ALI CARSON
There has long been political discord in Venezuela. In recent times this discord has led to economic catastrophe, which has caused a humanitarian crisis in the country. Despite having amongst the richest oil reserves in the World, Venezuela is facing a shortage of food and necessary medicine, and much of its population is living below the poverty line. There does not appear to be any respite in sight as inflation continues to increase. So just how has Venezuela found itself in such a desperate situation?
Venezuela has been a divided country for about two decades, with some being supporters of the United Socialist Party (PSUV), the party currently in power, which was headed by Hugo Chavez for many years. They have been in power since before the turn of the century, which is partly the reason why the rest of the country is so opposed to them. The President is now Nicolas Maduro, who has been intent of continuing the work of Chavez since his death. It is not merely the case that the people are divided but, perhaps more importantly, the opposing parties are exceptionally hostile towards each other, with both sides often accusing the other of attempting to stage coup d’états. The government’s opposition is comprised of an alliance of different parties, each with different aims. This complicates the situation. Another issue is that the opposition is not seen as an inherently positive force; it is widely considered to be elitist and exploitative. It has support, however, from those who believe that the government has corrupted the country’s economy and democracy.
These issues might be the root of the current crisis, but they have existed for a long time and are not the catalyst for a crisis which has seen very many people killed in violent anti-government protests. There is no simple explanation as to what has caused this crisis but the fall in global oil prices is significant; oil accounts for the vast majority of Venezuelan export revenue. Such revenue is what funded many of the government’s rather extreme social programmes, which have now been cut back; this has led to a fall in governmental support.
Another incident that caused tensions to increase further was a ruling by the Venezuelan Supreme Court. In March of last year, it announced that it would seize powers of the National Assembly, which was controlled by the government’s opposition. The opposition was infuriated as they believed that this move would bring President Maduro very close to an autocratic rule of the country. The Court gave the reason that the opposition had been in contempt after disregarding its previous rulings, but the backlash that ensued as a result of this particular announcement caused it to be revoked within the week. Tensions, however, did not desist.
Unease in the country has led to the opposition calling for an early election. President Maduro instead decided to announce the creation of a constituent assembly, which came into force in August of last year. The proposed purpose of the assembly is to ease political tensions and, in turn, promote peace. The trouble, however, is that it is largely made up of government loyalists and is therefore unbalanced. The opposition is sceptical about the constituent assembly, believing that it will only help Maduro to stay in power for longer and weaken the National Assembly, which is, of course, run by them. Maduro thinks that it is the economic war, waged against him by the opposition, that has caused the country’s issues. What certainly seems to be the main problem in Venezuela is that the opposing sides of the political spectrum seem unwilling and incapable of working with one another, and such political discord, which is currently in its worst state of recent times, is only exacerbating a crisis caused by overspending and a fall in national revenue, leading to soaring inflation.
People in Venezuela are hungry and sick. Hospitals are amongst the worst affected by the economic crisis, with necessary medicines in short supply. The opposition is desperate for the creation of a ‘humanitarian channel’, which would allow medication to be imported in order to combat the shortage in the country. In fact, the struggle of the country’s healthcare system is one of the reasons people have started moving into Colombia, where they can be properly treated and receive the medicine they need. People have been moving across the border for months now, with some moving permanently and others making occasional or even daily trips in order to go to a hospital or buy food. The economic crisis has affected food production in Venezuela, in part, as a result of the farm supply industry being nationalised a few years ago. Basic necessities are limited and far too expensive for the vast majority of people. This has led to many crossing the border in order to eat a proper meal (often given out by churches for free) or to purchase groceries in Colombia; this is obviously not an option for most of the population. Even those who make it into Colombia are struggling because their money has very little value once it is exchanged for Pesos. The practice of crossing the border has become such a norm that the Colombian government has introduced special cards, allowing Venezuelans to travel between the two countries without the use of a passport.
The situation does not appear to be any near being resolved, and to make matters even more complicated, President Maduro has banned certain opposition parties from contesting the next general election. These parties, however, had claimed that the system was corrupt and thus refused to participate in the recent mayoral elections, which was why Maduro decided to take action. Maduro did attempt to ease tensions over Christmas by releasing a number of political prisoners, but there is still a long way to go and the future, if anything, looks bleaker and the threat of a total collapse of the economy looms. In order to combat inflation, at the beginning of the year Maduro announced that the minimum wage would be raised by 40%. Many will still find acquiring necessities to be a struggle, and such a move will only help inflation to soar even higher. The government has not disclosed the level of inflation since 2016, when it was 240%. A lot has happened since then. The World needs to pay attention to Venezuela and to help its people before this humanitarian crisis becomes a tragedy of humanity.
Sources: BBC; Independent
