Venezuela’s inevitable and miserable descent
The lines start to form outside state-run supermarkets at dawn. As the sun rises, hundreds wait patiently in the hope that corn will be delivered in the afternoon. They are often disappointed.
This is the reality of daily life for many in Venezuela, a country with the world’s largest reserves of oil and its highest rate of inflation. Reports from the country are harrowing. Hospitals have run out of medicine and basic supplies, leaving staff pumping the ventilators of dying infants by hand as rolling blackouts plunge miserable wards into darkness.
President Nicolas Maduro, the hand-picked successor of the late Hugo Chavez, meets every fresh crisis with a further tightening of his own power. Faced with street protests, he has initiated a 60-day State of Emergency, suspending constitutional protections and putting the military at his disposal. That it has come to this should be no surprise.
The seeds of this socialist misery were sown by Chavez and have taken root under a leader who dismisses nearly two million signatures seeking his ousting as nothing but a foreign plot. This socialist experiment was being celebrated by Jeremy Corbyn as recently as last year.
Read more: How socialism has destroyed Venezuela
Indeed, the Labour leader was a longstanding supporter of Chavez, whose regime was granted the veneer of respectability by a cadre of useful idiots in the British left. This group, which includes Guardian columnists and (laughably) the shadow international development secretary, should now hang their heads in shame.
As the country descends into chaos, with looting and violence rife, Maduro is attempting to leverage the country’s oil wealth to pay foreign creditors such as India for tens of millions of dollars worth of basic medicine and supplies.
Meanwhile, China (also hungry for Venezuelan oil) has loaned the state $65bn. Beijing, rather meekly, said they hope “Venezuela can properly handle” the crisis it faces, but the Chinese are reluctant to apply any pressure on Maduro.
Western and European countries, along with regional powers (who for so long turned a blind eye to Venezuela’s descent) must lead the international condemnation. The political and economic crisis is now, without doubt, a humanitarian one. As such, it demands an international response.