You are being lied to

Never heard of the US government telling citizens to get rabbits to combat starvation.

Guess you never heard of government cheese....and the welfare system.... quite a few bucks to fund that one.

Tell me you went to buy groceries this week and you couldn't because all the stores are empty.

Can't say that I have, but that's not the case in Venezuela either. Of course they are having some economic problems now, but the empty supermarket thing is propaganda. Read The Shock Doctrine if you want to know more about US history of interference in South America. They failed to replace Maduro but just overthrew the government of Bolivia.

I haven't read The Shock Doctrine, but I looked up a summary and reviews of it. From what I understand, it looks like the author believes that the US has had a part in creating the Venezuelan crisis for "shock therapy."

You might want to read the Wikipedia article named Shortages in Venezuela. Check how much of the Venezuela Food Crisis is caused by Maduro mismanagement, and how much is caused by US intervention. Also, note when the crisis started versus when the US started sanctions. If you're concerned about Wikipedia's accuracy (totally fine), check the citations.

From a few Google searches, I've found articles from left-leaning websites that state that there are in fact empty shelves. There are other articles that claim that there are no empty shelves, but they are from obviously pro-Russian sources like RT and SputnikNews.

For sure they messed up by neglecting their agriculture sector and employed too many people in the oil industry and then oil prices fell. For me it has nothing to do with socialism and everything to do with typical government mismanagement. Sounds like hollow chest thumping to say otherwise. There's plenty of hunger, poverty, despair and DEBT in America. There's nothing particularly capitalist about the US government. It has a forced central government schooling, failed centralized govt medicine, personal income taxes, etc.