In a debate with Hillary Clinton in February, Bernie Sanders explained to the moderators that he was a particular brand of socialist: “When I talk about democratic socialist, I’m not looking at Venezuela. I’m not looking at Cuba,” he clarified. “I’m looking at countries like Denmark and Sweden.”

Mayor Sanders did have a close look at Cuba in 1989 when he and his wife traveled there for eight days in hopes of meeting Fidel Castro. And as a congressman and senatorial candidate in 2006, Sanders worked out a deal with Venezuela to have millions of gallons of discounted oil delivered to Vermont’s low-income residents and homeless shelters.

Sanders the presidential candidate might be trying to put some distance between himself and Venezuela, but Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro recently praised Sanders’ “revolutionary message” to a crowd gathered for “Anti-Imperialism Day.” It’s no wonder, though, that Sanders would try to separate his campaign rhetoric from a country that’s adding electricity rationing on top of food shortages.

#Venezuela to ration electricity for 40 days with daily power cut of 4 hours https://t.co/CqFDMv8ncf pic.twitter.com/wPyBoFL1lL — China Xinhua News (@XHNews) April 21, 2016

#BREAKING Venezuela to ration electricity in 10 most populous states — AFP news agency (@AFP) April 21, 2016

@AFP @jeremycorbyn @johnmcdonnellMP This is what socialism does even to country with gigantic oil reserves. — paulteare (@manxboy) April 21, 2016

@AFP Too bad they don't have giant oil reserves like their neighbors…. oh wait. #SocialismEqualSharingofMisery — Secret Squirrel (@ObsidianBlack6) April 21, 2016

Folks, I give you socialism. Yes, it fails everywhere. Venezuela has the world's second largest oil reserves. https://t.co/SvADZ4RDYJ — Mike Gonzalez (@Gundisalvus) April 21, 2016

@Gundisalvus @Flaaaaalala @AFP it's actually called corruption and embezzlement. No guarantee the political system is to blame — George Matlock (@GeorgeMatlock) April 21, 2016

Yeah, Just pure coincidence that socialism has failed in Asia, Europe, L.America and Africa. Just discrete failures. https://t.co/BioxqC5yXr — Mike Gonzalez (@Gundisalvus) April 21, 2016

But this is Bernie Sanders we’re talking about; he’ll make socialism work, like they do in Denmark.