Venezuela: How a Rich Country Falls

Why you Can’t Solve Complex Problems with Simple Solutions

Millions of Venezuelans protesting their abhorrent living conditions in 2017

“Huid del pais donde uno solo ejerce todos los poderes: es un pais de esclavos.”

“Flee the country where a lone man holds all power: it is a nation of slaves.”

- Simon Bolivar — Venezuelan Military General and liberator of Venezuela, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Panama from Spanish rule.

Venezuela has a rich and turbulent history. Like most countries in Latin America, its first meeting with the ‘old world’ was characterised by Spanish conquistadors exploiting its rich natural resources for the purpose of funding the fancies of a monarch half a world away.

A country addicted to oil

Since the discovery of oil in 1914, the fate of Venezuela has rested almost entirely on this singular commodity. So important is this resource to the story of Venezuela that one could be forgiven for summarising the country’s previous 100 years of history as a struggle for its ownership and control. More than any left or right winged government, it is oil that has ruled the people of this naturally rich country and driven its leaders to make disastrous mistakes.

False Idol

Hugo Chavez

Exploitation by any other name

Rather than address the systemic problems facing his country, Chavez decided to solve complex problems with simple solutions.

And then came death

Hugo Chavez’s funeral in 2013

The bust that followed the boom

Nicolas Maduro, the current president of Venezuela

And the crisis keeps deepening

Scroll through the pages of any newspaper and you will see that Venezuela has been turned into a living hell. Malnutrition and hunger have taken over the country, hospitals lack basic supplies like antibiotics and soap, infant mortality has once again increased by a staggering 30 percent and diseases of a bygone era like diphtheria and malaria have returned to terrorise the poorest and weakest in the country.

Simple solutions, complex problems

When Chavez came to power, Venezuela was in a sorry state of affairs (although far better off comparatively than it is today).

Reformer

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Camilo Lascano Tribin

Written by

My day job is writing about Tech. My night job is writing about whatever else pops into my head. You can find a bit of both here.

Reformer

Reformer

An online platform for thought-provoking, critical, and contextual articles on politics, society, and policy.

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