The crisis in Venezuela has its roots in the country’s tumultuous history. Apart from the country’s economic decline since 2013—the last year that the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) grew—there has been the political conflict between legislative and executive arms of the government.
Venezuela was once regarded as Latin America’s wealthiest country, attracting large scale immigration from Europe, the Middle East and other countries in Latin America during the post World War II era.
After the fall of military dictator Marcos Pérez Jiménez in 1958, the country entered into a period known as “Punto Fijo” or “Fixed Point” era where it was dominated by a stable two-party system. This was in contrast to the military dictatorships and civil wars the characterized the rest of Latin America at that time.
However, while Venezuela had strong economic growth during the 1960s and 1970s, the economy began to deteriorate in the late 1980s and then President Carlos Andrés Pérez began to reduce the role of the state in the economy. His reforms had a negative effect on lower-income Venezuelans and led to social unrest and rioting on February 27, 1989, almost 30 years ago to the day. The riots and the killings are known in Venezuelan history as the “Caracazo.”
Statistics differ but it is widely believed between 300 to almost 1,200 Venezuelan died in clashes with police and army.
Hugo Rafael Chávez Frías, then a young army officer looked on at those events.
Three years later, Chávez who was then 36 years old, led a failed military coup against the Pérez’s Government. He spent two years in jail but was pardoned by the then President Rafael Caldera in 1994 and immediately went into politics.
In the 1998 elections, he ran a pro-poor and anti-corruption campaign and won with 56 per cent of the vote, destroying the Punto Fijo two-party system that had existed since 1958.
Chávez immediately began working on a new constitution which was voted in 1999 replacing the 1961 constitution.
He adopted socialist, statist policies which clashed with the traditional elites and led to an attempted coup in 2002. Chávez was fortunate to have high oil prices up to the time of his death in 2013 and millions of poor Venezuelans were taken from poverty during his administration.
The Maduro Era
Nicolás Maduro has overseen an economy with oil prices way below the Chávez era and a marked decline in the economy with shortages of basic goods and hyperinflation.
Opposition parties won the most seats in the National Assembly in 2015 as Venezuelans were dissatisfied with Maduro’s performance.
The divide in Venezuelan society reached a climax when in January when Juan Gerardo Guaidó, President of the Opposition-led National Assembly, swore himself in as President.
The United States, countries of the European Union and the conservative governments in Latin America have recognised him as President, while Russia, China, India and most of the non-Western world continue to recognise Maduro.