Venezuelan Remittances Don’t Just Save Lives
Sadly, they also help keep the country’s repressive regime in power.
Dollars go further.
Photographer: Adriana Loureiro Fernandez/Bloomberg via Getty Images
In late January the United States announced widespread sanctions against Venezuela’s state-owned energy company PDVSA, ratcheting up pressure on the repressive regime of Nicolas Maduro in an attempt to force a democratic transition. Upon cutting off Venezuela’s primary source of hard currency, U.S. National Security Adviser John Bolton predicted the government’s downfall within a few weeks.
Three months later, Maduro still sits in Miraflores, the presidential palace. Even this most oil-dependent of governments has remained afloat, at least so far. In part its resilience comes from cutting spending on basic necessities for the population: Food, medicine, even electricity.