The Venezuela Crisis

By Starlyn Reyes

Hey, it’s me again. We have known for months that Venezuela is in a crisis of food, economy, society, health, education, electricity and government. Let’s see what’s going on.

Government

When the old Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez died of cancer in 2013, the Vice President, Nicolas Maduro become president. In 2018, he won an election to become president but the people in Venezuela didn’t want him anymore because many feel Maduro is corrupted.

So, a congress meeting was held to decide if they should get rid of Maduro and the representives from different countries in the congress said yes - they wanted to replace Maduro with the Venezuelan politician, Juan Guido.

But Maduro didn't want to go. Also, he has the military backing him up, so it is tricky to take him out. Maduro even blocked the border of Colombia and Brazil so aid couldn’t enter the country. He says the people don't need the help but the people really do need it.

So, now there are basically two presidents in Venezuela fighting for power.

Food and Health

In this crisis, Venezuelan people are running out of money to buy food. According to Teen Vogue people couldn’t afford food so they had to get food elsewhere from the streets, which is affecting thousands of people’s health. So as people are running out of food they are running out of medicine which is also harmful to their health. “Venezuelans lost weight, losing 25 pounds on average due to food shortages and an inability to pay for food.” Venezuelans are dying from hunger and this is because of the loss of economic stability.

Sometimes, Venezuelan people sneak out of Venezuela to get food and water to bring back. But it is a risky trip. People are fighting to cross the border to Colombia and Brazil but they can’t because it’s blocked by police from Nicolas Maduro. The people are leaving because Venezuela is a dangerous country with no electricity, corrupt government, and corrupt society, and economic crisis. The police even killed and injured people to make sure they don’t cross the border. According to BBC, the #operationfreedom - made by Juan Guido - protestors said, "We're going to continue protesting when there's no electricity or no water and to bring about the definite end to the usurpation #operation freedom. There is no turning back!"

Economy

In the 70s, Venezuela was the richest country in South America. This is because of oil. Venezuela used to have a lot of oil which made a lot of money for the country. Then, when the crisis began Venezuela was running out of money because it was running out of oil. Because Venezuela is running out of money, its people also ran out of money. Going back to the food crisis, the way to get food is with money. So if banks can’t give people the money they need due to the economic crisis, then people could die from hunger. Also, money is needed for schools and since Venezuela is running out of money, schools had to be closed. The same is happening with stores.

Education and Society

Due to the big crisis in Venezuela, the government announced that they’re going to close schools because of the social and economic crisis. This can affect children's education which means a loss of learning, university education, grades, and even future careers.

Electricity

Months later, after the crisis, people lost power in Venezuela. According to CNA it says, “power cuts have occurred sporadically since the massive blackout of March 7 left the country in the dark for 5 days, with electricity being rationed outside of Caracas,” the capitol. We don’t know how this happened, but some say it was Nicolas Maduro.

The city of Caracas is all dark, no light, and what I mean is that in the night the city is dark. This is sad also because, for example, when a newborn baby is born it’s hard for the doctors because they need a flashlight to see and you can’t see anything in the dark which is dangerous due to loss of electricity.

So What Next?

Well now we know what types of crisis Venezuela have. Right now people are starving, sad, injured, and hurting. These Venezuelans need help this includes mostly food and money.