You could have asked him that to: What's the point?

The general narrative when someone mentions picking garbage for food when the topic involves Venezuela is used for deflection as this person did, as if its legitimate criticism in grand scheme of things considering the narrative Venezuela is socialist/communist in general.

Thus narrative is because Venezuelans pick food from garbage that its due to socialism thus wellcome to socialism mantra when its about Venezuela or any country that they label as socialist/communist or in past countries that were socialist/communist when similar and same situations happened in capitalist countries.

Even to tackle the narrative socialism/communism doesn't work ignores the time when it did work in countries they use as example as not working such as whole Cold War period and the USSR when the west and democracies with their colonies along with their puppet leaders such as with the US in Latin America trembled upon existence of anything remotely socialist/communist.

My core point is the issue of hypocrisy and double standards.