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Squalid posted:It’s useful to point out how much Venezuela diverges from traditional notions of socialism. In terms of policy Chavez’s Venezuela has a lot in common with many Latin American junta governments and right wing dictatorships from before the 1990s, only with higher levels of public spending. quote:CAPS LOCK BROKEN I wish you would explain more about the economic war. For instance, it often seems to be suggested that the shortages are artificial, created because private entities are hoarding goods instead of selling them. However I’d think a business like Polar would run out of money and go out of business if it stopped selling flour and just spent years hoarding it in a warehouse? They can’t have that much surplus capital that they can carry on such a scheme for years. What am I missing? That polar is part of PepsiCo and theoretically can sit until they get another Venezuelan federation of business crony appointed president after the coup. The credulity of liberals when it comes to the good intentions of business is hilarious. It’s not like capitalist millionaire FDR had corporations plotting a coup against him due to his mild reforms???
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Aug 8, 2018 22:32
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If the new Venezuelan federation of business cronies can run the economy well enough that people can buy Pepsi on the reg, it sounds like a good plan. Precisely because companies are amoral and greedy is why they wouldn't do Tom Clancy poo poo. If Venezuela is productive and well governed, they can buy more stuff. They'd want control of that market, yeah. But if Pepsico wants to push out Coca-Cola or whatever, they don't accomplish that by starving poors. What could they accomplish by starving poors, regime change? What difference does it make what specific people are in power? Any government will deal with multinationals if they get a piece, doesn't matter who it is. Wait... Does Maduro personally like Coke? Preen Dog fucked around with this message at 22:52 on Aug 8, 2018 |
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Aug 8, 2018 22:38
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"Socialism" is often a meaningless term that popilists drive home. Ir obviously means anti-capitalist and government intervention but that can mean almost anything.
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Aug 8, 2018 22:51
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punk rebel ecks posted:The issue at hand isn't whether or not the US is "hurting" the Venezuelan economy but more so if it is hurting the Venezuelan economy to the point where Maduro and co. are justified. Uh... what? How would you be justified running one of the world's most corrupt countries, denying food and medicine aid while your population slowly starves and dies of preventable diseases, because some other country is mean to you? I don't believe in moral absolutism and think ethics are flexible depending on the situation, but there is literally no justification for the government's current policies. The US sanctions aren't even all that strong, and before last year there were no sanctions at all. So what, you think it's OK that the DPRK runs a brutal dictatorship because they're worried about a US invasion, or that it's OK that Eritrea enslaves its population from age 20-45 because they're worried Ethiopia might invade? drat, even those two examples make more sense than yours: Maduro's situation to the US "hurting the Venezuelan economy" is to crater it even further. 'Hair of the dog is an expression' that people use, but it is not an actual solution to any problem. Your analogy is closer to like "you got in a bar fight and someone punched you in the face. Are you justified in beating your wife and children??"
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Aug 8, 2018 23:16
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CAPS LOCK BROKEN posted:After the chinese civil war my dads entire family left for the US and started over. Whereas before they lived in ostentatious splendor. Must’ve not have been elites under the KMT then! That explains so much about you.
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Aug 8, 2018 23:24
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Saladman posted:Uh... what? How would you be justified running one of the world's most corrupt countries, denying food and medicine aid while your population slowly starves and dies of preventable diseases, because some other country is mean to you? Easy. You misunderstood the context of my post. I'm on your side.
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Aug 8, 2018 23:28
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Saladman posted:So what, you think it's OK that the DPRK runs a brutal dictatorship because they're worried about a US invasion, or that it's OK that Eritrea enslaves its population from age 20-45 because they're worried Ethiopia might invade? None of those things are ok. But US intervention, cloak and dagger tactics getting run out of the embassy, and preemptive war are also not ok either. I think it's telling that you've moved on to the situations in DPRK and Eritrea and not Iraq and Afghanistan, because if we were all in D&D 20 years ago you would be making the same arguments for how awful those countries are and how they needed an American "liberation" yesterday. Sometimes I think the only reason liberals opposed Bush's wars was that they were mad they didn't get the chance to pull the trigger themselves.
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Aug 9, 2018 00:10
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CAPS LOCK BROKEN posted:None of those things are ok. Please do not do this, I don't think I've seen a single poster in this thread support military or CIA-fuckery intervention in Venezuela. and if you manage to fishmech a single poster, it's definitely not the thread consensus
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Aug 9, 2018 01:31
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Flavahbeast posted:I don't agree with the assertion that the US has been waging an economic war against Venezuela for years, but even if that were the case, why would it matter? Venezuela enjoyed good relations with many nations near and far, with material support from heavies like Russia and China. That, combined with the efficiencies introduced by the Bolivarian revolution should have been more than enough to keep people fed and happy The US buys over 51% of Venezeula's exports, and provides over 30% of their imports. right now. If the US actually wanted to do an economic war to Venezuela, the US would near-instantly collapse the economy. They have no way to handle those kinds of losses even before you consider how much of that export and import is directly about getting VZ oil processed and sent back for domestic use in VZ. This is why the team of right-wing-dictatorship defenders like Peven Stan and other such puppets have to just shout "economic war" without any details. Since it's extremely clear there is no war.
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Aug 9, 2018 03:12
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fishmech posted:This is why the team of right-wing-dictatorship defenders like Peven Stan and other such puppets have to just shout "economic war" without any details. Since it's extremely clear there is no war. Certainly no economic warfare from multinationals like kraft heinz. I wonder if people here would categorize the oil embargo in the 1970s as economic warfare or not. Or can it be considered economic warfare only if the united states is on the business end of it?
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Aug 9, 2018 05:19
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What is it with this thread and arguing with tankie fuckwits?
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Aug 9, 2018 05:31
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CAPS LOCK BROKEN posted:Certainly no economic warfare from multinationals like kraft heinz. telesur is literally the state media (well, multistate funded, but headquartered in Venezuela and traditionally takes a... certain position... regarding the PSUV vs the Insidious Counterrevolutionary Elites) Also, Related Article: Venezuelans Organize To Overcome Food Shortages With Solidarity Goatse James Bond fucked around with this message at 05:42 on Aug 9, 2018 |
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Aug 9, 2018 05:39
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CAPS LOCK BROKEN posted:Certainly no economic warfare from multinationals like kraft heinz. This seems like a fairly typical example of the what Maduro supporters term the economic war and even a cursory look like this article doesn't support the position that there is a a conspiracy of private business to overthrow the government. quote:three Heinz employees reportedly claimed the company’s factories are capable of operating at full capacity to meet the country’s shortage of certain food items—but that the owners do not want that to happen. Before Trump's trade war the US had decommissioned mills capable of pumping out steel. Private companies don't operate though to meet a countries shortage of w/e, they operate to make money and profit. It's kind of how they are supposed to work. quote:In November, Venezuelan authorities discovered 2,500 kilos of expired wheat flour at a Kraft Heinz factory. At the time, the company said the flour went bad because it lacked the raw materials necessary to convert the wheat into its food products. Do you really believe Heinz, three years ago, was intentionally destroying Venezuelan flour? What is the point of hoarding if the foodstuffs just spoil? It seems like destroying the national flour supply would be expensive, how is Heinz willing to stay in the red to dismantle the Maduro regime? It doesn't make any sense. quote:Rather than pass that subsidy on to the public, some firms have instead been caught hoarding imported goods in an attempt to not only create a political crisis, the government alleges, but also to benefit from a high rate of inflation that might allow the importer to reap more profit the longer they wait. It's hard to blame businesses for trying to make money. Businesses that don't make money go out of business. If you don't want individuals to engage in a little smuggling, perhaps instituting price controls is a bad idea? People have to eat after all, and its not like Heinz is producing what they need.
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Aug 9, 2018 05:42
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Correct, there is no economic war.
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Aug 9, 2018 05:49
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In both this and the earlier article there is a direct segue from "the Maduro government accuses the capitalist pigs of having sufficient production and hoarding it" to "also, food has been demonstrably smuggled from Venezuela to places without very stupid unsubsidized price controls". The clearly intended inference is that the capitalist pigs and smugglers are one and the same. I would suggest that this may not be the case (or rather, that smugglers, black marketeers, food production companies, and the kleptocratic monsters looting the country are all different kinds of capitalist pigs, and frankly the third category are the most socially useful).
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Aug 9, 2018 06:04
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Schlesische posted:What is it with this thread and arguing with tankie fuckwits? I don't like arguing with anyone, and if I am I start I try to stop. I only rarely feel like I want to convince anyone of anything, and when I do its usually only someone I know and care about. However I try and make a sincere effort to understand what other people are saying. I want to understand what exactly people mean when they talk about the economic war. If I disagree with someone I will state as much, but prefer to move on rather than belabor the point. I'm extremely skeptical of most of the narratives of the economic war, which as typically presented lack coherence, rely on hearsay and vague accusations as presented in that article, and seem to contradict what I think I know regarding how businesses operate and what they are capable of. I don't think CAPS LOCK BROKEN has any better evidence, he probably doesn't have much depth of knowledge on the subject, or he wouldn't have refused to provide fnox a summary. But I always try and give people the benefit of the doubt, in the hope that maybe if I'm square with them they will be square with me.
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Aug 9, 2018 06:22
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GreyjoyBastard posted:telesur is literally the state media (well, multistate funded, but headquartered in Venezuela and traditionally takes a... certain position... regarding the PSUV vs the Insidious Counterrevolutionary Elites) Sounds like a pot kettle attack given that people here unironically post tweets from state broadcaster VOA.
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Aug 9, 2018 06:29
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The US wants the Maduro regime to be replaced. Why? Because they want the oil infrastructure to be rebuilt so oil production can be ramped up. How can the US get the regime to be replaced? One way is to physically remove the current regime, either with a coup or a military invasion. Luckily it seems that the US is getting wise to its past mistakes and isn't trying to solve this problem of theirs with brute force, yet. Another way is economic warfare to topple the regime, hence the sanctions. By making the situation in Venezuela worse and worse they hope that Venezuelans will kick out Maduro themselves. The missing link I can't quite figure out is: "Why is Maduro crippling Venuzuela's oil production?"
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Aug 9, 2018 06:47
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Wait, PepsiCo is the big bad wolf here? Why would it matter that they loving own a stake in Polar if they themselves exist in the country? Their factory is in Los Cortijos, right next to Coca Cola FEMSA. By the way there's also McDonald's, Burger King, Friday's, Benihana, there used to be Kellogg's, Ford, Toyota, Procter and Gamble. The only reason why any of that information would surprise anyone is if they thought Venezuela wasn't industrialised before Chavez. By the way you still haven't explained why it is that the "Hecho en Socialismo" disappear from stores and are the ones with the deepest shortages.
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Aug 9, 2018 06:57
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qkkl posted:The US wants the Maduro regime to be replaced. Why? Because they want the oil infrastructure to be rebuilt so oil production can be ramped up. How can the US get the regime to be replaced? If all the US wanted is oil they would just buy off all the state assets Maduro is willing to pawn to save his rear end; the sanctions prevent that. Food shortages precede the sanctions by years as well. If the objective was to bankrupt Venezuela to get their oil fields for cheap they just stopped themselves from doing so, while allowing China or Russia to do it instead. fnox fucked around with this message at 07:26 on Aug 9, 2018 |
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Aug 9, 2018 07:21
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fnox posted:If all the US wanted is oil they would just buy off all the state assets Maduro is willing to pawn to save his rear end; the sanctions prevent that. Food shortages precede the sanctions by years as well. If the objective was to bankrupt Venezuela to get their oil fields for cheap they just stopped themselves from doing so, while allowing China or Russia to do it instead. I was under the impression that Maduro was anti-US and wouldn't even think about selling oil infrastructure to them. He isn't selling it to China or Russia either, even though he can.
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Aug 9, 2018 07:49
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It would be sold to either India or China, since they'd be the most likely to pay up front for it, though I really doubt Maduro's anti-US attitude would hold steady with enough money waved in his direction. Pevin Trump: "They're sending companies that have a lot of problems, and they're bringing those problems from the US. They're bringing drugs. They're bringing crime. They're rapists. And some, I assume, are good people."
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Aug 9, 2018 08:12
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qkkl posted:I was under the impression that Maduro was anti-US and wouldn't even think about selling oil infrastructure to them. He isn't selling it to China or Russia either, even though he can. Well he's selling oil to them, and he already got a lifeline from Goldman Sachs. The only way they would get anyone to buy more bonds after they defaulted would be to put assets as collaterals. And boy do I have news for you regarding China and Russia.
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Aug 9, 2018 08:17
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The whole "economic war" angle is so blatantly disingenuous. Does the US government want the PSUV gone? Yes, of course, because the US government is largely made up of conservative monsters and neoliberals, and they hate anyone who even thinks the word "socialism". Is the US government actively working to topple the PSUV? It doesn't appear so, no. Because, as has been pointed out numerous times already, the US could unilaterally destroy what's left of the Venezuelan economy tomorrow by simply buying crude oil from somewhere else. It appears that the US simply doesn't give enough of a poo poo about Venezuela (or the Venezuelan people) to do more than token sanctions. Are there multinational corporations that want the PSUV gone? Yes, of course, because corporations are amoral predators that want stable, quiet societies where no-one interferes with their exploitation of workers and consumers. Are multinational corporations actively working to topple the PSUV? It doesn't appear so, no. The idea that evil corporations are sabotaging food production seems to have been invented whole cloth by Maduro and pals in order to shift blame away from themselves. Is the Venezuelan corn flour market really so vital to Pepsi, Heinz et al that they're willing to eat huge losses in the present in order to maybe, possibly, reestablish their dominance over this all-important resource sometime in the nebulous future after PSUV is gone? Please. Places like Cuba, North Korea, Vietnam etc have suffered not only harsher "economic war", but actual hot war with the US, and not ended up where Venezuela is today. International corporations have no problems doing business in places like China, Russia, Scandinavia or hell, the entire goddamn EU - where they have to compete with state-owned industry and where the state heavily interferes in what they're allowed to do. Going "but-but-but AllendeAssadHusseinGaddafi" don't actually make your baseless claims true.
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Aug 9, 2018 08:27
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CAPS LOCK BROKEN posted:Sounds like a pot kettle attack given that people here unironically post tweets from state broadcaster VOA. I don't know how to do a thread search or if it's even possible without archive access, but I doubt you'll find a single quote from any regular to this thread linking to VOA. So no, you are the only one linking to state propaganda apparatus publications as if they contain real information. I've been reading this thread for like 3 years and I'm pretty sure I've never seen a VoA link shown as if it contained facts. Actually I don't think I've seen a VoA link in here at all. And yet you're linking Telesur as if it provides an example of anything. Congratulations, you've shown that you know very little about Venezuela. Are you also sending people links to RT for news about Ukraine and Georgia?
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Aug 9, 2018 08:31
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It's pretty amazing watching dumbass people fly in here to whitesplain to actual Venezuelans just because Venezuela is in the news.
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Aug 9, 2018 08:41
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CAPS LOCK BROKEN posted:Sounds like a pot kettle attack given that people here unironically post tweets from state broadcaster VOA. What the gently caress is VOA? What are you talking about?
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Aug 9, 2018 08:57
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Mr. Sunshine posted:The whole "economic war" angle is so blatantly disingenuous. This. People defending the PSUV are just embarrassing.
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Aug 9, 2018 09:03
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Anyway, I think the explanation goes back to when the Bolivar initially starts to seriously devalue around Chavez's death. To that point, while you could say Chavez had a strong-man approach, there was actually some progress being made and there were defensible actions he was taking. However, after his death (who knows if he would have done things differently), Maduro let the Bolivar devalue while maintaining the same price ceilings and internal peg. So you had a widening gap between the proclaimed and actual value of Bolivar (and the reason why some goods/services/tickets were ridiculously cheap in real terms). This essentially started to vacuum up Venezuela's reserves and put the country on a collision course. Honestly, the blame is on Maduro and the rest of the PSUV, but more than just corruption, it was complete incompetence. The government subsidized certain goods to a ridiculous extent while leaving vast chasms in the safety net which led to the situation today. As for lessons for the future, yes, currencies matter and capital controls often aren't effort. Furthermore, if you don't reset your price ceilings during periods of high inflation (now hyperinflation), everything is going to basically burn down. That said, everyone knew this in the first place, the Soviets had enough of their own issues (although the collapse of the Soviet Union didn't really due to them in the same manner). Also, nationalization in Venezuela was just empty looting and not comparable to the Soviets who made a genuine attempt at least to make their industries productive. Btw, this isn't to say the US hasn't always wanted the PSUV (or its predecessors gone), but that the PSUV essentially committed suicide for them and took the country with it. It is actually one of the more bizarre examples of political economy in recent times. Sometimes a government honestly just fucks up completely. Ardennes fucked around with this message at 09:20 on Aug 9, 2018 |
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Aug 9, 2018 09:11
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AGGGGH BEES posted:It's pretty amazing watching dumbass people fly in here to whitesplain to actual Venezuelans just because Venezuela is in the news. But we know English and fled the country obviously our years of misery are made up. Someone should tell my ingrained constant Paranoia that so I can stop jumping every time I hear a bike approaching. Or my frugality after spending my formative years being poor.
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Aug 9, 2018 09:17
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I hope they never have to experience the feeling of having to abandon everything and everyone because some rear end in a top hat just decided to gently caress your entire life up. I hope they don't ever have to spend days without sleeping after hearing your parents were nearly murdered by roving kidnappers, while you're an ocean away and unable to even afford a plane to go to their funeral should anything happen to them. I hope they never have to hear their parents cry after losing everything they had worked for and missing everyone they had met for the last 50 years. I hope they don't ever have to live in constant fear of being murdered or kidnapped, where you know someone can just put a bullet in your head without even the guarantee that your family will find out about your fate. I hope they don't have to see their world wither and die in front of them as some rear end in a top hat points and laughs from the safety of his American home. Multinationals such as PepsiCo, Coca Cola and McDonalds are staying in the company despite losses because they want to retain their market share after Maduro gets deposed. This is of course true, particularly in the case of Pepsi and Coke, who fight on literally every market, whoever gives up first is in a prime position to recover if the government ever changes. This doesn't mean that they want to operate at a loss, they are losing money because of the currency controls and because of the things they now have to import due to the collapse of farms and industries within the country. It doesn't make sense for them at all to stockpile anything, they would want to sell off all of their merchandise so that they bleed less money. They're not the ones responsible for the collapse, they have a veiled interest in continuing to operate, but currency controls make it impossible to operate at capacity since they can't turn their profits into dollars, and the exchange rate is so distorted that if they were to bring money in it would also be at a huge loss. Again, Revan Stan can continue to ignore this but a huge amount of products that are missing from stores are from expropriated brands, or otherwise "Hecho en Socialismo". The blame for those being missing lies entirely with the government and its inefficiency, there's no way to put this on Polar. He knows this to be true which is why he would never comment on it, which is why we can't have a debate, because every time any Maduro supporter ITT is pressed on the "economic war" they simply change the loving subject, or try to avoid answering like Revan Stan just did with the links he posted.
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Aug 9, 2018 10:06
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Furia posted:What the gently caress is VOA? VoA is Voice of America, which is a US federal media outlet, kind of like the BBC, except that no one reads or listens to it. I have definitely never seen anyone post a link on Facebook to VoA, and I don't think I've ever seen anyone in this thread, or anywhere on SA, mention VoA except in strawman arguments like Caps Lock's. It's a US propaganda outlet, although I don't know if it's propaganda in the sense of "complete fabrications" like RT, or if it's a propaganda outlet like Al Jazeera or Breitbart in the sense of "we only report the facts that suit our narrative, anything else is either ignored or published on page 800". I would guess it is the latter. E: To be fair, even serious news sources focus on reporting the facts that suit their narrative, but some are more brazen about it than others. Breitbart is interesting to look at because if you google search through the webpage, you can find articles about unseasonal heat waves and glacial melt, about Republican corruption, and of white people committing hate crimes, but they will have literally zero comments, and must have never been published anywhere on the webpage directly, whereas every time a hispanic person kills someone or whenever there's a cold snap or a Democrat with proven corruption, there are like 8000 comments, as obviously the article was at the top of the home page. Saladman fucked around with this message at 11:51 on Aug 9, 2018 |
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Aug 9, 2018 11:45
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Saladman posted:VoA is Voice of America, which is a US federal media outlet, kind of like the BBC, except that no one reads or listens to it. I have definitely never seen anyone post a link on Facebook to VoA, and I don't think I've ever seen anyone in this thread, or anywhere on SA, mention VoA except in strawman arguments like Caps Lock's. It's a US propaganda outlet, although I don't know if it's propaganda in the sense of "complete fabrications" like RT, or if it's a propaganda outlet like Al Jazeera or Breitbart in the sense of "we only report the facts that suit our narrative, anything else is either ignored or published on page 800". I would guess it is the latter. Well part of it is that VOA is banned from broadcasting/being accessible to Americans, even over the internet.
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Aug 9, 2018 12:11
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Spacewolf posted:Well part of it is that VOA is banned from broadcasting/being accessible to Americans, even over the internet. That got rolled back when the Smith-Mundt Act was repealed in 2013. It's more like the NHK without the sometimes interesting documentaries because it's quaint and bland as gently caress. It's like a local news production relative to the BBC World Service. If you're a tankie who has never listened to it, it's dark and sinister without the sometimes interesting documentaries, like RT.
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Aug 9, 2018 13:36
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I would say RadioFreeEurope/Liberty (a "sister" outlet of VOA) clearly has its biases, including its Russian-language radio station. It isn't as "flamboyant" as RT/Sputnik though. Ardennes fucked around with this message at 13:46 on Aug 9, 2018 |
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Aug 9, 2018 13:44
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I don't understand how anybody can say that the Venezuelan government is not corrupt. You would have to be not only ignorant of everything but state propaganda, you would have to have also avoided any contact with anything related to the Venezuelan government. There's no way to pin that to propaganda, you would have to live with your head deeply buried inside your rear end to not see evidence of it. fnox fucked around with this message at 13:49 on Aug 9, 2018 |
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Aug 9, 2018 13:45
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fnox posted:There's no way to pin that to propaganda, you would have to live with your head deeply buried inside your rear end to not see evidence of it. Yup. And you can't have a discussion with someone with that mindset.
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Aug 9, 2018 13:55
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RocknRollaAyatollah posted:That got rolled back when the Smith-Mundt Act was repealed in 2013. I did not know that, thanks for the info. (Aside from CRS or GAO reports that are really hard to find sometimes (and on niche topics like this usually out of date when I can find them), can anybody point me to resources on "why the hell does US Government broadcasting suck so bad?" - me and a friend are somewhat wondering why they're known as bad, when...well...America sort of invented modern broadcasting and probably should not suck at it?) (Relatedly, since VOA/RFE/RFA are bad...Is BBC World Service any good, or do both of the major English-language international broadcasters suck?)
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Aug 9, 2018 14:51
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Collapsing Venezuela's economy outright by strangling their oil exports is a worse and more unpredictable strategic outcome for Washington than going at it by proxy and letting economy unravel. The latter can delegitimize the government without causing wholesale collapse and civil war, keeping the environment more business-friendly after Maduro is forced from power. There's also the plausible deniability angle to economic war and sabotage that supports the predominant narrative of this thread and the pro-capitalist American press AKA the Venezuelan government is entirely to blame, foreign boogeymen making claims about imperialism amounts to nothing but a conspiracy theory and "socialism" only works on paper. Formal sanctions risk openly affirming Maduro's claims of economic warfare therefore harming the political fortunes of the opposition, which is itself politically incompetent, unpopular, and suspected of being on the take from the US. A US president risking being blamed for increased oil prices in the US just to gently caress with Venezuela's exports also seems way over the top and not worth the effort given what's already happening now. fnox's broader claims about Venezuela are accepted as authoritative on their face yet I haven't seen them post any sources to back them up. I won't waste time disputing anecdotes beyond a brief reminder that usually people get forced out a country the US is targeting for a reason and end up here with an ax to grind and a receptive audience for any and all poo poo they want to talk about where they're from. Bathtub Cheese fucked around with this message at 15:28 on Aug 9, 2018 |
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Aug 9, 2018 15:21
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Bathtub Cheese posted:Collapsing Venezuela's economy outright by strangling their oil exports is a worse and more unpredictable strategic outcome for Washington than going at it by proxy and letting economy unravel. The latter can delegitimize the government without causing wholesale collapse and civil war, keeping the environment more business-friendly after Maduro is forced from power. There's also the plausible deniability angle to economic war and sabotage that supports the predominant narrative of this thread and the pro-capitalist American press AKA the Venezuelan government is entirely to blame, foreign boogeymen making claims about imperialism amounts to nothing but a conspiracy theory and "socialism" only works on paper. Formal sanctions risk openly affirming Maduro's claims of economic warfare therefore harming the political fortunes of the opposition, which is itself politically incompetent, unpopular, and suspected of being on the take from the US. A US president risking being blamed for increased oil prices in the US just to gently caress with Venezuela's exports also seems way over the top and not worth the effort given what's already happening now. Honestly, while you could make the argument that the US has influenced Venezuelan politics (including in 2002), the main issues with the Venezuelan economy really weren't related to exports at least not in the beginning. The price of oil collapsed in 2015, an outcome that obviously hurt the Venezuelan economy but even then there were very clear problems and shortages related to high inflation and rigid price controls. There is some real responsibility on part of the PSUV here, and Russia/Iran didn't fall apart like Venezuela did. The drop in oil prices only undermined a system that was already unraveling.
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Aug 9, 2018 15:29
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