No one leaves home unless home is the mouth of a shark
October 20, 2018 3:41 PM   Subscribe

Follow some of the about 1.9 million Venezuelans who have fled since 2015 in one of the largest migrations in the world in recent years.
The price of oil plummeted from $96 per barrel in 2014 to just $49 in 2015.
Corruption and rot run from the president right down to the human traffickers, brothel proprietors, contraband smugglers and taxi drivers.
Meanwhile drug trafficking structures are a series of often competing networks buried deep within the Chavista regime, with ties going back almost two decades. The Development of the Cartel of the Suns.
posted by adamvasco (3 comments total) 27 users marked this as a favorite
 
I didn't realize the scale of the Venezuelan refugee crisis until I read this post. This is horrifying. And I suspect it will get worse.
posted by rednikki at 12:01 AM on October 21, 2018


Here’s a good piece on how Chavez killed the golden goose of the oil industry through politically motivated purges, mismanagement and poor policy making, and why the country with the world’s largest reserves of oil is now a net importer of petroleum.
Unfortunately for Venezuela, Chávez — like many of the people he appointed to run PDVSA — knew nothing about the business that was so central to the country’s prosperity. “He was ignorant about everything to do with oil, everything to do with geology, engineering, the economics of oil,” said Pedro Burelli, a former PDVSA board member who left the company when Chávez took power. “His was a completely encyclopedic ignorance.”
posted by chappell, ambrose at 8:54 AM on October 21, 2018 [2 favorites]


I feel like we've almost gotten used to hearing bad news about Venezuela, but things have gotten apocalyptic in the last couple of years. There have been stories about polio and diphtheria popping up in the (increasingly unvaccinated) population. Colombia is offering vaccinations on its border -- and Brazil is blaming its most recent outbreak of measles on Venezuelan migration.
posted by grandiloquiet at 11:25 AM on October 21, 2018 [2 favorites]


« Older We all die alone, but some more than others   |   Is there a better game plan than us trying to pick... Newer »


This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments