Is It Currently Safe To Travel To Venezuela?

I’m Venezuelan. I lived through this slow and painful collapse, saw food dissappear from supermarkets and crime and corruption skyrocket. Everything you mentioned in this article is on point. I’m ashamed of what my country has become and that’s why I avoid telling people where I’m from. I was lucky to move to the States a few years ago and start a new life. Thankfully, despite all our hardships, my parents always worked hard to make sure we had something to eat and a strong education, that education has opened me doors outside of the country that otherwise would have been closed, the sad truth is that nobody across the world wants Venezuelans in their land, and emigrating is hard when most countries don’t want you.

An important note is that the reason why Venezuela needed to import food is because of Chavez colectivizing farms, which as usual, lead to farms failing and being abandoned and Venezuela stopped being food independent. I also think you are vastly underestimating the effect that forcibly nationalizing industries ( sometimes at literal gunpoint ) has on the economy. Turns out that when companies see that the government can show up one day and decided that everything they own is yours, they don’t really feel like investing in your country.

I’m venezuelan and socialism had directly much responsibility about our crisis. When Chávez came to power, as this article describes but unfortunately not in a very detailed way, he started a gradual but fundamental process of intervention in the economy by hands of the state, gradually, the government suppressed private sector, made more bureaucratic having a private business, nacionalized thousands of privates goods, enterprises, properties and while Venezuela increased public spending they intervened our currency, establishing exchange control who were very negative and provoqued the hiperinflation. In certain point, Venezuela became adiccted to print money, specially in the years 2013-2014, when oil prices fell and venezuelan dependence became more dangerous. What Venezuela needs is no more populism, tyrants who don’t want to leave the power like chavistas, a diversified economy, reduction of bureaucracy and, for example, solid/eficcent institutions. We need a liberal free market economy with good public services. In a certain point, countries like Australia or Singapore are a good example about what we have to do in our ruined nation…

Venezuelan here, make no mistake that military dictatorship that ended on 1958 was the most prosperous time on our country history, the dictator back then Marco Perez Jimenez left institutions and the best infrastructure that is still standing to this day, our money back then was worth even more than the US dollar for a time, he was replaced for a extremely corrupt bipartidism political system that destroyed everything he did and created social unrest, that social unrest let to people voting for Chavez because they wanted to go back to the good old stable times with a military leader, but people didn´t saw his socialist tendencies, he was elected and slowly transition the country into a socialist state stealing billions of dollars in the process…

8:52 he taxed small businesses to the point they couldn’t operate anymore and the small business owners were unable to keep their employees because he demanded better benefits to make himself look like the good guy, instead of helping the people that are actually trying to keep the country moving and produce not consume

I love your website and the quality of your work. As a Venezuelan who scaped to Argentina I deeply appreciate that you made this article and seriously studied about what actually happened and keeping it so objective and on point. I really appreciate and thank you for doing such a great job, because this is one of the very few websites that actually cares about information and facts instead of an agenda. Keep it up man, you’re awesome!! 🙂

Oh man, Venezuelans know how relatable it is to have gone to a supermarket and finding like 3 corridors filled with empty shelves. The worst part is, one of the reasons why Venezuela hasn’t changed for the better is because people care more about what they’re going to eat the next day rather than the popular politician.

Awesome English article about the contemporary history of my country; my younger children recommend me this article, my heart always is broken 💔 and I have my beautiful country in my thoughts every day! Now, I’m living in Canada with my family but my heart is on 🇻🇪. The worst thing that happened in my country was the socialist and dictatorial government that destroyed our country.

And, Venezuela is a perfect example of why the government should not be trying to manage the economy. I support a total free market, capitalist economic system where there is no government interference apart from a basic protection of individual rights. Don’t infringe upon the right of others to their own person and property; government has law enforcement, a justice system, and a military to protect said right. Beyond that, government stays completely out of the lives on the people, especially out of our economic lives.

I was teen in the 80’s in Venezuela. For a short article and 10000 meter point of view this analysis is accurate, however, the devil is in the details. Things to consider: The Caracazo event was promoted by Venezuelan left and Cuba, the new government had only 45 days in, gas price increments were going to be implemented gradually, there are several books written on the subject; the IMF was not the main reason for economical changes, it was to emulate the recent “successes” of counties that applied similar policies, a weak and naive political/military class was not able to handle the Caracazo and Chávez coup properly. I’m sure there are some other things, but the mistakes that lead to rise of Hugo Chávez to power are critical inflection points of the current crisis.

I live in Brazil, 5000 km south of the Brazil – Venezuela border at a medium size town. There are around 200 venezuelans begars here, and when we ask them if they want to return home, they say: no way! We live better here as begars. So many children among them. It’s really sad whats happening there. And Argentina is going the same path. Latin America is cursed by socialists populists who after bankrupt their country blame everthing on the US

Another Venezuelan here commenting that, despite the oddly uplifting music, and all the cringe-worthy smiling characters, including repressive forces aiming their rifles at unarmed protesters, this article is one of the most surprisingly accurate, balanced, and facts-based description of what’s happened to my country over the last several decades, not just during the nefarious Chávez dictatorial regime from the last 20+ years.

This is a very good explanation, however it omitted the fact that corruption in Chavez’ administration started as earliest as 2000 with “Plan Bolivar 2000”. A corruption to levels not compared to the worst economy in history so far. Equally leaving out all the political chaos through the last 2 decades. Cheers for this good summary and chaos the homeland has lived until today. Cheers

Most Venezuelan food was not imported, but a lot of materials like fertilizers, veterinarian medicines and other implements needed for food production were affected by Chavez Exchange control(meaning people were not free to exchange bolivars for dollars to import) also chavez took not only factories and companies but farmland, thats what created that food and medicine scarcity for Venezuela, because it was the private industry and farmers the ones producing the food not the goverment! Also the sanctions didnt cause the scarcity, look up those sanctions are most are targeted at individuals linked to chavez corruption grid, because even with sanctions Venezuela still was buying food from the US, Brazil, Argentina, Mexico and China, not to mention that Venezuela NEVER stoped sending oil to the USA, and they never stoped payments for that oil, even more, Chevron NEVER stoped working in Venezuela, and even collaborated with chavez helping him with the political prosecution in the industry, deniying jobs to venezuelan proffesionals that were know to have signed to ask for a referendum on chavez.

Don’t forget to mention that Mauro is supported by the Cuban regime, in Venezuela we have to remain in long lines, pay in US dollars to fill it up oil gas tanks while, PDVSA controlled by regimen send 20,000 petroleum barrels and derivatives to the Cuban dictatorships as a colonial tribute for advising to the Venezuelan government how to retain the power, controlling the army, and training them how to quell the population.

My father left the country before it became this bad. It deeply saddens me to see how this country, from which many of my relatives still live, has spiralled into pandemonium and I can’t even see them because of it. Earlier on, when few realised this, a politician made a famous speech opposing Chavez; they called his speech ‘shameful’. Chavez left Now some refer to it as a ‘prophecy that should be tought in all schools in Latin America’. He said: “If we Venezuelans allow ourselves to be hallucinated by a demagogue endowed with the talent of arousing hatred and stoking atavisms of violence, with an intoxicating discourse of denunciations of present corruption and past heroics. Next year Venezuela will not enter the 21st century, it will lag behind in the worst of the 20th century. Or it will return to the worst of the 19th century.” (translation) I really hope that this country will become great again, God help them.

This is a good reminder to me that Government should exist to provide protection from outside threats and to provide limited common interest services (like roads, water, etc). Otherwise, Government needs to stop trying to run every aspect of our lives. Let people live and die by their own efforts. Let people care for one another and serve each other in times of need. We don’t need a faceless government to pretend they know what’s best for us.

My family spent two weeks in Venezuela in 1987 & loved it! We flew from Caracas to Puerta La Cruz to cosmopolitan Margarita Island & everything was ‘wildly’ cheap, e.g. gas was $.20 a gal, a dinner cost $2.50, a hotel suite was $27.00 a day & going to a movie was $.85!/ The Venezuelan people should have directly shared in the oil profits as do the residents of Alaska! The country also should have gone to a tourist destination, as the waters & beaches were some of the best in the world! Venezuelans should ‘rise up’ & take back their country!

I heard that the Dutch disease or resource curse wasn’t the unwillingness to diversity the economy, but the inability to do so. At least it’s very hard. The reason is that, given the thriving exports of a high-value commodity such as oil, the currency of the developing country becomes strong. Any attempts to export manufactured goods becomes harder because the developing country cannot price its exports competitively, as it could have done if its own currency had been cheaper. So, it’s effectively trapped.

I’m Venezuelan, and this article is pretty spot on. However, I want to say something different to what all my Venezuelan “Panas” are saying in the comments, and perhaps a bit controversial, so read at your own discretion. It angers me all the foreign nations that claim support for the Venezuelan people, who have panels about how to address the problem, yet when Venezuelans go to those countries begging for help or just to have a chance to start a new life we don’t need economic help, we are very self reliant, we can build ourselves up if given the chance we are not only turned back but denied the help we need, and this happens ALL OVER THE WORLD, we are denied entry, we are.pulled apart in the airport and just sent back to our land even if we enter fully legally (most people who leave Venezuela do so completely legally). So the so called position of support from other countries feels just very hypocritical, and it makes me furious that we are treated like a plague when we are just humans trying to earn our right to live. Just something I had to get out of my chest.

All of this has caused one of the greatest migrations of all time in the region. Nearly all of the south american nations host millions of venezuelan people in their lands. This is a social phenomenon as culturally they have merged with their hosts and now we have lots of people in each country with venezuelan parents. There are already sons and daughters of venezuelans that have never been to Venezuela.

The things you’re saying about neoliberalism are essentially the same things Chavez said. Perhaps there’s a legitimate reason why the IMF suggests such measures? Although not implemented fully, and however unpopular they were, they did begin working in Venezuela; the economy did begin to improve and quite quickly. Investments came back. Businesses began flourishing again and despite the temporary hardship, people’s conditions began to improve year after year. It was like the day after a hangover: they were necessary steps to escaping the cycle of oil dependence. Chavez and his allies destroyed all that and the country went back to getting drunk on oil.

Muy cierto, los problemas de Venezuela vienen desde las politicas implementadas en los anos 60 y 70, Chavez agravo las cosas y Maduro las termino de empeorar, pero los problemas serios vienen desde mucho antes cuando el gobierno se endeudo y no pagaba esas deudas. Lo que mas me llama la atencion es como glorificabqn a los gobiernos de los anos 60 y 70 porque los venezolanos tenian mucha riqueza pero no se daban cuenta que iban camino a la destruccion de su propio pais. Todo esto hizo que cayeran presa de las ideas de Chavez y ahora Maduro.

India is also facing these bad effects of so called popular and christmatic leader Modi. Economy is crashing since he took power. Unemployment and inflation is all time high. Media, opposition leaders and even citizens have to face police brutality for criticising him. Indian economy is soon to crash. Please make a article on India as well.

Part2 Prior to Communism Venezuela was not perfect, but was making the proper adjustments to become a modern democracy. The same president vilified for the economical reforms was the one that changed the law for all the State governors, Mayors, congress etc to elected individually, they used to be appointed by the winning parties and some other indirect methods. We just needed time, another generation maybe.

Surely, isn’t variety the spice of life? How can all the citizens focus, needs and activities depend on only one product? Even a vacation becomes boring after a while. Diversification is important and not only for sustainable economics, but for life itself. That said, it should be noted that the documentary says nothing about: 1. The Munro doctrine of 1823, ostensibly pitted against European colonial powers, which declared Latin America the US’s backyard not because they love South Americans but for their natural resources. It has never been rescinded now that the South American countries are independent AND, GIVEN that Venezuela has the largest oil deposits in the world, it commands US special attention… the US has enough oil of its own, but would like to control Venezuela’s for its global hegemony games. 2. Britain’s refusal to let Venezuela withdraw more than $1 billion of Venezuela’s gold reserves, about 1.6 % of Venezuela’s’ GDP stored in the Bank of England. When did banks start refusing customers to withdraw their money? This game is becoming dangerous… the entire west has refused with Russia’s US $ 300 b 3. Juan Guaido, who declared president by the US, not some Venezuelan electoral body, is the product of more than a decade of assiduous grooming by the US government’s elite regime change factories. Almost all South American countries have undergone US-sponsored regime change at least once. The last one in 2020, as U.S.-based Telsa car manufacturer boss, Elon musk confessed, was to gain US control of vast Bolivian Lithium deposits.

You’re wrong about trickle down. Government intervention and regulation make it not work. I have to rely on many government funded companies to stay in business. They usually don’t pay well, and they rarely pay within 120 days. They make it very hard to run a successful business and I’ve had to lay off most of my employees because of it. Now they’re somewhere else making minimum wage.

This article purports to be objective but fails to mention that Chavez was a Marxist who implemented socialist policies and especially disdained the United States. It also ignorantly writes off trickle-down economic policy as something that failed. This is a valid opinion though objectively untrue, and negates the article’s failed attempt to provide a balanced assessment. Finally, the article has the effect whether intended or unintended of blaming Venezuela’s problems on something other than the Marxist policies of Chavez and the culture of the people that elected him to office in the first place. Overall, a disappointment.

@TheInfographicsShow, In a nutshell it is explained plain and simple here. But some Political complexities are not mentioned, I guess as it would make a very large article and somewhat more unbeliveable. Commercial ties (for geopolitical reasons) to countries in conflict with powerfull nations. Socially decayed population (survival) and corrupted by negative leaders. A lots others.