Fourth largest GDP per capita in the world in 1950, thanks to the oil windfall and its immense natural resources, Venezuela is today going through the most serious economic, humanitarian and institutional crisis in its history. More than 90% of the population lives below the poverty line and some two million Venezuelans have left the country since 2015. With the accession to power of Hugo Chávez in 1999 and his successor Nicolás Maduro in 2013, the regime is crystallizing ideological passions worthy of the Cold War. But what do we really know about the Chavist revolution? How did this political project lead to the current disaster?