Forum: Security Council Issue: The Situation in Venezuela Student Officer: Seif Al Shunnar Position: Deputy Chair
Introduction
Today, a bottle of Pepsi is estimated to cost more than 250,000 Venezuelan Bolivars (Numbeo). This is the result of an economic situation known as hyperinflation. This is the term used to define the phenomenon in which the prices of goods and services rise more than 50% in a single month, resulting in an uncontrollable change of the prices of different items causing a loaf of bread to cost less in the morning than it does at night (Amadeo). This creates a devaluation of the local currency in foreign exchange markets as the costs of products rise. As a reaction of hyperinflation, people start to hoard long lasting products like machinery and jewellery to prevent paying higher prices, and at times may even begin hoarding perishable goods like foods. This practice however results in a repetitive cycle where prices rise, causing people to hoard goods, creating demand for more goods which in turn further increases prices. If hyperinflation is left unattended, it almost always leads to an economic crisis. In fact, hyperinflation often devalues a currency so much that the hosting economy switches to a barter economy (CFI).
Going back to Venezuela, hyperinflation has driven the country to a financial collapse. According to economist Steve Hanke, prices had been doubling every 18 days at some point in 2018. Furthermore, a cup of coffee in 2019 had cost 450 Bolivars, while a year later in 2020, the same cup had jumped to 600,000 Bolivars (Papadopoulos). The nation’s resultant th crime has increased to a point where it is now ranked the 20 most dangerous country in the world, surpassing Columbia and Palestine (World Population Review), while being the country with the 3rd highest murder rate in the world with 56.3/100,000 dying from murder, beaten only by Jamaica and El Salvador (Amber Pariona). Furthermore, Venezuela’s annual GDP growth rate had fallen by 35% between 2013 and 2017, worse than had been experienced by the USA during the great depression (Ellis). This is all because Venezuela is the country with the highest rate of inflation, with 300,000% being seen in April 2019, followed far behind by Zimbabwe whose already hyper inflation rate seems relatively minuscule at 175% in March 2019 (Broom).
Definition of Key Terms
Illicit Constitution: A body of laws and established precedents which a state or leading party enforces. In simpler terms, it is essentially a list of the laws that govern a nation. It can experience amendments to modify it and is subject to change by national leadership.
National Assembly: In Venezuela, there is a section of the federal government known as the national assembly, made up of elected members; essentially being the parliament of the country. This is the group which will later be discussed as being supposedly undermined by Maduro.
Bolivars: The official currency of Venezuela, having an official exchange rate of 10:1 but this is difficult to access for the public for whom an official exchange rate is unavailable, facing constant inflation and is brought from the black market. As a result, the currency is very weak with an unofficial increasing exchange rate of more than 200,000 Bolivars per USD.
Minimum Wage: The lowest legally acceptable wage which a worker can be paid for their jobs. This varies from country to country as well as over time. This is a big issue as it affects the lower class’ ability to support themselves financially. When it is too low, the poor starve and are unable to support themselves, thrusting them into deeper poverty and lowering the GDP. When it is too high however, unemployment increases and businesses suffer as businesses cannot afford to hire staff at such wages.
Democracy: A system of government where the leadership of a state is decided by members of that state. This is the form of government used by many nations around the world, including Venezuela, USA and UK. The government is chosen through an election held by eligible voters who are from the given state.
Dictatorship: A system of government where all decisions are made by one group and without input from anyone else. The leadership is not decided through democracy, rather it is often taken with military power or through historical leadership. Venezuela is said to be a pseudo-dictatorship; countries who use this form of government are UAE, Saudi Arabia and North Korea.
Political Party: An organized group of people who share the same ideology who hold similar political positions/view. Democracies are often structure with political parties, causing politics to be more focused on the political party themselves as opposed to the specific views
Key Issues
Inflation Rate
In August of 2019, the inflation rate had hit 10 million % (Sanchez). There is no need to say that this is out of control and can cause further damages to the nation’s operation. The inflation is causing widespread poverty to Venezuelan citizens, making their lives focused on the day to day survival. In fact, citizens who become so impoverished that Venezuela is on the crux of an educational crisis where kids are too hungry to attend school due to poverty, being estimated that 9/10 Venezuelans cannot afford their daily food. This will make Venezuelan horizons look bleak and cause the future generation to be even worse off than the current one. Additionally, there is also a lack of medicine in the country because of internationally imposed sanctions. This means that the sick from even minor diseases are at high risk, worsening their death rate (Visual Journalism Team).
“Corruption”
President Nicolas Maduro faces wide criticism from his people of being corrupt and leading the nation into further poverty. It is said that Maduro rigs elections in his favour and also punishes those who speak up against him, straying from the nation’s democratic ways. Maduro’s administration and allies however deny this corruption and claim to be only trying to make the country a more peaceful place. At times, Maduro has been criticized for trying to bypass the democratic structure of Venezuela and become somewhat dictatorial in his leadership. This results in protests which are constantly going on in Venezuela. Although some of these protests may be peaceful, many become violent with both innocent protestors and government workers who are simply carrying out their jobs getting injured and even killed. Furthermore, Maduro’s behaviour has made him unpopular with not only his people, but also international governments, prompting them to impose sanctions on Venezuela, further worsening their economic situation and causing him to be more unpopular (U.S. Mission Chile). Maduro’s actions will be explored in more depth at a later point.
Major Parties Involved
Nicolás Maduro
After the death of Hugo Chávez in 2013, Nicolas Maduro was officially inaugurated as president of Venezuela. He is to this day the current president of Venezuela, facing a lot of criticism from his opposition (largely led by Guaido). He was a member of the national constituent assembly which was responsible for rewriting the constitution that Chavez used for his presidency. He was a member of the National Assembly and became its president in 2005, stepping down in 2006 where he became Venezuela’s foreign minister. He also formed in this time friendly relations between Venezuela and controversial leaders like Libya’s Qaddafi, Zimbabwe’s Mugabe and Iran’s Ahmadinejad. His profile began to grow, especially considering the deteriorating health of then president Chavez. He became the Vice President to Chavez following Chavez’ victory in the October 2012 election, while Maduro’s wife served as the attorney general, leading to their perception as the Venezuelan power couple. After Chavez passed away, there was a vote to decide the president who would carry out the rest of his term, the winner of which was Chavez, having won 51% of the votes, winning by a thin margin.
Maduro looked to unite his nation, but in early 2014, the middle class of Venezuela protested the government on the streets, while much of the lower class stood with Maduro, who also had the support of the police and military. The demonstrations had calmed down by May, with even the imprisonment of Leopoldo Lopez, a prominent figure in the opposition, bringing little protest. Encouraged by this, Maduro and his administration imprisoned many of their harsh critics and opposers. At this point, the economy had begun to struggle as previously discussed, resulting from the drop in oil price. Furthermore, the economy was burdened with a decline in industry and exports, resulting from the government’s inability to invest in industry and mismanagement of it. As this caused the nation’s import capabilities to diminish due to the inflation state, along came shortages of toilet paper, milk and medicines (among others) which became more and more widespread.
In December of 2015, the Venezuelan people had lost interest in Maduro and wanted him gone. The National Assembly elections were seen as a type of referendum on Maduro’s presidency, where his party PSUV lost control for the first time in 16 years. The conservative opposition instead took control of the assembly and led it with a majority. With the conservatives in power, they were then able to lessen Maduro’s power of the country and release those who spoke out against him, as well as hold a referendum on his popularity. In March of 2016, they did in fact pass legislation to release those who the PSUV had imprisoned, including Lopez. Maduro reacted negatively to this, claiming that the incarcerated were not political prisoners, promising to veto the legislation and saying that laws protecting criminals would not be able to pass him. In April, the opposition who tried to remove Maduro from office was rejected by the supreme court, saying an amendment to the constitution reducing the term length from 6 to 4 years was constitutional, but must be applied retroactively.
Juan Guaidó
On 23 January 2019, Juan Guaido had sworn himself in as the acting president of Venezuela. After the people of Venezuela had enough of Maduro, they were looking for a new leader to guide them. Guaido filled this vacancy and became the unofficial leader of the Venezuelan opposition. He had previously stood against Hugo Chavez in 2007 as an organizer of the student protests following Chavez’ decision to censor the press. He also served as a founder for the “Popular Will” party, pledging to “build a more secure, united and prosperous country where everyone will be entitled to all rights”. In 2011, this party became officially recognized, with Guaido serving his tenure as an alternative representative in the Venezuelan National Assembly, while in 2016 he became a full-fledged representative of the assembly. This man was seen time and again on the front lines of protests against Maduro, having received wounds from rubber bullets and confrontations with the police.
In December of 2018 before Maduro’s inauguration, the national assembly elected Guaido as their official new leader, despite his party holding only 14/167 seats on the board. He brought a renewed sense of unity and purpose to the divided opposition, instilling it with the resistance of Maduro’s rule that his party consistently expressed. He then labelled Maduro’s soon to come second term illegitimate, calling on their military in addition to foreign governments to recognize him as the nation’s new leader. As a consequence of this, he was seized by Venezuelan intelligence service members for only 45 minutes unharmed, but his popularity flourished as a result, with his twitter following leaping from 100,000 to 330,000. This brings us to his unofficial inauguration in Caracas where he was surrounded by a sea of supporters. He once again labelled Maduro’s election unofficial and rigged leaving the country without a president and used the constitution to empower him to assume the executive branch as the president of the national assembly. This landed him many international allies, but more on this later.
After this, Guaido directly defied a government travel ban, traveling to Columbia where he met with several foreign executives. Meanwhile, international aid flooded into the border of Venezuela in the form of food and medicine, largely provided by the United States of America. This received a large amount of criticism from Maduro who claimed the aid was a trojan horse used to mask an attempt at a coup, ordering the blockage of borders with large trucks and containers. Guaido however remained optimistic and announced that his supporters and he would peacefully escort the aid across the border, hoping the military would see his point and choose the aid side instead of Maduro’s oppressive side. The following day during the crossing from Columbia, there was an initial peaceful passage, but that crossing quickly turned violent with Venezuelan security forces shooting rubber bullets and releasing tear gas. Few resources were passed as a result, while most of the relief effort was turned back, with the military staying in cahoots with Maduro. After this failed effort, many were unsure whether Guaido would be able to return to Venezuela, but instead of attempting to sneak back in, Guaido decided to just casually enter Venezuela’s front door, th flying into its international airport on March 4 , where he was welcomed by allies (Wallenfeldt, Juan Guaidó).
United States of America
Including the US, many other countries (including UK, Brazil and Japan) recognize Guaido as the Venezuelan president, imposing sanctions on the nation to apply pressure on Maduro. rd On the 23 of January 2019, President Donald Trump officially recognized Guaido as the president of Venezuela. Mike Pence released on the same day a video in support of Guaido and the Venezuelan people. The USA was the first nation to officially recognize Guaido as the legitimate president, yet other nations followed soon. In fury, Maduro responded by expelling American diplomats and ambassadors, giving them 72 hours to leave his country, while the US said they would not close their embassy, but saying their relationship lay with Guaido’s government but held Maduro responsible for the staff’s safety. This deadline however met constant delays, with the US eventually withdrawing their diplomats on the 12th of March 2019. To increase pressure on Venezuela, the US imposed sanctions on Venezuela’s oil company, previously making up 41% of purchases, applying financial strain on Maduro (Lee).
Russia
Other countries are in support of Maduro as the nation’s democratically elected leader – as he is – including Russia, China and Turkey. Russia has long been a vocal ally of Maduro, having even been a military and financial supporter of Chavez. The nation in addition to providing direct support to Venezuela, acts as its supporter in the UN and serves as one of the country’s core arms dealers. Additionally, the national oil company of Russia “Rosneft” often invests in joint ventures with PDVSA, Venezuela’s oil company, making direct investments in 6 oil fields with a total of around $2.5 billion. It is also a major lender and marketer for PDVSA, as Rosneft aids Venezuela in the sale of over 225,000 barrels daily in overseas crude supplies. Putin of Russia, Xi Jing Ping of China and Maduro of Venezuela have been in talks together, saying they would like the situation to stabilize (Kurmanaev).
Timeline
Date Event
1960s When oil prices were at their peaks at this time, the country experienced financial prosperity. The country was even said to be rich, producing more than 10% of the whole world’s oil supply with a GDP far beyond that of its neighbours and near behind that of the United States. This shows that the country builds itself upon finances brought predominantly from oil. Chavez built the country on this foundation. This is because Venezuela has the largest oil reserves in the world with more than 300,000 billion proven oil reserves. After its discovery of oil, Venezuela began to source more and more of its revenue from oil, sourcing a considerable fraction of GDP and export.
2 February Election of president “Hugo Chavez”. He was a highly charismatic leader 1999 beloved by his people, going on TV to blame the elite for the poverty in his nation. His populist message was well liked and help bring him to power 2004 Global oil prices had begun to rise, sourcing considerable finances to be used and invested into social welfare programs. His campaign was focused on social work known as the “Bolivarian Missions”. The purpose of these missions were to redistribute wealth to the lower classes and reform the way in which land was used.
2011 Through the Bolivarian Missions, Chavez was shown to lower employment from 14.5% to 7.8%, lower the poverty rate from 50% to 31.9%, and lower extreme poverty rates from 19.9% all the way down to only 8.6%.
January 2013 The country’s foreign debt reaches as far as $106 Billion. This is because although these initiatives may seem admirable – which they were – they were largely done to keep himself in power and his people happy. Because of this, Hugo made sure to focus as much money to keep himself in power. He had spent over 50% of Venezuela’s GDP on public spending, and even borrowed money from other nations to maintain these programmes, Chavez has been said to have been warned about the deficit towards the start of his presidency but ignored the advice given to him simply to maintain his power. To further complicate matters, Chavez had not been forward thinking either, having saved little money to protect his country in the face of an economic crisis.
5 March 2013 Hugo Chavez passes away, with president “Nicolas Maduro” taking over his place.
April 2013 Maduro’s causes the country’s inflation rate to hit 29.4% after barely serving a month in office. This is a result of Maduro’s decision that printing money would help them pay off their outstanding debts. This situation was further worsened by Maduro’s exploitation of currency. He chose to set the official government exchange rate of the Bolivars per US dollar at 10:1. However, he only made this rate available to himself, his friends and his allies. The general public is forced to buy the currency on the black market at a rate more than 2000 bolivars per USD. Then, the military and others profit from this case by importing food from Maduro’s special rate, then selling it to the public and profiting by a large scale. This has kept the military supporting Maduro, protecting him and keeping him in power.
April 2014 By this point, the annual inflation rate was 61.5%. Starting at this point, the central bank of Venezuela stopped releasing statistics for the first time in its history as a way to manipulate the economy October 2014 Oil prices drop from $98.92 per barrel in 2013 to $82.45 this year, with following significant falls in oil price (inflation adjusted) (McMahon). This drop crushed the oil reliant economy and made the drugs and foods they once subsidized unaffordable for the general population (Ellis) (Show).
Evaluation of Previous Attempts
Attempted Removal from Office
In April of 2016, the national electoral commission who was thought to support Maduro agreed to the initiation of paperwork required for a recall election of Maduro. Firstly however, the process required 1% of eligible voters to sign a petition requesting the recall, after which at least 20% of voters must approve this call. In this event, Maduro could only be removed if the percentage of voters who had approved his recall was greater than the percentage of voters who voted for Maduro in his initial election. In May, the opposition had turned in petitions with 1.8 million signatures, 9 times what they were required, but the commission was slow in its process, eliciting protests, some of which ended violently. Maduro responded claiming that the deadline for the initial petition passed and that some petitions were faked. His delay of the process was strategic as if a recall were performed in 2016, another election would take place, while if it occurred in 2017, his vice president would take office.
th Then, on the 13 of May, Maduro came out with a shocking decision, declaring a renewable 60-day emergency state, granting army and police more powers to maintain order, increasing his ability to circumvent legislature. According to him, he did this in defence of national security, as he claimed that right-wing contingents were plotting with foreign elements to destabilize Venezuela. The national assembly however rejected Maduro’s request, but he said that he would not honour the vote and questioned the legitimacy of the legislature. By August though, the electoral commission ruled that the petition needed for Maduro’s recall was double the number of signatures needed to move to the next step, yet it did not plan a date for this event in which 4 million signatures were needed in 3 days. By the end of October with inflation still rapidly rising, Venezuela readied itself for the 3 days they needed to get the signatures of 20% of voters in. From opinion polls, it seemed as though most people were in support of Maduro’s removal from office. Days before this however, many lower courts ruled that the first stage of the petition had been fraudulent, causing the commission to suspend the second round of signatures, ensuring this recall would not happen in 2016.
After already being furious by this decision of postponement, Maduro’s opposition labelled him as more dictatorial than authoritarian in his ruling. The opposition in the national assembly voted to put Maduro under a “political and criminal trial”; Maduro responded accusing the assembly of a coup. At this point, the leader entered crisis talks with pope Francis. The talks at first resulted in the acquitting of many imprisoned opposers of Madura, causing the settling of demonstrators. By December though, this system had broken down, with Maduro remaining adamant to not accept foreign aid since he had too much pride to admit his country was in crisis, even though by this point the inflation was 800% with the GDP dropping by 19%. Also, in this time the supreme court – who was largely constituted of Maduro supporters – made a largely controversial move. They kept overturning laws made by the national assembly, eventually destroying the legislative independence of the assembly and taking up its powers in March of 2017. This decision received so much backlash though that Maduro was forced to quickly revoke the action within days of making it (Wallenfeldt, Nicolas Maduro).
Minimum Wage Increase
th On January 15 2019, Maduro increased Venezuela’s minimum wage by 300% to meet the inflation the nation faces, going up to 300% at 18,000 bolivars per hour, around $6.70. This is meant to ease worker pressure and give minimum wage employees the basic finances they need to financially support themselves and potentially their families (Ellsworth). The minimum wage has once again th been raised in January of 2020 by 67% to approx. $3.5 per hour for the 11 time in a 2 year period. This stark raise shows that previously the minimum wage was basically non-existent due to the inflation incurred on it. This is still a very low wage however, as on a month of minimum wage, this current wage cannot even afford workers 1 kg of ground beef, while the minimum wage in a month in the US and UK can buy 137kg and 288kg respectively (Haldevang). This pattern shows that although this solution is needed, it can be improved upon. For a nation dealing with constant hyperinflation, it is unreasonable and difficult to expect a nation to constantly change their minimum wage, instead requiring a more self-maintaining solution and a solution to solve the core of the issue.
Slashing zeroes
What Venezuela has done in July of 2018 is slashing 5 zeroes from their prices. This means that should something have cost 200,000 bolivars in the past, it will cost 2 bolivars in the new system. Another change implemented along with this program to support it is the currency reform. The change was removing old Bolivar notes from circulation and replacing the currency with sovereign bolivars or “bolívar soberano”. This currency is problematic because it still leaves the issue unchecked. The country will likely be forced to implement a similar change in the future as this issue simply treats the symptoms of hyperinflation instead of curing the issue which plagues the nation (Romero).
Possible Solutions
National Constituent Assembly
With the attempted dissolve of the national assembly, protests were raised and continued on a near daily basis starting April of 2017 for several weeks. In these demonstrations, violent clashes between security forces and protestors were common occurrences, to the point where by early June, 60 individuals had been killed and more than 1,200 people injured in the clashes. The victims of these clashes were both protestors of the opposition as well as Maduro supporters and security forces. Maduro labelled these protests a coup led by the US in a capitalist conspiracy against their socialist nation. In May 2017, Maduro announced his solution to draft a new constitution with a constituent assembly to draft it, pledging that it would be submitted to a referendum. In his announcement of this, opponents saw this action as an attempt to further strengthen his authoritarian power while supporters see this as a move to impose peace in the nation.
In response, the opposers of this move held an unofficial referendum with 3 issues. Whether the voters rejected the proposed constituent assembly, whether they desired the armed forces to maintain the constitution and whether they wanted elections to be held before Maduro’s term officially ends. Out of the approximately 7.2 million voters, approximately 98% indicated they rejected the constituent assembly, wanted the military to fight for the constitution and wanted early elections to be held. Maduro however described this referendum as unconstitutional and potentially even faked. To protest this decision, there were violent riots that broke out across the nation with the opposition boycotting the election of the constituent assembly, resulting in more than 10 deaths. Maduro said the selection of the assembly’s 545 members was “a vote for the revolution”. The legitimacy of this election was questioned however, yet Maduro and his supporters denied this.
In the assembly’s first session, they indicated an intention to do more than just draft a new constitution with the unanimous agreement to dismiss the attorney general who had stood up to Maduro to protest the new assembly and said she would investigate fraud allegations about the election (Wallenfeldt, Nicolas Maduro). This assembly still to this day receives a lot of controversy, since unlike the constituent assembly held by Chavez in 1999, this one was brought by a presidential decree and gives the Venezuelan people no choice in its existence instead of the usage of a popular referendum. It still seems unclear what Maduro’s goal for this assembly is, as it has the power to change the constitution itself. This power is complemented by expanding its role as a supreme power over all of Venezuela’s existing institutions. The assembly can: Create a peace and justice commission that could target opposition leaders for anti-government protests, remove lawmakers in the opposition dominated national assembly from their immunity of prosecution. Extend a president’s mandate beyond 6 years, tamper with the electoral process and remove officials from branches of government (Deutsche Welle).
This constituent assembly is labelled as an implementation of and abuse of Maduro’s powers. When the conservative opposition party took over the national assembly, Maduro removed members of the supreme court and led it to be dominated by his own party. He then used this party with the help of the supreme court as a replacement for the national assembly where he can control what he would like, having full control of the government. This however can also be seen as a tactical move by the president, as he is now given full access to do what he needs to his nation and bring peace to it under a more unified government (Ellis).
Petro
As a proposed solution to the hyper-inflation in Venezuela, Maduro and his government have come up with a new cryptocurrency named the “Petro”, tied to their oil reserves. Their cryptocurrency is an unusual one, since a true cryptocurrency lives on a decentralized network, meaning there is nobody who has more control over it than anybody else. For Petro however, there is a clear control over it held by the Venezuelan government. According to internal government members who work on the currency, it was made specifically for Venezuelan needs, bypassing “international financial blockades”. What this really means is American and other international sanctions. Those sanctions are in place to prevent block Americans from trading with Venezuela and its oil companies. Countries like Venezuela who are in deep debt, raise money through the sale of bonds. However, with sanctions in place, the sale of bonds becomes very difficult, keeping Venezuela in their debt, making sanctions an effective deterrent from more economically developed countries. Therefore, with the use of this cryptocurrency in this way, Venezuela can circumvent the American government’s sanctions. This has become an attractive way for countries like Venezuela who are under heavy international scrutiny such as Turkey or Iran to overcome their own sanctions. The US did however manage to ban the use of the cryptocurrency, with reports showing that there anyways lacks a usage of the currency. Yet with all restrictions on technology, it is likely to be only a matter of time until the nation of Venezuela finds a way to make this technology effective (Varathan).
Questions for further thought (to promote thought and creativity)
What have other countries undergoing hyperinflation done?
What is a unique perspective on this information?
Is the delegate’s country involved one way or another?
What information is missing for this guide and how may it differentiate a delegate’s argument?
Has the delegate’s country ever been in this situation?
Has the delegate’s country ever been involved in another country’s hyperinflation?
What social, economic or political factors does Venezuela face (positive or negative)?
What distinguishes Venezuela from other countries geographically/environmentally?
What information might be new to the chairs and will pleasantly surprise them?
How can I be different to the other delegates in my treatment of the topic?
What is the best affirmative solution that can be reached to solve this issue
Helpful Links https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-46999668 https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2019/country-chapters/venezuela https://corporatefinanceinstitute.com/resources/knowledge/economics/hyperinflation/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperinflation_in_Venezuela https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S1gUR8wM5vA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ah9i3R9pRpg&t=488s
Works Cited
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Amber Pariona. Murder Rate by Country. 9 January 2020. 9 February 2020.
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CFI. Hyperinflation. n.d.
Deutshe Welle. What is Venezuela's constituent assembly? 3 August 2017. 11 February 2020.
Ellsworth, Brian. Venezuela's Maduro hikes minimum wage 300 percent. 15 January 2019. 11 February 2020.
Haldevang, Max de. Venezuela just hiked its minimum wage 67% but a month of work still can’t buy 1 kg of beef. 11 January 2020. 11 February 2020.
Kurmanaev, Anatoly. Why Is Russia Helping Venezuela? 8 March 2019. 11 February 2020.
Lambert, Tim. A Brief History of Venezuela. 2019. 9 February 2020.
McMahon, Tim. Historical Crude Oil Prices. 2019. 11 February 2020.
Numbeo. Cost of Living in Venezuela. February 2020.
Papdopoulos, David. Venezuelan Cafe Con Leche Index. 6 February 2020. 11 February 2020.
Romero, Luiz. With 1,000,000% inflation, Venezuela is slashing five zeroes from its currency. 26 July 2018. 12 February 2020.
Sanchez, Valentina. Venezuela hyperinflation hits 10 million percent. ‘Shock therapy’ may be only chance to undo the economic damage. 3 August 2019. 12 February 2020.
The collapse of Venezuela, explained. Perf. Sam Ellis. Vox. 2017. YouTube Video. 9 February 2020.
U.S. Mission Chile. Nicolás Maduro: Corruption and Chaos in Venezuela. 15 April 2019. 12 February 2020.
Visual Journalism Team. enezuela: All you need to know about the crisis in nine charts. 4 February 2019. 12 February 2020.
Wallenfeldt, Jeff. Juan Guaidó. 24 July 2019. 11 February 2020.
—. Nicolas Maduro. 19 November 2019. 11 February 2020.
Why Are People In Venezuela Starving (Hyperinflation Explained)? Perf. The Infographics Show. 2018. YouTube Video. 9 February 2020.
Why Cryptocurrency is Loved by Oppressive Rules. Perf. Preeti Varathan. 2018. 12 February 2020.