Opposition supporters clash with riot police during a rally against President Nicolas Maduro in Caracas, Venezuela, May 3, 2017. REUTERS/Christian Veron
Michael Carvelli, RCD/The Bridge: How a Venezuelan Collapse Could Draw in the United States
It appears Venezuela is heading towards a political and economic collapse. President Nicolas Maduro’s United Socialist Party lost its majority in the National Assembly during the 2015 parliamentary election. In March of this year, Venezuela’s Supreme Court announced that it was taking over the powers of the opposition-controlled National Assembly. Maduro’s party is continuing to consolidate its domestic power. Meanwhile, the country is running out of food, hospitals are overcrowded, and electricity is not guaranteed. The results of this political and economic turmoil could plausibly create a destabilizing situation in the Western Hemisphere.
The history of Venezuela’s recent turn to turmoil is not a short tale. President Hugo Chavez’s election in 1999 marked the beginning of deep changes in the country’s ideology. His ideology, and that of his successor, President Maduro, have shifted the country’s government towards socialism, further fracturing the domestic balance of power. As perhaps the most unstable government in South America a collapse of the Venezuelan government, and the resulting uncertainty could draw the U.S. and its competitors into the crisis. The U.S. would face a complex situation if a collapse materializes.
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WNU Editor: The last thing that anyone wants to do is to send soldiers into Venezuela. When you break it you own it, and any intervention of Venezuela will not only break what little remains that functions properly .... but it will also guarantee a long term presence and the expenditure of tens of billions in aid. Unfortunately .... Venezuela is rapidly approaching that status of a failed state, and if the exodus of Venezuelans continue to grow, all bets are off. My prediction .... and it is based on what I personally experienced in the former Soviet Union before it collapsed .... is that it will take another 2 years (or more) before the people who run and manage the country say enough is enough. And when that day happens is when someone like President Nicolas Maduro will either send in the tanks and hope that most of them obey his orders, or he flees the country. My money is on him fleeing the country.
