This is 100% correct; the "oil prices" narrative is a very effective Media fig leaf deliberately used to obscure the clear consequences of command economics in Venezuela. The start of the nightmare in Venezuela began while Chavez was still alive.

The oil price collapse has just made a terrible situation into a genuine atrocity; an entire generation of young is being stunted physically and mentally by the leftist politics of Venezuela. Actual starvation is being inflicted in the name of economic `justice.'

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3794086

You're both right: lots of things were bad in Venezuela before 2014, but oil prices tanking in 2014 are a big factor in how bad they are now.

Sure, but they got into an even worse spot now.