The Venezuelan Crisis: What You Need to Know
With so much happening around the world today, things can get a little confusing. In the next couple of weeks I will try to summarize different events at the best of my ability. My goal is to make complex events easier for an individual to comprehend. Not everything will be included, but I believe the overall key events will be. This is only intended for this purpose.
How did it start?
Venezuela, once the richest country in Latin America and owner of the largest oil reserves, continues to be in economic and social collapse. Some factors behind this reason are: mismanagement, corruption, and the deep dependence on oil. But how did the downfall begin, and what is the state of the country today?
In order to understand the present turmoil, we need to look into its former charismatic leader: Hugo Chávez, who became president in 1999. Prior to his presidency, the Venezuelan people were deeply dissatisfied with the state of the country, its government, and the widening gap between the rich and the poor. Chávez won on a promise to end corruption, eliminate poverty, and change the political system.
Under his rule, Chávez introduced a set of socialist policies, where at the start, along with strong global oil prices, Venezuela witnessed an economic boom. He nationalized companies and funneled oil revenues into welfare programs and food imports. The unemployment rate halved, education improved, income per capita more than doubled, and the poverty rate fell dramatically.
The daily life for Venezuelans improved under this new system, and the government continued to aggressively spend money to fund the country’s social programs. In 2008, oil prices took a hit due to the financial crisis, but Chávez continued the spending as if things were the same.
After the death of Chávez in 2013, Nicolás Maduro, the Vice President and hand-picked successor, took over. It was under his presidency that things became a lot worse. Maduro doubled down on his predecessors policies, refusing to cut spending even as oil revenues continued to fall. The crisis intensified by his denial of the events happening, violently repressing opposition, shortages of food and medicine, unemployment, human rights violations, US sanctions, and hyperinflation. Many store owners began weighing money instead of counting it because of how worthless the Venezuelan bolívar had become.
According to the UN, more than 4 million people have left the country thus far.
Where are we today?
Today, the debate of ‘who is the legitimate Venezuelan president’ continues. But why?
Two men: Nicolás Maduro and a man by the name of Juan Guaidó, who serves as the leader of the Venezuelan National Assembly, are at a standoff to take on the highest office.
This dispute began when Maduro ran and won a highly controversial second term in 2018. Numerous cases of fraud, coercion, and rigged elections have been reported.
In January 2019, Guaidó, invoking the country’s constitution, has declared himself the interim president of Venezuela, claiming Maduro is not the legitimate president.
On November 16, Guaidó called for the return of national protests. He held rallies calling for Maduro’s removal and has pressed his supporters to continue the fight until he is removed from office. The recent protests have not had the same power that earlier ones did. There has been a lower turnout. Many Venezuelans claim to be exhausted by the problems they still face on their daily lives, such as: lack of food and medicine, public transportation, and hyperinflation. Many are disappointed Maduro continues to be in power.
How is Maduro still in power while being highly unpopular?
Maduro remains in control of the country due to his predecessor’s debilitation of Venezuela’s main institutions.
During his 14 year rule, Hugo Chávez took systematic steps to assure that his party would remain in control, and that any opposition would find it incredibly difficult or impossible to change that. Institutions such as: the Venezuela’s supreme court, the judiciary, and the military, have all been placed under the control of the ruling party.
There is one institution that remains independent: the National Assembly, and Juan Guaidó is the leader. But due to Maduro’s influence over other institutions, there is little the Natonal Assembly can do.
So for many, the fight continues…
Work Cited, further readings:
https://www.cfr.org/timeline/venezuelas-chavez-era
https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2017/08/venezuela-economic-woes-2017-explained/
https://www.osti.gov/biblio/7355575
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-36319877
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/30/world/americas/venezuela-crisis.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/10/world/americas/venezuela-maduro-inauguration.html