From a nation brought to the brink of collapse
to horrifying attacks on children, here’s everything you need to know about the crisis
in Venezuela Number 10 What Is It? The ongoing political and socioeconomic crisis
in Venezuela is not only the worst in its history but also the most severe crisis to
face a country during peace time, since the middle of the 20th century. When compared with other similar historical
events, the crisis in Venezuela is worse than that of the US during the Great Depression
or of countries such as Cuba, Albania and Russia following the fall of the Soviet Union. Venezuela’s population is currently suffering
from rampant crime, hunger, poverty and mass emigration. The government has refused to take responsibility
for the crisis, its reaction to it being marked by human rights violations, paramilitary groups,
authoritarian policies and corruption. Number 9 Why Did It Happen? You might wonder how a country with the largest
proven oil reserve in the world and one of the longest-standing democracies in South
America has reached such socioeconomic turmoil. While there are many aspects to the crisis,
its outline is fairly simple to grasp. It began with the presidency of Hugo Chavez,
in 1998. Rising oil prices had made Venezuela rich
and Chavez took advantage of the opportunity to launch a series of social programs called
the Bolivarian Missions. While initially successful, the Missions weren’t
sustainable and were primarily meant to strengthen Hugo Chavez’s position with the country’s
poor. These programs were funded by oil production,
Venezuela’s main source of income. As such, when prices plummeted, in the context
of lack of investment and maintenance for oil production, the economy took a heavy blow. While the Chavez government alleged there
was an “economic war” on Venezuela, most international analysts agree that corruption
and the leader’s populist policies are what led to the downfall. Nicolas Maduro succeeded Chavez, who was his
mentor, when he died in 2013. He made virtually no attempt at remedying
the situation and essentially doubled down on Chavez’s policies thus further damaging
the broken economy he’d inherited. Number 8 Alleged Economic War
Chavez, Maduro and their supporters have blamed the United States and the country’s business
elite for Venezuela’s collapse. The US imposed sanctions on Venezuela’s
state-owned oil company in 2011, but trade continued as normal as the measure was more
symbolic in nature. Sanctions in 2015 had largely the same effect
as they mostly targeted corrupt officials and not the economy. Sanctions became harsher under President Donald
Trump, particularly in 2019. However, by that time they were seen as a
deliberate action of removing oil revenue from Nicolas Maduro, whom the US no longer
recognized as the country’s rightful leader. While these sanctions are often cited by Maduro
supporters as a form of “economic war” on the country, the general position is that
Venezuela was heading for collapse long before they were put in place. Number 7 Presidential Crisis
To understand the level of unravelling that the country’s currently facing, it’s worth
mentioning that there’s dispute as to who is Venezuela’s true political leader. A National Assembly, led by the political
opposition, was elected in 2015 and it was largely aimed at removing Maduro from power. Protests and marches against his regime have
resulted in hundreds of deaths as wells as thousands of injuries and arrests. Maduro viewed the protests as a coup and hung
on to power by using the military, the Supreme Tribunal and the National Electoral Council. Maduro, who’s viewed as a dictator with
over 80% of the population against him, tried to dissolve the National Assembly in 2017. This led to the “Mother of All Marches”
with up to 6 million Venezuelans protesting in the streets causing the Maduro administration
to revoke its decision. Maduro formed his own assembly, the Constituent
Assembly of Venezuela, under irregular voting conditions. He called for a re-write of the constitution
and consolidated power around him. Maduro was re-elected in 2018 in a widely
disputed process, where the elections were called prematurely, held without international
observation and marked by intimidation tactics. Therefore, after Maduro was sworn in, the
National Assembly declared its president, Juan Guaido, as the rightful President of
Venezuela. As it stands, since January 2019, 54 countries,
including the US and the majority of Western Europe, recognize Guaido as the acting President
while Russia, China, Iran, Turkey and Cuba support Maduro. Number 6 Poverty
While the political crisis has recently reached its tipping point, the population has suffered
immensely in the years leading up to it. The effects of the crisis have been devastating
and the subject of international attention. A UN report from March 2019, estimated that
close to 94% of the country’s population lived in poverty. By the end of 2018, prices were doubling every
19 days and the annual inflation had reached 1,300,000%. It’s expected to go up to 10,000,000 by
the end of 2019. This has placed basic needs outside the grasp
of the majority of Venezuelans. The forecast for unemployment rates in 2019
is 44%. Number 5 Food and Water
Almost three quarters of Venezuela’s food is imported. As oil prices dropped in 2014, imports were
no longer viable. As the food supply diminished, control of
it was transferred to the military. Under Venezuela’s corrupt climate the food
no longer reached the needy as trafficking and bribes became rampant. According to some reports, close to 8 million
Venezuelans didn’t have enough to eat. In 2016, almost three quarters of the population
had lost on average 19.4 pounds due to improper nutrition. Some resorted to going through garbage dumps
while others dismembered dogs, cats and horses or ate wildlife such as vultures, lizards
or flamingoes. A series of blackouts in 2019 also caused
shortages in water distribution. In the weeks after the blackouts, almost 20
million Venezuelans were left partially or completely without water. Some drank and bathed in sewer water or collected
water from polluted rivers, thus increasing the risk of infectious diseases such as hepatitis
A and typhoid fever. The full scale of the impact is unknown as
some doctors are reportedly too afraid of the government to report deaths from hunger
or preventable diseases. Number 4 Healthcare
9 out of 10 medical centers had only 7% of the necessary supplies in the early days of
the Maduro presidency. As such, a large number of Venezuelans ended
up dying from avoidable deaths. In August 2015 Human Rights Watch compared
the shortage of medical supplies in the country to what’s normally seen in war zones. The country’s health system, once among
the best in South America, was so broken that infant and maternal mortality surged. Thousands of Venezuelans with HIV developed
AIDS, for lack of antiretroviral medicine. Many others were infected with the newly introduced
chikungunya virus. Because of massive emigration, malaria, yellow
fever, tuberculosis and dengue are now spreading to neighboring countries as well. Number 3 Crime
Aside from hunger and disease one of the biggest concerns for Venezuelans during the crisis
is crime, particularly murder. Between 2015 and 2018 there were tens of daily
homicides. In 2015 the rate was 91.8 homicides per 100,000
inhabitants, according to the Venezuelan Observatory of Violence. To understand how atrocious that is, during
the same time period, homicides in the US were 4.9 per 100,000 inhabitants. Even though it had one of the world’s worst
violent crime rates, almost none of the crimes were prosecuted under the government’s measures
to cover up the severity of the crisis as well as the corruption of its law enforcement. There were even reports of members of organized
street gangs divvying up their illegal gains with the police. Carjacking, kidnappings and robberies were
and are rampant as Venezuelans live in a constant state of fear. While personal firearms were banned, Maduro’s
paramilitary supporters were armed with grenades, submachine guns and assault rifles. This happened despite the government’s position
that only its officials were allowed to carry. Known as “Colectivos” or “Collectives”
these groups acted with impunity against opposition protesters. Under Maduro’s protection they engaged in
illegal activities, extrajudicial killings and terrorized anyone who disagreed with them. Number 2 Exodus
Under the Chavez and Maduro presidencies millions of citizens have emigrated from Venezuela
into neighboring countries. Another 1.9 million are expected to do so
throughout the remainder of 2019. The poverty, crime, political abuse and inhumane
living conditions have caused an exodus that has surpassed, in just four years, the Cuban
exodus where 1.7 million people emigrated over 60 years. Most have gone to neighboring countries such
as Peru, Ecuador, Chile, Brazil, Argentina and Colombia, especially. Some, known as “los caminantes” or “the
walkers” choose to leave by foot. They walk more than 350 miles to Bogota while
others walk hundreds of miles further to Peru or Ecuador. Most experts agree that Latin American countries
are ill-prepared for such wide-scale arrivals. Number 1 Rufo Chacon
The attack on 16-year-old Rufo Chacon, on July 2, 2019, is perhaps the clearest example
of the country’s current degradation. Rufo was protesting the lack of domestic gas
in his community of La Fria, when he was injured by two police officers. According to the teenager’s mother, the
police suddenly began to hit and shoot at the protesters without provocation. Rufo was shot in the face, at point blank
range, with 52 rubber buckshot pellets. He was left permanently blind and disfigured
for protesting a basic need in the name of his family. As of the making of this video, the wounds
in his eye sockets remain open and he’s still at risk of infection as some of the
pellet fragments are lodged too far in his skull to be removed. Rufo’s mother told a media outlet “he
wants to die, for me they’ve ruined his life”. The officers responsible weren’t charged,
there was no court order and they are currently protected by Venezuela’s largest national
police agency. Thanks for watching! Can you think of anything that can be done
to solve the current crisis in Venezuela? Let us know in the comments section below!
