The End of the Oil Era
Oil for May delivery is worth less than nothing. For the first time in a hundred years, Venezuela is staring down a future with no oil income. I’m sure it won’t be missed.
Economy
Being a Farmer During a Pandemic in a Collapsed Economy
Fuel shortage is one of the reasons COVID-19 will hit Venezuela hard, because it increases the already heavy food insecurity. In the countryside, what’s left of production is stopping.
Maduro Has Another Curve to Flatten
Applying social distancing measures to slow the spread of COVID-19 is the right way to go. The thing is, it’ll devastate what remains of the Venezuelan economy.
Bursting the Wellness Bubble
There’s a weird vibe in Caracas of economic improvement, with shortages slowly disappearing. But if you go past the surface of the incipient upgrades, you’ll see we’re far from real, stable development.
The Challenge of Child Malnutrition for Venezuela’s Future
We know that several thousand children are malnourished. How do we avoid a self-fulfilling prophecy?
HRW: Maduro Welcomes Illegal Gold Exploitation & Horrific Abuses
HRW has just expressed its concern about “amputations and other horrific abuses” by local armed groups and Colombian guerrillas in the Orinoco Mining Arc.
Dollars in Barrios Are Not a Privilege Anymore
With the growing unofficial dollarization of the Venezuelan economy, most transactions in the poorer areas are done through foreign currency. This has generated a sense of prosperity in the capital, but it’s also one of the reasons the gap in social inequality has grown.
Formalizing a Rogue Economy in a Rogue State
The ANC is looking to modify the VAT law to tax transactions in dollars. What does this mean?
Digging Under Rock Bottom
When Hugo Chávez spoke of finally diversifying the Venezuelan economy, nobody, least of all himself, could have guessed how it’d come true. This is what happens when you pummel domestic production.
The Five-Year-Transformation of the National Assembly
2020 might be the stage for new parliamentary elections in which chavismo expects to revert the effects of MUD’s 2015 victory. In the meanwhile, harassment and coercion have scraped off the opposition majority.
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