The people of Venezuela are fed up with Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and the tyranny that has led to inflation, starvation, and violence in the country. The 35-year-old lawmaker Juan Guaido took to the streets of Caracas with heavily armed forces to promote the “final phase” to oust Maduro.

“The armed forces have taken the right decision,” Guaido said. “With the support of the Venezuelan people and the backing of our constitution, they are on the right side of history. The moment is now.”

The White House supports the military coup to take down a socialist dictator who has only brought pain and suffering to the people of Venezuela.

The countless examples of how Maduro has failed the country with his socialist policies and flat-out mismanagement are often not discussed, but they should be!

The 2014 Fair Price Law was one of those failed policies that drastically affected the country in a short amount of time. The new law capped the price of goods and services and would punish those who were caught “hoarding,” “overcharging,” or “trafficking food.” The problem with price controls is they disrupt the equilibrium price set through supply and demand interactions. When price controls were set artificially low in Venezuela, demand skyrocketed and supply diminished. Empty grocery stores and starvation became a result. Producers began taking risks by sending their products overseas or selling them on the black market, or by raising prices to keep up with inflation.

Venezuela continued printing money to “fix” market issues and pay debts, which then caused massive inflation. Instead of pursuing profits through the market and believing in the relationship between producers and consumers, they forcibly break those relationships and call it “greed.” Unfortunately, countries like China, Russia, Korea, Vietnam, Cambodia, Cuba and now Venezuela blamed capitalism for problems, focused on unaffordable entitlements and eventually destroyed their economies.

Because of a failed economic model, ninety percent of Venezuelans live below the poverty line and children are dying of malnutrition. People are unable to get the medical treatment they need because nearly all the hospitals are inoperable or lack basic medical supplies. Inflation rates have exceeded 1 million percent making even the most basic necessities unaffordable.

A coup is underway in Venezuela and we hope a democratic and capitalistic model will reverse 20 years of extensive mismanagement. The threats of socialism, however, are working their way into our own country through misleading political messaging and through policy that may sound nice—like the Fair Price Law—but have completely different outcomes. Economies thrive on capitalism and always have. If we replace capitalism with ideologies and policies that prevent economic growth, we may head down the same road as Venezuela.