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Drowning in Petrol: A Plunge into the Venezuelan Crisis

  • Writer: ayouthviewpoint
    ayouthviewpoint
  • Sep 2, 2024
  • 7 min read

By Carlos Alfonso Chaves



To understand the current crisis in Caracas, we must understand how Venezuela went from the pearl of South America to its most downtrodden backwater through its political history. During the 1800s, as Latin America fought to break free from a collapsing Spanish Empire, the northern colony of New Granada broke free to establish the Republic of Gran Colombia. After a decade of political turmoil at the hands of the Federalists and Centralists, combined with ethnic tensions between Ecuadorians, Colombians, and Venezuelans, the new country collapsed. From the ashes of Gran Colombia came Venezuela, and from its very onset the military had an immense influence over its democracy, as they backed the absolutist “Cosiata” group. This established the military as a viable political force during the inception of the new Venezuelan state, a fact that would come to haunt the modern state of Venezuela. Conservatives held the presidency in a chokehold with puppet presidents for General José Antonio Páez (1790-1873) for about 20 years.



"General José Antonio Páez" Painting by Juan Jorge Peoli


José Antonio Páez is considered to be the first caudillo of Venezuela. A man who exerted the qualities of a Warlord leader through his control of the armed forces. He was ousted from power after a four-year civil war called the Federal War. This would oust the caudillo from power but not from politics. This period would establish two things in Venezuelan politics; The first was that whoever controlled the army could control the presidency. The second fact was that the best way to oust a dominant party isn’t through elections, but through firepower.

The next big component in explaining the backdrop is the meteoric rise of Venezuela in the 50s and the crash that led to Mr. Chávez. During the 1950s, the price of oil had grown massively, which was great for Venezuela as they held massive oil reserves and drilling projects. This newfound price of oil exports would make the country’s income flow skyrocket to heights never-before-seen. Their income flow had been so massive that they formed OPEC with the states of Iran, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, and Kuwait and had grown to be the richest country in South America.

During the 50s, Venezuela had been ruled by another military-backed caudillo by the name of Marcos Pérez Jiménez, whose rule was marred by rampant corruption, complete censorship, and extreme police brutality, despite the country’s economic success. The 60s brought a counter-coup that put a triple coalition into power. The country’s economy was still booming at this very moment due to its oil exports, but its entire economy would base itself around that sole export. Corruption was still rampant, but at least the censorship had toned down, and by 1970 the army had gone 20 years without trying to overthrow the government. By the start of the 1980s, Venezuela hadn’t changed course and was still primarily focused on its oil trade. They had gone so far as to nationalize the oil industry and curb any business future market competitiveness and innovation in that sector. This complete dependence on oil would prove to be the catalyst for Venezuela’s decaida.

With the nationalization of its oil exports, the Venezuelan economy stopped outright booming and began to stagnate. However, due to sluggish demand and extreme oversupply, the price of oil began to collapse. According to Brooking’s Dermot Gately, oil prices from 1981 through 1985 had fallen almost 40%. By the 90’s the government had grown extremely unpopular and the people were looking to more extreme measures to rectify their worsening situation. Enter Hugo Chávez, an ambitious socialist general who wants to reform Venezuela into the ideal socialist state. In 1990, the country begun to grow, but unemployment was a still a massive problem. According to BBC’s Sue Branford, up to 40% of the labor force in Venezuela was unemployed with between around 70% to 90% of the population being dissatisfied. On February 4th, Chávez and other rebellious troops launched a coup against the central government but failed to capture President Carlos Andrés Perez. Hemmed in the Military History Museum, Chávez surrendered under the condition that he get to televise himself standing down. He gave the brief “Por Ahora” speech, telling his fellow revolutionaries to stand down for now. But that his socialist populist revolution would come soon. He was imprisoned for 2 years before the president let Chávez go to appease his followers. Between ‘92 and ‘94, according to Aaron O’Neill, inflation doubled from 31% in 1992 to 60.8% in 1994. In 1999, Chávez ran with the United Venezuelan Socialist Party (Partido Socialista Unido de Venezuela) which would win the vote with a 58% majority and bring a radical shift to the left in Venezuelan politics.

Chávez entered with a massive 80% approval rating and made sweeping reforms concerning the powers of the president in his first year in office. He wrote a new constitution that gave him an unprecedented level of control and required re-elections of all elected government officials. He also began collectivizing oil profits and land redistribution programs. He also moved to silence the independent press along with making bold declarations of taking Venezuela down a trajectory similar to Cuba. Chávez also began to alienate the U.S. by criticizing their invasion of Afghanistan after 9/11 and aligning with their rivals in Iran. His controversial radicalism and continued corruption had split Venezuela between the Chavistas and the Escuálidos. In 2002, after his approval ratings went down to 30%, Chávez narrowly survived a coup. This countercoup would be the last time until 2024 when opposition parties took matters into their own hands taking down the government. He would continue to rule Venezuela as a socialist military strongman until he died in 2013 when he named Vice President Nicolás Maduro as his successor.


History has shown us three constants in Venezuelan Politics that will impact its present and future:

  1. The military reigns supreme. It decides who’s in or out of power.

  2. The only way to take a party out of power is through violence, coup d’etat, or otherwise

  3. Corruption is present in every level of politics.


Maduro was sworn in on the 19th of April 2013. He entered a country facing turmoil and growing polarization. In 2014, he had to deal with large-scale protests in the states of Tachria and Merida after a female student alleged that she was raped. They were demanding increased security and a crackdown on corruption. He responded to these protests with police and military crackdowns. This would establish that Maduro was ready and willing to use police force to pacify his populace. As for the economic front, things couldn’t be any worse. Oil prices continued to stay low; while corrupt union bosses and oil managers took big wet bites out of oil profits. Leaving what little went back to the state to be spent on social projects that the state cannot afford. Inflation under Chávez stayed at a consistent ~40%. Bad, but not unsalvageable. But under Maduro, Venezuela printed money like never before, leading to hyperinflation and the utter collapse of the Venezuelan Peso. According to Bloomberg/Reuters’ estimate, by 2016, inflation increased to 60%. In 2018, the U.S. levied sanctions against Venezuela, citing human rights abuses, followed by most of South America and the EU. This caused Venezuela’s oil production to fall, which when combined with government incompetence and continued printing led to the worst inflation crisis the world has seen. This inflation crisis caused many people to try to escape Venezuela to find better lives, which only added more fuel to the Venezuelan fire. Inflation had grown to a whopping 180,000%. 1 USD was worth 248566.537 VEF. These economic woes weren’t helped by the global pandemic shutting down any trade left with Venezuela. Eventually, inflation stabilized to about 200%, but the damage was already done, no country valued the Venezuelan peso, and no one in the country trusted its coin.

By the time of this year’s elections, the populace had grown sick of socialist rule in the country and clamored for change. Avid poll watchers noticed that the opposition candidate Edmundo González seemed to be headed for a landslide victory, but when the votes were counted, Maduro declared himself the winner. Soon after this declaration of victory, massive riots broke out all across Venezuela. Demanding that Edmundo González be placed as the rightful president. This wasn’t your usual last-minute election win, this result was so plainly rigged, that numerous countries have already declared González to be the true president. The U.S. has gone so far as to support Edmundo González and has already taken a stand against Maduro. In response to the unrest, instead of conceding to the people’s will, Maduro used military force to crack down on the protesters. Not just that, he’s gone so far as to imprison numerous political opponents, including González’s lawyer. The Maduro regime has been on a campaign of suppression since Maduro named himself the winner. The Mexican, Brazilian, and Colombian governments have offered to mediate in a show of international cooperation for a neighbor in need, but that has quickly lost most of its momentum in the midst of divisions between their different leftist parties. At the moment, Maduro looks to turn his firm grip on power into an iron fist and will continue the perpetual cycle of military juntas of Venezuela.









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