Venezuela: A Path Out of Misery
Security Theme
State Stability and Infrastructure
Keywords
Political Stability, Economic disaster, migration, humanitarian crisis, Maduro, democratic stability
Description
Since the last report of the Brookings Institution Working Group on Venezuela in April 2017, the crisis in Venezuela has considerably worsened. As of fall 2018, the country is in a rapidly deepening economic and humanitarian crisis, marked by growing scarcity of food, medicine, and basic staples. Despite having one of the world’s largest oil reserves, Venezuela’s oil production is declining and electricity and water shortages have lasted for weeks in certain areas of the country. Hyperinflation, the product of monumental government mismanagement, has continued to deplete Venezuelan salaries and savings. The consensus among outside observers is that the severe and poorly planned economic measures announced in August 2018 by President Nicolás Maduro will accentuate the crisis.
Venezuela: A Path Out of Misery
Since the last report of the Brookings Institution Working Group on Venezuela in April 2017, the crisis in Venezuela has considerably worsened. As of fall 2018, the country is in a rapidly deepening economic and humanitarian crisis, marked by growing scarcity of food, medicine, and basic staples. Despite having one of the world’s largest oil reserves, Venezuela’s oil production is declining and electricity and water shortages have lasted for weeks in certain areas of the country. Hyperinflation, the product of monumental government mismanagement, has continued to deplete Venezuelan salaries and savings. The consensus among outside observers is that the severe and poorly planned economic measures announced in August 2018 by President Nicolás Maduro will accentuate the crisis.
