Its been 5 years since the crisis in Venezuela — has there been any improvement? (part 2)
Written by Arnav Srivastava
It was the year of when disaster struck and oil prices started to drop. Oil prices dropping meant that the Venezuelan economy was dropping. Cent by cent, dollar by dollar the government started to realise the grave danger which lay in front of them. It was the poor governance and decisions made by those in power which had led once the most prosperous country in Latin America into political and economic ruin. The government had failed to diversify the economy and now they were seeing the common fundamentals of economics haunt them, and the negative consequences of having a petrostate.
“Ten years form now, twenty years from now, you will see, oil will bring us ruin…It is the devil’s excrement.”
Juan Pablo Perez Alfonzo — Venezuelan oil minister (1959–1963) and OPEC co-founder
The corruption didn’t begin while President Hugo Chavez was in office (who died in 2013). But in the 20 years after the death of Hugo Chavez, corruption and mismanagement has spiralled out of control. As time went on the political institutions started to weaken and became unaccountable, corruptions becoming more widespread. As time passed the economic and political power became more and more highly concentrated in an elite minority. This increased inequality and the Venezuelans became the sufferers. With tempers raising and unsettlement within the country violent protests took place all over the nation and still continue to.
Since the dropping of oil prices and the decline of the Venezuelan economy, corruption started to rise. After financial analysis, billions of public revenue have gone missing and there is hardly any aspect of life which has been untouched by corruption. These violent protests started to cause more political turmoil. As protesters increased their use of violence out of anger, so did the police. The fear of going out of power caused President Maduro to get a tighter hold and start a violent and horrific communist-type regime. A system of state sponsored terror is maintaining Maduro’s hold on power. This first started when Maduro assembled a paramilitary gang called “the Colectivos”. This was a street gang that was told to use violence to suppress or kill those who oppose the regime of Maduro, in exchange the state would turn a blind eye to any of the crimes committed by the gang.
The violence and corruption nationwide caused hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans to flee from the country and leave their old lives behind, legally and illegally. Most of the migrants fled to neighbouring countries such as Brazil, Peru and Columbia, with Columbia being the most popular choice as an estimated 1.3 million Venezuelans have fled to the country. Most of those fleeing were highly intelligent and skilled professionals such as — doctors, bankers and lawyers that were highly needed in the country at this point. This caused an effect called the brain drain effect. This further weakened the economy.
Unfortunately millions of people till this day continue to flee from the country to escape from the chance of death and in pursuit of stability and a better, safer life. The economy of Venezuela continues to worsen as inflation rates continue to rise and Venezuela is the country with the highest inflation rates in the world. In 2020 Venezuelan inflation rates reached %200000, more than 1000 times higher than the second highest inflation rate in the world, Zimbabwe at 183%. Personally I believe that in order to start the rebuilding of this troubled nation the first step is to remove those in power and re-elect a new government in order to reduce the amount of corruption taking place nationwide. This would hopefully help restore public confidence and support and serve as a catalyst to put Venezuela on a path to recovery.
