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>Venezuela's economic elite have to take blame as well, an >article from 2010 states "While it’s true that there is >awful inflation in Venezuela, much of it has been caused by >business owners, large-scale private distributors and >producers, import-exporters and the economic elite that seek >to destabilize and overthrow the Chavez administration. They >sell dollars on the black market at pumped up rates and >speculate and hike the prices of regular consumer products to >provoke panic and desperation among the public, all with the >goal of forcing Chavez’s ouster. And despite ongoing >economic sabotage, the economy has still grown substantially >in comparison to other nations in the region. In fact, >according to the neoliberal International Monetary Fund (IMF), >Venezuela is the only South American nation to forecast >economic growth this year."
A *lot* has happened since then. Without nitpicking too much I will say that some of this is true, however at that time there was panic about the dollar reaching 200 Bolivares one day. It was into the millions when they lopped the zeros off the exchange to simplify currency. So you had inflation but not hyperinflation, now you have unprecedented hyperinflation, the likes of which only two other countries have seen in history.
>US policy toward Venezuela shares some of the blame. Despite >the fact that Chavez was an overwhelmingly popular president >the US funneled millions of dollars to opposition groups, then >decreased their importation of Venezuelan oil because the >"politicial instability" they were funding. Again, the US >spent a decade+ funding political instability in the country.
That is also true and the U.S. was a useful boogeyman for Venezuela because they went beyond pointing out usurping sovereignty and imposing sanctions and rather turned them into a scapegoat for every imaginable domestic problem. Again you have very justified anti-American sentiment there, and then you have the stuff of urban legends, old wives' tales and myths. Also, again, you can draw a pretty directly line between Maduro administration policies to many of the current problems. Being tethered to resource profits has always been an issue, even if it accelerated under Chavez. American meddling has always been an issue, even if it has been on the uptick under the last two regimes there. So what changed? We now have someone completely incompetent and uncaring running the country. There is a lot of blame to go around but as far as changes go, we have to start somewhere. The same way marginalizing the influence of the FARC was a big step toward a stable partnership with Colombia, regime change here is the first step to doing the same with Venezuela.
>Maduro shares some of the blame. Lots of the blame. So much >more complicated than "Fuck Chavez, Fuck Socialism". Honestly >though I'm getting tired of typing and sourcing things. What I >will say is that US media coverage toward Venezuela has been >biased as fuck since before the first time I went to the >country back in 2005. And it's hard to find good sources to >really understand what is and has been going on. >venezuelaanalysis.com is one of the better sites for >information.
You also have Russia's sticky fingers all over the region and they are deep into Venezuela, China plays a role, and generally Venezuela is isolated to where those two nations and Bolivia (isolated even more unfairly by the U.S.) are their only real allies. Not exactly a triumvirate of strong, stable existence.
And you will know MY JACKET IS GOLD when I lay my vengeance upon thee.
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