Venezuela’s continuing currency crisis pushes country to brink of collapse – VICE News. An ongoing economic fiasco in Venezuela has left its population desperate.
Lower oil prices and hyperinflation have had wide reaching consequences for the entire population. Here’s a summary of what Venezuela’s citizens have been dealing with in recent months: Government imposed limits on food supplies mean that supermarket shelves are often emptyFood is transported by armed guardFormal rolling electricity blackouts are the normDrought has hit the water supply, forcing some to steal it from local poolsInflation will hit close to 500 percent by the end of 2016 The country is lacking 80% of the most basic medical supplies Now a currency crisis is threatening to push the nation into further jeopardy — a remarkable situation given that Venezuela used to be known as the richest country in Latin America.
What’s happening? The 100 bolivar note – worth around three U.S. cents today – accounts for 77 percent of all currency in circulation. Why is there an economic problem now? Hyperinflation. Venezuela’s Collapse: Horror Beyond Belief. When Matt O’Brien updated his previous article on the slow-motion collapse of Venezuela on Monday for the Washington Post, he reviewed the symptoms achingly familiar to those following the events: the collapse of oil prices; the incompetence of the cronies running the state-owned oil company (former Marxist Hugo Chávez replaced the workers who knew what they were doing with political cronies who didn’t); the inflation of the currency followed as night follows day, with price controls to mask the resulting inflation; inflation, as measured by the black market’s pricing of the Venezuelan bolivar, causing the bolivar to lose more than 90 percent of its value in just two years; the empty supermarket shelves; the oppression by police of those standing in long lines to purchase whatever might be left in those stores; and on and on.
As O’Brien lamented: And then he added: “It’s only going to get worse.” Unfortunately, it already has. It is not. Ghastly stories of horror and grief abound. Venezuela: Latin American Country Faces Economic Free Fall. It was once the richest country in Latin America.
Now it’s falling apart By Ioan Grillo / Caracas | Photographs by Alvaro Ybarra Zavala In Venezuela the food lines are only the most visible evidence of a nation in free fall. Known as las colas, the lines form before dawn and last until nightfall, several bodies thick and zigzagging for miles in leafy middle-class neighborhoods and ragged slums alike. Venezuela, a Failing State. The medical student told me to use his name.
He said he didn’t care. “Maduro is a donkey,” he said. “An asshole.” He meant Nicolás Maduro, the President of Venezuela. We were passing through the wards of a large public hospital in Valencia, a city of roughly a million people, a hundred miles west of Caracas. We ducked into a room stuffed with rusted bed frames and dirty plastic barrels, where in a corner a thin young man was propped on a bed without sheets. Venezuela - Wikipedia. Republic in northern South America Coordinates: Venezuela (/ˌvɛnəˈzweɪlə/ ( listen) VEN-ə-ZWAYL-ə; American Spanish: [beneˈswela]), officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela (Spanish: República Bolivariana de Venezuela),[7] is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and a large number of small islands and islets in the Caribbean Sea.
The capital and largest urban agglomeration is the city of Caracas. It has a territorial extension of 916,445 km2 (353,841 sq mi). The territory now known as Venezuela was colonized by Spain in 1522 amid resistance from indigenous peoples. The sovereign state is a federal presidential republic consisting of 23 states, the Capital District (covering Caracas), and federal dependencies (covering Venezuela's offshore islands).
Etymology According to the most popular and accepted version, in 1499, an expedition led by Alonso de Ojeda visited the Venezuelan coast. History Pre-Columbian history Colonization Geography. Venezuela travel advice. The Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) advise against all travel to within 80km (50 miles) of the Colombian border in the states of Zulia, Tachira and Apure.
The FCO advise against all but essential travel to the remainder of Tachira state. Drug traffickers and illegal armed groups are active in these states and there is a risk of kidnapping. See Crime Political protests are common. You should remain vigilant and avoid protests and demonstrations. Venezuela. The World Factbook. ShowIntroduction :: VENEZUELA Panel - Collapsed Venezuela was one of three countries that emerged from the collapse of Gran Colombia in 1830 (the others being Ecuador and New Granada, which became Colombia).
For most of the first half of the 20th century, Venezuela was ruled by generally benevolent military strongmen, who promoted the oil industry and allowed for some social reforms. Democratically elected governments have held sway since 1959. Under Hugo CHAVEZ, president from 1999 to 2013, and his hand-picked successor, President Nicolas MADURO, the executive branch has exercised increasingly authoritarian control over other branches of government. At the same time, democratic institutions have deteriorated, threats to freedom of expression have increased, and political polarization has grown.