Venezuela's Economy And Its Natural Resources

The United States and Venezuela have not had been the best relations with one another. Now that the former President Hugo Chávez has passed away, there are still high hopes for the US that all of that will change. Currently, Venezuela is in a tight struggle right now and if it were not for the US they would be still standing. Venezuela is powerful when it comes to their oil, and have very strong polices: however these policies are not working like before so there are some considerations that might be an eye opener for you. Presenting that Venezuela should be giving with their assets the way the Americans are giving with theirs.

John Locke was an English philosopher in the 17th century. Locke explained what the most important purposes of a government were. He claimed that the government’s  primary purpose was to protect people’s natural rights; life, liberty, and property. However, the country of Venezuela’s government does not protect any of these rights, and the people should revolt and force a change in the government.  Venezuela is a medium sized county in South America with a population of about 31,400,000 people. Venezuela’s main language is Spanish and has a Federal Presidential Republic under president Nicolas Maduro.Venezuela gained its independence from Spain in 1811.

The 20,000 bolivar, Venezuela’s currency, is barely worth five dollars. Banks only let citizens take out a couple ten hundred bolivars at one time. This only equates to about two to three dollars and only happen if the banks aren’t bankrupted themselves. (Gillepies and Zamora 1) Maduro continues to jail any politician and citizens who dare to stand up. Only twenty-four percent even agree with Maduro’s tactics. (Smith 3). "Even though it pretends to be a democracy, Venezuela is now a dictatorship," says Ian Vasquez, a Latin America expert at the Cato Institute in Washington, D.C. As citizens flee the country any way they can, Maduro continues to blame the US for their problems like Chavez once did.

A solution to the problem could be stabilizing the currency. Currently, inflation is so exorbitantly high, that the black market ends up accounting for much of Venezuelan profit, which obviously is detriment to the economy. Therefore, it is suggested that Venezuela should let their currency float, which will substantially decrease the inflation rate. In terms of political solutions, it is important for the opposition parties to persevere to ensure that people like Maduro do not maintain power. Until Venezuela stabilizes, which is not predicted to happen until the 2020's, it is crucial for countries like Canada to help Venezuelan

Throughout this assignment, our job as students was to develop a plan in order to have knowledge about the country we were planning to discuss, the country I decided to talk about in this assignment is Venezuela. Venezuela was given the name of Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela since 1999. Venezuela is located on the northern coast of South America, the country is compromised with numerous islands from the Caribbean Sea. It borders Brazil from the south,Colombia from the west and Guyana from the east. A little history about Venezuela, this country became a Spanish colony in the 1520’s. In 1830, Venezuela withdrew from Gran Colombia and became an independent republic. Most of Venezuela’s 19th century history was characterized by periods of political instability, dictatorial rule and then followed by a succession in the first half of the 20th century(CountryWatch). Hugo Chavez became president in 1999 and continuously became elected until 2013, the current president of Venezuela is Nicolas Maduro(CountryWatch).

Venezuela underwent a rollercoaster of economic and political reforms, “the exhaustion of the ISI model and the application of neoliberal policies opened the way for two decades of economic disorientation and social decomposition. This contributed to a political and institutional crisis that, at the end of the 20th century, appeared to be irreversible” (Lopez Maya, pg 235). The Chavez regime can be split into two parts before 2006 and after. In 1999 he attempted to strengthen democracy and search for social justice. As time passed the government suffered barriers but they were fueled by the idea a of a participatory democracy, entailing the need of a mixed economic model. After 2006 unfortunately a new chapter began, centralizing the power

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?

Before the early 20th century when one considered Venezuela they thought of Venezuela’s coffee and cocoa exports, however ever since the discovery of petroleum during the early 20th century, Venezuela is one of the world’s largest exporter of oil. They are also one of the first founding members of OPEC. However Venezuela has much more to offer than oil and coffee. Currently Venezuela is rapidly expanding and becoming more stable. Compared to the countries past the economy is strong and growing every year. The most interesting thing about Venezuela is their unique infrastructure. Currently their entire economy is dependent on oil however due to the dramatic changes that have occurred in the recent decades in Venezuela the profits made from

What would happen to Venezuela if the oil disappears? Venezuela is going through a very critical situation in which the economy is being affected. One of the reason why the situation in the economy in Venezuela is so urgent right now is because they are depending 96% on oil. That is one of the reason why in Venezuela, the people can’t buy basic product. To solve this problem, Venezuelans should find a way to expresses their voice in the “Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries” (OPEC) because that is the organization that has the power to raise the prices of oil. Another way that this problem can be solved is that Venezuela must stop depending only on oil because, they can use other natural resources which will greatly

I remember Polar used to be one of the best companies in South American, and after what Chavez did; removing managers and people who had the skills to manage this company and give these jobs to the “poor” without the required

During the 20th century, Venezuela’s agricultural based economy transition into an economy heavily based on the exportation of oil, thus increasing the country’s GDP in Latin America. Although, the export of oil increased Venezuela’s economic power, it also brought an immense amount of inequality between the elites and ordinary citizens. In addition, Venezuela experienced an economic crisis in the 1980s and 1990s, thus leading to a political crisis, which motivated the people of Venezuela to demand a change. The Bolivarian Revolution began in 1992 after Hugo Chavez attempt to overthrow the current president, Carlos Andres Perez, failed. In 1994, Chavez transformed what was once his military coup into a revolutionary, anti-system movement. Following Chavez’s release from prison, he took office as president of Venezuela in 1999

Venezuela’s crisis is directly related to a poor run government and mismanagement of the state-run-oil company. The government has pushed for anti-democratic actions and has repeatedly pressured banks and investors to stay away from the Maduro administration. The government needs to come together to solve issue, not pursue them, they are hurting their own country, socialism has caused an enormous negative impact with the current economic crisis. People in Venezuela are hungry and that in turn forces people to act in way they wouldn’t normally, so they can provide for their family.

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.

Venezuela has the world’s largest oil reserves and by 1960, it became the wealthiest country in Latin America. Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA), the state owned company, was the key to economic and social development in Venezuela under president Hugo Chavez. His government was settled in an environment where the oil prices were rising and the economy was booming, so he was able fund social programs and practices that were popular to the poor masses. This wealthy and growing Venezuela made Chavez to be very popular and his regime very powerful. Oil revenue accounted for nearly 90% of exports, more than 50% of government revenue, and 35% of country’s GDP.