The Patriot Post® · Maduro Enjoys $275 Steak While Venezuelans Starve

The tale of Nero having fiddled while Rome burned has been debunked as propaganda, but Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro enjoying a $275 steak dinner in Istanbul while his own citizens are literally starving in a socialist “paradise” actually happened.

On Tuesday, Florida Republican Sen. Marco Rubio blasted a famous chef for serving the South American dictator, stating, “I don’t know who this weirdo #Saltbae is, but the guy he is so proud to host is not the President of #Venezuela. He is actually the overweight dictator of a nation where 30% of the people eat only once a day & infants are suffering from malnutrition.” Rubio also said, “Maduro wants to talk about visit to #China but the suffering people of #Venezuela want to talk about his lavish dinner at Salt Bae’s restaurant. He has starved & oppressed 2.3 million people out of the country & another 1 million possible before year’s end.”

This latest incident serves to highlight the profound disconnect between the socialist dictator and the experiences of Venezuelans under his authoritarian rule. And Maduro’s “remedies” to the country’s economic collapse are proving only to make the situation worse.

As Venezuela’s currency has fallen into hyperinflation, Maduro’s “solution” was to increase the minimum wage by 3,500% while at the same time mandating that stores not increase the prices on their goods. The predictable result of such a foolish “solution” has been the shuttering of 40% of the nation’s stores. As Maria Carolina Uzcategui, president of the National Council of Commerce and Service of Venezuela, relayed, “We have inspections, and they force us to sell at last month’s prices. That takes money away from the business because of the hyperinflation, when you can’t even sell at yesterday’s prices because you lose money.”

Uzcategui added, “Anyone who protests against these measures runs the risk of going to jail, without the right to appeal, without the right to anything, simply because the official whose turn it was to inspect the store just felt like arresting you. He did it, and that’s all.”

And leftists continue to insist that socialism only fails because the wrong people were in charge.