The slaughterhouse in Machiques, once one of the largest in Latin America, has been idled by power cuts. [287] In 2018, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) documented that "information gathered indicates that the socioeconomic crisis had been unfolding for several years prior to the imposition of these sanctions". Related: Venezuelans lose weight as food shortages worsen. Connecting decision makers to a dynamic network of information, people and ideas, Bloomberg quickly and accurately delivers business and financial information, news and insight around the world. Greenwald said that the accusation by the US government and media that Venezuelan troops had set the trucks on fire was a lie to "inflame regime change against Venezuela". [145], In April 2019, Human Rights Watch (HRW) and Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health published the results of a joint, year-long research project in a report entitled "Venezuela's humanitarian emergency: Large-scale UN response needed to address health and food crises". [229] A Tomas Perez, who studies the Venezuelan diaspora at the Central University of Venezuela, said in 2018 that because "now everyone is poor", it is mostly poor leaving the country. Venezuelans sometimes must ration electricity and water during droughts. As Venezuela lurches into chaos, Maduro acts as if the opposite is true. [290], On 11 August 2017, President Trump said that he is "not going to rule out a military option" to confront the autocratic government of Nicolás Maduro and the deepening crisis in Venezuela. [180], In 2017, suicide increased by 67% among the elderly and 18% among minors; by 2018, reports emerged of a rapidly increasing suicide rate due to the stressors surrounding the crisis. This was followed on 14 May by a legal claim by the Venezuelan Central Bank asking the Bank of England to send the proceeds of the sale of gold to the United Nations Development Programme. They in no way target the Venezuelan economy. Its capital, Maracaibo, was once Venezuela’s oil powerhouse. For the 2019–20 presidential crisis, see, It has been suggested that this article be, Maduro administration on humanitarian crisis. The United Nations estimates there are 3 million Venezuelans living abroad, including some 2.4 million spread across Latin America and the Caribbean. [139], One study of 6,500 households by three of the main universities in Venezuela found that "74% of the population had lost on average nineteen pounds in 2016". And all this was before an alleged drone attack on president Nicolas Maduro earlier this month made the political situation even more tense, the country’s opposition-led National Assembly said that the annual inflation rate reached 83,000% in July, and the chaotic introduction of a new currency. [217] The murder rate declined even further to 60.3 in 2019. For several years, Maduro has had a stark choice: Pay down debts to China, Russia and foreign investors -- or buy food and medicine from abroad. Lately, companies have been successful in using courts to force PDVSA to pay some debts. [219] Maduro calls those arrested members of "terrorist groups" and says his government will not hesitate to send them to prison. [4] Inflation in Venezuela remained high during Chávez's presidency. ", "Mercosur suspends Venezuela, urges immediate transition", "La lista de los 40 países democráticos que hasta el momento desconocieron la Asamblea Constituyente de Venezuela", "Venezuela: New assembly leader warns 'justice will come, "As Venezuela unrest spreads, Maduro presses on with plans to rewrite charter", "Venezuelan gov't proposes constitutional assembly election on July 30", "40 countries protest Venezuela's new assembly amid fraud accusations", "Declaration by the High Representative on behalf of the European Union on the situation in Venezuela - Consilium", High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, "Venezuela Urged by Mercosur to Refrain From Escalating Tensions", "Almagro, 13 OAS Nations Demand Maduro Suspend Constitutional Assembly", "Venezuela opposition boycotts meeting on Maduro assembly, clashes rage", "As Venezuelan election nears, more upheaval and cries of fraud", "What are Venezuelans voting for and why is it so divisive? [122], In 2014, shortages of antiretroviral medicines to treat HIV/AIDS affected about 50,000 Venezuelans, potentially causing thousands of Venezuelans with HIV to develop AIDS. [229], In 1998, only 14 Venezuelans were granted U.S. asylum, and by September 1999, 1,086 Venezuelans were granted asylum according to the U.S. [160], In April 2020 the Venezuelan government asked the Bank of England to sell $US1.02 billion of the Venezuelan gold reserves held by the bank to help the government fund its response to the COVID-19 pandemic. [87] It would also allow him to stay in power during the interregnum and skip the 2018 presidential elections, as the process would take at least two years. A blackout in March plunged the state into a week of darkness and chaos that left about 500 businesses ransacked. But the state’s presence is melting in the hinterlands, an absence that has been particularly glaring in Zulia, Venezuela’s most populous state. [301], At the end of January 2019, as the US prepared to bring aid across the border, the International Committee of the Red Cross warned the United States about the risk of delivering humanitarian aid without the approval of the government's security forces. According to the release, Venezuela's inflation rate was 274% in 2016, 863% in 2017 and 130,060% in 2018. According to an investigation by The Economist, the total number of displaced Venezuelans may already have reached four million out of a population of about 30 million, which represents 13 percent of the population of Venezuela. Malaria cases jumped to 240,000, a 76% rise from 2015. "[116], In late 2014, Venezuelans began saying that due to shortages of medicines, it was hard to find acetaminophen to help alleviate symptoms of the newly introduced chikungunya virus, a potentially lethal mosquito-borne disease. [199], ... carjack gangs set up ambushes, sometimes laying down nail-embedded strips to puncture tires of vehicles ferrying potential quarry. [286] In 2017, Trump's administration imposed additional economic sanctions on Venezuela. [219] In the first three months of 2019, Foro Penal says 1,712 people were arrested and about two-thirds of those were held for more than 48 hours, the threshold used to classify a detainee as a political prisoner. As output plunges toward 1 million barrels a day, the lowest level in seven decades, the country is running out of cash to pay for food and medicine. [41], Hugo Rafael Chávez Frías was first elected President of Venezuela in 1998. Shipments fell by almost a quarter in the past two years. Former President Bill Clinton made it his first stop on a trip to the region in 1997. The majority of Venezuelans have emigrated to Colombia, Brazil, Chile, Argentina, Ecuador, Peru, and Uruguay. Venezuela ships in food primarily from Brazil, Colombia and Mexico because the government stopped cultivating its rich farmland years ago. But gridlock was the result. Disclaimer. [163], The HRW/Johns Hopkins report states that the more than 454,000 Venezuelan women who have emigrated to Colombia face 'threats of sexual exploitation and abuse, trafficking, and sexual and reproductive rights violations"; violence based on gender accounted for more than 12% of 2018 health-care events, and indigenous women may be at higher risk. See for yourself, 'There are people in Venezuela who are literally starving. Her mother, Maibeli Nava, does not have money to take her to Colombia for treatment, she said. [116] The Constitution of Venezuela provides for the right to health. Ecuador says 4,000 people a day have been crossing the border, a total of 500,000 so far. There were clashes, with Venezuelan security forces reported to use tear gas attack in attempt to maintain a blockade of the border. International Organization for Migration said recently. [288] His report, which he says was ignored by the UN, was criticized by the Latin America and Caribbean programme director for the Crisis Group for neglecting to mention the impact of a "difficult business environment on the country", which the director said "was a symptom of Chavismo and the socialist governments’ failures", and that "Venezuela could not recover under current government policies even if the sanctions were lifted. More than 7% of Venezuela’s population has fled the country since 2014, according to the UN. [230] The first wave of Venezuelan emigrants were wealthy and middle class Venezuelans concerned by Chávez's rhetoric of redistributing wealth to the poor;[229] the early exodus of college-educated people with capital caused a brain drain.
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