Venezuela Problems

A long line of shoppers waited in front of the central Madeirense super market in Guarenas, Venezuela. The shoppers had been there since sunrise anticipating the arrival of a truck containing poultry. One shopper complained that she had not been able to buy chicken in more than a month. Once there, the failure of the driver to unload the poultry before leaving became the catalyst that created widespread anger and violence.

Now it must be mentioned that Maduro, instead of changing tack upon the death of Chavez, doubled-down on the latter’s policies and, in many cases, initiated economic policies that have further exasperated the crisis. As a result of having depleting government reserves, Maduro slashed imports including basic good like groceries and medical supplies – this was done in order to avoid having to default on foreign debt. Moreover, Maduro also made the grave mistake of responding to the impending crisis by printing money, which has caused inflation to skyrocket and exasperated the situation even further by making basic goods unaffordable. These policies coupled together have led to food shortages which have even led to food riots. While the economic policies of Chavez created the current crisis, those of Maduro has made the crisis far worse. The two men, quite simply, personified economic populism, relying on “the creation of a material base for the public’s support and the distribution of favors to constituents,” all whilst paying little heed to financial constraints (Cordova Cazar and Lopez-Bermudez 2009,

In recent years, an increasing number of professors, commentators, journalists, and teens on social media have claimed that capitalism has failed. What usually follows are suggestions to usher in a new wave of socialism, as if the chaos in Venezuela is somehow non-existent or something truly desirable.

Venezuela is a Spanish country located in South America. Venezuela was populated by Spain in 1522 and gained its independence from Spain on July 5th of 1811. Venezuela was also acknowledged on March 30, 1845. The current president of Venezuela is Nicolás Maduro. The Spanish country is bordered by Trinidad and Tobago, Colombia, Guyana, and Brazil. Caracas is the capital of Venezuela; Caracas is just one of the twenty-three states in Venezuela. Caracas was actually named one of the most violent cities in the world.

Corruption in Venezuela has prevalent since the nation gained independence in 1821. But, corruption rose to unforeseen levels during Hugo Chavez’s presidential era. Hugo Chavez was president of Venezuela for 11 years. “There is no exaggerating the extent of Venezuela 's decline and fall. The wealthiest country per capita in Latin America is sinking deeper and deeper into what must inevitably be bankruptcy, as everything fiscal goes wrong.” (Thomson, 2010) He came into power with the intentions of making Venezuela a socialist nation. His impact on the nation of Venezuela has touched every aspect of the society from economics to the quality of living. His extreme, radical ideology mirrored those of the Cuban socialist revolution. Nationalization of assets and equal distribution of wealth among the nation sounds like an ideal plan, but what went wrong? Was it the decrease in oil production, investors or private businesses? Or, did the inflation and decreasing value of the currency finally catch up to the nation? It is important to note that Chavez pulled his support from the lower and middle class. His neglect of the rich made it easier for his socialist ideals to merge into Venezuelan society. During Hugo Chavez’s 11-year reign, how did his radical changes affect Venezuela’s economy nationally and globally?

An example of intervention is when the U.S. attempted to mediate the Venezuela- Great Britain dispute in 1895. Great Britain and Venezuela was disputing about who should get the gold. The U.S. intervened to try and stop the dispute. They used the Monroe Doctrine to make sure that Great Britain couldn’t take over any more land. And that is was intervention is, a foreign country(America) getting involved with other countries matters (Great Britain and Venezuela).

Irene Rinaldi seems to have accurately fit the conflict of the entire nation of Venezuela within the confines of one cartoon for The New York Times (3). The first figure that confronts us is that of a hand, larger than life, tightly grasping a weapon. This is the chilling portrayal of a nation’s military force aimed at surging masses of its own protesting people. According to Petra Cahill and Laura Saravia

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.

My husband and his family left Venezuela 12 years ago, because the situation was not the best and because the government was controlling way too much. I believe communism has the wrong idea about the economy. Since people receive almost everything for free and the government can take your property away whenever they feel to, you are not motivated to produce or open your own business. It is very difficult to be auto efficient and avoid business relations with other countries when materials are needed to produce goods.

According to Gallup, Inc., an American research company, Venezuela was ranked as the most insecure nation in the word in the year of 2013. (Crime) This high insecurity not only affects the lives of citizens, but also foreigners in the country. The most affected group of people is the middle class, who are more concerned about such high crime rates rather than the current shortage of basic goods. In fact, Venezuelans were forced to change their ways of life due to the country’s hazardousness. The following graph illustrates the rise in the homicide rates from the years 2000-2011. This indicates that there have not been advances in the control of crime and violence in the country.

Compared to other Latin American countries, agriculture has had a much smaller impact on Venezuela’s economy. With the emergence of oil in the early 1900s, the agriculture sector suffered from steady decline until the 1980s when specific programs where designed to restore agricultural production. As opposed to previous methods of deregulation, extensive government intervention seemed to be the only way to boost overall agricultural production. After the peak of agriculture production in 1989 as demonstrated in Figure 1, new governmental policies caused the continual decline of agriculture. Due to economic priorities, the agricultural sector that once accounted for 22 percent of GDP in the 1930s, now only accounts for barely 1 percent of GDP.

Ever since the “United Socialist Party of Venezuela” took control of the country’s affairs in 1999, the economic situation has worsened with the passage of time. Throughout the years, careless and corrupt government officials have enacted policies that focus on benefitting high-ranked party members and their families, making the majority of citizens suffer under terrible circumstances. Among these circumstances we can find the long queues that people have to go through to access basic goods because of the critical shortages of products. This situation leads me to an unforgettable anecdote that I have kept in my memory for a long time. I remember that one day when I was 14 years old, my brother Leonardo picked me up from school at 1 p.m. As

In “The dark side of price controls in Venezuela,” the socialist state of Venezuela, is experiencing shortages of basic goods, such as toilet paper, milk, coffee, soap, and electronics, which have led people to queue up in long lines to get them on a first come, first served basis. These shortages have also caused a sharp increase in crime which range from police officers being gunned down for their weapons, trucks ambushed for their merchandise, and commuters being held up for their cell phones. The root cause of all the problems that the citizens of Venezuela face are due to government price fixing and currency control.

In “The dark side of price controls in Venezuela,” the socialist state of Venezuela, is experiencing shortages of basic goods, such as toilet paper, milk, coffee, soap, and electronics, which have led people to queue up in long lines to get them on a first come, first served basis. These shortages have also caused a sharp increase in crime which range from police officers being gunned down for their weapons, trucks ambushed for their merchandise, and commuters being held up for their cell phones. The root cause of all the problems that the citizens of Venezuela face are due to government price fixing and currency control.

Legislators concede that the PDAF is corruptible and has been corrupted through the years. (Crisologo, 2013 ) It is because it served as a tool for bargaining or negotiation in different levels. Such ‘compromise exchange’ according to Tawanaka can exemplify the transaction between the President who is dominant in budget making and implementation and the congress in general legislation by using the PDAF to meet both party’s needs. Also, in the districts themselves, the PDAF is political. Congressmen have become the “charitable” beacons to their followers, in spite of the legitimate needs of others. The worst manifestation of this is when personal gain is involved and individuals like Napoles provide the mechanism for this corruption. It also becomes a way to fund political patronage, where the money is given to those who will ensure them another term in government. (Crisologo, 2013 )With these, the objective to allocate this fund only for public purposes was violated. Instead of fulfilling public’s interests, people’s money went to corrupt politicians’ pockets.