Food shortages, a soaring crime rate, and an economy that is on the verge of collapse. No, I am not talking about the United States. I am talking about Venezuela, and how the current socialist government there has run that country into the ground. So what does Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro propose to solve the situation? He wants the National Assembly to give him the power to rule by decree. Since the current National Assembly is largely made-up of people who were put into power by former Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez’s United Socialist Party of Venezuela, it is most certain that Maduro will receive such powers.

                     Here is what Venezuela’s opposition leader, Henrique Capriles, is warning: this whole exercise will simply concentrate more power into the hands of the executive and the ruling party, and do nothing about the shortages and corruption at just about every level of government. If anything it will only increase the level of corruption—since all power will be in the hands of the ruling elite, it will mean that there will be no one, not even in the National Assembly, to watch over the political process. In essence, the country will get worse. If the central government is answerable to no opposition and there are no checks and balances to the executive having full authority of what to do, then we are seeing the beginning of a full dictatorship.