Venezuela’s Collapse Is the Worst Outside of War in Decades, Economists Say

In Maracaibo, men searching for refuse that can be salvaged or recycled.
"MARACAIBO, Venezuela — Zimbabwe’s collapse under Robert Mugabe. The fall of the Soviet Union. Cuba’s disastrous unraveling in the 1990s. The crumbling of Venezuela’s economy has now outpaced them all. Venezuela’s fall is the single largest economic collapse outside of war in at least 45 years, economists say. 'It’s really hard to think of a human tragedy of this scale outside civil war,' said Kenneth Rogoff, an economics professor at Harvard University and former chief economist at the International Monetary Fund. 'This will be a touchstone of disastrous policies for decades to come.' To find similar levels of economic devastation, economists at the I.M.F. pointed to countries that were ripped apart by war, like Libya earlier this decade or Lebanon in the 1970s. But Venezuela, at one point Latin America’s wealthiest country, has not been shattered by armed conflict. Instead, economists say, the poor governance, corruption and misguided policies of President Nicolás Maduro and his predecessor, Hugo Chávez, have fueled runaway inflation, shuttered businesses and brought the country to its knees. And in recent months, the Trump administration has imposed stiff sanctions to try to cripple it further. ..."
NY Times
***NY Times: Venezuela’s Opposition Leader Juan Guaidó May Negotiate With Maduro

An oil barge tugging Toas Island’s broken-down ferry to the mainland to fetch meager amounts of subsidized food.

2016 November: Venezuela, a Failing State, 2017 July: The Battle for Venezuela, Through a Lens, Helmet and Gas Mask, 2018 November: The Politics of Food in Venezuela, 2019 February: Venezuela’s Very Normal Revolution, 2019 March: Venezuela’s Deadly Blackout Highlights the Need for a Negotiated Resolution of the Crisis, 2019 May: Crisis in Venezuela: What We Know So Far