Think Before You Vote — The Socialism They Never Told You About
- Willmar E. Rodriguez
- May 1
- 12 min read
Updated: May 6
How an ideology was born, perfected in Latin America, conquered Europe, and is now targeting the United States
Before you vote, you need to know this. Socialism didn’t just appear at your country’s doorstep out of nowhere. It follows a documented pattern of expansion, with verifiable human consequences — and a playbook that has been repeated across three continents. This article is not opinion. These are facts, with sources.
A Note About the Author
I don’t write this from an academic distance. I lived in Venezuela in the ’80s and ’90s — when it was the most prosperous country in Latin America. I knew that Venezuela firsthand, and I know what it has become today. No book can give you that contrast. There, I also met Cuban exiles who had fled Castro’s regime and rebuilt their lives far from their island. I had the opportunity to visit Colombia in 1992 — a country whose people carry a strength and dignity that leaves an impression. What is happening there today under its current government is almost unrecognizable compared to what I witnessed then: the same political mistakes, the same pattern applied once more. I came to know Spain because my mother lived in Seville — and I came to know it in 2003, when it was a very different country from what it is today. Through that direct connection to that city and its people, I maintain contact with Spaniards who lived that earlier Spain and who now oppose the direction their country has taken. In Miami, I spent years within the Cuban exile community — people who lost their country, their property, and their freedom under socialism, and who recognize the pattern the moment they see it repeating itself. I was born in the United States and have known it from 1998 to this day — I have lived 60% of my adult life in this country. I completed university studies in Venezuela and the United States, and professional courses in Spain. What you’ll find in this article is not theory. It is documented history that I have seen, heard, and lived up close.
There are six steps that repeat every time socialism comes to power. It doesn’t matter the country, the continent, or the decade. The same playbook. The same promises. The same results. This article documents that pattern — with data, with sources, and with the history of three continents that have already lived it.
First it identifies an enemy and an aggrieved group. Then it reaches power through elections. It expands the state and creates dependency. It controls the narrative. It erodes institutions from within. And when the economy collapses — because it always collapses — it blames an external enemy. That’s the playbook. And it’s been repeating since 1959.
I. The Original Failure: The Soviet Union
60% of Russians fell into absolute poverty after the collapse [Wikipedia / World Bank]
88 million people dropped below the poverty line [World Bank / Wikipedia]
84% inflation rate in 1998, while GDP fell 5.3% [Wikipedia / USSR Collapse]
“Poverty rose from 3% to 50% of the population after the Soviet collapse — approximately 88 million people.”
— Wikipedia / Dissolution of the Soviet Union, based on World Bank data
BEFORE: Russia before Soviet socialism: a growing economy, private property, active international trade, and a cultural and intellectual class recognized worldwide.
AFTER: USSR after 69 years of socialism: total economic collapse, 60% of the population in absolute poverty, 88 million below the misery line, and 84% inflation in its final decade. The experiment lasted nearly seven decades and ended in ruins.
II. The Laboratory: Latin America (1959 — Present)
In July 1990, Fidel Castro and Lula da Silva convened 48 Latin American left-wing parties with a clear goal: bring the left to power across the entire continent. The result was the São Paulo Forum — a documented organization with more than 120 parties across 30 countries.
“In 1990, when we created the São Paulo Forum, none of us imagined that in barely two decades we would reach where we have reached. Back then, the left was only in power in Cuba. Today we govern a large number of countries.”
— Lula da Silva, 2012 — São Paulo Forum / Workers’ Party records
Venezuela: The Modern Laboratory
86.9% of Venezuela’s population lives in some form of poverty in 2024 [PROVEA / HUM Venezuela 2024]
~8 million Venezuelans have emigrated — 25% of the total population [UNHCR, December 2025]
-75% below its historical peak is Venezuela’s current GDP [IMF 2024]
2,000 people abandoned Venezuela every day in 2024 [IMF / UNHCR 2024]
“Food insecurity, malnutrition, and the deterioration of livelihoods have already triggered the country’s mass emigration. Venezuela’s future is at stake.”
— Michael Fakhri, UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, February 2024
BEFORE: Venezuela in the ’80s and ’90s: the country with the highest GDP per capita in Latin America, a solid middle class, free press, quality free universities, and net positive migration. People came to Venezuela looking for opportunity.
AFTER: Venezuela 2026: 86.9% of the population in poverty, 7.9 million exiles, a minimum wage of $0.27 per month, political prisoners, 20-hour blackouts, and its dictator in a New York courtroom on narco-terrorism charges.
III. The Export: Europe as the Next Phase
Once the model was perfected in Latin America, the international left found a new lever: uncontrolled mass migration as a tool of political transformation. Spain, France, and the United Kingdom are the laboratory for this second phase — and their electoral results are the clearest warning for the United States.
Spain — The Numbers the Government Cannot Hide
BEFORE: Spain in 2003: a dynamic, safe country proud of its cultural identity. With respected borders, a cohesive national identity, and a society that had built real prosperity after the democratic transition.
AFTER: Spain 2024: 64,019 irregular arrivals in a single year — an all-time record — growing social tension, citizens who feel like strangers in their own neighborhoods, and a government using mass immigration as a tool of political transformation.
Under Pedro Sánchez, Spain has recorded the highest levels of irregular immigration in its modern history. The data doesn’t come from the opposition — it comes from Spain’s own Ministry of the Interior.
64,019 people arrived by sea in 2024 — the highest figure ever recorded since data has been kept [Annual National Security Report, Spain 2024]
+79.5% increase in irregular immigrants in the first half of 2024 compared to the previous year [Ministry of the Interior, Spain]
245,388 illegal immigrants over Sánchez’s five years — more than the 13 combined years of Zapatero and Rajoy [Historical data, Ministry of the Interior]
France — A Parliament Split Three Ways
The 2024 French legislative elections produced a parliament without a majority, divided into three irreconcilable blocs for the first time since 1988. The trigger wasn’t the economy or education — it was migration policy and public safety. A voter in Pontoise summed it up: “Immigration, insecurity, and lack of civility. It has gotten worse and worse.”
143 seats won by the far right in France — with 1 in 3 voters in the first round [Euronews / Official French results 2024]
United Kingdom — The Record That Changed Politics Forever
944,000 was the record net migration in the year ending March 2023 — an all-time high [ONS, UK — official data]
14% of votes obtained by Nigel Farage’s Reform UK in 2024 — 2nd place in more than 100 districts [Al Jazeera / UK electoral results 2024]
Keir Starmer’s new Labour government was forced to announce the tightest immigration restrictions in decades — including extending the minimum period for permanent residency from 5 to 10 years. The European left applied the playbook. Voters responded. The question is whether the U.S. will learn from that outcome before repeating it.
Cuba — 65 Years With No Exit
BEFORE: Cuba before 1959: the third-largest economy in Latin America, with one of the highest GDP per capita in the region, a free press, prosperous middle classes, and internationally recognized professionals.
AFTER: Cuba 2025: an average wage equivalent to less than $13 per month, blackouts of up to 20 hours a day, more than one million emigrants since 2021, and a GDP falling for the sixth consecutive year.
Cuba was the original experiment in the Western Hemisphere. Six and a half decades of total socialism — no political alternation, no free press, no market. The result is one of the most dysfunctional economies in the world — and the most silenced exodus in its history.
$6 is the Cuban minimum wage per month in 2024 [Diario Las Américas / El Toque]
12 months a minimum-wage worker would need to earn to cover one month of basic groceries for two [Economist Omar Everleny / Diario de Cuba]
850,000 Cubans emigrated to the U.S. alone between 2022 and 2025 [CBP / Wikipedia Economy of Cuba]
“The minimum wage, in fact, isn’t enough to buy a carton of eggs.”
— Miguel Hayes Martínez, economist and researcher at the University of Havana, El Toque, 2025
Argentina — The Populism Cycle
BEFORE: Argentina in the mid-20th century: one of the ten richest countries in the world, with a developed industry, world-class public education, and a middle class that was a reference throughout Latin America.
AFTER: Kirchnerist Argentina 2023: 211% annual inflation, 41.7% of the population in poverty, 8.8 million children in poverty, and official statistics falsified for more than a decade to conceal the collapse.
Argentina illustrates the 21st-century socialism cycle with precision. Every time Kirchnerism took power, the result was the same: record inflation, structural poverty, and statistical manipulation to conceal the disaster. Between 2007 and 2015, the Kirchnerist government simply stopped publishing real poverty data.
211% annual inflation in Argentina in 2023 after decades of Kirchnerism [INDEC / Buenos Aires Times]
41.7% of the population living in poverty at the close of the Kirchnerist government in 2023 [INDEC / Buenos Aires Times]
8.8 million children in poverty during the Kirchnerist government in 2023 [UNICEF, February 2023]
IV. The Attempt at Home: The Biden Era (2021–2024)
8.2 million undocumented individuals crossed the border between 2021 and 2023 — a record figure [CBP / Voice of America]
225,000 encounters in December 2023 — monthly record since 2000 [CBP / KRDO News]
$299 million spent by Chicago on migrant services since 2022 [Illinois Policy Institute]
BEFORE: U.S. southern border before 2021: an orderly asylum system, a functioning Remain in Mexico policy, illegal crossings at historically low levels. Sanctuary cities were a marginal policy.
AFTER: Southern border 2021–2024: 8.2 million illegal crossings in three years, sanctuary cities pushed to financial collapse, New York spending $12 billion, and the president himself admitting the border was in chaos.
The First 24 Hours: The Playbook Activates
On his first day in office, Biden signed executive orders reversing all of Trump’s border policies: he halted construction of the wall, revoked penalties against sanctuary cities, suspended the Remain in Mexico program, and lifted the deportation moratorium. The result was immediate: a global signal that restrictions had disappeared.
12 million documented illegal border crossings during the entire administration, including gotaways [CBP + agent data / Dallas Express]
7.6 million immigrants with deportation orders outside ICE custody at the end of the term [ICE / CNN]
31% was Biden’s approval rating on immigration — his worst indicator [CNN / SSRS poll]
The Real Cost to the American Taxpayer
The most enthusiastic sanctuary cities were the first to collapse. Mayors who had proclaimed their cities as open refuges ended up publicly pleading with migrants to go somewhere else.
$12B projected by New York as the cost over 3 years — Mayor Eric Adams, 2023 [CNN]
$63M declared by Denver as the cost through end of 2024 [Denver Mayor, April 2024]
$39M budgeted by Washington D.C. in 2025 — up from $10M in 2022 [Office of Migrant Services]
The Electoral Verdict: November 2024
61% of voters cited immigration as an important factor in 2024 — 13 points more than in 2020 [Pew Research / 2024 exit polls]
+17 points Trump’s advantage over Harris on immigration trust in Arizona [CNN / swing state polls]
The informed voter in 2024 understood the pattern. The one who didn’t understand it lived it — in their city, in their budget, and in their taxes.
“Freedom is a fragile thing and is never more than one generation away from extinction. It is not ours by inheritance; it must be fought for and defended constantly by each generation, for it comes only once to a people.”
— Ronald Reagan, Inaugural Address as Governor of California, Sacramento, January 5, 1967
V. The Only Vaccine: Think Before You Vote
Socialism doesn’t conquer countries with tanks. It conquers them with words. With promises of equality, justice, and care for everyone. The problem was never the wickedness of voters — it was ignorance of the pattern.
Being an informed voter is not a political option — it is the only real shield a free citizen has. That is exactly what Think Before You Vote teaches you to do.
📖 Think Before You Vote — the book that connects all of this history with the American present.
VI. The Laboratory’s Epilogue: When the Architect of Chaos Faces Justice
Updated: Saturday, May 2, 2026 — 12:00 PM ET
The empty throne. The fall of a regime does not erase the damage it left behind.
On January 3, 2026, Nicolás Maduro was captured in Caracas by U.S. forces as part of Operation Absolute Determination, ordered by the Trump administration. He was transferred in handcuffs to New York to face federal charges of narco-terrorism, cocaine trafficking, and illegal weapons possession before a federal court in Manhattan. The architect of “21st-century socialism” ended up wearing an orange prison jumpsuit at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn.
Before the judge, Maduro stated: “I am not guilty. I am a decent man. I remain the president of my country.” He pleaded not guilty. His wife, Cilia Flores, faced the same charges. Vice President Delcy Rodríguez — another hardline Chavista — was sworn in as interim president before a parliament of loyalists.
But here is the most important lesson of this epilogue: the dictator’s fall did not fix the damage socialism caused. The minimum wage in Venezuela in 2026 is equivalent to $0.27 per month. The regime remains in Chavista hands. More than 7.9 million Venezuelans remain in exile. Poverty continues to strike 86.9% of the population. As of early May 2026, the country still has no free elections, no free press, and no clear date for a real democratic transition.
That is exactly what this article documented from the beginning: socialism is not just a leader — it is a pattern. And patterns don’t disappear when the person who executed them is arrested. They disappear when citizens learn to recognize them before they vote.
🔒 Think Before You Vote
Knowledge is the only real vaccine against the pattern that keeps repeating.
➡️ Continue the series — Article 2: Wednesday: May 13 - 7PM.
“Venezuela, Cuba, Argentina: When Socialism Promised Paradise and Delivered Misery”
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References
[1] Coalición por Venezuela — Displacement crisis 2024: coalicionporvenezuela.org/la-crisis-de-desplazamiento-venezolano-perspectivas-2024-y-desafios-para-2025/
[2] PROVEA — 2024 Annual Report: Human Rights Situation in Venezuela (86.9% poverty): provea.org
[3] UN / OHCHR — Special Rapporteur on hunger in Venezuela: ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2024/02/venezuela-un-expert-calls-human-rights-not-charity-end-hunger-and
[4] CNN — Biden border crossings and immigration record 2024: cnn.com
[5] Voice of America — 8.2M undocumented since 2021: voanews.com
[6] Wikipedia — São Paulo Forum (history and member parties): en.wikipedia.org/wiki/São_Paulo_Forum
[7] Wikipedia — Dissolution of the Soviet Union: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dissolution_of_the_Soviet_Union
[8] NBC News — Capture of Nicolás Maduro, Operation Absolute Determination, January 2026: nbcnews.com
[9] ABC News — Maduro pleads not guilty in Manhattan federal court, January 2026: abcnews.go.com
[10] CNN / UCAB — Venezuela minimum wage and post-Maduro economy, April–May 2026: cnn.com/2026/04/23/americas/venezuela-economy-delcy-rodriguez-intl-latam
[11] CiberCuba — Cuba: last place in economic ranking, GDP to fall 6.5% in 2026: en.cibercuba.com
[12] Wikipedia — Economy of Cuba (wages, crisis, GDP contraction): en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_Cuba
[13] Buenos Aires Times — Poverty in Argentina reached 41.7% in second half of 2023: batimes.com.ar
[14] Buenos Aires Times — Argentina poverty climbs to 52.9%, the Kirchner legacy in context: batimes.com.ar
[15] France 24 — Spain’s Canary Islands received record 46,843 migrants in 2024: france24.com
[16] Ministry of the Interior, Spain — Irregular Immigration Report 2024 (official source): interior.gob.es
[17] CNN — Biden deportations and immigration record, December 2024: cnn.com
[18] NBC News — Maduro arrives in New York after capture, January 2026: nbcnews.com
[19] Euronews — France 2024 snap election: National Rally’s historic surge and immigration as the defining issue: euronews.com
[20] Al Jazeera English — UK 2024 general election: Reform UK wins 14% of the vote on anti-immigration platform: aljazeera.com
[21] Office for National Statistics, UK — UK net migration peaked at record 944,000 in year ending March 2023 (official primary source): ons.gov.uk
© Willmar E. Rodriguez — Imperium Max V
www.ImperiumMaxV.com | @Imperium_Max_V | #ThinkBeforeYouVote
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