Venezuela, once a nation that was lauded for having an ideal democratic system and for being the wealthiest country in Latin America, is now in political, social, and economic shambles. Today’s Venezuelan crisis is a product of complex intersections between socioeconomic and political issues that began several years ago. The crisis is the worst, ongoing dilemma in Venezuela’s history. The beginning of the calamity dates back to former president Hugo Chavez’s administration after his election in 1998. Oil prices surged in 2004, making it feasible for Venezuela’s oil-dependent economy to boom. In order to maintain his popularity among the people, Chavez spent the money from this surge on social welfare programs for the poor community: subsidizing food, enhancing the educational system, and stabilizing health care.
Despite his efforts, Chavez failed to reduce Venezuela’s heavy dependence on oil, hindering the progression of his welfare projects. Following the adoption of oil price control policies from Chavez’s Chavismo*, shortages of regulated food staples and basic necessities became widespread across the country. Local supermarkets, pharmacies, and convenient stores were literally empty, giving the Venezuelan population no other option than to wait in agony. In June 2010, Chavez declared an economic war in hopes of gradually re-constructing the Venezuela’s once-lavish economic foundation that tremendously profited from oil production. Unfortunately, Chavez’s plans for modification were too late to turn Venezuela back to its original form.
In today’s society, substantial accusations and condemnations of Venezuela’s crumbling organization are being directed towards the current leader. It is imperative to understand the careless foundational basis that Chavez had permanently set in stone, which made it unfeasible for his successor to fully ameliorate the tumultuous matter in a short period of time. In order to understand the current state of the Venezuelan crisis, we must acknowledge that Nicolas Maduro wasn’t the only individual that drove this nation into absolute terror. Chavez deserves admonishment to a certain degree as he was another consequential component in Venezuela’s political, social, and economic mismanagement.
Following the death of Chavez in 2013, his successor Nicolas Maduro failed to effectively adjust where Chavez left off. Maduro exacerbated the conditions by withholding US dollars from importers with price controlling implementations. During this period of turmoil, Venezuela’s oil production and prices dropped drastically due to a lack of maintenance and national investments. In 2015, Venezuela's oil production had fallen to 2.6 million BPD (Barrel Per Day), a decline of more than twenty percent since 2006. Despite the difficulties, the Maduro administration confidently denied the existence of the evident economic crisis and refused to accept assistance from Amnesty International and the United Nations. Maduro’s soaring self-esteem and ambition automatically established a social state where he heavily focused on himself rather than the troubled Venezuelans. With the lack of effectual communication and minimal nation-based unity, Venezuelans have and likely will continue to feel the amalgamated sentiments of societal instability and fear about the future. Mass migrations are evidence that the civilians are anxious about Venezuela’s dictatorial government. Since the beginning of the economic recession in 2014, over 1,000,000 Venezuelan migrants have entered Colombia, 220,000 scrambled into Ecuador, and approximately 500,000 ended up in Peru.
As the years progressed, the problem worsened to political corruption and mismanagement, basic food resources and medication shortages, closing of companies, soaring unemployment, and economic immobility. This led to the largest recorded refugee crisis in the Americas, where six million Venezuelans emigrated from their country to neighboring nations, especially Colombia. The crisis has influenced the lives of Venezuelans on varying levels. In 2017, seventy-five percent of the population lost an average of eight kilograms in weight due to hunger, and over fifty percent of the residents lacked a minimum income to meet basic food demands. In fact, as of March 2019, ninety-four percent of citizens live in severe poverty and are in dire need of humanitarian aid. These statistical values demonstrate how minor social difficulties are becoming prevalent and are laying the building blocks for incoming major affairs. These distinct social challenges are negatively affecting Venezuela’s economic status and the citizen’s life style as a whole.
Alongside the detrimental effects of social degeneration, the political cataclysm of the Venezuelan crisis didn’t stop there. In 2019, a new political controversy over the presidency of Venezuela added to the already-devastating circumstance. The results of the 2018 national elections, in which Maduro was re-elected, were disputed, and political opposition did not approve Maduro as the successor to Chavez. Juan Guaido declared himself the legitimate president of the country under Article 233 of the Venezuelan Constitution. Regardless of who has the title of president or prime minister, the limitless political clashes between the ambitious Maduro administration and his political opposition eventually will and already is generating a despotic and ill-advised “government”.
Similarly to Hugo Chaves during his presidency, Maduro rigged the economy to set the official exchange rate at ten bolivars per US dollar, with only high governmental officials having access to this rate. In contrast, most Venezuelans only have access to dollars in the black market, with an approximate rate of 12,000 bolivars per dollar. Maduro ensured that his political allies and army officials had complete control over the food supply and were benefiting from this fraudulent transaction to preserve authority over the military. This specific form of social depravity is shown through Maduro's intentional means of using Venezuela’s population for the immeasurable advantage for himself and his associates. Unfortunately, the International Monetary Fund predicts Venezuela’s inflation rate will approach ten million percent in the forthcoming years.
The nefarious Venezuelan government continues to make use of military forces against demonstrators who are unarmed. More than 12,500 people have been detained since 2014 in connection with protests, according to the Penal Forum. The seized dissidents are detained illegally for long periods of time, suffering from severe human rights infringements such as beatings, electric shocks, and burns. Furthermore, the notorious Bolivarian Intelligence Service, the central intelligence agency in Venezuela, arrests opposing politicians without any questioning. Former political figures that were charged with extortion from Maduro include Venezuelan lawyer and politician Antonio Ledezma, former Defense Minister Raul Baudel, former governors Eduardo Manuitt and Didalco Bolivar, and many more. Roughly five million people have fled Venezuela as a result of political instability, starvation, inflation, penury, and escalating crime rates. The migrations have been characterized as one of the largest exoduses in Latin America’s history. These paramount commitments to rapidly abandon Venezuela clearly demonstrate extreme social unrest, explicitly unveiling the slowly but surely crumbling society of Venezuela.
Fortunately, distinctive resolutions are being thought-up to restrain this disorder from advancing. On September 23rd, 2019 the US and multiple Latin American nations agreed on “[investigating] and [arresting] associates and senior officials of the Venezuelan government of Nicolas Maduro,” who have a major or minor connection to criminal activity ranging from illegal substances trafficking to the promotion of terrorism. Out of these countries, Uruguay was the only country to oppose this “legally binding resolution,” while Trinidad and Tobago refrained from voting, and Cuba was absent. Carlos Holmes, the Colombian Foreign Minister, clearly highlighted the necessity of this resolution “in favor of peace” within the Venezuelan community and concentrated on Venezuela’s humanitarian crises, which are continuously sparking endless misery. Whether it is organizing committee conferences or planning the reformation of Venezuela’s depreciating economy, it is of no doubt that immediate actions need to be taken before conditions are aggravated.
*Chavismo:
Political ideology established by Hugo Chavez that includes socialist ideas, left-wing populism, Bolivarian elements, patriotism and Latin American integration as its main components. Chavez implemented a “Bolivarian revolution” in Venezuela following the guidelines of this ideology.
Originally published at www.lvillecontour.org on September 29th, 2019
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