Diplomatique.Expert recommends -Venzuela – The backdrop to a crisis in waiting – NYT

In 24 hours, a 35-year-old Venezuelan opposition leader declared himself the country’s president, the United States and other countries recognised him as the legitimate head of state, and President Nicolás Maduro ordered American diplomats out of the country.

Venezuela once had Latin America’s richest economy, buoyed by oil reserves larger even than Saudi Arabia’s and Iran’s. Yet under Mr. Maduro and his predecessor and mentor, Hugo Chávez, who died in 2013, Venezuela’s economy spiraled into mismanagement, corruption and backbreaking debt.

Hunger is killing Venezuelan children at an alarming rate, doctors say, as stores have run out of food and children are suffering severe malnutrition.

The country’s hospitals are “like something from the 19th century,” one doctor has said, collapsing under chronic shortages of antibiotics, food and other supplies.

The desperate conditions have led to mass, sometimes violent demonstrations, and skyrocketing crime that has forced Venezuelans to create ever-evolving countermeasures, like decoy cellphones and armored cars.

And inflation has ballooned to 1 million percent, making money all but worthless.

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