The Venezuelan Former State

I would have told Venezuelans to reject Chavez and Maduro. Resist now, because it's only going to get more difficult later. I'm hardly alone in this advice.

Venezuelans instead listened to someone foolish. They have reaped the consequences.

Alternatively, Venezuelans had no choice. In other words, they were not responsible. In other words, they were children, no matter their age. They had no right to endorse Chavez or Maduro, because they never had an option of rejecting them. There cannot be any legitimate ruler of Venezuela, so it might as well be ruled by me or you.

So which is it? Can I force whatever regime I happen to enjoy on Venezuelans, because otherwise they'll be captured by someone worse, or are they responsible for what's happened to them? Cnut's law: it has to be one or the other.

I repeat: if you claim the correct answer isn't an invading army, you are ontologically committed to blaming Venezuelans for their problems, in which case there's really no answer but the fires of annihilation.