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crisis in Venezuela
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{{Short description|Socioeconomic and political crisis in Venezuela in the 21st century}}{{about|the socioeconomic and political crisis in Venezuela|other uses|Venezuelan crisis (disambiguation)}}{{pp-pc|small=yes}}{{use dmy dates|date=July 2020}}{{Very long|date=April 2024}}- the content below is remote from Wikipedia
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| Mother of All Marches in 2017; a man eating from garbage in Venezuela; empty store shelves from shortages in Venezuela>shortages; people queued to enter a store; Killing of Paola RamÃrez | , a student killed by colectivo (Venezuela)>colectivosHTTP://WWW.OAS.ORG/DOCUMENTS/ENG/PRESS/INFORME-PANEL-INDEPENDIENTE-VENEZUELA-EN.PDF >PUBLISHER= ORGANIZATION OF AMERICAN STATES | TITLE= REPORT OF THE GENERAL SECRETARIAT OF THE ORGANIZATION OF AMERICAN STATES AND THE PANEL OF INDEPENDENT INTERNATIONAL EXPERTS ON THE POSSIBLE COMMISSION OF CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY IN VENEZUELA | ISSUE= 32 | ACCESS-DATE= 23 MARCH 2019 | TITLE= COLECTIVOS: EL ROSTRO CIVIL DE LA REPRESIóN EN TáCHIRA | QUOTE= ALLà CAYó LA JOVEN DE 23 AñOS EN MEDIO DE UN ENFRENTAMIENTO ENTRE UN VECINO DEL SECTOR Y ESTE GRUPO ARMADO. | ARCHIVE-URL= HTTPS://WEB.ARCHIVE.ORG/WEB/20190403162344/HTTPS://OBSERVATORIODEVIOLENCIA.ORG.VE/COLECTIVOS-EL-ROSTRO-CIVIL-DE-LA-REPRESION-EN-TACHIRA/ | LANGUAGE= ES | DATE= 20 APRIL 2017 | QUOTE= EL ASESINATO DE PAOLA ANDREÃNA RAMÃREZ GóMEZ, UNA JOVEN ESTUDIANTE DE 23 AñOS, QUEDó REGISTRADO EN AL MENOS DOS VIDEOS QUE MUESTRAN CóMO OPERAN LOS COLECTIVOS CHAVISTAS QUE ACABARON CON SU VIDA., during the 2017 protests| image2 = | size_image2 = | caption2 = | ACCESS-DATE=16 JULY 2018 | EL UNIVERSO >DATE=2 JUNE 2010 | URL=HTTPS://WWW.REUTERS.COM/ARTICLE/US-VENEZUELA-ECONOMY-ELECTION-IDUSTRE81D0RA20120214 | WORK=REUTERS, 14 February 2012, – present| jurisdictions = | causes = * Bolivarian Revolution and presidency of Hugo Chávez
| Venezuela | Socialist red flag.svg}} GPPSB | Venezuela | Democratic Unity Roundtable>MUD / ‘’’Democratic Alliance (Venezuela) | / Unitary Platform>PU’’’ | Venezuela | Hugo Chávez Death of Hugo Chávez>†{{flagicon | state}} Nicolás Maduro {{flagicon image | Diosdado Cabello {{flagicon image>Socialist red flag.svg}} Delcy RodrÃguez{{flagicon image|Socialist red flag.svg}} Tareck El Aissami | Venezuela | Leopoldo López{{flagicon>Venezuela | Juan Guaidó{{flagicon>Venezuela | Henrique Capriles{{flagicon>Venezuela | Henry Ramos Allup{{flagicon>Venezuela|1930}} Julio Borges| position1 = | position2 = | position3 = | notes = | place = Venezuela}}{{Update|date=July 2023}}{{crisis in Bolivarian Venezuela}}An ongoing socioeconomic and political crisis began in Venezuela during the presidency of Hugo Chávez and has worsened during the presidency of his successor Nicolás Maduro. It has been marked by hyperinflation, escalating starvation,NEWS, One in three Venezuelans not getting enough to eat, UN finds,www.theguardian.com/world/2020/feb/24/venezuela-hungry-food-insecure-un-world-food-program, 10 March 2020, The Guardian, 24 February 2020, disease, crime and mortality rates, resulting in massive emigration from the country.NEWS, Larmer, Brook, What 52,000 Percent Inflation Can Do to a Country,www.nytimes.com/2018/11/01/magazine/venezuela-inflation-economics.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fmagazine&action=click&contentCollection=magazine®ion=rank&module=package&version=highlights&contentPlacement=3&pgtype=sectionfront, 2 November 2018, The New York Times, 1 November 2018, The situation is believed to be by far the worst economic crisis in Venezuela’s history, and is also the worst facing a country in peacetime since the mid-20th century. The crisis is often considered to be more severe than that of the United States during the Great Depression, the 1985–1994 Brazilian economic crisis, or the 2008–2009 hyperinflation in Zimbabwe.NEWS, Kurmanaev, Anatoly,www.nytimes.com/2019/05/17/world/americas/venezuela-economy.html, Venezuela’s Collapse Is the Worst Outside of War in Decades, Economists Say, 17 May 2019, The New York Times, 18 May 2019, en-US, 0362-4331, Venezuela’s fall is the single largest economic collapse outside of war in at least 45 years, economists say. ... economists say, the poor governance, corruption and misguided policies of President Nicolás Maduro and his predecessor, Hugo Chávez, have fueled runaway inflation, shuttered businesses and brought the country to its knees. ... most independent economists say the recession began years before the sanctions, ..., Other writers have also compared aspects of the crisis, such as unemployment and GDP contraction, to that of Bosnia and Herzegovina after the 1992–1995 Bosnian War, and those in Russia, Cuba and Albania following the collapse of the Eastern Bloc in 1989 and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991.NEWS, Biller, David and Patricia Laya, 9 April 2019, Venezuela unemployment nears that of war-ruined Bosnia, IMF says, Bloomberg,www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-04-09/venezuela-unemployment-nears-that-of-war-ruined-bosnia-imf-says, 9 April 2019, * JOURNAL, Krauze, Enrique, 8 March 2018, Hell of a Fiesta,www.nybooks.com/articles/2018/03/08/venezuela-hell-fiesta/, New York Review of Books, 65, 4, 23 April 2018,
Background{{see also|History of Venezuela (1999–present)}}Chávez presidencyAfter attempting a coup d’état in 1992 and being pardoned by President Rafael Caldera,Volume 57 / Social Sciences. Government and Politics: Venezuela - René Salgado Hugo Chávez was elected president and maintained the presidency from 1999 until his death in 2013. Increasing oil prices in the early 2000s led to levels of funds not seen in Venezuela since the 1980s. Chávez established Bolivarian missions, aimed at providing public services to improve economic, cultural, and social conditions.WEB, Estrategia de Cooperación de OPS/OMS con Venezuela 2006–2008,www.ops-oms.org.ve/site/pwr/docs/CCS_MS_OPS-OMS.pdf, p. 54, Pan American Health Organization, June 2006, 31 December 2006, es,www.ops-oms.org.ve/site/pwr/docs/CCS_MS_OPS-OMS.pdf," title="web.archive.org/web/20061024054050www.ops-oms.org.ve/site/pwr/docs/CCS_MS_OPS-OMS.pdf,">web.archive.org/web/20061024054050www.ops-oms.org.ve/site/pwr/docs/CCS_MS_OPS-OMS.pdf, 24 October 2006, WEB,venezuela-us.org/live/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/socialmissionsinvenezuela-12.11.09eng.pdf, Fact Sheet. Social Missions in Venezuela, 12 November 2009, Embassy of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela to the United States, 3 May 2017,venezuela-us.org/live/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/socialmissionsinvenezuela-12.11.09eng.pdf," title="web.archive.org/web/20170621052457venezuela-us.org/live/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/socialmissionsinvenezuela-12.11.09eng.pdf,">web.archive.org/web/20170621052457venezuela-us.org/live/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/socialmissionsinvenezuela-12.11.09eng.pdf, 21 June 2017, dead, BOOK, Heritage, Andrew, Financial Times World Desk Reference, December 2002, Dorling Kindersley, 9780789488053, 618–21, According to Corrales and Penfold, “aid was disbursed to some of the poor and, more gravely, in a way that ended up helping the president and his allies and cronies more than anyone else”. Nonetheless, poverty was cut more than 20 percent between 2002 and 2008.BOOK, Corrales, Javier, Penfold, Michael, Dragon in the Tropics: The Legacy of Hugo Chávez, 2 April 2015, Brookings Institution Press, 978-0815725930, 5, The Missions entailed the construction of thousands of free medical clinics for the poor, and the enactment of food and housing subsidies. A 2010 OAS reportPRESS RELEASE,www.cidh.oas.org/Comunicados/English/2010/20V-10eng.htm, Press release N° 20/10, IACHR publishes report on Venezuela, Organization of American States, Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, 24 February 2010, 26 February 2010, indicated achievements in addressing illiteracy, healthcare and poverty,NEWS,english.eluniversal.com/2010/02/24/en_pol_esp_iachr-requests-the-v_24A3481131.shtml, IACHR requests the Venezuelan government to guarantee all human rights, Alonso, Juan Francisco, El Universal (Caracas), El Universal, 24 February 2010, 25 February 2010, dead,english.eluniversal.com/2010/02/24/en_pol_esp_iachr-requests-the-v_24A3481131.shtml," title="web.archive.org/web/20130514221603english.eluniversal.com/2010/02/24/en_pol_esp_iachr-requests-the-v_24A3481131.shtml,">web.archive.org/web/20130514221603english.eluniversal.com/2010/02/24/en_pol_esp_iachr-requests-the-v_24A3481131.shtml, 14 May 2013, and economic and social advances.WEB,jurist.law.pitt.edu/paperchase/2010/02/venezuela-government-violating-basic.php, Venezuela government violating basic human rights: report, Schimizzi, Carrie, Jurist: Legal news and research, 24 February 2010, 25 February 2010,jurist.law.pitt.edu/paperchase/2010/02/venezuela-government-violating-basic.php," title="web.archive.org/web/20131020120703jurist.law.pitt.edu/paperchase/2010/02/venezuela-government-violating-basic.php,">web.archive.org/web/20131020120703jurist.law.pitt.edu/paperchase/2010/02/venezuela-government-violating-basic.php, 20 October 2013, The quality of life for Venezuelans had also improved according to a UN Index.Charlie Devereux & Raymond Colitt. 7 March 2013. WEB,www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-03-07/venezuelans-quality-of-life-improved-in-un-index-under-chavez.html, Venezuelans’ Quality of Life Improved in UN Index Under Chavez, Bloomberg L.P., 7 March 2013,www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-03-07/venezuelans-quality-of-life-improved-in-un-index-under-chavez.html," title="web.archive.org/web/20141107050220www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-03-07/venezuelans-quality-of-life-improved-in-un-index-under-chavez.html,">web.archive.org/web/20141107050220www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-03-07/venezuelans-quality-of-life-improved-in-un-index-under-chavez.html, 7 November 2014, unfit, Teresa A. Meade wrote that Chávez’s popularity strongly depended “on the lower classes who have benefited from these health initiatives and similar policies.“Meade, Teresa. A History of Modern Latin America: 1800 to the Present (Oxford 2010), p. 313. According to Chosun Ilbo, Venezuela began to face economic difficulties due to Chávez’s populist policies.NEWS, Min-woo, Nam,news.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2018/05/02/2018050201490.html, 2 May 2018, The Chosun Ilbo, 22 May 2018, ko, Hwapyegyeongje muneojyeossneunde... choejeoimgeum insang-e mogmaeneun Benesuella, ko:í™”íê²½ì œ 무너졌는ë°â€¦ìµœì €ìž„금 ì¸ìƒì— 목매는 ë² ë„¤ìˆ˜ì—˜ë¼, The economy collapsed... Venezuela clamors for minimum wage hike, Venezuela’s fall is considered to be mainly caused by the populist policy ... Venezuela, for decades, has increased the number of public sector employees and has promoted populist support to maintain the regime., On 2 June 2010, Chávez declared an “economic war” due to increasing shortages in Venezuela.Political corruption, chronic shortages of food and medicine, closure of businesses, unemployment, deterioration of productivity, authoritarianism, human rights violations, gross economic mismanagement and high dependence on oil have also contributed to the worsening crisis.The social works initiated by Chávez’s government relied on oil products, the keystone of the Venezuelan economy, leading to Dutch disease according to Javier Corrales.{{efn|Javier Corrales says in Foreign Policy, “... excessive dependence on commodity exports can distort an economy in fundamental ways. One manifestation of this principle is what has come to be known as ‘Dutch Disease’ (named after the problems faced by the Netherlands as it reaped a windfall from North Sea oil in the 1970s). Dutch Disease occurs when a country that is excessively dependent on commodity exports experiences a price boom. The sudden inflow of foreign currency raises the demand for local currency, yielding an uncompetitive exchange rate. This overvalued exchange rate, if unaddressed, can kill the country’s other exports as well as stimulating an avalanche of imports, which can hurt domestic producers.” }}NEWS, Corrales, Javier, The House That Chavez Built,foreignpolicy.com/2013/03/07/the-house-that-chavez-built/, 6 February 2015, Foreign Policy, 7 March 2013, BOOK, Corrales, Javier, Romero, Carlos, U.S.-Venezuela relations since the 1990s : coping with mid-level security threats, 2013, Routledge, New York, 978-0415895248, 79–81, By the early 2010s, economic actions taken by Chávez’s government during the preceding decade, such as overspendingNEWS, Siegel, Robert, For Venezuela, Drop In Global Oil Prices Could Be Catastrophic,www.npr.org/2014/12/25/373128433/for-venezuela-drop-in-global-oil-prices-could-be-catastrophic, 4 January 2015, NPR, 25 December 2014, NEWS, Scharfenberg, Ewald, Volver a ser pobre en Venezuela,internacional.elpais.com/internacional/2015/01/30/actualidad/1422646346_475356.html, 3 February 2015, El Pais, 1 February 2015,
Maduro presidencyFile:Cabello, Maduro, Flores.jpg|thumb|325px|Diosdado Cabello beside Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia FloresCilia FloresFollowing Chávez’s death in 2013, Nicolás Maduro became president after defeating his opponent Henrique Capriles Radonski by 235,000 votes, a 1.5% margin.JOURNAL, Corrales, Javier, Autocratic Legalism in Venezuela, Journal of Democracy, 2015, 26, 2, 37–51, 10.1353/jod.2015.0031, 153641967, Maduro continued most of the existing economic policies of his predecessor Chávez. Upon entering the presidency, his administration faced a high inflation rate and large shortages of goods,NEWS, Venezuela’s April inflation jumps to 5.7 percent: report,www.reuters.com/article/us-venezuela-economy-idUSBREA4G05O20140517, 18 May 2014, Reuters, 17 May 2014, NEWS, Ferdman, Roberto A., Venezuela’s black market rate for US dollars just jumped by almost 40%,qz.com/192395/venezuelas-black-market-rate-for-us-dollars-just-jumped-by-almost-40/#/h/56869,3/, 27 March 2014, Quartz, 26 March 2014, problems left over from Chávez’s policies.NEWS, Chavez leaves Venezuelan economy more equal, less stable, Kevin, Voigt,edition.cnn.com/2013/03/06/business/venezuela-chavez-oil-economy/, CNN, 6 March 2013, 6 March 2013, Maduro said capitalist speculation had driven high rates of inflation and created widespread shortages of basic necessities. He enacted economic measures against political opponents, who he and loyalists stated were behind an international economic conspiracy.* NEWS, Mr. Maduro in His Labyrinth, The New York Times,www.nytimes.com/2015/01/26/opinion/mr-maduro-in-his-labyrinth.html, 26 January 2015, The New York Times, 26 January 2015,
Elections and protests since 2017{{details|Venezuelan protests (2014–present)|2017 Venezuelan Constituent Assembly election|2018 Venezuelan presidential election|Venezuelan presidential crisis}}File:Manifestación en apoyo a Nicolás Maduro.jpg|thumb|325px|Venezuelans demonstrating during the 2016 Venezuelan protests ]](File:Gráfica Protestas Venezuela.png|thumb|upright=1.5|Number of protests in Venezuela per year)File:Guaidó rebelde.png|thumb|300px|Juan Guaidó during the 2019 Venezuelan uprising ]]Since 2010, Venezuela has been suffering a socioeconomic crisis under Maduro, and briefly under his predecessor, Chávez.* NEWS,foreignpolicy.com/2013/03/07/the-house-that-chavez-built/, The House That Chavez Built, Corrales, Javier, 7 March 2013, 6 February 2015, Foreign Policy,
| quote= No independent government institutions remain today in Venezuela to act as a check on executive power. A series of measures by the Maduro and Chávez governments stacked the courts with judges who make no pretense of independence. The government has been repressing dissent through often-violent crackdowns on street protests, jailing opponents, and prosecuting civilians in military courts. It has also stripped power from the opposition-led legislature. ...In 2017, President Maduro convened a ‘Constituent Assembly’ by presidential decree, despite a constitutional requirement that a public referendum be held before any effort to rewrite the Constitution. The assembly is made up exclusively of government supporters chosen through an election that Smartmatic, a British company hired by the government to verify the results, called fraudulent. The Constituent Assembly has, in practice, replaced the opposition-led National Assembly as the country’s legislative branch. | PUBLISHER= HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH | QUOTE= THE VENEZUELAN GOVERNMENT HAS JAILED POLITICAL OPPONENTS AND DISQUALIFIED THEM FROM RUNNING FOR OFFICE. AT TIME OF WRITING, MORE THAN 340 POLITICAL PRISONERS WERE LANGUISHING IN VENEZUELAN PRISONS OR INTELLIGENCE SERVICES HEADQUARTERS, ACCORDING TO THE PENAL FORUM, A VENEZUELAN NETWORK OF PRO-BONO CRIMINAL DEFENSE LAWYERS. ...IN MID-2017, THE SUPREME COURT SENTENCED FIVE OPPOSITION MAYORS, AFTER SUMMARY PROCEEDINGS THAT VIOLATED INTERNATIONAL NORMS OF DUE PROCESS, TO 15 MONTHS IN PRISON AND DISQUALIFIED THEM FROM RUNNING FOR OFFICE. | PUBLISHER= AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL | QUOTE= THE JUDICIAL SYSTEM CONTINUED TO BE USED TO SILENCE DISSIDENTS, INCLUDING USING MILITARY JURISDICTION TO PROSECUTE CIVILIANS. THE JUSTICE SYSTEM CONTINUED TO BE SUBJECT TO GOVERNMENT INTERFERENCE, ESPECIALLY IN CASES INVOLVING PEOPLE CRITICAL OF THE GOVERNMENT OR THOSE WHO WERE CONSIDERED TO BE ACTING AGAINST THE INTERESTS OF THE AUTHORITIES. THE BOLIVARIAN NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE SERVICE CONTINUED TO IGNORE COURT DECISIONS TO TRANSFER AND RELEASE PEOPLE IN ITS CUSTODY., and Amnesty International on opposition.HTTPS://WWW.AMNESTY.ORG/EN/LATEST/NEWS/2017/08/VENEZUELA-WAVE-OF-ARRESTS-AS-GOVERNMENT-TURNS-AGAINST-ELECTED-OPPOSITION/ >TITLE= WAVE OF ARRESTS AS GOVERNMENT TURNS AGAINST ELECTED OPPOSITION | DATE= 11 AUGUST 2017 | QUOTE= THE ARREST OF FOUR OFFICIALS FROM THE OPPOSITION IN VENEZUELA, THE REMOVAL FROM OFFICE OF A FURTHER 11 AND THE ISSUING OF ARREST WARRANTS AGAINST ANOTHER FIVE, DEMONSTRATES THE MADURO ADMINISTRATION’S TIGHTENING STRANGLEHOLD ON ANY FORM OF DISSENT, TAKING REPRESSION TO A FRIGHTENING NEW LEVEL, SAID AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL., }} Following the constitutional crisis and the push to ban opposition presidential candidate Henrique Capriles from politics for 15 years, protests grew to their most “combative” since they began in 2014. During the protests, the Mother of all Protests involved between 2.5 million and 6 million protesters.* NEWS, Lugo-Galicia, Hernan and Ayatola Nuneza, El paÃs grito: “Maduro, no te queremos”,www.el-nacional.com/noticias/politica/pais-grito-maduro-queremos_178023, 20 April 2017, El Nacional (Caracas), El Nacional, 20 April 2017, es,www.el-nacional.com/noticias/politica/pais-grito-maduro-queremos_178023," title="web.archive.org/web/20190326171231www.el-nacional.com/noticias/politica/pais-grito-maduro-queremos_178023,">web.archive.org/web/20190326171231www.el-nacional.com/noticias/politica/pais-grito-maduro-queremos_178023, 26 March 2019, dead,
CorruptionCorruption is high in Venezuela according to the Transparency International Corruption Perceptions Index and is prevalent at many levels of society.BOOK, Sibery, Brian Loughman, Richard A., Bribery and corruption : navigating the global risks, 2012, Wiley, Hoboken, N.J., 978-1118011362, While corruption is difficult to measure reliably, in 2018 Transparency International ranked Venezuela among the top 13 most corrupt countries out of 180 measured, tied with Iraq, but ahead of Afghanistan, Burundi, Equatorial Guinea, Guinea, North Korea, Libya, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Syria and Yemen.WEB,www.transparency.org/cpi2018, Corruption perceptions index 2018, 29 January 2019, Transparency International, 6 April 2019, A 2016 poll found that 73% of Venezuelans believed their police were corrupt.WEB,lta.reuters.com/articulo/latinoamerica-corrupcion-transparencia-idLTAKBN1CE2JO-OUSLT,web.archive.org/web/20190407002618/https://lta.reuters.com/articulo/latinoamerica-corrupcion-transparencia-idLTAKBN1CE2JO-OUSLT, dead, 7 April 2019, Reuters, 9 October 2017, 6 April 2019, Aumenta percepción de corrupción en América Latina y el Caribe: Transparencia Internacional, es, Latinobarómetro’s 2018 report said that 65% of Venezuelans believed their president was involved in corruption, and 64% believed that government officials were corrupt.WEB,www.latinobarometro.org/lat.jsp, Latinobarómetro, Informe Latinobarómetro 2018, 6 April 2019, WEB,www.el-nacional.com/noticias/columnista/venezuela-latinobarometro-2018_261534, es, El Nacional, Venezuela y Latinobarómetro 2018, Tinoco, Cesar, 30 November 2018, 6 April 2019, Discontent with corruption was cited by opposition-aligned groups as one of the reasons for the 2014 Venezuelan protests.NEWS, Martinez, Jessica, Venezuelans in US march against their country’s violent, corrupt government,www.christianpost.com/news/venezuelans-in-us-march-against-their-countrys-violent-corrupt-government-114942/, 20 February 2014, 15 April 2018, Christian Post, A once wealthy country, Venezuela’s economy was driven into political and economic crisis by corruption and mismanagement.NEWS, The crisis in Venezuela was years in the making. Here’s how it happened, The New York Times, 23 January 2019, ProQuest, Venezuela once had Latin America’s richest economy, buoyed by oil reserves larger even than Saudi Arabia’s and Iran’s. Yet under Mr. Maduro and his predecessor and mentor, Hugo Chávez, who died in 2013, Venezuela’s economy spiraled into mismanagement, corruption and backbreaking debt ... After he inherited a collapsing economy, Mr. Maduro granted the military control of lucrative industries and printed money to dole out patronage — worsening the crisis, but retaining power., Also available online.Basic needsPovertyThe Wall Street Journal reported in March 2019 that poverty was double that of 2014. A study from Andrés Bello Catholic University indicated that by 2019 at least 8 million Venezuelans did not have enough to eat. A UN report estimated in March 2019 that 94% of Venezuelans live in poverty, and that one quarter of Venezuelans need some form of humanitarian assistance.According to the Living Conditions Survey by the Andrés Bello Catholic University (Encovi in Spanish, Encuesta de Condiciones de Vida), by 2021 94.5% of the population was in poverty based on income, out of which 76.6% lived under extreme poverty, the highest figure ever recorded in the country.Food and waterMore than 70% of Venezuela’s food is imported; Venezuela became so dependent on food imports that it could no longer afford when the price of oil dropped in 2014. Chávez gave the military control of food, and nationalized much of the industry, which was then neglected, leading to production shortages. With a “diminished food supply”, Maduro put “generals in charge of everything from butter to rice”. With the military in charge of food, food trafficking became profitable, bribes and corruption common, and food did not reach the needy. The government imports most of the food the country needs, it is controlled by the military, and the price paid for food is higher than justified by market prices. Venezuelans were spending “all day waiting in lines” to buy rationed food, “pediatric wards filled up with underweight children, and formerly middle-class adults began picking through rubbish bins for scraps”.WEB,www.aljazeera.com/news/2017/01/venezuela-military-controls-food-nation-hungry-170101195414433.html, Venezuela military controls food as nation goes hungry, 1 January 2017, aljazeera.com, 1 May 2017, File:Venezuelans searching through garbage, 2018.jpg|thumb|300px|right|A group of Venezuelans eating garbage on the streets of CaracasCaracasSeveral other factors have led to shortages: imports over the two years until the end of 2017 declined by two-thirds; hyperinflation has made food too costly for many Venezuelans; and for those who depend on food boxes supplied by the government, “these do not reach all Venezuelans who need them, provision of boxes is intermittent, and receipt is often linked to political support of the government”.Corruption became a problem in the distribution of food. The operations director at one food import business says “he pays off a long roster of military officials for each shipment of food he brings in from ... the US. It’s an unbroken chain of bribery from when your ship comes in until the food is driven out in trucks.” A National Guard lieutenant denies this charge, saying corruption would be worse if the military were not involved; government and military officials say the opposition is overstating the corruption problem for their own benefit. Retired General Antonio Rivero said that “Maduro is trying to prevent soldiers from going hungry and being tempted to participate in an uprising against an increasingly unpopular government”, adding that using the military to control food distribution has “drained the feeling of rebellion from the armed forces” by giving soldiers access to food denied others, with the resulting corruption increasing shortages for the general public.The colectivos are also involved in food trafficking, selling food on the black market; a colectivo leader told InSight Crime that trafficking food and medicine is as profitable as drug-running, but carries less risk.WEB,www.insightcrime.org/investigations/devolution-state-power-colectivos/, The devolution of state power: The ‘Colectivos’, Insight Crime, 18 May 2018, 28 February 2019, Also available in Spanish. With shadowy connections to the government, The Washington Post says “some have been put in charge of the distribution of government food packages in poor areas—giving them control over hungry neighborhoods.“NEWS,www.sun-sentinel.com/news/nationworld/ct-maduro-venezuela-motorcycle-gangs-20190314-story.html, Maduro’s muscle: Motorcycle gangs known as ‘colectivos’ are the enforcers for Venezuela’s authoritarian leader, Sun Sentinel, The Washington Post, Sheridan, Mary Beth and Mariana Zuñiga, 14 March 2019, 14 March 2019, The Associated Press reports that people gather every evening in downtown Caracas in search of food thrown out on a sidewalk; the people are typically unemployed, but are “frequently joined by small business owners, college students and pensioners—people who consider themselves middle class even though their living standards have long ago been pulverized by triple-digit inflation, food shortages and a collapsing currency”. A waste collection official in Maracaibo reported that most of the trash bags he received had been gone through by people searching for food.NEWS,www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/venezuela/article131778819.html, Hungry Venezuelans killing flamingos and anteaters for food, biologists say, Ocando, Gustavo, 10 February 2017, Miami Herald, 1 May 2017, One dump reports finding parts of dismembered animals, like “dogs, cats, donkeys, horses and pigeons” and there is evidence that people are eating wildlife such as anteaters, flamingos, vultures and lizards.“Hunger, malnutrition, and severe food shortages are widespread in all Venezuela”, according to Human Rights Watch. Doctors at 21 public hospitals in 17 Venezuelan states told The New York Times in 2017 that “their emergency rooms were being overwhelmed by children with severe malnutrition—a condition they had rarely encountered before the economic crisis began”, and that “hundreds have died”. The government has responded with “a near-total blackout of health statistics, and by creating a culture in which doctors are often afraid to register cases and deaths that may be associated with the government’s failures”.NEWS, Kohut, Meridith and Isayen Herrera, As Venezuela collapses, children are dying of hunger,www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/12/17/world/americas/venezuela-children-starving.html, 17 December 2017, 8 April 2018, The New York Times, The Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN said that less than 5% of Venezuelans were undernourished between 2008 and 2013, but that number had more than doubled, to almost 12% from 2015 and 2017, representing 3.7 million people. A 2016 survey found that almost three-quarters of the population said that, because of improper nutrition, they had lost on average 8.7 kg (19.4 lbs) and 64% said they lost 11 kg (24 lbs) in 2017.WEB,www.ucab.edu.ve/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/02/ENCOVI-Alimentaci%C3%B3n-2017.pdf, Encuesta Nacional de Condiciones de Vida, Venezuela 2017, Alimentación I, Landaeta-Jiménez, Maritza, et al, February 2018, Universidad Catolica Andres Bello, es, Annual Survey of Living Conditions, Venezuela 2017, Food 1, 23 February 2018, 6 October 2021,web.archive.org/web/20211006090848/https://www.ucab.edu.ve/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/02/ENCOVI-Alimentaci%C3%B3n-2017.pdf, dead, A 2016 Venebarometro poll of 1,200 Venezuelans found almost half are no longer able to eat three daily meals; the government blames this on an “economic war” they say is waged by the opposition.A UN report said that because of lack of water and sanitation, 4.3 million Venezuelans needed assistance in 2019.During the 2019 Venezuelan blackouts which started on 7 March, the water distribution system also had shortages. José de Viana, an engineer and former president of Hidrocapital, the municipal water company in Caracas, said that 90% of the thermoelectric plants that work as a backup if power fails are not operational because of lack of maintenance, or they have been simply disconnected,NEWS,www.washingtonpost.com/world/the_americas/why-are-you-crying-mami-in-venezuela-the-search-for-water-is-a-daily-struggle/2019/04/04/39972ce4-5547-11e9-814f-e2f46684196e_story.html, The Washington Post, ‘Why are you crying, Mami?’ In Venezuela, the search for water is a daily struggle, 4 April 2019, 9 April 2019, Hernández, Arelis R. and Mariana Zuñiga, and that “the most important population centers in the country [had] zero water supply for more than four days”.WEB,prodavinci.com/jose-maria-de-viana-el-sistema-tuy-en-caracas-necesita-600-megavatios-de-potencia-para-funcionar-de-nuevo/, José MarÃa de Viana: El Sistema Tuy en Caracas necesita 600 megavatios de potencia para funcionar de nuevo, José MarÃa de Viana: The Tuy System in Caracas needs 600 megawatts of power to function again, 13 March 2019, Indira, Rojas, 12 March 2019, Prodavinci, es, Analysts said that two-thirds of Venezuela’s population (20 million people) were without water, partially or completely, in the weeks after the blackouts. People swarmed the polluted Guaire River in the center of Caracas to fill plastic containers with contaminated water, or collected water from streams at El Ãvila National Park.NEWS,www.reuters.com/article/us-venezuela-politics-water/desperate-venezuelans-swarm-sewage-drains-in-search-of-water-idUSKBN1QS2SN, Reuters, 11 March 2019, 9 April 2019, Desperate Venezuelans swarm sewage drains in search of water, Ellsworth, Brian and Vivian Sequera, Others tried to catch water from the city’s sewer drains.NEWS,www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-47553536, In pictures: Seeking water amid power cut, 13 March 2019, 13 March 2019, BBC, In the state of Lara people bathed in the sewers.WEB,www.el-nacional.com/noticias/sociedad/ciudadanos-banan-alcantarillas-por-falta-luz-agua-lara_274071, Ciudadanos se bañan en alcantarillas por falta de luz y agua en Lara, Citizens bathe in sewers due to lack of light and water in Lara, 13 March 2019, 10 March 2019, El Nacional, es, The head of the infectious disease department at the University Hospital of Caracas, MarÃa Eugenia Landaeta said that, without access to clean water, the chance of people contracting bacterial infections increased, and that doctors had seen during the blackouts “surges in diarrhea, typhoid fever and hepatitis A”, while non-sterile water and lack of hygiene was contributing to postpartum infections. The University Hospital goes months without dependable water or power supply, and depends on water tanks and power generators.The crisis has affected the life of the average Venezuelan on all levels. By 2017, hunger had escalated to the point where almost seventy-five percent of the population had lost an average of over 8 kg (over 19 lbs) in weight{{efn|Venezuela’s Living Conditions Survey (ENCOVI) found nearly 75% of the population had lost an average of at least 8.7 kg (19.4 lb) in weight due to a lack of proper nutrition.NEWS,www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2017/02/19/Venezuela-75-of-population-lost-19-pounds-amid-crisis/2441487523377/, Venezuela: 75% of population lost 19 pounds amid crisis, UPI, 1 May 2017, }} and more than half did not have enough income to meet their basic food needs.JOURNAL, Caraballo-Arias, Yohama, Madrid, Jesús, Barrios, Marcial, 25 September 2018, Working in Venezuela: How the Crisis has Affected the Labor Conditions, Annals of Global Health, 84, 3, 512–522, 10.29024/aogh.2325, 30835391, 6748246, 2214-9996, An UN report estimated in March 2019 that 94% of Venezuelans lived in poverty, and by 2021 almost twenty percent of Venezuelans (5.4 million) had left their country. The UN analysis estimates in 2019 that 25% of Venezuelans need some form of humanitarian assistance. Venezuela led the world in murder rates, with 81.4 per 100,000 people killed in 2018, making it the third most violent country in the world.WEB,dataunodc.un.org/crime/intentional-homicide-victims, UNODC: Intentional Homicide Victims, 20 February 2019, United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), Following increased international sanctions throughout 2019, the Maduro government abandoned policies established by Chávez such as price and currency controls, which resulted in the country seeing a temporary rebound from economic decline before COVID-19 entered Venezuela the following year.NEWS,www.economist.com/the-americas/2019/12/18/more-dollars-and-fewer-protests-in-venezuela, More dollars and fewer protests in Venezuela, 18 December 2019, The Economist, 27 December 2019, 0013-0613, As a response to the devaluation of the official bolÃvar currency, by 2019 the population increasingly started relying on US dollars for transactions. Maduro described dollarization as an “escape valve” that helps the recovery of the country, the spread of productive forces in the country and the economy. However, Maduro said that the Venezuelan bolÃvar remained as the national currency.Health care(File:Venezuela’s health expenditure; 1999 -.png|upright=1.5|thumbnail|right|Healthcare spending by percentage of Venezuela’s GDPWEB,data.worldbank.org/indicator/SH.XPD.TOTL.ZS?page=3, Data {{!, The World Bank|website=data.worldbank.org|access-date=29 July 2019}})During the Bolivarian Revolution, the government began providing free healthcare, with Cuban medical professionals providing aid. The government’s failure to concentrate on healthcare and a reduction in spending on healthcare, along with unchecked government corruption resulted in avoidable deaths due to severe shortages of medical supplies and equipment, and the emigration of medical professionals to other countries.NEWS, Venezuela’s medical crisis requires world’s attention,www.bostonglobe.com/opinion/editorials/2015/04/28/medical-crisis-venezuela-requires-world-attention/EAgdzuzc9WebDGCZ0QY8GI/story.html, 17 May 2015, The Boston Globe, 28 April 2015, NEWS, Wilson, Peter, The Collapse of Chávezcare,foreignpolicy.com/2015/04/27/chavez-maduro-healthcare-venezuela-cuba/, 17 May 2015, Foreign Policy, 27 April 2015, Venezuela’s reliance on imported goods and the complicated exchange rates initiated under Chávez led to increasing shortages during the late 2000s and into the 2010s that affected the availability of medicines and medical equipment in the country. Associated Press says the government stopped publishing medical statistics in 2010.NEWS, Bajak, Frank, Doctors say Venezuela’s health care in collapse,bigstory.ap.org/article/doctors-say-venezuelas-health-care-collapse, 6 November 2013, 14 March 2018, Associated Press, dead,bigstory.ap.org/article/doctors-say-venezuelas-health-care-collapse," title="web.archive.org/web/20141110005057bigstory.ap.org/article/doctors-say-venezuelas-health-care-collapse,">web.archive.org/web/20141110005057bigstory.ap.org/article/doctors-say-venezuelas-health-care-collapse, 10 November 2014, Doctors not allied with the government say many patients began dying from easily treatable illnesses when Venezuela’s downward economic slide accelerated after Chavez’s death from cancer in March. Doctors say it’s impossible to know how many have died, and the government doesn’t keep such numbers, just as it hasn’t published health statistics since 2010., The Health Minister changed multiple times during Chávez’s presidency. According to a high-ranking official of Venezuela’s Health Ministry, the ministers were treated as scapegoats whenever issues with public health arose in Venezuela. He also said that officials of the Health Ministry engaged in corruption to enrich themselves by selling goods intended for public healthcare to others.Early in the Maduro presidency, the government could not supply enough money for medical supplies among healthcare providers, with the president of the Venezuelan Medical Federation saying that 9 of 10 large hospitals had only 7% of required supplies and private doctors reporting numbers of patients that are “impossible” to count “dying from easily treatable illnesses when Venezuela’s downward economic slide accelerated after Chávez’s death”. Many Venezuelans died avoidable deaths with medical professionals having scarce resources and using methods that were replaced decades ago. In February 2014, doctors at the University of Caracas Medical Hospital stopped performing surgeries due to the lack of supplies, even though nearly 3,000 people required surgery.NEWS, Médicos del Hospital Universitario de Caracas suspenden cirugÃas por falta de insumos,globovision.com/articulo/medicos-del-hospital-universitario-paralizan-procedimientos-quirurgicos-tras-falta-de-insumos, 21 February 2014, Globovision, 21 February 2014, dead,globovision.com/articulo/medicos-del-hospital-universitario-paralizan-procedimientos-quirurgicos-tras-falta-de-insumos," title="web.archive.org/web/20140228074857globovision.com/articulo/medicos-del-hospital-universitario-paralizan-procedimientos-quirurgicos-tras-falta-de-insumos,">web.archive.org/web/20140228074857globovision.com/articulo/medicos-del-hospital-universitario-paralizan-procedimientos-quirurgicos-tras-falta-de-insumos, 28 February 2014, By early 2015, only 35% of hospital beds were available and 50% of operating rooms could not function due to the lack of resources. In March 2015, a Venezuelan NGO, Red de Medicos por la Salud, reported that there was a 68% shortage of surgical supplies and a 70% shortage of medicines in Venezuelan pharmacies. In 2018, the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) reported that approximately one-third (22,000 of 66,138) of registered physicians left Venezuela as of 2014. Rosemary DiCarlo from the UN said that 40% of medical professionals had left Venezuela and supplies of medicine were at 20% of levels needed. The Venezuelan Medical Federation said that doctors were leaving the public health care system because of shortages of drugs and equipment and poor pay. In August 2015 Human Rights Watch said “We have rarely seen access to essential medicines deteriorate as quickly as it has in Venezuela except in war zones.“NEWS,www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/news/world/americas/article4517330.ece, Thousands dying early as medical system implodes in Venezuela, Hider, James, 5 August 2015, The Times, 5 August 2015, UK, In 2015, the government reported that a third of patients admitted to public hospitals died.NEWS,www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/venezuela-health-crisis-means-kid-s-scraped-knee-can-be-n659211, In deteriorating Venezuela, a kid’s scraped knee can be life or death, 5 October 2016, NBC News, 7 October 2016, The medications of individuals who die are re-distributed through small-scale and local efforts, with the help of the families of the deceased, to try to supply surviving patients.EPISODE, Venezuela’s Broken Health System,www.dw.com/en/venezuelas-broken-health-system/av-47749395, DocFilm, DW-TV, Deutsche Welle TV, 2 March 2019, 4 March 2019,web.archive.org/web/20190302195918/https://www.dw.com/en/venezuelas-broken-health-system/av-47749395, 2 March 2019, dead, One study of 6,500 households by three of the main universities in Venezuela found that “74% of the population had lost on average nineteen pounds in 2016”. In April 2017 Venezuela’s health ministry reported that maternal mortality jumped by 65% in 2016 and that the number of infant deaths rose by 30%.NEWS,www.economist.com/news/world-week/21721971-politics-week, Politics this week, The Economist, 11 May 2017, It also said that the number of cases of malaria was up by 76%.NEWS,www.economist.com/the-world-this-week/2017/05/11/politics-this-week, Politics this week, 11 May 2017, The Economist, 29 July 2019, 0013-0613, Shortly after Minister of Health Antonieta Caporale released in 2017 this data, and health statistics showing increases in 2016 infant and maternal mortality and infectious diseases, Maduro fired her and replaced the physician with a pharmacist close to vice-president Tareck El Aissami, Luis López Chejade.NEWS,www.infobae.com/america/venezuela/2017/05/11/nicolas-maduro-destituyo-a-la-ministra-de-salud-que-publico-las-cifras-sobre-los-aumentos-en-mortalidad-infantil-y-materna-en-venezuela/, Nicolás Maduro destituyó a la ministra de Salud que publicó las cifras sobre los aumentos en mortalidad infantil y materna en Venezuela, 11 May 2017, Infobae, 13 May 2017, The publications were removed from the Ministry’s website, and no further health data has been made available, although the government had produced health bulletins for several decades.In March 2019, The Wall Street Journal reported that the “collapse of Venezuela’s health system, once one of the best in Latin America, has led to a surge in infant and maternal mortality rates and a return of rare diseases that were considered all but eradicated. Health officials say malaria, yellow fever, diphtheria, dengue and tuberculosis are now spreading from Venezuela to neighboring countries as Venezuelan refugees surge over borders.” The United Nations estimated in 2019 that 2.8 million Venezuelans have healthcare needs, 300,000 are at risk of dying with cancer, diabetes or HIV as they have not had access to medicine for more than a year, and preventable diseases like diphtheria, malaria, measles and tuberculosis are rising in 2019, along with hepatitis A, because of sanitation and lack of access to water. The April 2019 HRW/Johns Hopkins report showed this rise in infectious and preventable diseases, as well as increasing malnutrition, infant and maternal death, and undertreatment of HIV. Inflation and medicine shortages have meant that patients are asked to bring their own food, water and soap, and medical supplies including scalpels and syringes. In August 2019, as part of regional efforts to help Venezuelan migrants, the United States promised that it will provide thousands of doses of HIV medication to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS and to treat those who have it.NEWS,www.reuters.com/article/us-colombia-usa-health-idUSKCN1VI2LQ, U.S. to pay for thousands of doses of HIV drugs for Venezuelan..., 29 August 2019, Reuters, 29 August 2019, en,2019 Human Rights Watch/Johns Hopkins reportFile:Parque Cristal Protestas 2017 09.jpg|thumb|300px|Venezuelans protesting in 2017 for medicine due to the shortages in Venezuelashortages in VenezuelaIn April 2019, Human Rights Watch (HRW) and Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health published the results of a joint, year-long research project in a report entitled “Venezuela’s humanitarian emergency: Large-scale UN response needed to address health and food crises”.NEWS,www.theguardian.com/global-development/2019/apr/05/un-urged-to-declare-full-scale-crisis-in-venezuela-as-health-system-collapses, The Guardian, 7 April 2019, 5 April 2019, UN urged to declare full-scale crisis in Venezuela as health system ‘collapses’, Hodal, Kate, WEB,www.hrw.org/news/2019/04/04/venezuela-un-should-lead-full-scale-emergency-response, Human Rights Watch, Venezuela: UN should lead full-scale emergency response, 4 April 2019, 7 April 2019, Combined with data from the World Health Organization (WHO), the PAHO and Venezuelan sources, the report was based on 156 interviewsWEB,www.hrw.org/report/2019/04/04/venezuelas-humanitarian-emergency/large-scale-un-response-needed-address-health, Human Rights Watch, Venezuela’s humanitarian emergency: Large-scale UN response needed to address health and food crises, 4 April 2019, 7 April 2019, Also available in Spanish. with Venezuelan emigrants to Colombia and Brazil, officials from relief and humanitarian organizations, Venezuelan health care professionals,NEWS,www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/venezuelas-health-system-in-utter-collapse-as-infectious-diseases-spread-report-says/2019/04/03/fd39a152-563e-11e9-8ef3-fbd41a2ce4d5_story.html?noredirect=on, The Washington Post, 7 April 2019, 4 April 2019, Venezuela’s health system in ‘utter collapse’ as infectious diseases spread, report says, DeYoung, Karen, Also available at The Independent and UN and government officials from Brazil and Colombia. Most of the interviews occurred in July or August 2018 in visits by the experts to the Venezuelan border towns of Cúcuta, Colombia and Boa Vista or Pacaraima, Brazil.The Washington Post stated that the HRW/Johns Hopkins report “paints an extremely grim picture of life in Venezuela, whose once-prosperous economy has imploded because of mismanagement and corruption under Maduro”; it documents rising maternal and infant death, spread of preventable diseases, food insecurity, and child malnutrition. HRW declared that the “combination of severe medicine and food shortages ... with the spread of disease ... amounts to a complex humanitarian emergency that requires a full-scale response by the United Nations secretary-general.” The Washington Post states that the report describes a healthcare system that is in “utter collapse”, with diseases that are preventable via vaccination spreading, and “dramatic surges” in infectious diseases once eradicated in Venezuela.The economic crisis in Venezuela started around 2010, and the health crisis followed by two years and significantly worsened in 2017, but the situation in 2019 “is even more dismal than researchers expected”.NEWS,www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2019/04/05/709969632/researchers-are-surprised-by-the-magnitude-of-venezuelas-health-crisis, NPR, 7 April 2019, Researchers are surprised by the magnitude of Venezuela’s health crisis, 5 April 2019, Schreiber, Melody, Paul Spiegel, MD, who was the editor and reviewer of the report said, “Venezuela is a middle-income country with a previously strong infrastructure, so just to see this incredible decline ... in such a short period of time is quite astonishing.” Alberto Paniz-Mondolfi, a doctor in Barquisimeto, Venezuela who is a member of the Venezuelan National Academy of Medicine, told NPR that the report gave an accurate, thorough and timely depiction of the medical situation in his country; he had no affiliation with the report, but said that he had seen cases where there were not even catheters for hooking up children who appeared to have malnutrition for intravenous therapy. Spiegel adds that, because of the infrastructure and trained personnel in Venezuela, aid can be distributed quickly once delivered to Venezuela.
Infectious and preventable diseases(File:Malaria_in_Venezuela.png|thumb|300px|From less than 36,000 cases in 2009, to 414,000 cases of malaria in Venezuela in 2017)In 1961, Venezuela was the first country declared free of malaria. In 2009, the WHO reported there were less than 36,000 cases of malaria in Venezuela. In 2013, Venezuela registered a new high in the number of cases of malaria in the past 50 years, and by 2014, was the only country in Latin America where the incidence of malaria was increasing, allegedly in part due to illegal mining;{{efn|Illegal mining creates pools of standing water that encourage mosquito breeding, a partial cause of the increase in malaria seen in Venezuela.}} medical shortages in the country hampered treatment.NEWS, Pardo, Daniel, The malaria mines of Venezuela,www.bbc.com/news/health-28689066, 31 August 2014, BBC, 23 August 2014, By 2016, Venezuela’s malaria-prevention program had collapsed, and there were more than a hundred thousand cases of malaria yearly. In 2017, there were 414,000 confirmed cases of malaria, according to the WHO.Other preventable diseases that “were rare or nonexistent before the economic crisis, have surged”, including diphtheria, measles, and tuberculosis. “Venezuela did not experience a single case of diphtheria between 2006 and 2015”; according to the HRW/Johns Hopkins report, since mid-2016, 1,500 of the 2,500 suspected cases have been confirmed. Between 2008 and 2015, there was one recorded case of measles, in 2012; since June 2017, 6,200 of the 9,300 reported cases have been confirmed. The highest rate of tuberculosis in four decades was reached in 2017. In 2014, there were 6,000 reported cases of tuberculosis; preliminary data shows more than 13,000 for 2017.In 2014, shortages of antiretroviral medicines to treat HIV/AIDS affected about 50,000 Venezuelans, potentially causing thousands of Venezuelans with HIV to develop AIDS.NEWS, Venezuela Faces Health Crisis Amid Shortage of HIV/Aids Medication,latino.foxnews.com/latino/health/2014/05/14/venezuela-faces-health-crisis-amid-shortage-hivaids-medication/, 31 August 2014, Fox News Latino, 14 May 2014,latino.foxnews.com/latino/health/2014/05/14/venezuela-faces-health-crisis-amid-shortage-hivaids-medication/," title="web.archive.org/web/20140903210356latino.foxnews.com/latino/health/2014/05/14/venezuela-faces-health-crisis-amid-shortage-hivaids-medication/,">web.archive.org/web/20140903210356latino.foxnews.com/latino/health/2014/05/14/venezuela-faces-health-crisis-amid-shortage-hivaids-medication/, 3 September 2014, dead, In 2018, PAHO estimated that 90% of Venezuelans who had HIV and were registered by the government—69,308 of the 79,467 registered—were not receiving antiretroviral treatment. The PAHO report estimated that in six years, new HIV cases grew by 24% through 2016, after which the government stopped providing data. NPR reported: “New HIV infections and AIDS-related deaths have increased sharply, in large part because the vast majority of HIV-positive Venezuelans no longer have access to antiretroviral medications.” Because of a shortage of HIV test kits, there may be more people who have HIV but are not aware. The HRW/Johns Hopkins report says: “Venezuela is the only country in the world where large numbers of individuals living with HIV have been forced to discontinue their treatment as a result of the lack of availability of antiretroviral (ARV) medicines.“In late 2014, Venezuelans began saying that due to shortages of medicines, it was hard to find acetaminophen to help alleviate symptoms of the newly introduced chikungunya virus, a potentially lethal mosquito-borne disease.NEWS, Forero, Juan, Venezuela Seeks to Quell Fears of Disease Outbreak,www.wsj.com/articles/venezuela-seeks-to-quell-fears-of-disease-outbreak-1411409327, 24 September 2014, The Wall Street Journal, 22 September 2014, In September 2014, the Venezuelan government stated that 400 Venezuelans were infected with chikungunya;NEWS, Venezuela’s Maduro denounces “psychological war” waged by opposition,elpais.com/elpais/2014/09/19/inenglish/1411136258_789165.html, El Pais, 19 September 2014, Lobo-Guerrero, Catalina, 8 April 2019, the Central University of Venezuela stated that there could be between 65,000 and 117,000 Venezuelans infected.NEWS, Wade, Lizzie, In Venezuela, doctor flees after being accused of terrorism amid fever outbreak,www.science.org/content/article/venezuela-doctor-flees-after-being-accused-terrorism-amid-fever-outbreak, 28 September 2014, Science, 23 September 2014, In August 2015 independent health monitors said that there were more than two million people infected with chikungunya while the government said there were 36,000 cases.COVID-19 pandemicAs a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, which reached Venezuela in March 2020, costs for services such as internet and telephone lines rose between 80% and 749%,NEWS, Pons, Corina,www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-venezuela-economy/cash-strapped-venezuela-hikes-public-service-fees-amid-coronavirus-outbreak-idUSKBN2162EG, Cash-strapped Venezuela hikes public service fees amid coronavirus outbreak, 19 March 2020, Reuters, 20 March 2020, further limiting access to these utilities. Shortages of beds and essential medical equipment, such as latex gloves and antibiotics, have severely limited the capabilities of the country’s medical infrastructure.WEB,www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/17/mask-gown-gloves-none-of-that-exists-venezuelas-coronavirus-crisis, ‘Mask, gown, gloves – none of that exists’: Venezuela’s coronavirus crisis, 17 March 2020, The Guardian, en, 20 March 2020, WEB, Venezuela: The Rise and Fall of a Petrostate,www.cfr.org/backgrounder/venezuela-crisis, 2024-02-19, Council on Foreign Relations, en, In April 2020 the Venezuelan government asked the Bank of England to sell $US1.02 billion of the Venezuelan gold reserves held by the bank to help the government fund its response to the COVID-19 pandemic. This was followed on 14 May by a legal claim by the Venezuelan Central Bank (BCV) asking the Bank of England to send the proceeds of the sale of gold to the United Nations Development Programme. The claim stated that the funds would then be used to buy healthcare equipment, medicine, and food to address the country’s “COVID-19 emergency”.NEWS, Venezuela files claim for the Bank of England to hand over $1.5bn of its gold,www.abc.net.au/news/2020-05-21/venezuela-wants-bank-of-england-to-hand-over-gold-covid19/12269474, 21 May 2020, Reuters, Australian Broadcasting Corporation, 21 May 2020, The UK Foreign Office had previously agreed to a request from the Trump administration to block the release of Venezuela’s gold.NEWS, Wintour, Patrick, UK court overturns ruling on $1.8bn of Venezuelan gold,www.theguardian.com/world/2020/oct/05/uk-court-overturns-ruling-on-18bn-of-venezuelan-gold, 4 August 2021, The Guardian, 5 October 2020, en, In July 2020, the UK High Court ruled that the gold could not be released to the BCV because the UK government recognised Juan Guaidó as the “constitutional interim president of Venezuela”. However, in October 2020, an appeals court overturned the High Court decision and asked the UK Foreign Office to clarify who it recognised as president of Venezuela. The Guardian wrote that the position of the UK government was unclear as it “maintains full consular and diplomatic relations with the Venezuela government”. {{update inline|date=April 2021}}Women, maternal and infantIn 2016, infant mortality increased 30% in one year, to 11,466 deaths of children under the age of one. By 2019, the UN reported that infant mortality had “soared”.NEWS,www.theguardian.com/global-development/2019/feb/27/infant-mortality-in-venezuela-has-doubled-during-crisis-un-says-politicised-aid, Infant mortality in Venezuela has soared during crisis, UN says, Beaumont, Peter, 27 February 2019, The Guardian, 13 March 2019, 0261-3077, “Venezuela is the only South American country where infant mortality has returned to levels last seen in the 1990s”, according to the HRW/Johns Hopkins report. Maternal mortality also increased 65% in one year, to 756 deaths.NEWS,www.reuters.com/article/us-venezuela-health-idUSKBN185260, Infant mortality and malaria soar in Venezuela, according to government data, Ulmer, Alexandra, 9 May 2017, 14 April 2018, Reuters, Abortion is illegal in Venezuela;NEWS,www.abc.es/internacional/abci-crisis-humanitaria-dispara-abortos-clandestinos-venezuela-201904050234_noticia.html, ABC Spain, es, 5 April 2019, 7 April 2019, La crisis humanitaria dispara los abortos clandestinos en Venezuela, The humanitarian crisis triggers clandestine abortions in Venezuela, Rojas, Ymaru, the director of a large family planning clinic in Venezuela indicated that more women are arranging for permanent sterilization, and that more are presenting with “complications from clandestine abortions”. One of the causes, according to the Venezuelan Association for Alternative Sexual Education, is the severe shortage of oral and injectable contraceptives and intrauterine devices.The HRW/Johns Hopkins report states that the more than 454,000 Venezuelan women who have emigrated to Colombia face ‘threats of sexual exploitation and abuse, trafficking, and sexual and reproductive rights violations”; violence based on gender accounted for more than 12% of 2018 health-care events, and indigenous women may be at higher risk.Venezuelan women emigrating are at risk for becoming sex trafficking targets virtually anywhere they flee to. Cases of trafficking in Peru, the United States, Spain, and Colombia display the highest numbers.WEB,www.cigionline.org/sites/default/files/documents/CIGI_IAD_Venezuela_report-English-final.pdf, No strangers at the gate Collective Responsibility and a Region’s Response to the Venezuelan Refugee and Migration Crisis, 5 December 2019,Pregnancy and motherhoodDue to lack of medical supplies, food and medical care in Venezuelan hospitals, many pregnant women in Venezuela are crossing the border into neighboring countries to give birth.WEB, Many Pregnant Women Are Among Those Leaving Venezuela, NPR.org, NPR, 19 November 2019,www.npr.org/2019/03/30/708405590/many-pregnant-women-are-among-those-leaving-venezuela, Lack of basic medicine and equipment is causing preventable deaths and maternity is a very high risk for women, especially since there are no blood banks in the event of excessive bleeding.WEB, As Venezuela’s Healthcare Collapses, Pregnant Women, Girls Bear Brunt of Crisis, Reuters, 8 July 2019,www.reuters.com/article/us-venezuela-health-women-idUSKCN1U32AS, Hospitals frequently have water and electricity outages and only 7% of emergency services are fully operative.WEB, Thomson Reuters Foundation, As Venezuela’s Health System Crumbles, Pregnant Women Flee to Colombia, PopConnect (blog), 19 November 2019,www.populationconnection.org/article/venezuela-pregnant-colombia/, 10 December 2019,web.archive.org/web/20191210045127/https://www.populationconnection.org/article/venezuela-pregnant-colombia/, dead, Maternal mortality is estimated to have increased by 65% from 2013 to 2016, and unsafe abortions have contributed to 20% of preventable maternal deaths. According to Amnesty International, causes of the increase in maternal deaths include a lack of medical personnel and supplies like anticoagulants, scar healing cream, painkillers, antibiotics, antiseptics, and other tools and equipment.WEB, Fleeing the Country to Give Birth: The Exodus of Pregnant Venezuelan Women, 6 May 2018, 19 November 2019,www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2018/05/huir-para-ver-la-luz-el-exodo-de-las-embarazadas-venezolanas/, Amnesty International,StatelessnessCúcuta, a city on the Colombian-Venezuela border, has received 14,000 Venezuelan patients at the Erasmo Meoz University Hospital since 2016 and is expecting to receive even more. In this hospital, 75% of the newborns born in the first two months of the year 2019 were Venezuelans.WEB, One Risky Birth Shows How Venezuela’s Refugees Are Straining Neighboring Countries, Bloomberg, 3 April 2019,www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2019-04-03/one-risky-birth-shows-how-venezuela-s-diaspora-strains-its-neighbors, The situation has strained the budget of these hospitals, putting Erasmo Meoz 14 million dollars into debt. While Colombia is the most impacted since it shares a border, women are also traveling to Brazil to give birth.WEB, Venezuelan Mothers-to-Be Head to Brazil to Give Birth, Reuters, 22 August 2018,www.reuters.com/article/us-venezuela-migration-brazil-babies-idUSKCN1L713K, The number of births of Venezuelan babies attended to in Boa Vista, Brazil, has increased from 700 in 2014 to 50,000 in 2017. Venezuelan mothers have also been fleeing to neighboring Peru and Ecuador.NEWS, Carlos Garcia, Rawlins, Venezuelan Mothers, Children in Tow, Rush to Migrate, The Wider Image, 9 December 2019,widerimage.reuters.com/story/venezuelan-mothers-children-in-tow-rush-to-migrate, WEB, Venezuelan Voices—A Spiraling Regional Crisis Hits Ecuador, 18 September 2018, ReliefWeb, 9 December 2019,reliefweb.int/report/ecuador/venezuelan-voices-spiraling-regional-crisis-hits-ecuador, For Colombian citizenship it is required that Colombian citizens be born to at least one Colombian parent or be born to foreign parents who meet residence requirements and are eligible to become citizens.WEB, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Colombia Gives Venezuela Newborns a Start in Life, 19 November 2019,www.unhcr.org/news/stories/2019/10/5da42be64/colombia-gives-venezuela-newborns-start-life.html, Due to the influx of Venezuelan babies being born in Colombia and the Venezuelan government’s inability to issue citizenship, Colombia has introduced a new measure that will give these Colombian-born newborns Colombian citizenship to avoid ‘statelessness’. The measure went into effect August 2019 and includes babies of Venezuelan parents born in Colombia starting in January 2015, having given citizenship to approximately 27,000 babies born in Colombia over the past four years.Mental healthFollowing the Bolivarian Revolution, the rate of suicide among Venezuelans quadrupled over two decades, with hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans dying from suicide during the period according to the Venezuelan Observatory of Violence.WEB,www.laprensalara.com.ve/2019/05/crisis-aumenta-tasa-de-suicidios/, Crisis incrementa tasa de suicidios, Orozco, Jennifer, 9 May 2019, La Prensa de Lara, es-ES, 10 May 2019, 10 May 2019,web.archive.org/web/20190510003514/https://www.laprensalara.com.ve/2019/05/crisis-aumenta-tasa-de-suicidios/, dead, As a result of the crisis, stressors resulting in suicide included economic burden, hunger and loneliness due to the emigration of relatives.In 2015, concerns about shortages and inflation overtook violent crime as Venezuelans’ main worry for the first time in years according to pollster Datanálisis. The chief executive of Datanálisis, Luis Vicente Leon, said that Venezuelans had greater concerns over shortages and became preoccupied with the difficulties surrounding them instead. Eldar Shafir, author and American behavioral scientist, said that the psychological “obsession” with finding scarce goods in Venezuela is because the rarity of the item makes it “precious”.NEWS,www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-32703081?post_id=10153294095088398_10153347897658398, Why Venezuelans worry more about food than crime, Pardo, Daniel, 27 May 2015, 31 May 2015, BBC News, In 2016, reporters from The New York Times visited six psychiatric wards across the Venezuela at the invitation of doctors; all reported shortages of medicine and even food. In the investigation, they reported that El Pampero Hospital had not employed a psychiatrist in two years, and that it only had running water for only a few hours a day. The hospital, the article said, also suffered from shortages of basic personal-care and cleaning supplies, such as soap, shampoo, toothpaste or toilet paper. The nurses declared that without sedatives, they had to restrain patients or lock them in isolation cells to keep them from harming themselves. The reporters also noted that the government had denied that its public hospitals were suffering from shortages, and had refused multiple offers of international medical aid.NEWS,www.nytimes.com/video/world/americas/100000004818146/agony-in-a-venezuelan-mental-health-hospital.html, Inside Venezuela’s Crumbling Mental Hospitals, Kohut, Meridith, 1 October 2016, The New York Times, 18 November 2019, Casey, Nicholas, Despite the threat of violent protests, the economic crisis affected children more than violence. Abel Saraiba, a psychologist with children’s rights organization Cecodap said in 2017, “We have children from a very early age who are having to think about how to survive”, with half of her young clients requiring treatment because of the crisis. Children are often forced to stand in food lines or beg with their parents, while the games they play with other children revolve around finding food.NEWS,lta.reuters.com/article/topNews/idLTAKBN1CA1PY-OUSLT,lta.reuters.com/article/topNews/idLTAKBN1CA1PY-OUSLT," title="web.archive.org/web/20171005164516lta.reuters.com/article/topNews/idLTAKBN1CA1PY-OUSLT,">web.archive.org/web/20171005164516lta.reuters.com/article/topNews/idLTAKBN1CA1PY-OUSLT, dead, 5 October 2017, Enforque—La agitación polÃtica y la escasez pasan factura psicológica a los niños de Venezuela, Ulmer, Alexandra, 5 October 2017, Reuters, 6 October 2017, es-LA, Friends of the Child Foundation psychologist Ninoska Zambrano said that children are offering sexual services for food. Zambrano said “Families are doing things that not only lead them to break physically, but in general, socially, we are being morally broken”.NEWS,elcooperante.com/sexo-por-comida-las-ninas-venezolanas-que-se-prostituyen-por-un-bocado/, Sexo por comida: las niñas venezolanas que se prostituyen para saciar el hambre {{!, El Cooperante|date=1 November 2017|work=El Cooperante|access-date=2 November 2017|language=es-ES}}In 2017, suicide increased by 67% among the elderly and 18% among minors; by 2018, reports emerged of a rapidly increasing suicide rate due to the stressors surrounding the crisis.WEB,www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2018-10-24/suicides-surge-in-a-hopeless-venezuela, Suicides Surge in a Hopeless Venezuela, 24 October 2018, Bloomberg.com, Bloomberg, 30 October 2018,Medical care and electionsMission Barrio Adentro was a program established by Chávez to bring medical care to poor neighborhoods; it was staffed by Cubans that were sent to Venezuela in exchange for petroleum. The New York Times interviewed sixteen Cuban medical professionals in 2019 who had worked for Barrio Adentro prior to the 2018 Venezuelan presidential elections; all sixteen revealed that they were required to participate in voting fraud.NEWS,www.nytimes.com/2019/03/17/world/americas/venezuela-cuban-doctors.html, The New York Times, ‘It is unspeakable’: How Maduro used Cuban doctors to coerce Venezuela voters, 17 March 2019, 18 March 2019, Some of the Cubans said that “command centers” for elections were placed near clinics to facilitate “dispatching doctors to pressure residents”. Some tactics reported by the Cubans were unrelated to their profession: they were given counterfeit cards to vote even though they were not eligible voters, they witnessed vote tampering when officials opening ballot boxes and destroyed ballots, and they were told to instruct easily manipulated elderly patients in how to vote.But they also “described a system of deliberate political manipulation”; their services as medical professionals “were wielded to secure votes for the governing Socialist Party, often through coercion”, they told The New York Times. Facing a shortage of supplies and medicine, they were instructed to withhold treatment–even for emergencies–so supplies and treatment could be “doled out closer to the election, part of a national strategy to compel patients to vote for the government”. They reported that life-saving treatment was denied to patients who supported the opposition. As the election neared, they were sent door-to-door, on house visits with a political purpose: “to hand out medicine and enlist voters for Venezuela’s Socialist Party”. Patients were warned that they could lose their medical care if they did not vote for the socialist party, and that, if Maduro lost, ties would be broken with Cuba, and Venezuelans would lose all medical care. Patients with chronic conditions, at risk of death if they couldn’t get medicine, were a particular focus of these tactics. One said that government officials were posing as doctors to make these house calls before elections; ‘We, the doctors, were asked to give our extra robes to people. The fake doctors were even giving out medicines, without knowing what they were or how to use them,” he said.Housing(File:El ParaÃso tunnel main gate of Caracas.jpg|thumb|300px|Slums in Caracas seen above El ParaÃso tunnel)Since the mid-2000s during Chávez’s presidency, Venezuela has had a housing crisis.NEWS,www.nytimes.com/2011/03/01/world/americas/01venezuela.html, CARACAS JOURNAL; In Venezuela Housing Crisis, Squatters Find 45-Story Walkup, Romero, Simon, MarÃa Eugenia DÃaz, 1 March 2011, The New York Times, 3 March 2011, In 2005, the Venezuelan Construction Chamber (CVC) estimated that there was a shortage of 1.6 million homes, with only 10,000 of 120,000 promised homes constructed by Chávez’s government despite billions of dollars in investments.NEWS, Morales, Magdalena, Venezuelan housing shortage a headache for Chavez,www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/15/AR2005111501993_pf.html, 27 January 2017, The Washington Post, 15 November 2005, Poor Venezuelans attempted to construct homes on their own despite structural risks.By 2011, there was a housing shortage of 2 million homes, with nearly twenty prime developments being occupied by squatters following Chávez’s call for the poor to occupy “unused land”.NEWS, Venezuela’s housing crisis,www.reuters.com/news/picture/venezuelas-housing-crisis?articleId=USRTR2N8QB, 27 January 2017, Reuters, 3 June 2011, Up to 2011, only 500,000 homes were constructed during the Chávez administration, with over two-thirds of the new housing developments being built by private companies; his government provided about the same amount of housing as previous administrations. Housing shortages were further exacerbated when private construction halted due to the fear of property expropriations and because of the government’s inability to construct and provide housing. Urban theorist and author Mike Davis said in July 2011 to The Guardian, “Despite official rhetoric, the Bolivarianist regime has undertaken no serious redistribution of wealth in the cities and oil revenues pay for too many other programmes and subsidies to leave room for new housing construction.“NEWS, Lopez, Virginia, Tallest squat in the world becomes emblem of Venezuela housing crisis,www.theguardian.com/world/2011/jul/20/worlds-tallest-squat-caracas-venezuela, 27 January 2017, The Guardian, 20 July 2011, By 2012, a shortage of building materials also disrupted construction, with metal production at a 16-year low.NEWS, Baral, Susimita, Abandoned Cars To Solve Venezuela’s Housing Crisis?,www.latintimes.com/venezuela-housing-shortage-nicolas-maduro-announces-abandoned-cars-will-be-turned-homes-171317, 27 January 2017, Latin Times, 6 May 2014, By the end of Chávez’s presidency in 2013, the number of Venezuelans in inadequate housing had grown to 3 million.Under the Maduro government, housing shortages continued to worsen. Maduro announced in 2014 that due to the shortage of steel, abandoned cars and other vehicles would be acquired by the government and melted to provide rebar for housing. In April 2014, Maduro ruled by decree that Venezuelans who owned three or more rental properties would be forced by the government to sell their rental units at a set price or they would face fines or have their property possessed by the government.NEWS, Gallegos, Raul, In Venezuela, Sell Your House or Lose It,www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2014-04-02/in-venezuela-sell-your-house-or-lose-it, 27 January 2017, Bloomberg View, 2 April 2014, By 2016, residents of government-provided housing, who were usually supporters of the government, began protesting due to the lack of utilities and food.NEWS, Gibbs, Stephen, In Venezuela’s housing projects, even loyalists have had enough,www.theguardian.com/world/2016/may/21/venezuela-unrest-chavistas-maduro-protests-shortages, 27 January 2017, The Guardian, 21 May 2016,SocialCrime{{more|Crime in Venezuela|Colectivo (Venezuela)}}File:1998 to 2018 Venezuela Murder Rate.png|thumb|300px|Murder rate (murder per 100,000 citizens) from 1998 to 2018.Sources: OVV,WEB, Observatorio Venezolano de Violencia,observatoriodeviolencia.org.ve/ws/, Observatorio Venezolano de Violencia (OVV), 16 December 2014, dead,observatoriodeviolencia.org.ve/ws/," title="web.archive.org/web/20141216122638observatoriodeviolencia.org.ve/ws/,">web.archive.org/web/20141216122638observatoriodeviolencia.org.ve/ws/, 16 December 2014, NEWS, Rueda, Manuel, How did Venezuela become so violent?,fusion.net/story/4593/how-did-venezuela-become-so-violent/, 16 December 2014, Fusion TV, 8 January 2014, PROVEA,WEB, Global study on homicide, 2011,www.unodc.org/documents/data-and-analysis/statistics/Homicide/Globa_study_on_homicide_2011_web.pdf, United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), 16 December 2014, WEB, Global study on homicide, 2014,www.unodc.org/documents/gsh/pdfs/2014_GLOBAL_HOMICIDE_BOOK_web.pdf, United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), 16 December 2014, UN;NEWS, Global homicide rates drop, but nearly 500,000 murdered in 2012,news.yahoo.com/global-homicide-rates-drop-nearly-500-000-murdered-143539493.html, 16 December 2014, Yahoo, Agence France-PresseAgence France-PresseEscalating violent crime, especially murder, had been called “perhaps the biggest concern” of Venezuelans during the crisis.NEWS, Manetto, Francesco, Los venezolanos creen vivir en el paÃs más peligroso del mundo,elpais.com/internacional/2018/06/07/colombia/1528350157_004846.html, 15 February 2019, El PaÃs, 7 June 2018, es, Venezuelans believe they live in the most dangerous country in the world, Venezuela had “by various measures, the world’s highest violent-crime rate” in 2017, and almost none of crimes that were reported were prosecuted.MAGAZINE,www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/11/14/venezuela-a-failing-state, Venezuela, a failing state, Finnegan, William, 14 November 2016, The New Yorker, 1 May 2017, InSight Crime says the crisis has “all too often been obscured by the government’s reluctance to release damning crime statistics”.WEB,www.insightcrime.org/news/brief/reports-of-kidnapping-in-venezuela-near-double-in-2016/, Reports of kidnapping in Venezuela nearly double in 2016, Bargent, James, 30 September 2016, InSight Crime, 8 April 2019, The New Yorker reporter found that even stairwells in a public hospital were not safe from robbers, who preyed on staff and patients despite the large number of security forces guarding the hospital, saying this was because the police were assigned to contain journalists who might embarrass the government with exposés on the state of the hospital; they were not assigned to protect its occupants. The police allegedly collaborated with the robbers receiving a cut of what they stole.According to The U.S. Bureau of Diplomatic Security, street gang violence, “corrupt” underpaid police officers, “an inefficient and politicized judicial system”, an extremely troubled prison system, and an increased widespread of weaponry has resulted in the majority of criminal activity in Venezuela, with murder being the crime committed the most.WEB,www.osac.gov/Pages/ContentReportDetails.aspx?cid=23791, Overseas Security Advisory Council, Bureau of Diplomatic Security, U.S. Department of State, Venezuela 2018 Crime & Safety Report, 2 April 2018, 8 April 2019, The Bureau states that there were 73 daily violent deaths in 2018, and that the government “often attempts to refute or repudiate reports of increasing crime and murder rates; however, independent observers widely reject” the Venezuelan government’s claims. The government says there were 60 daily homicides in 2016, and 45 daily in 2015, corresponding with Venezuela’s downward economic spiral; the OVV says the numbers are higher.For 2015, the government says the rate of homicides was 70.1 per 100,000 people. The Venezuelan Observatory of Violence (OVV) says the rate was 91.8 homicides per 100,000 people (in 2015, the comparative U.S. number was 4.9 per 100,000 inhabitants).NEWS,www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/venezuela-s-violence-seen-killing-carolina-herrera-s-nephew-n761201, Venezuela’s escalating violence seen in killing of Carolina Herrera’s nephew, NBC News, 18 May 2017, 8 April 2019, Sesin, Carmen, According to the World Bank, the 2016 homicide rate was 56 per 100,000, making Venezuela third in the world, after El Salvador and Honduras. OVV data has 23,047 homicides committed in Venezuela in 2018, a rate of 81.4 per 100,000 people, with the decline being attributed to emigration.NEWS, Venezuela murder rate dips, partly due to migration: monitoring group,www.reuters.com/article/us-venezuela-crime/venezuela-murder-rate-dips-partly-due-to-migration-monitoring-group-idUSKCN1OQ1GJ, Reuters, 27 December 2018, According to the Los Angeles Times,... carjack gangs set up ambushes, sometimes laying down nail-embedded strips to puncture tires of vehicles ferrying potential quarry. Motorists speak matter-of-factly of spotting body parts along roadways. ... While most crime victims are poor, they also include members of the middle and upper classes and scores of police and military personnel killed each year, sometimes for their weapons. ... “Before the thieves would only rob you,” is a common refrain here in the capital. “Now they kill you.“NEWS,www.latimes.com/world/mexico-americas/la-fg-venezuela-violence-20160605-snap-story.html, Los Angeles Times, 6 June 2016, 8 April 2019, The biggest worry in crisis-ridden Venezuela: crime, McDonnell, Patrick J, As a response to the high rate of crime, the Venezuelan government banned private ownership of firearms by some individuals in 2012.NEWS,www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-18288430, Venezuela bans private gun owners, 1 June 2012, BBC News, 7 December 2018, WEB, 2012-05-30, Venezuela le declara la guerra a las armas,www.bbc.com/mundo/noticias/2012/06/120530_venezuela_armas_prohibicion_venta_az, 2021-10-25, BBC News Mundo, es, NEWS, Primera, Maye, 2012-06-01, Venezuela prohÃbe la venta de armas a la población civil, es, El PaÃs,elpais.com/internacional/2012/06/01/actualidad/1338542574_088241.html, 2021-10-25, 1134-6582, El PaÃs reported in 2014 that Chávez had years earlier assigned colectivos to be “the armed wing of the Bolivarian Revolution” for the Venezuelan government, giving them weapons, communication systems, motorcycles and surveillance equipment to exercise control in the hills of Caracas where police are forbidden entry.NEWS, Asà operan los ‘colectivos’, las fuerzas paramilitares chavistas de Venezuela, This is how the ‘collectives’, the Venezuelan Chavista paramilitary forces, operate,www.elpais.com.co/elpais/internacional/noticias/asi-operan-colectivos-fuerzas-paramilitares-chavistas-venezuela, 20 March 2014, El Pais, 23 February 2014,web.archive.org/web/20190407084447/https://www.elpais.com.co/elpais/internacional/noticias/asi-operan-colectivos-fuerzas-paramilitares-chavistas-venezuela, 7 April 2019, dead, In 2006, they received arms and funding from the state when they were brought under the government’s community councils. Chávez eliminated the Metropolitan Police in 2011, turning security over to the colectivos in some Caracas barrios. Some weapons given to the groups include assault rifles, submachine guns and grenades. Despite the Venezuelan government’s statements saying that only official authorities can carry weapons for the defense of Venezuela, colectivos are armed with automatic rifles such as AK-47s, submachine guns, fragmentation grenades, and tear gas.WEB, Gurney, Kyra, Venezuela’s Leftist Collectives: Criminals or Revolutionaries?,www.insightcrime.com/news-analysis/venezuela-leftist-collectives-criminals-or-revolutionaries, InSight Crime, 1 December 2014,www.insightcrime.com/news-analysis/venezuela-leftist-collectives-criminals-or-revolutionaries," title="web.archive.org/web/20141126194119www.insightcrime.com/news-analysis/venezuela-leftist-collectives-criminals-or-revolutionaries,">web.archive.org/web/20141126194119www.insightcrime.com/news-analysis/venezuela-leftist-collectives-criminals-or-revolutionaries, 26 November 2014, NEWS, Markovits, Martin and Manuel Rueda, Venezuela election is a high stakes affair for local vigilante groups,abcnews.go.com/ABC_Univision/ABC_Univision/venezuela-election-high-stakes-affair-local-vigilante-groups/story?id=18822407&singlePage=true, 1 December 2014, ABC News, 27 March 2013, File:Number of kidnappings in Venezuela 1989 to present (Presidents).png|thumb|300px | Cuerpo de Investigaciones CientÃficas, Penales y CriminalÃsticas>CICPCWEB,www.oas.org/dsp/documentos/Publicaciones/Seg Publica- Venezuela y Bolivia.pdf, SeguridadPúblicayPrivada VenezuelayBolivia, Oas.org, 30 March 2015, WEB,issuu.com/lexys/docs/fact_sheet_paz_activa/1, Venezuela: GravÃsima Crisis de Seguridad Pública, Rendon, Lexys, ISSUU.com, 11 September 2011, 30 March 2015, WEB,www.eluniversal.com/sucesos/120104/segun-el-cicpc-el-2011-cerro-con-1150-secuestros-en-todo-el-pais, Según el Cicpc el 2011 cerró con 1.150 secuestros en todo el paÃs – Sucesos, Eluniversal.com, 4 January 2012, 30 March 2015,www.eluniversal.com/sucesos/120104/segun-el-cicpc-el-2011-cerro-con-1150-secuestros-en-todo-el-pais," title="web.archive.org/web/20120108102223www.eluniversal.com/sucesos/120104/segun-el-cicpc-el-2011-cerro-con-1150-secuestros-en-todo-el-pais,">web.archive.org/web/20120108102223www.eluniversal.com/sucesos/120104/segun-el-cicpc-el-2011-cerro-con-1150-secuestros-en-todo-el-pais, 8 January 2012, Isoliett Iglesias, Maria, Note: Express kidnappingExpress kidnappingDuring the 2014 Venezuelan protests against Maduro, colectivos acted against the opposition protesters.NEWS, Colectivos de paz accionan armas de fuego en la Rómulo Gallegos ante mirada de la GNB,www.lapatilla.com/site/2014/02/19/colectivos-de-paz-accionan-armas-de-fuego-en-la-romulo-gallegos-ante-mirada-de-la-gnb/, 19 February 2014, La Patilla, 19 February 2014, As the crisis intensified, armed gangs have taken control of cities. The Civil Association for Citizen Control said that more than half of those killed during the protests were killed by colectivos.WEB, Colectivos estarÃan involucrados e12 homicidios 25/03/14Caracas.,www.controlciudadano.org/noticias/detalle.php?¬id=12494, Asociacion Civil Control Ciudadano, 26 March 2014, 31 March 2014,www.controlciudadano.org/noticias/detalle.php?¬id=12494," title="web.archive.org/web/20140331101634www.controlciudadano.org/noticias/detalle.php?¬id=12494,">web.archive.org/web/20140331101634www.controlciudadano.org/noticias/detalle.php?¬id=12494, dead, Human Rights Watch described colectivos as “armed gangs who use violence with impunity” to harass political opponents of the Venezuelan government.NEWS, Wallis, Dan, Venezuela violence puts focus on militant ‘colectivo’ groups,www.reuters.com/article/venezuela-protests-colectivos-idUSL2N0LI14W20140213, 13 February 2014, 20 March 2014, WEB, Tapia Reynolds, Gioconda, Venezuela marcada por la violencia,www.voanoticias.com/content/hrw-venezuela-derechos-vivanco-violaciones-oposicion/2499273.html, Voice of America, 28 October 2014, 28 October 2014, Amnesty International calls them “armed pro-government supporters who are tolerated or supported by the authorities”.WEB,www.amnestyusa.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/Venezuela-Nights-of-Terror-Briefing-ENG.pdf, Nights of terror: Attacks and illegal raids on homes in Venezuela, 2017, Amnesty International, 28 February 2019, During the 2019 Venezuelan blackouts in March, Maduro called on the armed paramilitary gangs, saying, “The time has come for active resistance”.NEWS,www.theguardian.com/world/2019/mar/12/nicolas-maduro-blames-demonic-trump-plot-for-blackout-crippling-venezuela, US pulls all staff from Venezuela as Maduro blames blackout on ‘demonic’ Trump plot, The Guardian, 12 March 2019, 13 March 2019, Phillips, Tom, As blackouts continued, on 31 March, citizens protested the lack of electricity and water in Caracas and other cities; Maduro called again on the colectivos, asking them “to defend the peace of every barrio, of every block”. Videos circulated on social media showing colectivos threatening protesters and shooting in the streets;NEWS,www.washingtonpost.com/world/the_americas/venezuelas-maduro-announces-power-rationing-amid-outages/2019/03/31/fea7e582-5425-11e9-aa83-504f086bf5d6_story.html,web.archive.org/web/20190401033914/https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the_americas/venezuelas-maduro-announces-power-rationing-amid-outages/2019/03/31/fea7e582-5425-11e9-aa83-504f086bf5d6_story.html, dead, 1 April 2019, Venezuela’s Maduro announces power rationing amid outages, Torchia, Christopher, 1 April 2019, The Washington Post, 1 April 2019, two protestors were shot.NEWS,www.theguardian.com/world/2019/apr/01/maduro-venezuela-colectivos-electricity-power-rationing, Venezuela: Maduro calls on armed groups to keep order amid electricity rationing, Phillips, Tom, 1 April 2019, The Guardian, 1 April 2019, 0261-3077, There is no reliable data on kidnapping in Venezuela and available data is considered an underestimate; it is against the law to pay ransom, and according to criminologists, at least 80% of kidnappings are not reported for fear of retaliation, or because relatives prefer to negotiate, hoping the hostage will be released and fearing they will be killed if authorities are contacted. Available data underestimates the amount of express kidnapping, where victims are typically released in less than two days after relatives pay a quick ransom. Most express kidnapping victims are released, but in 2016, 18 were killed. At least 80% of kidnappings occur in a limited area around Caracas and including Miranda State. In the areas where most kidnappings occur, the government set up so-called “peace zones” where official police withdrew and gangs took over; “experts say the government has armed these groups ... [who] ... control large territories, financed through extortion and the drug trade”.Illegal mining creates pools of standing water that encourage mosquito breeding, a partial cause of the increase in malaria seen in Venezuela.The murder rate in Venezuela had also decreased significantly between 2017 and 2019. In 2018, Venezuela’s murder rate–described as the highest in the world–had begun to decrease to 81.4 per 100,000 people according to the Venezuelan Violence Observatory (OVV), with the organization stating that this downward trend was due to the millions of Venezuelans that emigrated from the country at the time.NEWS,www.reuters.com/article/us-venezuela-crime-idUSKCN1OQ1GJ, Venezuela murder rate dips, partly due to migration: monitoring group, 27 December 2018, Reuters, 10 April 2019, en, The murder rate declined even further to 60.3 in 2019.WEB,www.infobae.com/america/venezuela/2019/12/27/venezuela-otra-vez-el-pais-mas-peligroso-del-mundo-registro-16506-muertes-violentas-en-2019/, Venezuela, otra vez el paÃs más peligroso de América Latina: registró 16.506 muertes violentas en 2019, 27 December 2019, Infobae, es-ES, 27 December 2019, Human rights{{further|Human rights in Venezuela#Civil and political rights}}(File:Venezuela’s arbitrary detentions per Foro Penal.png|thumb|300px|Arbitrary detentions in Venezuela between 2014 and 2019 according to Foro Penal. Arrests by year in blue and total arrests in red.)Repression and politically motivated detentions have risen to record levels in 2019.NEWS, Political detentions climbing amid worsening Venezuela crisis, The Washington Post, ProQuest, 12 April 2019, Hernández, Arelis R. and Mariana Zuñiga, Foro Penal states that Venezuela has at least 900 political prisoners as of April 2019, with more arrests of people being held longer in poor conditions and on dubious charges. The human rights organization has documented more than 50 instances that include “sexual abuse, strangulation using plastic bags and the use of razor blades to cut detainees’ feet”. In the first three months of 2019, Foro Penal says 1,712 people were arrested and about two-thirds of those were held for more than 48 hours, the threshold used to classify a detainee as a political prisoner. Maduro calls those arrested members of “terrorist groups” and says his government will not hesitate to send them to prison. Juan Requesens and Roberto Marrero are examples of “purely political” arrests, according to their attorney. Increasingly high numbers of the detainees are working-class people, who have been driven to protest by the crisis.The final published report addressed the extrajudicial executions, torture, forced disappearances and other human rights violations reportedly committed by Venezuelan security forces in the recent years.NEWS, 5 July 2019, On Venezuelan independence day, Maduro calls for dialogue as Guaido slams ‘dictatorship’, Reuters,www.reuters.com/article/us-venezuela-politics-idUSKCN1U022E, 10 July 2019, Bachelet expressed her concerns for the “shockingly high” number of extrajudicial killings and urged for the dissolution of the FAES.WEB, 5 July 2019, UN report cites ‘shockingly high’ number of likely ‘executions’ in Venezuela,www.france24.com/en/20190705-venezuela-united-nations-report-michelle-bachelet-human-rights, 10 July 2019, France 24, According to the report, 1,569 cases of executions as consequence as a result of “resistance to authority” were registered by the Venezuelan authorities from 1 January to 19 March. Other 52 deaths that occurred during 2019 protests were attributed to colectivos.WEB, 4 July 2019, UN human rights chief ‘hopeful’ Venezuelan authorities are ready to address violations, calls for dialogue,news.un.org/en/story/2019/07/1041902, 10 July 2019, UN News, The report also details how the Venezuelan government “aimed at neutralising, repressing and criminalising political opponents and people critical of the government” since 2016.On 16 September 2020, the United Nations Fact Finding Mission on Venezuela accused the Maduro government of crimes against humanity.WEB, Geneva, Staff and agencies in, 2020-09-16, Venezuela: UN accuses Maduro government of crimes against humanity,www.theguardian.com/world/2020/sep/16/venezuela-un-report-crimes-against-humanity-maduro-government, 2020-09-18, The Guardian, en, On 15 February 2024, the Maduro government closed the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights office in Caracas after High Commissioner Volker Türk condemned the detention of activist RocÃo San Miguel, demanding “her immediate release and respect for her right to legal defense”. Maduro’s government expelled its officials, giving them 72 hours to leave the country.WEB, 2024-02-15, Maduro cierra la Oficina del Alto Comisionado de Derechos Humanos de la ONU y expulsa a sus funcionarios,www.elmundo.es/internacional/2024/02/15/65ce4edbfc6c8325188b45b4.html, 2024-02-22, El Mundo (Spain), El Mundo, es,Emigration{{more|Venezuelan refugee crisis}}The exodus of millions of desperate impoverished Venezuelans to surrounding countries has been called “a risk for the entire region”. Millions of Venezuelan people have voluntarily emigrated from Venezuela during the Chávez and Maduro presidencies.NEWS, Olivares, Francisco, Best and brightest for export,www.eluniversal.com/nacional-y-politica/140913/best-and-brightest-for-export, 24 September 2014, El Universal, 13 September 2014,www.eluniversal.com/nacional-y-politica/140913/best-and-brightest-for-export," title="web.archive.org/web/20171019152840www.eluniversal.com/nacional-y-politica/140913/best-and-brightest-for-export,">web.archive.org/web/20171019152840www.eluniversal.com/nacional-y-politica/140913/best-and-brightest-for-export, 19 October 2017, dead, NEWS, Hugo Chavez is Scaring Away Talent,www.newsweek.com/hugo-chavez-scaring-away-talent-80337, 24 September 2014, Newsweek, 30 June 2009, The crisis started during the Chávez presidency, but became much more pronounced during Maduro’s term. Emigration has been motivated by economic collapse, expansion of state control over the economy, high crime, high inflation, general uncertainty, a lack of hope for a change in government,NEWS, Gonzalez, Angel, Minaya, Ezequiel, Venezuelan Diaspora Booms Under Chávez,www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424053111904491704576573051332461710, 8 October 2014, The Wall Street Journal, Dow Jones & Company Inc., 17 October 2011, a failing public sector, and “shortages of basic necessities”.NEWS,www.straitstimes.com/world/americas/how-the-venezuelan-migration-crisis-affects-south-america, Straits Times, How the Venezuelan migration crisis affects South America, 27 August 2018, 7 April 2019, The PGA Group estimates more than 1.5 million Venezuelans emigrated in the 15 years between 1999 and 2014; an estimated 1.8 million left in ten years through 2015.NEWS, 1,8 millones de venezolanos han emigrado en 10 años,globovision.com/18-millones-de-venezolanos-han-emigrado-en-10-anos-segun-estudio/, 26 April 2015, Globovision, 23 April 2015,globovision.com/18-millones-de-venezolanos-han-emigrado-en-10-anos-segun-estudio/," title="web.archive.org/web/20150711044046globovision.com/18-millones-de-venezolanos-han-emigrado-en-10-anos-segun-estudio/,">web.archive.org/web/20150711044046globovision.com/18-millones-de-venezolanos-han-emigrado-en-10-anos-segun-estudio/, 11 July 2015, dead, NEWS, PGA Group estima que 1,8 millones de venezolanos han emigrado en 10 años,www.lanacion.com.ve/nacional/pga-group-estima-que-18-millones-de-venezolanos-han-emigrado-en-10-anos/, 26 April 2015, La Nación, 23 April 2015,www.lanacion.com.ve/nacional/pga-group-estima-que-18-millones-de-venezolanos-han-emigrado-en-10-anos/," title="archive.today/20150425012027www.lanacion.com.ve/nacional/pga-group-estima-que-18-millones-de-venezolanos-han-emigrado-en-10-anos/,">archive.today/20150425012027www.lanacion.com.ve/nacional/pga-group-estima-que-18-millones-de-venezolanos-han-emigrado-en-10-anos/, 25 April 2015, dead, The UN said that in the first part of 2018, about 5,000 Venezuelans were leaving Venezuela daily. A February 2019 UN reported estimated that 3.4 million Venezuelans have emigrated, and they expect another 1.9 million may emigrate in 2019.NEWS,www.reuters.com/article/us-venezuela-politics-un/venezuelans-facing-unprecedented-challenges-many-need-aid-internal-u-n-report-idUSKCN1R92AG, Reuters, 29 March 2019, 6 April 2019, Venezuelans facing ‘unprecedented challenges,’ many need aid - internal U.N. report, Nichols, Michelle, PRESS RELEASE,www.unhcr.org/news/press/2019/2/5c6fb2d04/venezuelan-outflow-continues-unabated-stands-34-million.html, Venezuelan outflow continues unabated, stands now at 3.4 million, UNHCR-IOM, 22 February 2019, 7 April 2019, The UN estimates 2.7 million have gone to the Caribbean and Latin America.NEWS,www.npr.org/2019/04/04/709193469/chronicles-of-a-venezuelan-exodus-more-families-flee-the-crisis-on-foot-every-da, NPR, 4 April 2019, 4 April 2019, Chronicles of a Venezuelan exodus: More families fell the crisis on foot every day, Ozug, Matt, Christina, Cala, Ari, Shapiro, Most have gone to Colombia; estimates of Venezuelans emigrating to Colombia are 1.1 million, Peru 506,000, Chile 288,000, Ecuador 221,000, Argentina 130,000, and Brazil 96,000. This is in contrast to Venezuela’s high immigration rate during the 20th century. Kevin Whitaker, the U.S. ambassador in Colombia, says, “Colombians, in their tens and hundreds of thousands, migrated to Venezuela in the ‘60s and ‘70s and ‘80s, when Venezuela was a wealthy country and Colombia was not so much. Now, more than 1 million Venezuelans, many of them since 2015, have gone to live in Colombia.“Those who leave by foot are known as los caminantes (the walkers); the walk to Bogotá, Colombia is {{convert|350|mi|km|order=flip}}, and some walk hundreds of kilometres further, to Ecuador or Peru. Alba Pereira, who helps feed and clothe about 800 walkers daily in Northern Colombia, said in 2019 she is seeing more sick, elderly and pregnant among the walkers. The Colombian Red Cross has set up rest tents with food and water on the side of the roads for Venezuelans.WEB,www.hrw.org/news/2018/09/05/venezuelan-walkers, The Venezuelan walkers, 5 September 2018, Human Rights Watch, 21 January 2019, Venezuelans also cross into northern Brazil, where UNHCR has set up 10 shelters to house thousands of Venezuelans. Images of Venezuelans fleeing the country by sea have raised symbolic comparisons to the images seen from the Cuban diaspora.In 1998, only 14 Venezuelans were granted U.S. asylum, and by September 1999, 1,086 Venezuelans were granted asylum according to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.NEWS, Brown, Tom, Venezuelans, fleeing Chavez, seek U.S. safety net,uk.reuters.com/article/lifestyle-usa-venezuela-asylum-dc-idUKN1127066720070717, 22 September 2014, Reuters, 16 July 2007, The first wave of Venezuelan emigrants were wealthy and middle class Venezuelans concerned by Chávez’s rhetoric of redistributing wealth to the poor;NEWS, Casey, Nicholas, Hungry Venezuelans flee in boats to escape economic collapse,www.nytimes.com/2016/11/25/world/americas/hungry-venezuelans-flee-in-boats-to-escape-economic-collapse.html?_r=1, 27 November 2016, The New York Times, 25 November 2016, the early exodus of college-educated people with capital caused a brain drain.Emigration especially increased during the Maduro presidency.NEWS, Symmes Cobb, Julia, Garcia Rawlins, Carlos, Economic crisis, political strife drive Venezuela brain-drain,www.reuters.com/article/us-venezuela-migration-idUSKCN0I41C820141015, 15 October 2014, Reuters, 15 October 2014, This second wave of emigration consisted of lower class Venezuelans suffering directly from the economic crisis facing the country; thus, the same individuals whom Chávez attempted to aid were now seeking to emigrate, driven by worsening economic conditions, scarcity of food and medicine, and rising rates of violent crime. Tomás Pérez, who studies the Venezuelan diaspora at the Central University of Venezuela, said in 2018 that because “now everyone is poor”, it is mostly poor leaving the country. Carlos Malamud, from a Spanish think tank, said Maduro is “using migration as a political weapon against the opposition”. The scale of the crisis has surpassed in four years the Cuban exodus, in which 1.7 million emigrated over a period of sixty years; Malamud says “Latin American societies aren’t prepared for such wide-scale arrivals”.Impacting the health care crisis in Venezuela, health care professionals are emigrating; a primary factor driving emigration to Colombia is the lack of “medicines, supplies, health providers, and basic health services” in Venezuela. Since 2017, the banking sector has seen 18,000 employees leave the country.NEWS,www.abc.es/internacional/abci-gesto-presencia-novo-banco-venezuela-201902061332_noticia.html, Asà se gestó la presencia de Novo Banco en Venezuela, Chacón, Francisco, 6 February 2019, 19 February 2019, ABC, es,Economic{{more|2013–present economic crisis in Venezuela|Economic policy of the Nicolás Maduro administration}}Maduro’s government stopped releasing social and economic indicators, so most data rely on estimates. The Institute of International Finance (IIF) stated in March 2019 that “Venezuela’s economic collapse is among the world’s worst in recent history”.NEWS, Venezuela’s economic collapse explained in nine charts; Venezuela’s decline is now deeper than that of the Soviet Union after its breakup, and comparable only to Zimbabwe’s in the late 1990s, economists say, Pérez, Santiago, The Wall Street Journal, 25 March 2019, ProQuest, A chief economist of the IIF said the crisis resulted from “policy decisions, economic mismanagement, and political turmoil”, saying it is on a scale that “one would only expect from extreme natural disasters or military confrontations”. The April 2019 International Monetary Fund (IMF) World Economic Outlook described Venezuela as being in a “wartime economy”. For the fifth consecutive year, Bloomberg rated Venezuela last on its misery index in 2019.NEWS,www.straitstimes.com/business/economy/venezuela-ranked-worlds-most-miserable-economy-singapore-is-third-least, The Straits Times, 17 April 2019, 18 April 2019, Venezuela ranked world’s most miserable economy, Singapore is third-least, Bloomberg, The government’s main source of income is oil, with output “plummeting due to lack of investment, poor maintenance and neglect”, from which consultant Eduardo Fortuny expects will take 12 years to recover.As of 2020 the Venezuelan government has liberalized many socialist or redistributive economic policies—price and currency controls, stringent labor laws—and brought a rapprochement with members of the local business community—especially Lorenzo Mendoza of the iconic Empresas Polar conglomerate (who is no longer denounced as a “thief,” a “parasite” and a “traitor“), in exchange for an abandonment of political opposition by Mendoza.NEWS, Kurmanaev, Anatoly, Venezuela’s Socialists Embrace Business, Making Partner of a ‘Parasite’, The New York Times,www.nytimes.com/2020/02/23/world/americas/venezuela-economy-polar.html, 20 November 2020, The New York Times, 23 February 2020, However, a “slight recovery” in economic activity in January 2020 reportedly “evaporated in February and March” due to “the fall in global oil prices and the coronavirus pandemic”.NEWS, Venezuela’s slight economic recovery fades due to oil price fall and pandemic, Congress says,www.reuters.com/article/venezuela-economy-idUSL2N2EO1WZ, 25 November 2020, Reuters, 17 July 2020,Business and industry{{see also|Perrera}}File:Freedom ratings in Venezuela (1998 to 2017).png|right|upright=1.5|thumb|Ratings for Venezuela from 1998 to 2017 by the U.S. Government-funded NGO Freedom HouseFreedom HouseA number of foreign firms have left the nation—often due to quarrels with the socialist government—including Smurfit Kappa, Clorox, Kimberly Clark and General Mills; the departures aggravate unemployment and shortages.WEB,www.wsj.com/articles/help-we-need-a-boss-here-workers-anguish-as-firms-leave-venezuela-1541586601#comments_sector, Venezuelans despair as companies flee, Vyas, Kejal, 7 November 2018, The Wall Street Journal, 8 April 2019, Before the effects of the 2019 Venezuelan blackouts, the number of multinational companies in the industrial city of Valencia in Carabobo State had dropped from 5,000 when Chávez became president to a tenth of that.NEWS,www.reuters.com/article/us-venezuela-politics-industries/blackouts-threaten-death-blow-to-venezuelas-industrial-survivors-idUSKCN1RO196, Reuters, 12 April 2019, 12 April 2019, Blackouts threaten death blow to Venezuela’s industrial survivors, Pons, Corina and Mayela Armas,Airline industryDomestic airlines are having difficulties because of hyperinflation and parts shortages, and most international airlines have left the country.NEWS,www.reuters.com/article/us-venezuela-airlines/venezuelas-domestic-airline-industry-suffers-amid-economic-crisis-idUSKBN1JW24X, Reuters, 6 July 2018, 8 April 2019, Venezuela’s domestic airline industry suffers amid economic crisis, Buitrago, Deisy and Fabián Andrés Cambero, Airlines from many countries ceased operating in Venezuela, making travel to the country difficult: Air Canada became the first international airline to cease Venezuela operations in March 2014 and was followed by Alitalia in April 2015.NEWS,www.cnn.com/2014/05/16/travel/alitalia-venezuela-flights/index.html, CNN, 14 May 2014, 20 April 2019, Alitalia joins other airlines suspending or reducing flights to Venezuela, Romo, Rafael, Other airlines that have left are Aeroméxico, Avianca, Delta, Lufthansa, LATAM, and United Airlines. According to the International Air Transport Association (IATA), the government of Venezuela has not paid US$3.8 billion to international airlines in an issue involving conversion of local currency to U.S. dollars.NEWS,www.bizjournals.com/atlanta/news/2017/08/01/last-direct-flight-from-atlanta-to-venezuela-being.html, Atlanta Business Chronicle, Delta pulling last direct flight from Atlanta to Venezuela, 1 August 2017, 8 April 2019, Mandel, Eric, Airlines have left for other reasons, including crime against flight crews and foreignpassengers, stolen baggage, and problems with the quality of jet fuel and maintenance of runways.NEWS,www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-08-09/stick-ups-and-dirty-fuel-mean-airlines-hate-flying-to-venezuela, Bloomberg, Why airlines hate flying to Venezuela, Tanzi, Christine Jenkins, 9 August 2017, 8 April 2019, NEWS,www.news24.com/World/News/watch-traveller-shot-and-killed-at-ticket-counter-in-venezuelan-airport-20170809, WATCH: Traveller shot and killed at ticket counter in Venezuelan airport, 9 August 2017, News24, 25 May 2019, NEWS,www.ndtv.com/world-news/egyptian-visitor-killed-at-venezuelas-main-airport-1289125, Egyptian visitor killed at Venezuela’s main airport, 20 March 2016, NDTV, Associated Press, 25 May 2019, AerolÃneas Argentinas left in 2017, citing security reasons,NEWS,www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-41547746, BBC, 9 October 2017, Argentine Airlines suspends flights to Venezuela, 20 April 2019, and American Airlines, the last U.S. airline serving Venezuela, left on 15 March 2019, after its pilots refused to fly to Venezuela, citing safety issues.NEWS,www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/american-airlines-suspends-flights-venezuela-over-safety-concerns-n983781, American Airlines suspends flights to Venezuela over safety concerns, NBC News, Associated Press, 15 March 2019, 8 April 2019, Currently, the only North American airline flying to Venezuela is Sunwing Airlines, with seasonal service to Margarita Island and Punto Fijo.{{citation needed|date=September 2021}}Following the increasing economic partnership between Venezuela and Turkey in October 2016, Turkish Airlines started offering direct flights from December 2016 connecting between Caracas to Istanbul (via Havana, Cuba) in an effort to “link and expand contacts” between the two countries.NEWS,www.efe.com/efe/english/business/turkish-airlines-starts-direct-istanbul-havana-caracas-flights/50000265-3130444, Turkish Airlines starts direct Istanbul-Havana-Caracas flights, 20 December 2016, EFE, 25 May 2019, Iranian airline Mahan Air (blacklisted by the U.S. government since 2011NEWS,www.foxnews.com/world/us-blacklisted-iranian-airline-begins-direct-flights-to-venezuela, US-blacklisted Iranian airline begins direct flights to Venezuela, Suarez Sang, Lucia I, FOX News, 8 April 2019, 8 April 2019, ) began direct flights to Caracas in April 2019,NEWS,www.ntn24.com/america-latina/venezuela/mahan-air-inaugura-vuelo-directo-entre-iran-y-venezuela-105681, NTN 24, es, Mahan Air inaugura vuelo directo entre Irán y Venezuela, 8 April 2019, 8 April 2019, Mahan Air inaugurates direct flight between Iran and Venezuela, “signifying a growing relationship between the two nations” according to Fox News.In May 2019, the United States Department of Transport and Department of Homeland Security suspended all flights between Venezuela and the United States, due to safety and security concerns.NEWS,abcnews.go.com/US/us-suspends-flights-venezuela-citing-safety-security/story?id=63059926, US suspends all flights to Venezuela citing safety and security, 15 May 2019, ABC News, 18 May 2019, The suspension affects mainly Venezuelan airlines flying to Miami, which are Avior Airlines, LASER Airlines and Estelar Latinoamérica.Gross domestic productEstimated to drop by 25% in 2019, the IMF said the contraction in Venezuela’s GDP—the largest since the Libyan Civil War began in 2014—was affecting all of Latin America.In 2015 the Venezuelan economy contracted 5.7% and in 2016 it contracted 18.6% according to the Venezuelan central bank; after that, the government stopped producing data. EcoanalÃtica, a Venezuelan consultant, told The Wall Street Journal that output had halved between 2016 and 2019. The IMF and AGPV Asesores Económicos, a consulting firm based in Caracas, estimate that GDP shrunk to $80 billion in 2018 from $196 billion in 2013, making the economy smaller than Guatemala’s or Ethiopia’s.Inflation(File:Venezuela hyperinflation.webp|thumb|350px|Venezuela hyperinflation May 2018 - October 2019)The annual inflation rate for consumer prices has risen hundreds of thousands of percent during the crisis. Inflation in Venezuela remained high during Chávez’s presidency. By 2010, inflation removed any advancement of wage increases,BOOK, El ocaso del chavismo: Venezuela 2005-2015, López Maya, Margarita, ????, 2016, 9788417014254, 354–355, and by 2014 at 69%NEWS, Venezuela 2014 inflation hits 68.5 pct - Central Bank,www.reuters.com/article/venezuela-inflation/venezuela-2014-inflation-hits-68-5-pct-central-bank-idUSL1N0VN2H720150214, 13 February 2015, 26 May 2018, it was the highest in the world.NEWS,www.reuters.com/article/us-venezuela-economy/venezuela-annual-inflation-180-percent-opposition-newspaper-idUSKCN0RV4WN20151001, Venezuela annual inflation 180 percent, 1 October 2015, Reuters, 15 November 2017, NEWS, Patton, Mike, The Three Countries With The Highest Inflation,www.forbes.com/sites/mikepatton/2014/05/09/the-three-countries-with-the-highest-inflation/#6128ab54172e, 9 May 2014, 17 April 2018, In November 2016, Venezuela entered a period of hyperinflation,NEWS,www.forbes.com/sites/stevehanke/2018/08/18/venezuelas-great-bolivar-scam-nothing-but-a-face-lift/#7edf9d24c23e, Venezuela’s Great Bolivar Scam, Nothing but a Face Lift, Hanke, Steve, 18 August 2018, Forbes (magazine), Forbes, 19 August 2018, with inflation reaching 4,000% in 2017;NEWS,www.reuters.com/article/us-venezuela-food/venezuelans-report-big-weight-losses-in-2017-as-hunger-hits-idUSKCN1G52HA, Venezuelans report big weight losses in 2017 as hunger hits, Sequera, Vivian, 21 February 2018, Reuters, 23 February 2018, the Venezuelan government “essentially stopped” producing inflation estimates in early 2018. At the end of 2018, inflation had reached 1.35 million percent.NEWS,www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jan/10/venezuela-president-nicolas-maduro-begins-second-term, Maduro starts new Venezuela term by accusing US of imperialist ‘world war’, Phillips, Tom, 10 January 2019, The Guardian, 10 January 2019, 0261-3077, In the 2017 Christmas season, some shops stopped using price tags since prices would inflate so quickly.NEWS,www.diariolaregion.net/2017/12/12/tiendas-de-ropa-eliminan-etiquetas-y-habladores-para-agilizar-aumento-de-precios/, Tiendas de ropa eliminan etiquetas y habladores para agilizar aumento de precios {{!, La Region|date=12 December 2017|work=Diario La Region|access-date=16 December 2017|language=es-ES}} From 2017 to 2019, some Venezuelans became video game gold farmers and could be seen playing games such as RuneScape to sell in-game currency or characters for real currency; players could make more money than salaried workers by earning only a few dollars per day.NEWS, Rosati, Andrew, Desperate Venezuelans Turn to Video Games to Survive,www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-12-05/desperate-venezuelans-turn-to-video-games-to-survive, 6 December 2017, Bloomberg.com, Bloomberg, 5 December 2017, WEB,nationalinterest.org/feature/playing-their-lives-how-2001-video-game-feeding-venezuela-49187, Playing for Their Lives: How a 2001 Video Game Is Feeding Venezuela, Doug, Dubrowski, National Interest, 26 March 2019, Some of these “gold farmers” will use cryptocurrencies as an intermediary currency before converting into Bolivares, as indicated in this interview.In October 2018, the IMF estimated that inflation would reach 10,000,000% by the end of 2019.NEWS,in.reuters.com/article/venezuela-economy-idINKCN1MJ1YX, IMF sees Venezuela inflation at 10 million percent in 2019, 9 October 2018, Reuters, 31 May 2019, 26 January 2019,web.archive.org/web/20190126135443/https://in.reuters.com/article/venezuela-economy-idINKCN1MJ1YX, dead, In early 2019, the monthly minimum salary was the equivalent of US$5.50 (18,000 sovereign bolivars)—less than the price of a Happy Meal at McDonald’s. Ecoanalitica estimated that prices jumped by 465% in the first two-and-a-half months of 2019. The Wall Street Journal stated in March 2019 that the “main cause of hyperinflation is the central bank printing money to increase money supply, thus boosting domestic spending.”, reporting that a teacher can buy a dozen eggs and two pounds of cheese with a month’s wages.In May 2019, the Central Bank of Venezuela released economic data for the first time since 2015. According to the release, Venezuela’s inflation rate was 274% in 2016, 863% in 2017 and 130,060% in 2018.NEWS,www.lemonde.fr/international/article/2019/05/29/venezuela-l-inflation-a-ete-de-130-060-en-2018_5469091_3210.html, Au Venezuela, l’inflation a été de 130 060 % en 2018, 29 May 2019, Le Monde, 31 May 2019, fr, The new reports imply a contraction of more than half of the economy in five years, according to the Financial Times “one of the biggest contractions in Latin American history”.WEB,www.ft.com/content/5cb83c1c-821b-11e9-b592-5fe435b57a3b, Venezuela data offer rare glimpse of economic chaos, Long, Gideon, 29 May 2019, Financial Times, 31 May 2019, Sources quoted by Reuters, said that China may have asked Venezuela to release the data to bring Venezuela into compliance with the IMF and make it more difficult for the IMF to recognise Juan Guaidó during the presidential crisis.NEWS,www.reuters.com/article/us-venezuela-politics-imf-idUSKCN1T01YW, IMF denies pressuring Venezuela to release economic data, Wroughton, Lesley, 30 May 2019, Reuters, 31 May 2019, Pons, Corina, The IMF said it was not able to assess the quality of the data as it had no contact with the Venezuelan government.Shortages{{details|Shortages in Venezuela}}Shortages in Venezuela became prevalent after price controls were enacted according to the economic policy of the Hugo Chávez government.NEWS,www.economist.com/blogs/americasview/2013/02/venezuela%E2%80%99s-currency, 18 February 2013, Venezuela’s currency: The not-so-strong bolÃvar, The Economist, 11 February 2013, Under the economic policy of the Nicolás Maduro government, greater shortages occurred due to the Venezuelan government’s policy of withholding United States dollars from importers with price controls.NEWS, Dulaney, Chelsey and Kejal Vyas, S&P Downgrades Venezuela on Worsening Economy Rising Inflation, Economic Pressures Prompt Rating Cut,www.wsj.com/articles/s-p-downgrades-venezuela-on-worsening-economy-1410907125, 18 September 2014, The Wall Street Journal, 16 September 2014, Some Venezuelans must search for food—occasionally resorting to eating wild fruit or garbage—wait in lines for hours and sometimes settle without having certain products.
UnemploymentIn January 2016 the unemployment rate was 18.1 percentWEB, Unemployment rate by World,www.imf.org/external/datamapper/LUR@WEO/OEMDC/ADVEC/WEOWORLD, and the economy was the worst in the world according to the misery index.WEB, Venezuela deve continuar como economia mais miseravel do mundo,economia.uol.com.br/noticias/bloomberg/2016/02/04/venezuela-deve-continuar-como-economia-mais-miseravel-do-mundo.htm, 4 February 2016, economia.uol.com.br, 3 May 2017, Venezuela has not reported official unemployment figures since April 2016, when the rate was at 7.3 percent.NEWS,www.reuters.com/article/us-venezuela-economy-idUSKBN16926M, Job losses, low wages add to Venezuela economic hardship, Chinea, Eyanir, 2 March 2017, Reuters, 7 December 2018, Unemployment was forecasted to reach 44% for 2019; the IMF stated that this was the highest unemployment seen since the end of the Bosnian War in 1995.Venezuelan debtIn August 2017 President of the United States Donald Trump imposed sanctions on VenezuelaWEB, Executive Order 13808 of August 24, 2017,www.treasury.gov/resource-center/sanctions/Programs/Documents/13808.pdf, US Department of Treasury, Resource Center, Federal Register, which banned transactions involving Venezuela’s state debt including debt restructuring. The technical default period ended 13 November 2017 and Venezuela did not pay coupons on its dollar eurobonds, causing a cross-default on other dollar bonds. A committee consisting of the fifteen largest banks admitted default on state debt obligations which in turn entailed payments on CDS on 30 November.WEB,cbonds.com/organizations/docdownload/8887, Final List of Deliverable Obligations for the 2017 Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela Credit Derivatives Auction Settlement Terms, cbonds.com, 25 January 2019, 25 January 2019,cbonds.com/organizations/docdownload/8887," title="web.archive.org/web/20190125183602cbonds.com/organizations/docdownload/8887,">web.archive.org/web/20190125183602cbonds.com/organizations/docdownload/8887, dead, In November 2017, The Economist estimated Venezuela’s debt at US$105 billion and its reserves at US$10 billion.NEWS,www.thetimes.co.uk/article/president-maduro-brings-venezuela-to-brink-of-bankruptcy-k8dfw03mx, President Maduro brings Venezuela to brink of bankruptcy, Gibbs, Stephen, 15 November 2017, The Times, London, 15 November 2017, 0140-0460, In 2018, Venezuela’s debt grew to US$156 billionNEWS,markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/venezuela-debt-explodes-to-156-billion-report-2019-3-1028013380, Business Insider, Venezuela’s debt has exploded to $156 billion, according to a new report, Heeb, Gina, 7 March 2019, 6 April 2019, and as of March 2019, its reserves had dropped to US$8 billion.With the exception of PDVSA’s 2020 bonds,NEWS,www.reuters.com/article/us-citgo-debt/u-s-refiner-citgo-taking-offers-on-1-8-billion-three-year-loan-sources-idUSKCN1R22IH, Reuters, 21 March 2019, U.S. refiner Citgo taking offers on $1.8-billion, three-year loan: sources, Parraga, Marianna and David French, 6 April 2019, as of January 2019, all of Venezuela’s bonds are in default,NEWS,www.reuters.com/article/venezuela-debt/venezuela-bonds-rally-as-opposition-challenges-maduro-idUSL1N1ZG0ZQ, Venezuela bonds rally as opposition challenges Maduro, Pons, Corina and Rodrigo Campos, 16 January 2019, 6 April 2019, Reuters, and Venezuela’s government and state-owned companies owe nearly US$8 billion in unpaid interest and principal.NEWS,www.cnbc.com/2019/01/11/reuters-america-venezuela-bondholders-say-they-will-not-negotiate-with-maduro.html, Venezuela bondholders say they will not negotiate with Maduro, Armas, Mayela, CNBC, 11 January 2019, 6 April 2019, 15 April 2019,web.archive.org/web/20190415064433/https://www.cnbc.com/2019/01/11/reuters-america-venezuela-bondholders-say-they-will-not-negotiate-with-maduro.html, dead, As of March 2019, the government and state-owned companies have US$150 billion in debt.NEWS,abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/world-bank-venezuela-pay-conoco-billion-61567799, World Bank: Venezuela must pay Conoco more than $8 billion, Lugo, Luis Alonso, ABC News, Associated Press, 8 March 2019, 6 April 2019,Oil industryBy 2018 the political and economic troubles facing Venezuela had engulfed the El Tigre-San Tomé region, a key region for oil production in eastern Venezuela. Oil workers were fleeing the state-owned oil company as salaries could not keep up with hyperinflation, reducing families to starvation. Workers and criminals stripped vital oil industry equipment of anything valuable, ranging from pickup trucks to the copper wire within critical oil production components.NEWS, Neuman, William, Krauss, Clifford, Workers Flee and Thieves Loot Venezuela’s Reeling Oil Giant,www.nytimes.com/2018/06/14/world/americas/venezuela-oil-economy.html, 18 May 2019, The New York Times, 14 June 2018, Oil facilities were neglected and unprotected, crippling oil production and leading to environmental damage.NEWS, Zerpa, Fabiola, Venezuela Is Leaking Oil Everywhere,www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2018-11-24/venezuela-is-leaking-oil-everywhere-and-making-a-dangerous-mess, 18 June 2019, Bloomberg.com, 24 November 2018, As noted petroleum historian, expert, and former San Tomé resident Emma BrossardBOOK, E.B. Brossard, Petroleum research and Venezuela’s INTEVEP: the clash of the giants, 1993, PennWell Books/INTEVEP, 978-0-87814-399-3, stated in 2005, “Venezuelan oil fields had a depletion rate of 25 per cent annually [and] there had to be an investment of US$3.4 billion a year to keep up its production.” “But since Chávez has become president there has been no investment.“NEWS, Gooding, I., Grandmother slams Chavez ‘He does not know one thing about the oil industry’,legacy.guardian.co.tt/archives/2005-08-27/bussguardian7.html, 1 June 2019, The Trinidad Guardian, 25 August 2005, 2 June 2019,legacy.guardian.co.tt/archives/2005-08-27/bussguardian7.html," title="web.archive.org/web/20190602001302legacy.guardian.co.tt/archives/2005-08-27/bussguardian7.html,">web.archive.org/web/20190602001302legacy.guardian.co.tt/archives/2005-08-27/bussguardian7.html, dead, As of 2020 there were no longer any oil rigs searching for oil in Venezuela, and production has been “reduced to a trickle”. Oil exports are expected to total $2.3 billion for 2020, continuing a decline of more than a decade.NEWS, Urdaneta, Sheyla, Kurmanaev, Anatoly, Herrera, Isayen, Venezuela, Once an Oil Giant, Reaches the End of an Era, The New York Times,www.nytimes.com/2020/10/07/world/americas/venezuela-oil-economy-maduro.html, 25 November 2020, The New York Times, 7 October 2020, Pollution from crude oil leaking from abandoned underwater wells and pipelines has caused serious damage to fishing and human health.In 2022, rising oil prices caused by the Russian invasion of Ukraine led the World Oil Commission to start meetings with the Venezuelan Government to push oil production to have a control over the price.{{cn|date=March 2022}}Public opinionA November 2016 Datincorp survey that asked Venezuelans living in urban areas which entity was responsible for the crisis, 59% blamed chavismo or the presidents (Chávez, 25%; Maduro 19%; Chavismo 15%) while others blamed the opposition (10%), entrepreneurs (4%) and the United States (2%).WEB, INFORME DE COYUNTURA PAÃS VENEZUELA - NOVIEMBRE 2016,www.scribd.com/document/330938833/INFORME-DE-COYUNTURA-PAI-S-VENEZUELA-NOVIEMBRE-2016, Scribd, Datincorp, 14 March 2017, A September 2018 Meganálisis survey found that 85% of Venezuelans wanted Maduro to leave power immediately.WEB, Lapatilla, 2018-09-17, El 84,6% de los venezolanos quieren que Maduro y el chavismo se vayan ya del poder (encuesta Meganálisis),www.lapatilla.com/2018/09/17/el-846-de-los-venezolanos-quieren-que-maduro-y-el-chavismo-se-vayan-ya-del-poder-encuesta-meganalisis/, 2024-03-24, LaPatilla.com, es-ES, A November 2018 Datanálisis poll found that 54% of Venezuelans opposed a foreign military intervention to remove Maduro, while 35% supported an intervention. Instead, 63% supported a “negotiated settlement to remove Maduro”.NEWS, Venezuelans want Maduro out, but oppose foreign military intervention,www.upi.com/Top_News/Voices/2019/01/08/Venezuelans-want-Maduro-out-but-oppose-foreign-military-intervention/4131546952225/, United Press International, 8 January 2019, An 11–14 March 2019 survey of 1,100 people in 16 Venezuelan states and 32 cities by Meganálisis found that 89% of respondents wanted Maduro to leave the presidency.NEWS, 15 March 2019, Meganálisis: 88.9 % de venezolanos quiere que Maduro y el chavismo se vayan ya, es, Meganalisis: 88.9% of Venezuelans want Maduro and Chavismo to leave, La Patilla,www.lapatilla.com/2019/03/15/88-9-de-venezolanos-quiere-que-maduro-y-el-chavismo-se-vayan-ya-encuesta-meganalisis/, 15 March 2019, A Datanálisis poll on 4 March 2019 found Maduro’s approval rating at an all-time low of 14%.NEWS, Wyss, Jim, 4 March 2019, ‘The chain of command is broken,’ Guaidó tells supporters upon his return to Venezuela, Miami Herald,www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/venezuela/article227074859.html, 19 March 2019, According to a recent Datanalisis poll, Guaidó has an approval rating of 61 percent while Maduro’s has hit an all-time low of 14 percent., citing Francisco Monaldi Tweet of 2 March, “Maduro cae a su mÃnimo histórico de aprobación con 14%. Guaidó logra 61% de aprobación y arrasarÃa en una elección con 77% vs. 23% Maduro.“According to Datanálisis, in early 2019, 63% of Venezuelans believed that a change of government was possible. Fourteen months later, in May 2020, after the Macuto Bay raid, the percentage decreased to 20%.WEB, Guaido’s Domain Trembles After Failed Incursion in Venezuela,www.bloomberg.com/amp/news/articles/2020-05-15/guaido-s-domain-trembles-after-failed-incursion-in-venezuela, Vasquez, Alex, Bloomberg News, Bloomberg, 20 May 2020, According to economists interviewed by The New York Times, the situation is by far the worst economic crisis in Venezuela’s history, and is also the worst facing a country in peace time since the mid-20th century. The crisis is also more severe than that of the United States during the Great Depression, the 1985–1994 Brazilian economic crisis, or the 2008–2009 hyperinflation in Zimbabwe. Other writers have also compared aspects of the crisis, such as unemployment and GDP contraction, to that of Bosnia and Herzegovina after the 1992–1995 Bosnian War, and those in Russia, Cuba and Albania following the collapse of the Eastern Bloc in 1989 and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991.ReactionEconomic sanctionsThe European Union, the Lima Group, the United States and other countries have applied individual sanctions against government officials and members of both the military and security forces as a response to human rights violations, corruption, degradation in the rule of law and repression of democracy. The United States would later extend its sanctions to the petroleum sector.NEWS, Lee, Matthew, Deb Riechmann, 29 January 2019, US hits Venezuela with oil sanctions to pressure Maduro, AP,news.yahoo.com/us-hits-venezuela-state-owned-oil-company-sanctions-205443848.html, 12 March 2019, WEB, Venezuela: The Rise and Fall of a Petrostate,www.cfr.org/backgrounder/venezuela-crisis, 2024-02-19, Council on Foreign Relations, en, Economists have stated that shortages and high inflation in Venezuela began before US sanctions were directed towards the country.WEB, 15 February 2019, Maduro reveals secret meetings with U.S. envoy,politi.co/2N6Ejwm, 15 February 2019, POLITICO, The Wall Street Journal said that economists place the blame for Venezuela’s economy shrinking by half on “Maduro’s policies, including widespread nationalizations, out-of-control spending that sparked inflation, price controls that led to shortages, and widespread graft and mismanagement.” The Venezuelan government has stated that the United States is responsible for its economic collapse. The HRW/Johns Hopkins report noted that most sanctions are “limited to canceling visas and freezing assets of key officials implicated in abuses and corruption. They in no way target the Venezuelan economy.” The report also stated that the 2017 ban on dealing in Venezuelan government stocks and bonds allows exceptions for food and medicine, and that the 28 January 2019 PDVSA sanctions could worsen the situation, although “the crisis precedes them”. The Washington Post stated that “the deprivation long predates recently imposed US sanctions”.In 2011, the United States sanctioned Venezuela’s state-owned oil company Petróleos de Venezuela. According to executives within the company as well as the Venezuelan government, the sanctions were mostly symbolic and had little effect (if any) on Venezuela’s trade with the US since the company’s sale of oil to the US and the operations of its US-based subsidiary Citgo were unaffected.NEWS, Venezuela condemns US sanctions against state oil firm,www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-13542239, BBC News, 25 May 2011, On 9 March 2015, Barack Obama signed and issued an executive order declaring Venezuela a national security threat and ordered sanctions against Venezuelan officials. The sanctions did not affect Venezuela’s oil company and trade relations with the US continued.WEB,www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-venezuela-idUSKBN0M51NS20150310, U.S. declares Venezuela a national security threat, sanctions top officials, 10 March 2015, Reuters, 14 March 2015, In 2017, Trump’s administration imposed additional economic sanctions on Venezuela.NEWS, With executive order, Trump imposes new round of Venezuela sanctions,eu.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2017/08/25/executive-order-trump-imposes-new-round-venezuela-sanctions/601667001/, USA Today, 25 August 2017, In 2018, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) documented that “information gathered indicates that the socioeconomic crisis had been unfolding for several years prior to the imposition of these sanctions”.WEB,www.ohchr.org/Documents/Countries/VE/VenezuelaReport2018_EN.pdf, Human rights violations in the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela: a downward spiral with no end in sight, June 2018, Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, 23 March 2019, According to The Wall Street Journal, new 2019 sanctions, aimed at depriving the Maduro government of petroleum revenues.NEWS, Forero, Juan and David Luhnow, Venezuelans Fear New U.S. Oil Sanctions Will Hit them Hardest; New U.S. Penalties are Designed to Choke Venezuelan Oil Revenue and Pave the Way for Better Days, but Many Worry about Collateral Damage, The Wall Street Journal, 30 January 2019, ProQuest, In 2019, former UN rapporteur Alfred de Zayas said that US sanctions on Venezuela were illegal as they constituted economic warfare and “could amount to ‘crimes against humanity’ under international law”.NEWS, Selby-Green, Michael, 27 January 2019, Venezuela crisis: Former UN rapporteur says US sanctions are killing citizens,www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/venezuela-us-sanctions-united-nations-oil-pdvsa-a8748201.html, The Independent, 28 January 2019, His report, which he says was ignored by the UN, was criticized by the Latin America and Caribbean programme director for the Crisis Group for neglecting to mention the impact of a “difficult business environment on the country”, which the director said “was a symptom of Chavismo and the socialist governments’ failures”, and that “Venezuela could not recover under current government policies even if the sanctions were lifted.” Michelle Bachelet updated the situation in a 20 March oral report following the visit of a five-person delegation to Venezuela,NEWS,prodavinci.com/10-claves-del-informe-de-michelle-bachelet-sobre-venezuela/, 10 claves del informe de Michelle Bachelet sobre Venezuela, 10 keys if Michelle Bachelet’s report on Venezuela, Prodavinci, 20 March 2019, 20 March 2019, es, saying that the social and economic crisis was dramatically deteriorating, the government had not acknowledged or addressed the extent of the crisis, and she was concerned that although the “pervasive and devastating economic and social crisis began before the imposition of the first economic sanctions”, the sanctions could worsen the situation.WEB,www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=24374&LangID=E, OHCHR, 20 March 2019, 23 March 2019, Oral update on the situation of human rights in the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, The extent and severity of the crises in food, health care and basic services, have not been fully acknowledged by the authorities, thus the measures they have adopted have been insufficient. ... Although this pervasive and devastating economic and social crisis began before the imposition of the first economic sanctions in 2017, I am concerned that the recent sanctions on financial transfers related to the sale of Venezuelan oil within the United States may contribute to aggravating the economic crisis, with possible repercussions on people’s basic rights and wellbeing., In February 2019, Jorge Arreaza, Maduro’s Minister for Foreign Affairs, said he was forming a coalition of diplomats who “believe the U.S. and others are violating the U.N. charter against non-interference in member states”. During the announcement, he was surrounded by diplomats from 16 other countries, including Russia, China, Iran, North Korea, and Cuba. Arreaza said the cost to the Venezuelan economy of the US blockade was over $30 billion.NEWS, 14 February 2019, Maduro: FM Held ‘Secret Talks’ With US Envoy to Venezuela, Voice of America,www.voanews.com/a/venezuelan-fm-warns-against-foreign-interference/4787911.html, 15 February 2019, Reporting on Arreaza’s statements, the Associated Press said that Maduro was blocking aid, and “saying that Venezuelans are not beggars and that the move is part of a U.S.-led coup”.NEWS, The Latest: Maduro Invites Trump Envoy to Come to Venezuela, AP Worldstream, 14 February 2019, ProQuest, During the COVID-19 pandemic, world leaders called for a suspension of economic sanctions, including against Venezuela and Iran, that have “increasingly become the pursuit of war by other means”. The US responded by intensifying the sanctions against Venezuela.NEWS, Borger, Julian, US ignores calls to suspend Venezuela and Iran sanctions amid coronavirus pandemic,www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/31/us-ignores-global-appeals-suspend-sanctions-coronavirus-pandemic-iran-venezuela, 13 March 2021, The Guardian, 31 March 2020,web.archive.org/web/20200929074343/https://amp.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/31/us-ignores-global-appeals-suspend-sanctions-coronavirus-pandemic-iran-venezuela, 29 September 2020, en, An October 2020 report published by the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA) by Venezuelan economist Luis Oliveros found that “while Venezuela’s economic crisis began before the first U.S. sectoral sanctions were imposed in 2017, these measures ‘directly contributed to its deep decline, and to the further deterioration of the quality of life of Venezuelans’ ”. The report concluded that economic sanctions “have cost Venezuela’s government as much as $31 billion since 2017“NEWS, New Report Documents How U.S. Sanctions Have Directly Aggravated Venezuela’s Economic Crisis,www.wola.org/2020/10/new-report-us-sanctions-aggravated-venezuelas-economic-crisis/, 13 March 2021, WOLA, 29 October 2020, NEWS, Jakes, Lara, Kurmanaev, Anatoly, 8 March 2021, Biden Grants Protections for Venezuelans to Remain in U.S., The New York Times,www.nytimes.com/2021/03/08/us/politics/biden-venezuela-maduro.html, 13 March 2021, Alena Douhan, United Nations special rapporteur on the negative impact of unilateral coercive measures, was due to visit Venezuela in August 2020 to investigate the impact of international sanctions.WEB, 2020-07-02, Venezuela security operations leave over 1,300 dead in five months, U.N. rights office says,www.reuters.com/article/us-venezuela-un-idUSKBN24335E, 2021-03-11, Reuters, Before her visit, 66 Venezuelan NGOs (including PROVEA) asked Douhan in an open letter to consider the harmful impact of sanctions in the context of years of repression, corruption and economic mismanagement that predate the sanctions, and requested she meet independent press and civil society researchers.WEB, Calles, Óscar, Carta abierta a la Relatora Especial, Alena Douhan, por su visita a Venezuela │ PROVEA,provea.org/actualidad/derechos-sociales/carta-abierta-a-la-relatora-especial-alena-douhan-visita-a-venezuela/, 2021-03-11, PROVEA, es, WEB, Lusa, Agência, 2021-02-02, Venezuela. Relatora especial da ONU em visita para avaliar impacto de sanções internacionais,observador.pt/2021/02/02/venezuela-relatora-especial-da-onu-em-visita-para-avaliar-impacto-de-sancoes-internacionais/, 2021-03-11, Observador, pt, WEB, 2021-02-03, 66 Venezuelan NGOs Pen Open Letter to UN Special Rapporteur on Sanctions,www.venezuelablog.org/66-venezuelan-ngos-pen-open-letter-to-un-special-rapporteur-on-sanctions/, 2021-02-13, Washington Office on Latin America, NEWS, Käufer, Tobias, 2021-02-14, UN-Sonderbericht: Schallende Ohrfeige für die Venezuela-Politik des Westens,www.welt.de/debatte/kommentare/article226345007/UN-Sonderbericht-Schallende-Ohrfeige-fuer-die-Venezuela-Politik-des-Westens.html, 2021-03-11, DIE WELT, de, She arrived on 31 January, and was welcomed on arrival by a government minister and the Venezuelan ambassador to the UN. She declared on her preliminary findings as she left on 12 February:WEB, 2021-02-18, Maduro anuncia que este jueves 18 comienza la vacunación,cnnespanol.cnn.com/2021/02/17/vacunacion-venezuela-comienza-18-febrero-anuncia-maduro/, 2021-03-11, CNN, es, that sanctions against Venezuela have had a “devastating” noticeable impact in both the economy and the population.WEB, 2021-02-12, ¿Quién es Alena Douhan, la relatora de la ONU que visitó Venezuela?,www.elnacional.com/venezuela/quien-es-alena-douhan-la-relatora-de-la-onu/, 2021-02-13, El Nacional (Venezuela), El Nacional, es-VE, She said “the increasing number of unilateral sanctions imposed by United States, the European Union and other countries have exacerbated the economic and humanitarian calamities in Venezuela” but that Venezuela’s economic decline “began in 2014 with the fall in oil prices” and that “mismanagement and corruption had also contributed.” The government welcomed the report, while the opposition accused her of “playing into the hands of the regime” of Maduro.WEB, 2021-02-15, La rapporteuse de l’ONU juge ” dévastateurs ” les effets des sanctions sur le Venezuela,www.lemonde.fr/international/article/2021/02/15/la-rapporteuse-de-l-onu-juge-devastateurs-les-effets-des-sanctions-sur-le-venezuela_6070001_3210.html, 2021-03-11, Le Monde.fr, fr, WEB, Relatora de la ONU pide levantar sancionas contra Venezuela. - 13.02.2021,www.dw.com/es/relatora-de-la-onu-pide-levantar-sancionas-contra-venezuela/av-56562133, 2021-03-11, DW.COM, es, 11 June 2021,web.archive.org/web/20210611010037/https://www.dw.com/es/relatora-de-la-onu-pide-levantar-sancionas-contra-venezuela/av-56562133, dead, WEB, Sequera, Vivian, 2021-02-12, U.N. envoy urges U.S. to relax Venezuela sanctions, drawing opposition rebuke,www.reuters.com/article/us-venezuela-sanctions-idUSKBN2AC2HD, 2021-03-11, U.S., WEB, Moleiro, Alonso, 2021-02-13, Una relatora de la ONU afirma que las sanciones a Maduro “han agravado las calamidades de los venezolanos”,elpais.com/internacional/2021-02-13/una-relatora-la-onu-afirma-que-las-sanciones-a-maduro-han-agravado-las-calamidades-de-los-venezolanos.html, 2021-03-11, EL PAÃS, es, Douhan was harshly criticized by the Venezuelan civil society,WEB, Barráez, Sebastiana, 17 February 2021, Qué hay detrás del informe de la relatora especial de Derechos Humanos de la ONU para encubrir los crÃmenes contra presos polÃticos en Venezuela,www.infobae.com/america/venezuela/2021/02/17/que-hay-detras-del-informe-de-la-relatora-especial-de-derechos-humanos-de-la-onu-para-encubrir-los-crimenes-contra-presos-politicos-en-venezuela/, 2021-02-18, infobae, es-VE, and several non-governmental organizations pronounced themselves in social media with the hashtag ”#Lacrisisfueprimero” (The crisis came first).WEB, “Falta mucho por decir”: activistas venezolanos sobre informe de relatora de la ONU,www.radiotelevisionmarti.com/a/falta-mucho-por-decir-activistas-venezolanos-sobre-informe-de-relatora-de-la-onu/285988.html, 2021-02-18, Radio y Televisión MartÃ, 16 February 2021, es, WEB, MartÃnez, Sammy Paola, 2021-02-13, Mariela RamÃrez: Alena Douhan desconoció violaciones a los DD. HH. y desmantelamiento del Estado,elpitazo.net/entrevistas/mariela-ramirez-alena-douhan-desconocio-violaciones-a-los-dd-hh-y-desmantelamiento-del-estado/, 2021-02-18, El Pitazo, es-VE, WEB, 2021-02-12, Oposición acusa a relatora de ONU de seguir narrativa de Maduro por sanciones,www.lavanguardia.com/politica/20210212/6244547/oposicion-acusa-relatora-onu-seguir-narrativa-maduro-sanciones.html, 2021-02-18, La Vanguardia, es-VE,Foreign involvement(File:President Trump Delivers Remarks to the Venezuelan American Community (47145953601).jpg|thumb|upright=1.5|On 18 February, President Trump urged Venezuela’s military to abandon Nicolás Maduro or ‘lose everything’.NEWS, Pengelly, Martin, Ditch Maduro or lose everything, Trump tells Venezuelan army,www.theguardian.com/world/2019/feb/18/trump-venezuela-nicolas-maduro-juan-guaido, The Guardian, 18 February 2019, )On 11 August 2017, President Trump said that he is “not going to rule out a military option” to confront the autocratic government of Nicolás Maduro and the deepening crisis in Venezuela.NEWS, Johnson,Jenna and John Wagner,www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2017/08/11/trump-wont-rule-out-a-military-option-in-venezuela/, Trump won’t ‘rule out a military option’ in Venezuela, The Washington Post, 11 August 2017, 6 April 2018, Military Times said the unnamed aides told Trump it was not wise to even discuss a military solution due to the history of unpopular intervention in Latin America by the United States.NEWS, Goodman, Joshua, Trump pressed aides on Venezuela invasion, US official says,www.militarytimes.com/news/pentagon-congress/2018/07/06/trump-pressed-aides-on-venezuela-invasion-us-official-says/, 18 September 2018, The Military Times, Associated Press, 5 July 2017, Venezuela’s Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino criticized Trump for the statement, calling it “an act of supreme extremism” and “an act of madness”. The Venezuelan communications minister, Ernesto Villegas, said Trump’s words amounted to “an unprecedented threat to national sovereignty”.NEWS, Trump’s Threat to Invade Venezuela Boosts Embattled Leader Maduro, 12 August 2017,www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2017/08/12/trump_s_threat_to_invade_venezuela_amounts_to_a_big_gift_for_embattled_leader.html, Slate (magazine), Slate, 12 August 2017, Representatives of the United States were in contact with dissident Venezuelan military officers during 2017 and 2018 but declined to collaborate with them or provide assistance to them.NEWS, Londoño Ernesto and Nicholas Casey, Trump Administration Discussed Coup Plans With Rebel Venezuelan Officers,www.nytimes.com/2018/09/08/world/americas/donald-trump-venezuela-military-coup.html, 17 September 2018, The New York Times, 8 September 2018, The opinion of other Latin American nations was split with respect to military intervention. Luis Almagro, the Secretary General of the Organization of American States, while visiting Colombia, did not rule out the potential benefit of the use of military force to intervene with the crisis. Canada, Colombia and Guyana, which are members of the Lima Group, refused to sign the organization’s document rejecting military intervention in Venezuela.NEWS, Alsema, Adriaan, Colombia stands down against possible military intervention in Venezuela,colombiareports.com/colombia-ends-resistance-against-possible-military-intervention-in-venezuela/, 18 September 2018, Columbia Reports, 16 September 2018, NEWS, Canada, Latin American allies at odds over Venezuela intervention pledge,www.cbc.ca/news/politics/canada-venezuela-military-intervention-1.4829074, 19 September 2018, CBC News, 19 September 2018, During the 2019 Venezuelan presidential crisis, allegations of potential United States military involvement began to circulate,WEB,www.elmundo.es/internacional/2019/02/04/5c56e08b21efa0380b8b4665.html, ¿Cómo serÃa una invasión de Estados Unidos en Venezuela?, Pardo, Paul, 4 February 2019, El Mundo (Spain), El Mundo, es, 5 February 2019, with military intervention in Venezuela was already being executed by the governments of Cuba and Russia. According to professor Erick Langer of Georgetown University, while it was being discussed whether the United States would militarily intervene, “Cuba and Russia have already intervened”. Hundreds or thousands of Cuban security forces have allegedly been operating in Venezuela while professor Robert Ellis of United States Army War College described the between several dozen and 400 Wagner Group mercenaries provided by Russia as the “palace guard of Nicolás Maduro”. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov denied the deployment of Russian mercenaries, calling it “fake news”.WEB,www.scmp.com/news/world/americas/article/2183898/russia-denies-sending-mercenaries-protect-venezuela-president, Russia denies sending mercenaries to protect Venezuela’s president, 28 January 2019, South China Morning Post, The Guardian, 2 May 2019, On 2 April 2019, the Russian Foreign Ministry rejected Trump’s call to “get out” saying their 100 military servicemen now in Venezuela will support Maduro “for as long as needed”.WEB,www.perthnow.com.au/news/world/moscow-refuses-to-withdraw-troops-from-venezuela-after-president-trump-says-get-out-ng-58d41adfdad23c57d38002155b9da4e8, Russian bravado ‘may lead to war’, 1 April 2019, PerthNow, 3 April 2019,Humanitarian aid{{See also|2019 shipping of humanitarian aid to Venezuela}}(File:Humanitarian aid for Venezuela in February 2019.jpg|thumb|Aid for Venezuela sent by the United States to Colombia)(File:Map of humanitarian aid to Venezuela.png|thumb|Location of the humanitarian aid points outside of Venezuela)Throughout the crisis, humanitarian aid was provided to Venezuelans in need both within Venezuela and abroad. In October 2018, the USNS Comfort departed for an eleven-week operation in Latin America, with a primary mission being to assist countries who received Venezuelan refugees who fled the crisis in Venezuela. The main goal was to relieve health systems in Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and other nations which faced the arrival of thousands of Venezuelan migrants.
See also
Notes{{notelist}}References{{reflist|colwidth=30em}}External links
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