Venezuela’s Descent Into Anarchy Is Fueling Maduro’s Desperation Description: Tags: After more than 15 years of U.S. sanctions which caused Venezuela’s one mighty petroleum industry to collapse, the crisis-driven Latin American state now appears on the verge of failure. More than two decades of autocratic socialist rule, which started with Chavez’s 1999 Bolivarian revolution, have gutted what was once South America’s most stable democracy and richest country. Venezuela is at the tail end of what is described as the worst economic decline of modern times ever to occur outside of war. In 2020 alone the International Monetary Fund estimated that Venezuela’s economy shrank by a devastating 30% and will contract again this year by at least 10%. The scale of the economic crisis is underscored by the emergence of hyperinflation on a scale comparable to 1920s Weimar Germany forcing the unofficial dollarization of Venezuela’s economy. These events have triggered […]