Venezuela’s Emergency
Venezuela was once one of the most prosperous nation due to its valuable natural resource: oil but, it is now struggling from a myriad of issues. It has one of the world’s highest violent crime rates, and is suffering of tremendous poverty due to inflation. The poor decisions taken by ex- president, Hugo Chavez are having a domino effect in Venezuela and things are only getting worse. Coming from a humble background of farmers, Chavez made many promises to the people of Venezuela to bring equality to their nation. However, his strategies and decisions have only done the opposite for the country and its people.
With Chavez’s death in March 2013, Nicolas Maduro became the new president and terror grew more amongst the people. Maduro’s background in politics has proven to be very limited, his education is also limited to only a few years of high school. Venezuela has a scarce amount of resources that has lead many people to buy basic necessities such as food and medicine from the black market, which is considered to be illegal by the government. If it was not for the private food and beer company, Empresas Polar, obtaining food would be almost impossible and things would be more critical. People wait in line the entire day in hopes to buy basic things, and even waiting does not guarantee they will find anything in stock.
President Maduro and those working under his power are aware of the situation that is affecting the entire nation of Venezuela and nothing is being done to improve the situation. Records and statistics of the reality are being hidden and manipulated by the government. Disease outbreaks are increasing everyday. In 1961, Venezuela was the first country to be declared free of Malaria. Today, it has over 100, 000 cases per year, amongst many cases of malnutrition, diphtheria and plagues. The people of Venezuela have the right to have access to these records, and the government has the duty to provide them.
Not only is the government hiding these records, but they are also doing anything in their power to make sure they stay hidden. There are only very few independent dailies in Venezuela because the government has put many roadblocks that has lead many to end business. It is more than evident that the government has taken away many rights from the people of Venezuela and it is not doing its job to serve the people. It has been almost two decades of a violation of rights, poor leadership that had lead to extreme poverty, very limited medical assistance, and an immense increase in violence.
Chavez declined international help multiple times and has strictly kept Cuba with similar political socialist ideas, as a great ally. However, this alliance was not a very strategic one since he provided oil for this nation for a very low price and in return, Cuba sent doctors to improve Venezuela’s health care system. The United States offered to help Venezuela from turning into a complete political and social disaster, however, all forms of help were declined by Chavez and he even expressed great dislike against American referring to it as “an assassin” and “a violent invader”. As much as international help was declined, many Venezuelans are fleeing the country and coming to the the United States. Venezuela must accept international help in order to save its nation and its people. The current strategies have proven to only be failing the country, and if intervention does not occur, it will only keep going downhill. Not only is international intervention needed to stop this but, to rebuild this nation who has proven to be capable of great success.
According to Pew Research Center, the population of Venezuelans in the United States has quadrupled in the last two decades.
“I graduated as an engineer in Venezuela, but when Chavez came into power, having a college education even from the best Universities was useless,” Marcos Diaz, 45 says. “We gave up everything we had so I can come to New York and try to get my family out of that misery they are living in.”
Diaz migrated to the United States a year ago, and experienced first hand Venezuela’s tremendous collapse. He also believes that Venezuela has an emergency and Maduro needs to go. Diaz as well as most of Venezuela hope to elect a new president through the recall referendum which requires more than the amount Maduro received to be elected president in 2013.
“One thing is to hear about it in the news, and the other is to actually see people dying of starvation or lack of medical assistance. Or waking up at 5 a.m. to be the first in line so you can get food, only to get robbed by the criminals who took the wrong path trying to survive. I work hard everyday because I need to get my family out of Venezuela but, it gets harder every time I call and all your children tell you is how hungry and afraid of their country they are,” Diaz says as he quickly wipes a tear falling down his eye.