Harvard expert tries to make sense of Venezuela’s collapse
Thousands of angry demonstrators in Venezuela took to the streets again this week to protest the government of President Nicolás Maduro, two weeks after he was sworn in for a second term following an election that many critics say was rigged. The protests were organized by opposition leader Juan Guaidó, president of the National Assembly, who has declared himself acting president. Once one of the richest countries in Latin America with the world’s largest oil reserves, Venezuela has been in political, economic, and humanitarian freefall in recent years. Many observers blame Maduro, along with his predecessor, Hugo Chavez, whose policies pointed toward helping the poor and reducing inequality instead sent the economy toward decline, with political corruption reportedly rampant. With the economy failing, millions of Venezuelans have fled the country, and the International Monetary Fund anticipates the inflation rate there will hit 10 million percent this year. To understand conditions and their...