This brief Venezuela Crisis fact sheet and Venezuela Crisis timeline provides an overview to what is currently taking shape in Venezuela and how it unfolded.
Venezuela Crisis Fact Sheet / Venezuela Crisis Timeline – How It Happened
- Soon after Maduro was elected Venezuela’s president, international oil prices began decrease significantly. This had enormous impact on Venezuela’s economy.
- Venezuela has some of the largest oil reserves in the world. But in recent years oil output has plunged in Venezuela. This has been due to a lack of money to maintain the industry.
- According to a social survey in Venezuela released in February 2018 more than 90% of Venezuelans said they no longer had enough money to purchase food for their homes.
- Rampant crime has elevated many of the nation’s largest cities to the highest crime rates in the world.
- More than 80% of the country now lives in poverty.
- By the middle of this year Venezuelan inflation had climbed to 1 million percent. This is one of the highest inflation rates in history.
- The Maduro government has tried to ease the inflation with several high profile efforts to devalue the currency. Most significant was an effort in the summer of 2018 to tie the value of Venezuela’s currency directly to a crypto currency called the petro. The hope was to reduce inflation by 90%. This effort has so far proven to be a failure.
- Along with these shifts in the currency to fight inflation other unsuccessful measures have also been taken. For example, the minimum wage rate was increased by 3,000%.
- Venezuela’s economy is expected to shrink by another 18% this year. This will be the third consecutive year of double digit decline of the national economy.
- The healthcare system of Venezuela has collapsed. Malnourishment is operating at a high rate among the country’s disintegrating population. Diseases which were previously eradicated have returned in force within the country.
- Malaria cases in Venezuela increased by 70% between 2016 and 2017.
This Venezuela Crisis Fact Sheet / Venezuela Crisis Timeline will be updated regularly. Please check back regularly for updates and continuing information.
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