The Crisis Of Venezuela 's Crises

A beautiful country in the north of South America, Venezuela is home to many natural wonders. Venezuela boasts the tallest waterfall in the world, several Caribbean archipelagos, vast plains, and many state parks (Martz). First colonized in 1498 by Christopher Columbus, Venezuela was named after the native’s stilt houses that reminded colonists of buildings in Venice, therefore naming the country “Venezuola” (little Venice) (“South America :: Venezuela). After being under the control of the Spanish for many years, Venezuela finally became an independent country on April 19th, 1810 (Martz).

The first is selfish. As a Venezuelan-American immigrant raised in South Florida, this story is deeply personal. With a chance to return, I will face the reality of life in Venezuela as someone raised in the bubble of Middle Class America. The second though, is selfless. This fellowship inspired the idea of conveying the thoughts, experiences, and challenges of the Venezuelan people to a global audience. Writing this story is a momentous opportunity to speak about my native land to a global audience with familial ties like myself, other seeking clarity on current events, and wandering social media addicts who will quench their curiosity on the National Geographic blog and With Venezuela

Venezuela, located in the Latin American region, is a country that has been characterized by its abundance of oil reserve. A natural resource that has shaped the history and development of the country, affecting its economic, social and most important is political spheres. For many years Venezuela was controlled by authoritarian regimes. The country, being very important in the sense of geo-politics due to its abundance of oil, has been a key player in the international arena and most important, to those that for many years kept the country under their regime. It was not until 1958 that Venezuela experienced the change to democracy and a stable democracy was kept between the two main political parties of the time, Accion Democratica (AD)

Venezuela is a country located on the northern coast of South America. It borders Guyana to the east, Brazil to the south and Colombia to the west (“Basic Facts on Venezuela”). It is interesting to see how a country that was once rich and had a strong government can end up caught in an economic crisis. Then, this may result in violence and chaos in the country. The worst part is that a crisis in one country can produce shocks all over the world.

Many themes within The Joy Luck Club can be related to current events. The theme of “Sacrificing/Suffering” which is an important theme in the book also relates to what is happening in Venezuela. The Fox News article named Venezuela’s currency now worth less than ‘World of Warcraft’ gold states that according to DolarToday, an American website dedicated to Latin American finance, the Venezuelan currency called the Venezuelan Bolívar is now worth less than the currency in “World of Warcraft” (Gold Pieces) which is a video game: one dollar being worth 10,987 Venezuelan Bolívars, or worth 7,288 Gold Pieces as the black market rate. This is a circumstance similar to one in the beginning of The Joy Luck Club where Suyuan Woo says that in China

“Venezuela reads like a textbook example of the socialist end-game: Social implosion driven by economic collapse, caused by shockingly self-destructive policy making” (Toro 39). “Socialism of the 21st Century” in the end just did not work and had failed. The changes made to the constitution have created a government that runs inefficiently and gives the president too much power. Chavez mismanaged the country's income and caused inflation of the Bolivar Note. Chavez had good intentions, but his programs to help the impoverished failed because of poor management. These people that he was trying to help are now more hurt than they were before because money put into these programs was not used effectively. This money could have been used to invest in the oil reserves and other parts of the economy to set the country up for success. Food is hard to come by and the crime and murder rate continues to raise. The country in debt and cannot even buy imports to sell to its citizens. Venezuela will need outside help if it is to recover from the situation caused by Hugo Chavez and Nicolas Maduro. The only reason Chavez remained popular in Venezuela is because the economy was doing well in the beginning and he was able to control the media so that the public opinion of him was kept

Venezuela is a country located in the northern area of South America that’s national language is Spanish. It is a very complex and interesting country with many important events in the past as well as some current events that have made headlines. Venezuela has been struggling with development for a long time and it has a landscape that can sometimes make it quite hard to build roads and tracks, thus hindering the forward progress of the nation. Venezuela is a democratic country with a democratically elected president, but that doesn’t mean that everything is going along fine. Even though the people of Venezuela elected Hugo Chavez and Nicolas Maduro in the election of 2012, there have been a lot of recent protests against

Although Bolivar’s ideas were unique and seemed beneficial, implementing these ideas would not be an easy task; his main goal was to enforce democracy. His main ideas for Venezuela would be to set up a democratic federation, which would give “the rights of man, ability to maintain the balance of powers, and writing general laws favoring civil liberty, freedom of the press” (pg. 21). Out of the American

Venezuela is doing poorly in this  as well. According to Travel Advisor, people should not show signs of wealth on the streets by wearing watches or jewelry in caution of being stolen from. People should also not have any electronic devices visible. Also according to Nation Master’s stats, Venezuela is ranked number 1(the most) in the category of “worry of being mugged  robbed.” with a score of 91 compared to the United States score of 45. Also in the category of “worry about home break in and enter” Venezuela was ranked 16 out of 132. They were given a score of 69 compared to the United States 48. Nation Master also states that Venezuela is ranked 5th out of 132 in the category of “worry of belongings being stolen from your

With the assassination of the Liberal Party presidential candidate Gaitan, who wanted to make Colombia not only safe but to help the poor as well, it started a chain of events. Creating 10 years of war and violence ‘La Violencia’ but forced the government to take action against the protests and the guerilla (Rinehart, 78). Many of the country’s poor turned to violence to make their voices heard to the government that was only thinking of themselves and

To start off, the Venezuela-Colombia border has been closed due to being attacked by paramilitary groups, drug traffickers, and black marketeers. The two countries have had disputes involving trans-border trade which affects Venezuela’s economy. For example, Venezuela is experiencing extreme shortages in food and household items. Also, many migrants from Colombia migrate to Venezuela to search for oil-related work.

A recent poll found that more than half of all of Venezuelan registered voters want to emigrate. Those who emigrate legally typically settle in the United States, Spain or Colombia.

The past few months for my native country Venezuela have been very difficult, with all the human rights violations and repression we have faced not only in recent months but in the past ten years, many families including mine have been separated. As a Venezuelan living the United States and watching the past six months’ how civilians especially young students have been in the streets of Venezuelan peacefully protesting for a democratic country. About 111 of these civilians have been killed by the government, some have been imprisoned unjustly by national guard without the right to a free trial. As a Venezuelan who immigrated to the United States fifteen years ago, for a better quality of life, it has been very difficult for me in the last

With an economy dominated by the production of oil, Venezuela has enjoyed the highest standard of living in Latin America. In spite of its success in the oil industry, agriculture and manufacturing also play important roles in Venezuela’s economy. With this in mind, it would seem as though Venezuela’s economic state has flourished. Rather, it has suffered from the effects of political influence, corruption, and poor economic management. The distribution of wealth across Venezuela has caused the elite to benefit at the cost of the working people. This is mainly due to the economic and political structure of the country. Even with the plentiful resources Venezuela possesses, it is constantly being threatened by political instability,

Venezuela currently has a population of 31 million people. Venezuela is still growing in numbers, and it’s getting harder for the government to provide health care for their people. Venezuela’s population is 1.9 times larger than South America. The country is mainly urban, and the wealth rate is declining. The resources per person needs to be the same, and as of now that’s not the case. Overall fertility rates are failing in Latin America. In 2015 the population was six times the size that it was in 1950, and the United Nations projects that it will be nine time larger by 2050, and still growing at that point, despite the long-term decline in fertility. (Latin America) Although there are many economic crisis in Venezuela, this isn’t preventing them from having children in higher numbers. This could be the shortage of health care.