Soviet Union - in fact, one of the US’ most famous ‘democratic socialists’ in the US, Bernie Sanders, went on one of these trips to the USSR as mayor of Vermont and came back singing praises of communism.

The Democratic Socialists of America are the perfect vehicle for this kind of socialist propaganda. While in recent years the democratic world has come to finally accept the horror that is chavismo, these young socialists believe they are oppressed by capitalism in their countries, which they blame for all the evils around the world.

They see every failing of socialism through rose-colored glasses. To them, street dogs are “chavista commune dogs”. When the regime shows them a building in construction, they see the promise of communal, free living - if only “the people” started stealing private property. Of course, they fail to mention that in Venezuelan socialism, “the people” means “the rich chavista elite”

It’s telling that after two decades of chavismo the regime couldn’t get a single completed public housing building to show their international propagandists. Instead, they showed the North Americans a “model” apartment building with no electricity or plugs.

The revolutionary cosplayers are staying at the 200$-a-night Meliá hotel, one of the most expensive in Caracas and one of few privately-owned hotels. It is unclear why they didn’t stay somewhere more appropriate like the Hilton that was expropriated by the regime.

The DSA delegates have been having a good ol’ time in Caracas, something most of us Venezuelans are unable to do, maybe ever again. They began excitedly and shamefully promoting their experience, and it looks like the party started immediately after they landed on Monday. They must have received a special permission to party, because under Covid restrictions in Venezuela, where vaccination is minimal, these kind of events aren’t supposed to take place.

Of course there have been no field trips to the Helicoide prison, where venezuelan political prisoners have reported being tortured and abused, or any public hospitals, most of which are unequipped to attend most medical emergencies. It doesn’t appear that the Democratic Socialists have even taken an unaccompanied stroll through Caracas, one of the most dangerous cities in the world.

Instead, their schedules have consisted of conferences in the fancy hotel, where they took pictures with Evo Morales as he declared himself a communist and entertained their idiotic theory of a Bolivian coup organized by Elon Musk.

As angry responses from Venezuelans came in, the socialists remained despondent. They repeatedly insulted, ignored or blocked Venezuelans denouncing their trip as harmful to those suffering under chavismo. They actually blocked “Venezuelan voices,” a leftist activist group against chavismo that asked them to cancel their trip in the name of the workers and leftists who have been persecuted by chavismo.

These socialists’ ignorance of the Venezuelan situation is such that they repeat talking points when Venezuelans try to engage them, accusing us of not being “real Venezuelans” because we are “white,” “rich” or because we can speak English. Perhaps the most shocking attempt at erasing my Venezuelanness has come from white American socialists who tell me that because my name is Germania I must be a descendent of Nazis.

Oh, they have also made their insults more gender-inclusive - now they call us the gender-neutral t“gusanX”to make the slur usually reserved for Cuban exiles who denounce Castro more progressive.

It would be hilarious if it wasn’t so infuriating.

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It’s a real shame that these people, the worst of the global left, have seemingly taken over the narrative and hijacked so many righteous human rights causes. As seen on their online profiles, the Tankies in Caracas, just like the far-left at large in the US, have appropriated many of the most important human rights issues of our time.

They scream Black Lives Matter in the US but travel to Venezuela to whitewash the image of a regime that uses death squads to brutally assassinate countless of young people simply for expressing their right to dissent. They claim to fight for Palestinian human rights while supporting movements that have created millions of refugees. They say they stand for the rights of workers around the world, but ignore the pleas of Venezuelan workers who cannot live a dignified life under chavismo.

The DSA trip certainly comes at an interesting and ironic time, given the chavista regime has recently embarked on a campaign to open the economy to investors and establish a negotiation with the opposition in exchange of sanctions relief.

It’s unclear whether the democratic socialists of America have heard about Maduro’s recent capitalist turn.

As socialism becomes more popular in developed countries, we must ask the uncomfortable questions of this movement that promises “equality” but doesn’t like to discuss the details. There are four members of congress who are members of DSA, including the progressive elite’s darling Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

So, do congress members Rashida Tlaib, Ocasio-Cortez, Cori Bush and Jamaal Bowman agree with the socialist dictatorship that the delegation in Caracas went there to promote? To they believe US sanctions, and not the chavista regime, is to blame for the horrors Venezuelans live under every day? 

Do they believe that chavismo and 21st century socialism are the way forward?