The US recently imposed personal sanctions on Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, putting him in the company of leaders, like Kim Jong-un of North Korea and Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe, among others.
Washington made the move as the impasse between the Venezuelan government and opposition continues with more than 150 dead in protests against President Maduro whose dictatorial moves amid an economic crisis have brought the Latin American country to near ruin.
On March 29, the government-stacked Supreme Court dissolved the opposition-controlled National Assembly. The highest court’s move sparked massive protests which continued even after the decision was reversed. Since March, the opposition has been seeking Maduro’s ouster and fresh Presidential Election.
However, the president responded by calling for election on July 30 to form a Constituent Assembly in order to rewrite the Constitution. The Constituent Assembly, tasked with rewriting the 1999 Constitution, was drawn up by Maduro’s mentor and former President Hugo Chavez. The Assembly will be a kind of “super agency” with powers over all branches of the government, including to dissolve the National Assembly. The opposition say that it is President Maduro’s ploy to consolidate power and delay the Presidential Election due in late 2018.

Meanwhile, 54-year-old Maduro, the bus driver-turned-politician who speaks of continuing the “Chavismo” brand of socialism, has blamed the crisis on the US and rightwing businessmen. He has also accused business leaders of slashing production to sabotage the economy.
With protests taking toll on the oil-rich country, the IMF has predicted that the inflation will jump 720% in Venezuela and the rate of unemployment will touch 25% soon. Bolivar 11,000 is about what USD 1 buys now on the black market. Before the crisis, it was Bolivar 23. In recent months, 1-2 million Venezuelans have left the country because of the deteriorating political and economic situation.

The falling oil prices explain the crisis in a big way. Venezuela possesses largest oil reserves in the world and oil revenue was used to pay for populist social schemes and food subsidies. However, a drop by half in oil prises in 2015 made those subsidies unsustainable. With no money, President Maduro has cut exports, resulting in widespread food shortages. The government sought to deal with the crisis by raising wages and printing more Bolivars. But, the steps only fuelled inflation.
Maduro is a controversial character. In 2016, he released video clips of himself dancing with his wife. The clips went viral and the president was slammed for getting fatter while ordinary Venezuelans went hungry. Around 72.7% of the population have said that they lost weight in the past year, reducing an average of about 9kg.

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Published by Koushik Das

Koushik Das (born on May 16, 1976 in Kolkata) is a career journalist. Based in the Indian capital of New Delhi, Koushik writes mainly about foreign policies and current geopolitical issues, and rarely about other topics. His own political ideas are highly influenced by Antonio Gramsci, Louis Althusser, Michel Foucault, Michael Oakeshott and others. English philosopher and political theorist Oakeshott (Dec 11, 1901-Dec 19, 1990) says that “in political activity, men sail a boundless and bottomless sea. There is neither harbour for shelter nor floor for anchorage, neither starting-place, nor appointed destination. But we have to keep afloat”. (Rationalism in Politics, 1962) As a student of Political Science, Koushik loves to share his views on issues, which have great impacts on his thought process (and also on India, South Asia and of course on the global community), with his readers through his website – Boundless Ocean of Politics. By doing so, he tries to keep himself afloat. You will find some of his articles in https://inserbia.info/today/ (https://inserbia.info/today/author/kou_das13_i/), as he has been trying to assess the global geopolitics since 2003. You can also mail him at kousdas@gmail.com View all posts by Koushik Das