[scythe]

>but then claim that the problem is that they didn't reshape the economy enough.

Another way to express this which lacks the apparent contradiction is: their socialist policies inhibited the natural tendency of the economy to reshape itself.

However the real problem in Venezuela was not "socialism" per se nor a lack of diversification -- in fact several countries, particularly Brazil and Argentina, experienced problems when they tried to forcibly diversify their economies (Peronism/import substitution), whereas Chile went all in on copper, and while they've suffered downturns, their long-run growth has more than made up for it, making them today the richest country in Latin America. And precisely this pattern (comparative advantage) is how capitalism usually succeeds, and Chile today is diversifying at a natural/gradual pace. But in Venezuela the biggest problem was that Chavez appointed his friends to run the oil companies, and refused to cooperate with the previous administration and employees of the oil companies, which resulted in a lot of skilled people in Venezuela's oil industry taking their ball and going home. In other words, the problem was not that Chavez was a socialist but that he was a strongman who had no respect for democracy, the rule of law, or the desires of anyone but himself, which was also reflected in his later attempts to silence his critics in the media and to sabotage the Venezuelan Constitution and its legislature. I think this is why we've seen post-Chavez socialists like Mujica and Moreno taking a more measured approach to economic reforms and working with, rather than against, preexisting institutions.