History does not repeat itself, but it certainly enjoys a good laugh at our expense. If you listen closely to the winds blowing through Caracas right now, you can hear a very specific sound. It is the sound of the late Hugo Chávez spinning in his grave so fast he could probably power the entire Venezuelan electrical grid—which, ironically, is something the government has failed to do for years. Venezuela, the land of self-proclaimed 21st-century socialism, is officially putting the 'For Sale' sign on the front lawn. The legislature is debating a massive change to the oil laws. In plain English, they are getting ready to hand the keys back to the very foreign companies they spent two decades yelling at.

Let us pause to appreciate the rich flavor of this irony. It tastes like rust and desperation. For twenty years, the ruling party in Venezuela told anyone who would listen that the state must own the oil. They said the 'people' had to control the resources. They kicked out American companies. They gave grand speeches about sovereignty and standing up to the 'Yankee Empire.' They treated foreign investment like it was a contagious disease. And now? Now that the machinery is broken, the pipes are leaking, and the bank account is empty, they have suddenly decided that maybe—just maybe—they need help from the experts.

This is not a change of heart. Do not let anyone tell you this is a new philosophical direction. This is what happens when you run out of other people's money. The government is looking at their oil fields, which hold more oil than almost anywhere else on Earth, and realizing they cannot get the stuff out of the ground. They broke the tools. They fired the engineers. They treated the national oil company like a personal piggy bank until there was nothing left but dust. So, naturally, they are doing the only thing failed managers ever do: they are calling the people they hate to come fix the mess.

Enter the United States. And specifically, enter the circle of Donald Trump. The news reports say that Trump is looking for a role for U.S. firms in this new arrangement. Of course he is. Politics is just theater for ugly people; business is where the real action happens. While the politicians scream at each other on television about dictatorships and sanctions, the money men are quietly checking the price of crude oil. It is a perfect match, really. You have a desperate seller in Caracas who needs cash to stay in power, and you have eager buyers in the north who do not care about ideology as long as the check clears.

This 'debate' in the Venezuelan legislature is tragic comedy at its finest. They are rewriting the laws that were supposed to be the sacred pillars of their revolution. They are doing this because the reality of an empty stomach is much louder than a political slogan. The plan is essentially to let foreign companies come in, run the show, pump the oil, and take a cut, while the government sits back and collects taxes. If that sounds familiar, it is because that is exactly how things worked before the revolution started. We have spent twenty years traveling in a circle of incompetence only to end up exactly where we began, just with more poverty and fewer working lightbulbs.

The saddest part of this whole charade is the pretense. The government cannot simply admit they were wrong. They cannot say, 'We messed up, please help us.' Instead, they have to dress this surrender up in fancy language. They call it an 'overhaul.' They call it 'modernization.' They frame it as a strategic move. It is none of those things. It is a garage sale. They are selling the family silver to pay the electric bill. They are hoping that if they let Chevron and other giants back into the playground, nobody will notice that the slide is broken and the swings are missing.

And let’s not pretend the American side is acting out of the goodness of their hearts. There is no charity here. The U.S. wants stable oil prices and access to reserves. If that means making a deal with a government they publicly denounce, they will do it. They will shake the hand of the 'dictator' if the other hand is holding a barrel of light crude. This is the way the world actually works. Principles are for fairy tales. In the real world, enemies become partners the moment there is a profit to be made.

So, watch closely as this 'debate' unfolds. Watch as the anti-imperialist slogans are quietly taken down and replaced with welcome mats for Western executives. It is the ultimate proof that incompetence eventually destroys every ideology. You can scream about socialism or capitalism all day long, but physics does not care. If you do not maintain the pumps, the oil stops flowing. And when the oil stops flowing, the revolution gets put up for auction. The only question left is how cheap the price will be.