Chaos Intensifies as Venezuela Inches Closer Toward Total Collapse

It is a country that sits on more oil than Saudi Arabia, yet its people are starving to death. There is no food. There is no medicine. The currency is crashing under the weight of hyperinflation. Venezuela has been coined “the Zimbabwe of Latin America” as it suffers crisis after crisis without ever completely collapsing.

It is a country that sits on more oil than Saudi Arabia, yet its people are starving to death. There is no food. There is no medicine. The currency is crashing under the weight of hyperinflation. Venezuela has been coined “the Zimbabwe of Latin America” as it suffers crisis after crisis without ever completely collapsing. The scarcity of resources in Venezuela has led to violence on the streets with people willing to rob, loot, and kill to provide for their families. But the violence in Venezuela cannot be contributed solely to its people seeking food for their hungry families; violence is now breaking out more explosively as opposition members are at odds with the repressive Maduro regime.

Though the foundation upon which the Venezuelan government was built began eroding as early as 2003 (in part due to policies and rampant spending by former socialist President Hugo Chavez), it wasn’t until the 2013 election of President Nicolas Maduro that the economic and political crisis steeply worsened and the government opposition became more robust. Since 2013, protests against the Venezuelan government, which has gone from socialist to dictatorial, have been scattered. But it has only been within the last year that the country has unraveled so expediently. Venezuela, from the slums of Caracas to the rural regions outside of the nation’s capital, now resembles something of a post-apocalyptic wasteland.

Shelves of supermarkets are empty. People are looting and rioting in the streets, fighting each other for what little food is left. Those who choose not to fight for their food can be found in long lines for hours at a time waiting to receive plain rice or milk, often to only come up empty-handed. The infant mortality rate has exceeded 20% and children are severely malnourished. In the last month alone, there have been nearly 30 deaths and hundreds of injuries as protesters clash with riot police.

As the devastating effects of this economic crisis continue to enslave the citizens of Venezuela, hundreds of thousands of people have taken to the streets of Caracas to protest Maduro. Though the number of protests has grown markedly, the opposition has not yet been able to overthrow their dictatorial leader or find ways to reform the government. However, the people of Venezuela remain steadfast in fighting for the three things that are most important to them: a free and fair election, the release of political prisoners, and a new judicial branch.