Socialist Utopia? Venezuelan President Feasts On Turkish ‘Salt Bae’ Steaks Even As Millions Of Countrymen Go Hungry

A video of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro feasting on pricey steaks and smoking cigars at an upscale restaurant in Istanbul has received widespread condemnation back home, where a grave economic and humanitarian crisis has triggered a hunger epidemic with millions of Venezuelans fleeing the socialist state.

Since he assumed office in 2013, succeeding the late President Hugo Chavez, Maduro has been accused of wrecking havoc on his country’s economy.

Venezuela faces hyperinflation, expected to hit a shocking 1 million per cent this year, rendering even the availability of basic products nearly impossible for the country’s masses. Power blackouts, water outages are commonplace. A survey by three leading Venezuelan universities estimated that 87 per cent of households were living in poverty in 2017 while 64 per cent of Venezuelans lost weight in the last year, 11.4 kilograms on average.

At least 2.3 million Venezuelans have fled the nation to escape from the ‘tyrannical’ socialist regime of Maduro, who has followed the economic philosophy of his predecessor Hugo Chavez.

The latest video of Maduro and his wife that has sparked the outrage was posted by celebrity Chef Nusret Gokce, popularly known as ‘Salt Bae’ on Instagram, but later deleted. Several other accounts have uploaded the video since. The president and his wife were in Istanbul on a stop-over from China.