In the space of less than a decade Venezuela’s once-mighty oil industry, the petrostate’s economic backbone, has nearly collapsed. Since Maduro’s predecessor Chavez took power in 1999 and launched his socialist Bolivarian revolution the founding OPEC member’s petroleum production has steadily declined. OPEC data shows that during 2015 Venezuela pumped an average almost 2.4 million barrels of crude oil per day which was significantly less than the 1998 annual production record of 3.1 million barrels. By 2020, Venezuela’s oil production had plunged to 500,000 barrels per day or roughly a fifth of what it had been five years earlier. That precipitous decline can be blamed on Venezuela’s rapidly deteriorating energy infrastructure and Washington implementing ever stricter sanctions on the OPEC member. The near-collapse of Venezuela’s economic backbone has wrought havoc with the country’s economy, which is being exacerbated by chronic gasoline shortages . Those events have forced autocratic President […]