FT Video: Once touted as a beacon of revolutionary socialism, today there are fears that Venezuela is on the cusp of becoming a failed state. Andres Schipani and Ben Marino report on the spiralling violence and economic, social and political crisis facing the oil-rich nation.
Last year 29,000 people were murdered in Venezuela
The Economist reported last week:
YOU find them driving taxis in Buenos Aires, working as waiters in Panama or selling arepas (corn bread) in Madrid. The number of Venezuelans fleeing hunger, repression and crime in their ruptured country grows by the day. For years, Latin American governments kept quiet as first Hugo Chávez and then his successor, Nicolás Maduro, hollowed out Venezuela’s democracy. Now their economic bungling and Mr Maduro’s increasingly harsh rule are causing a humanitarian crisis that the region can no longer ignore. At last, it is not...He retains the support of 25% of the population and of the security forces (some from ideological conviction, others because of perks or corruption). His recent actions suggest that he plans to turn Venezuela into an autarkic dictatorship in the mould of Fidel Castro’s Cuba.
