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Americans unfamiliar with Venezuela may not know that in the not-so-distant past the nation was rich with oil and opportunity.

Congressional candidate Carmen Maria Montiel remembers a Venezuela that brimmed with optimism — before decades of political and economic turmoil turned it into one of the hemisphere’s poorest nations.

" Socialism and open borders ," Montiel told Fox News Digital in an interview, are what sent her country into decline.

The Houston-area Republican won the Miss Venezuela title at age 19 in 1984 and later finished as a runner-up for Miss Universe. But long before her pageant fame, she says, Venezuela’s political foundations were already beginning to crack.

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