THE Bitcoin Podcast – Fear vs Freedom in Venezuela: Socialism, Hyperinflation & Bitcoin

Host: Walker America

Guest: Mauricio Di Bartolomeo

Date: January 19, 2026

Episode Overview

In this compelling episode, Walker America hosts Mauricio Di Bartolomeo, Venezuelan expat, Bitcoin advocate, and co-founder of Ledn, for an unfiltered, passionate exploration of Venezuela’s journey through socialism, hyperinflation, regime change, and the prospect of rebirth through freedom and Bitcoin. Drawing on deep personal experience, Di Bartolomeo paints an intimate—and often harrowing—picture of life under dictatorship, the struggles of reclaiming agency, and how shifting power dynamics, both digital and geopolitical, intersect in Venezuela’s ongoing story.

Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. Owning the Fight for Freedom in Venezuela

• Firsthand Stories of Repression and Resistance

  • Mauricio recounts witnessing violence and state-sponsored murder during protests:

    “I saw somebody get shot and never get back up. He died. Maduro’s government just had no checks and balances. And then he would basically say, well, what are you going to do about it? And nobody did anything about it.” [00:00]

  • The Venezuelan regime’s primary tool has been harrowing, systemic fear.
  • Even now, with the ouster of Maduro, fear persists: checkpoints, phone searches, and ongoing threats toward dissenters.

• Cracks in the Regime

  • Restoration of X/Twitter in Venezuela as a hopeful signal:

    “Literally yesterday, access to X was restored to Venezuelans. … After you extract a murderous dictator, amazing pro-freedom things can happen.” [06:04]

• Tentative Optimism

  • Political prisoners are slowly being released and university students are again organizing protests, a sign of rising courage among Venezuelans.

    “I can’t tell you how proud I am of those kids. … It makes me increasingly more hopeful that Venezuela—the free Venezuela that I remember… they’re still there, and they’re waking up.” [06:04]

  • Yet, intimidation tactics and uncertainty remain, with the regime's loyalists and “death squads” still wielding power.

2. The Geopolitical Power Struggle: Oil, America, and Regime Change

• Strategic Importance of Oil

  • The US is now a key player—strategically re-opening embassies, negotiating with the post-Maduro authorities, and incentivizing substantial legal and political reforms.
  • Oil assets once expropriated by Chavez are being reclaimed; the US aims to ramp up production dramatically ("from 1 million to 3 million barrels/day in 18 months"). [34:49]
  • For sustained improvement and foreign investment, deep reforms are required:

    “A company cannot invest a dime in this country unless we have certainty that we will be protected. … The next day there was a motion in the National Venezuelan assembly to basically overhaul the entire rule set...” [36:19]

• Comparing Foreign Powers

  • Under socialist regimes, China and Russia received deeply favorable deals “at the expense of the people.” Venezuelans generally see the new American involvement as pragmatic and even preferable (referencing a viral meme: “I would rather have America here than China or Russia”). [40:54]
  • Observations on how Chavez’s regime used oil wealth to export left-wing ideology across Latin America, financing allies and buying votes at international organizations.

3. Socialism, Hyperinflation, and Broken Incentives

• The Failure of Socialist Experiment

  • Venezuela’s socialism survived longer not due to ideological success, but because oil revenues provided a temporary buffer—ultimately, “even with an infinite money supply, it still bankrupted the country.” [50:55]
  • Oil riches only enriched those in power, not ordinary people.

    “None of us had access to any of this oil. Never. None of us saw a dime of this oil money. It was basically being used to buy guns to hurt us.” [47:56]

  • Hyperinflation wiped out savings and eroded trust, driving mass migration.

• The Tale of Three Waves of Emigrants

  • Mauricio describes the “plane, bus, and walking” phases as Venezuela’s economic death spiral drove out first the wealthy and skilled, then the qualified middle class, then eventually the destitute.

    “They [later emigrants] are just coming to save their ass, right? They're coming with, like, pants, pots and pans, and whatever they're wearing because the regime has just taken everything from them.” [62:06]

4. Rebuilding: Law, Safety, and the Role of Ownership

• Lessons from El Salvador

  • Mauricio highlights safety as the hidden catalyst for El Salvador’s renaissance under Bukele:

    “The biggest change… has not come from Bitcoin. It has come from the fact that he cleaned up the streets.” [67:50]

  • Restoring order and trust in the law is critical before economic recovery and return migration can occur.
  • The necessity of public justice—eliminating residual death squads and making accountability visible:

    “You need to make almost like an emblematic case to show… We are now in a rules-based country. You follow the rules. There’s no side deals, there’s no handshakes, there’s no ‘hit me up over here and I'll let you go.’ That’s gone. That’s done.” [67:50]

• Property Rights and Ownership

  • Societies where property rights are respected attract migrants and entrepreneurship.
  • The state's perversion of law—becoming the “plunderer” instead of the protector—is the fatal flaw of socialism and communism. [74:29]
  • Creating more owners: Mauricio argues the way to build a responsible society is through widespread property ownership.

    “We need to create owners of things. We need to give people agency to own stuff. Because only once you own stuff, you value property rights… My life is bitcoin and I love bitcoin.” [00:00] [77:05]

  • Bitcoin offers a unique vehicle for ownership, as it requires no large upfront investment and is accessible to all:

    “What I think is beautiful about bitcoin is that you can start—it's digital property that you can start buying in pennies. … A dollar worth of bitcoin, $10 worth of bitcoin.” [83:32]

5. Socialism vs. Capitalism – Lessons for the West

• Repeating Mistakes
  • Frustration at how socialist ideas persist among “privileged Western elites” despite repeated failures globally. [54:54]
  • False hope in “democratic socialism,” which in practice devolves to the same outcomes as communism, especially as governments overextend and drive out capital.
  • Warning that resentment (envy) and poorly designed redistributive policies, not true poverty, often fuel these movements. [56:30]
  • Emphasis on the mobility of capital:

    “When you're a government, you're trying to balance these two tensions, right? Like, capital has a lot more mobility than labor.” [56:30]

Notable Quotes & Moments

• On Fear & Agency:
  “I saw somebody get shot and never get back up. He died. … Maduro’s government just had no checks and balances.” [00:00]
• On The Regime’s Tool:
  “The regime is petrified of people losing the fear. … The day that you see hundreds of thousands of people out in the streets of Venezuela chanting, that day will come. It hasn’t happened yet because the death squads are still running.” [06:04]
• On Foreign Domination:
  “The Venezuelan president’s security detail was 32 Cuban Secret Service officers. … Maduro didn’t even trust Venezuelans enough to guard him.” [34:51]
• On Ownership:
  “Property rights are really important if you have property. A lot of people don’t have any property. … We need to create owners of things.” [77:05]
• On Bitcoin as Hope:
  “What I think is beautiful about bitcoin is that it’s digital property. You can buy a dollar worth of Bitcoin, $10 worth of Bitcoin.” [83:32]
• On El Salvador’s Transformation:
  “The biggest change to the lives of the people in El Salvador has not come from bitcoin. It has come from the fact that he [Bukele] cleaned up the streets.” [67:50]

Timestamps for Important Segments

| Time | Segment/Topic | |-----------------|------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 00:00 | Mauricio’s firsthand experience of regime violence and impunity | | 06:04 | Restoration of X/Twitter and regime’s historical use of fear | | 24:08 | Duality of regime’s current position post-Maduro | | 32:35 | Oil, foreign involvement, and the necessity for reform | | 40:54 | Geopolitics and the perspectives of ordinary Venezuelans | | 50:55 | Socialism, infinite oil, and the economic collapse | | 62:06 | Venezuela’s migration crisis—three waves of emigrants | | 67:50 | El Salvador comparison; the importance of safety/law in rebuilding | | 74:29 | Bastiat’s philosophy on law, property, and the state as plunderer | | 77:05, 83:32 | Ownership, why Bitcoin matters, and psychological barriers | | 86:36–88:51 | Closing thoughts, invitation to engage with real Venezuelan voices |

Final Thoughts & Invitations

• Direct Engagement Encouraged:
  Mauricio urges listeners not to rely on media narratives, but to speak with real Venezuelans, offering his own and other activists’ contact as resources.

  “Talk to the real people… Ours, you know, we are the people whose families are getting impacted by this. Whose, you know, whose lives or livelihoods are at stake, whose life's works at stake. So talk to us.” [86:36]

• Vision for the Future:
  He remains optimistic, seeing the seeds of Venezuela’s return—if safety, justice, and agency can be restored.
• Endnote:
  Walker and Mauricio warmly invite listeners to witness Venezuela’s rebirth firsthand—promising a country “beyond your expectations.” [88:37]

Tone: Direct, passionate, and pragmatic—punctuated by real pain, hope, and an unwavering advocacy for both liberty and the transformative power of Bitcoin.