The Columbia University Marxist Association recently praised Venezuela's “revolutionary mass movement” and “tremendous gains in social programs and communal self government.”

The group dedicated its first meeting of the semester Monday to uncovering the “reality” of Venezuela’s government, arguing that this is needed because “capitalist media” only promotes “scare stories” about the socialist regime.

"Capitalist media bombards us...with scare stories about Venezuela, as ‘proof of the failure of socialism.'"

“Capitalist media bombards us every day with scare stories about Venezuela, as ‘proof of the failure of socialism,'” they said, further claiming that the media presents “nothing but distorted reports about what's really happening” and “lies.”

[RELATED: Profs gather to ‘fight the right’ at Socialism 2017 conference]

Venezuela is facing an unprecedented crisis as millions of citizens are going hungry, the price of food is skyrocketing, and its leader, Nicolás Maduro, is steering the government into a dictatorship, news reports and foreign policy scholars concur.

But while many experts agree that Venezuela is in crisis, the Columbia Marxists insist that this isn’t so, saying Venezuela “has inspired workers all over the world” with its “revolutionary” flair.

[RELATED: UCF socialists: Republicans are ‘terrorists,’ ‘cops are bastards’]

The event was one of many that the group plans to host this semester to promote socialism and Marxism among Columbia students while disparaging capitalism as the root cause of society’s problems, as the Columbia Marxists did in a recent manifesto addressed to incoming freshmen.

“Our generation is the first to have a lower standard of living than the generation before us,” the group claims. “Capitalism offers us no way forward, which is why the majority of our generation is opposed to capitalism. As students, it is imperative that we link up with the working class since it is the only class that can stop capitalism in its tracks.”

[RELATED: UGA socialist group disbands amid outrage over anti-GOP tweet]

The group has previously held meetings calling capitalism a “horror without end,” promoted the use of socialism to fight the Trump presidency, and encouraged students to study “Marx, Engels, Lenin, Trotsky, and others” to fully understand how to revolt.

The Columbia University Marxist Association declined to provide comment for this article.

Follow the author of this article on Twitter: @Toni_Airaksinen