Venezuela has one-fifth of the world's oil reserves, yet its average citizen lost 24 pounds due to mass starvation in 2017 alone.

The country is in crisis, with its citizens being mauled to the ground by the Maduro regime as they protest for their rightful leader to take power.

Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., blames America for "lead[ing] the devastation" where the South American nation is "arriving" at today.

Well, at least she didn't blame the Jews.

The notion that the United States bears any blame for the current state of Venezuelan affairs is even more laughable than Omar's claim that we're orchestrating a "regime change" rather than recognizing the rightful president backed by Venezuela's constitution and evidently its people.

Venezuelan prices skyrocketed to nine times what they had been just eight years after the late Hugo Chavez instituted socialist price controls, outpacing the inflation of its Latin American neighbors by more than 400%.

This was all the way back in 2011. The Obama administration didn't place a single sanction on the nation until 2014.

Venezuela has free healthcare. It also has uncontrollable outbreaks of malaria, tuberculosis, measles, yellow fever, and dengue, and an 85% shortage of medicine. Black markets peddle drugs, and sick Venezuelans have no choice but to gamble that they're buying what's on the label. Less than a year into the far more hawkish Trump administration, a woman from San Cristobal told Reuters that antibiotics for her husband's injured foot cost twice the minimum wage at the time — so much for free.

Ninety-three percent of Venezuelans can no longer afford food. Those who can afford it must wait in line all day to purchase it from the few suppliers still in business. Blackouts affect 70% of the country, and the majority of the country has unstable access to water.

And this is supposed to be our fault? Not a chance.

What's happening in Venezuela is the inevitable outcome of government centralizing an entire economy, then bringing it to a grinding halt. It's the same story we saw in the Soviet Union, it's the same story we're seeing in North Korea, and it's the same story we'll see in communist Cuba, which depends on Venezuela for more than one-fifth of its GDP.

Venezuela isn't our fault. Rather, Venezuela is an example of what happens when socialism works.