Latin America
Related: About this forumTough times ahead in post-Chavez Venezuela
Doing business in post-Hugo Chavez Venezuela is not for the faint of heart.
Thousands of companies suffer under currency controls that all but deny them the U.S. dollars they need to import vital items into this oil-rich country, from food to cars to spare parts even gasoline. Venezuelan firms must sell their wares at state-controlled prices that don't reflect the 22 percent inflation rate, the highest in Latin America. Even Venezuela's socialist government admits the controls don't work but its attention is focused on the April 14 election to replace the late President Hugo Chavez.
It's a largely improvised economic policy that, despite oil earnings, has turned people's lives upside down and produced shortages of flour, coffee, butter and medicines. It's also a mess that will immediately challenge whoever becomes the president of this 28 million-person country.
Jeni Suarez, a 51-year-old Caracas homemaker, experienced the crisis first hand after waiting three months for a colonoscopy at a public hospital. When she got there, doctors told her they needed new parts from abroad to perform the procedure, and the deliveries weren't coming any time soon because the hospital didn't get dollars from Venezuela's government to buy them.
http://news.yahoo.com/tough-times-ahead-post-chavez-201413361.html
ProgressiveProfessor
(22,144 posts)The house of cards was already teetering. His demise and canonization will only make it worse for his successors
COLGATE4
(14,732 posts)going to have to bite the bullet as to whether to continue the largess of bargain-basement priced oil to Chavez client states. As the national petroleum company PDVSA continues to languish in the hands of politically selected executives and cash starvation for new exploration, oil exports may well decline, forcing the issue even sooner than Maduro may want. Stay tuned - after the ball, the clean up the next day is nasty.
Marksman_91
(2,035 posts)You mean to tell me that the government's policies have not been in the best interests of the people? I, for one, refuse to accept such claims, even though the evidence is right there in front of me!