Caracas excels as left-wing haven

i haven't been to caracas yet, and hopefully the US government won't disallow us from going there as they have with cuba. i don't know enough about chavez to comment on his social programs, only that it seems that literacy and health insurance are two strong issues, as with cuba, which is amazing with our long time efforts to destroy their economy. i guess we will never know how cuba's government could have functioned if it wasn't for our efforts to see it fail. and if i remember correctly, the literacy programs of the sandanista government in nicaragua were strong as well. surprising they could do anything we we were corruptly continuing our war against them, forcing them into a defensive position that, combined with their own mistakes and some repression as well, would lead to their downfall. it's funny how we say we respect democracy but fairly consistently side with dictators over groups who want to establish a non-dictatorship if you will, even if they do choose communism. we're supposed to be for freedom of political choice right? we originally fought for freedom from tyranny of a similar kind.