About This Book
This book of Margarita Escudero León, is a complete analysis of the progressive dismantling of economic freedom and private property rights, that occurred in Venezuela, under the economic model called Socialism of the 21st Century. This socialist model, closer to the communist one, sought to eradicate the capitalist mode of production and impose a model anchored in a so-called Communal State, where economic relations are based on forms of social property, and which seeks to transfer the primary means of production to the people.
The book examines the extensive array of restrictions on economic freedom and private property that were implemented under this model. These include: a) reserves of economic activity and nationalizations; b) declarations of public services; and c) regulations imposed on exchange controls, price controls, as well as those contained in the consumer and user protection laws. It also delves into the nature of the expropriations carried out, as well as different regulations, such as: a) the agrarian property regime; (b) the land tenure regime in popular urban settlements; (c) the urban land regime; and d) the emergency expropriation regime for housing. Finally, the deterioration in the protection of foreign investment is reviewed, as well as the risks associated with the novel concept of asset forfeiture.
The author aims for this comprehensive view of the multiple restrictions on economic rights, which shows how private initiative was suffocated in Venezuela, to serve as a new example of what should not be done. Its result has been the destruction of the country's productive apparatus, leading to an unprecedented social crisis in Venezuela
