By Peter Wilson

Posted: 07/11/2013 10:33:14 AM PDT

Updated: 07/11/2013 12:35:57 PM PDT

Dear Edward Snowden,

I see in news reports that you're considering asylum in Venezuela. If that's true, I'd like to make you a business proposal. I think you and I could make millions of dollars here using your new expertise on applying for asylum abroad.

You'll soon see that there are thousands of Venezuelans who would love to flee and start over in other countries. Long lines of people hoping to snag visas or passports form each morning outside the U.S. and European embassies in Caracas. After you arrive, we could counsel them on the best way to leave.

Don't get me wrong. Venezuela is a great country, with friendly people and breathtaking natural beauty. We should take a road trip: Gasoline costs just 1 cent a gallon. But you might have trouble buying a new car. At the very least, you'll need patience. Soldiers, police officers and government officials have first dibs.

OK, so it's not the U.S. But I've been here for the past 21 years, and I love it. Still, Venezuela isn't for everyone.

If you're under the impression that you're going to be living out the rest of your days in a tropical paradise, think twice.

We're in the 15th year of a revolution that late President Hugo Chávez began in 1999. Yes, extreme poverty has been reduced as his supporters say, but that has been accomplished at a cost.

The economy is gutted. The government has expropriated dozens of private companies whose production

always seems to fall after their seizure. Today, while walking in my neighborhood, I saw long lines of people stretching out of a government-owned supermarket. They were waiting to buy cooking oil, sugar, chicken -- simple staple goods. Food shortages are common.

Now, you probably have saved a little money from that ample salary at Booz Allen Hamilton. But if it's not in cash, and because the U.S. government is probably watching your checking account, you're going to be in trouble. Prices are soaring here. The inflation rate for the first six months of the year reached 25 percent. Over the past year, it has been nearly 40 percent. If you find employment, make sure you're paid in dollars and that you immediately make contacts on the black market. The official exchange you'll be given is 6.3 bolívars to the dollar. The black market rate is 33 bolívars to the dollar and rising -- as local currency has lost nearly all its value.

How can I put this? Think about dying your hair black and working on your tan. You look way too white, which makes you an easy mark for criminals. Caracas has the highest murder rate of any capital city in the world, and crime is soaring.

It's true that many Venezuelans here admire you for blowing the whistle on clandestine U.S. espionage programs. But think twice before pulling a stunt like that here. We have our own version of the surveillance state, but the government's opponents say that it's more typically Cuban "advisers" who are listening in on calls through the state telephone company and the armed forces.

You'll do fine down here, Señor Snowden, and hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans support you and your crusade. But many more down here wonder why you would ever want to come to a country that constantly violates the very principles you're fighting for.

Peter Wilson is a journalist who has lived in Venezuela since 1992. He wrote this for Foreign Policy magazine.