IMAGO THEATRE PORTFOLIO

The Portfolio is a collection of texts, links, visuals, etc. that the Imago Theatre team is using as research or inspiration for the show. The aim of the Portfolio is to give educators material they can be inspired by to then use as a jumping off point for class discussions, exercises, essays and projects.

ELSEWHERE

All annotations within this document are useable links to the source.

DISCLAIMER: This document is meant to encourage critical discussion and does not necessarily reflect the views of Odd Stumble or Imago Theatre. ABOUT ODD STUMBLE

Founded in London, England, Odd Stumble is a politically engaged theatre collective whose core artistic work is presently based out of Montréal. Odd Stumble produces new works and also initiates projects that respond to current events with improvisation and devised collaboration as creation methods.

With a penchant for the odd, experimental and physical, the company works laterallywith artists of various disciplines to explore diverse forms of narrative. Politically relevant stories, theatre design elements, and unique performance spaces are central to the company’s creation approach.

For more information or to check out our projects in development please visit our website www.oddstumble.com

ABOUT IMAGO THEATRE

MISSION

Imago Theatre is a catalyst for conversation, an advocate for equal representation, and a hub for stories about unstoppable women.

MANIFESTO

We are arms open, heads flung back, spinning catalysts. We are kaleidoscopic words that ripple and tear down walls. We are daring feminists, creators and mentors. And we won’t stop Advancing, Developing, Democratizing, Telling Her Side of the Story.

For more information please visit www.imagotheatre.ca AN ODD STUMBLE PRODUCTION IN ASSOCIATION WITH IMAGO THEATRE

A CRISIS IS NEVER A CRISIS WHEN IT IS ELSEWHERE…

Elsewhere, written by a Venezuelan-Canadian woman, is the story of six people’s lives – their hope, resilience, resistance and survival - amidst the chaos and absurdity of the Venezuelan crisis.

All seek a way to move forward, grasping at remnants of a life they once knew; a life irrevocably changed by scarcity, greed and corruption. The play points to the fragility of systems in which we put our trust, while asking us to consider why a crisis is never a crisis when it is Elsewhere. “Mom, today I went out to defend . If I do not come back, I went with her.” 1

“I call petroleum the devil’s excrement,” Juan Pablo Perez Alfonzo said.

“It brings trouble … look at this locura (madness) – waste, corruption, consumption, our public services falling apart. And debt, debt we shall have for years.” 3

“The greatest damage done has been to our hearts...” — Laureano Marquez HISTORY

Venezuela was inhabited by the Carib, Arawak and Chibcha peoples. Columbus and Spanish explorer Alonso de Ojeda land in Venezuela in 1498-99.

Spain then colonized the country for over 200 years before the people started rebelling. The political has danced between dictator and civilian government regimes.

Simon Bolivar, whom the currency is named after, headed the first rebellions against the Spanish. He led from 1819-30.

In 1973 the oil boom hits. Venezuela, sitting on the largest reserves of oil in the world, quickly learns to capitalize on their most prized resource. For a succinct In 1998 Hugo Chavez was democratically elected . He led, what was named, the . Calling himself timeline of this a socialist and counting Fidel Castro as an allie and mentor, Chavez Venezuela’s moved quickly to hold onto his power by calling a referendum where the population voted to end limits to terms in office. history Click HERE His presidential term included the expropriation of corporations such as Exxon, and the criminalizing of the press and any political opposition. Chavez also expropriated private property in his attempt towards equalizing wealth. Though some social programs, supported by the oil economy, did benefit the poor, the corruption and mismanagement of the country continued to spiral downwards.

Chavez ruled for thirteen consecutive years until his death in 2013 from cancer. During his presidency, Chavez rewrote the constitution, and economic and social policies. He is known for nationalizing energy and telecommunications companies.

Many accuse Nicolas Maduro, President of Venezuela and Chavez’s appointed successor, for the worsening of the ongoing crisis. ECONOMY

What is a Petrostate?

Government income is deeply reliant on the export of oil and natural gas.

Economic and political power are highly concentrated in an elite minority.

Political institutions are weak and unaccountable, and corruption is widespread. Venezuela is the Oil dependence. Oil sales account for 98 percent of export earnings and as much as 50 percent archetype of a of gross domestic product (GDP).

Falling production. Oil output has declined for petrostate decades, reaching a new low in 2018. gone south. Spiralling economy. GDP is expected to shrink by double digits for a third consecutive year.

Soaring debt. Venezuela has missed billions of dollars in payments since defaulting in late 2017.

Hyperinflation. Annual inflation is running at more than 50,000 percent. Growing autocracy. President Nicolas Maduro has violated basic tenets of democracy to maintain power. 6

The Venezuelans are running from a nation broken by failed socialist policies, mismanagement, corruption and lower global oil prices — the country’s principal source of cash.7

Fig. 1 What is Dutch Disease?

Dutch disease is the negative impact on an economy of anything that gives rise to a sharp inflow of foreign currency, such as the discovery of large oil reserves. The currency inflows lead to currency appreciation, making the country’s other products less price competitive on the export market.

It also leads to higher levels of cheap imports and can lead to deindustrialisation as industries apart from resource exploitation are moved to cheaper locations.8

Fig. 2

Here’s a short cut to Understanding the Dutch Disease

“We are condemned,” said Carlos Mendoza Pottella, a petroleum economist at the Central University of Venezuela and advisor to the nation’s central bank. “They say we have oil for 500 years. So we’re doomed to keep suffering from this disease.”9

Fig. 3 Consequences

Hyperinflation. Venezuela’s inflation rate, which has been over 50 percent since 2014, reached 536.2 percent in 2017 largely due to the rapid depreciation of the local currency on the black market, the opposition-controlled National Assembly said on October.

The International Monetary Fund estimates that inflation will reach 2,068.5 percent by 2018.

Economic war. The government says it is the victim of an “economic war”, including speculation and hoarding, by pro-opposition businessmen. Venezuela’s currency has weakened sharply on the black market.

Food shortages. The government controls the price of basic goods, but the black market still has a powerful influence on prices. Prices on basic goods can change in a matter of days, causing severe food shortages.

The often leads to food shortage which reflects in the long lines of people inside and outside supermarkets and the attempts to cross the border with to buy basic goods.

Oil output. Venezuela’s oil production, which has been falling by about 20,000 barrels per day (bpd) since last year, is on track to fall by at least 250,000 bpd in 2017. Fig. 4 Refinancing its debt. However, the country’s President Nicolas Maduro has dismissed the possibility of a default, adding that Venezuela would instead work on refinancing and restructuring its foreign debt.

Health assistance. The economic crisis is also hitting Venezuela’s public health system the hardest. In the country’s public hospitals, medicine and equipment are increasingly not available.

“Most of the time patients die because their families are out of the hospital looking for the treatments and they don’t come at a time we can use the treatment, when they bring the treatment, the patient’s already dying,” Orfram Moreno, a doctor working in a public hospital in Merida told Al Jazeera.

Crime and poverty. Crime and violence are also widespread. In 2016, 27,479 people were killed - an all-time high - according to the independent group the Venezuelan Violence Observatory.10 Fig. 5

Fig. 6

“When you can’t find food, when your daughter could get sick at any moment, that’s when you know you have to leave,” Lozada said, clutching her baby to her breast.10.1

Fig. 7

VENEZUELA AND NORTH AMERICA

The Trudeau Government’s Relationship To Venezuela

In September 2018, the Trudeau government joined Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Paraguay, and in appealing to the International Criminal Court to denounce the Maduro government accountable for Crimes Against Humanity concerning the ongoing crisis.11

CBC ran a story on January 4th, 2019 about Canada, along with other South American countries, denouncing the Maduro presidency and committing to no longer recognizing the present Venezuelan government. 12

“When I look at Trump this is populism. Right and Left populism is very similar. And so what we have to see more carefully is how populism emerges when you don’t pay attention to certain problems in society. […] What we are seeing in the United States is very similar to what we saw in Venezuela at the end of the last century.” 13

- Historian Margarita Lopez Maya

Venezuelan and U.S Current Relations

Venezuelan tensions with the U.S have been ongoing. As Chavez began nationalizing industries, anti-American propaganda continues to grow. In 2008 Chavez’s government, already close to Cuba, signs an accord with Russia for nuclear cooperation. This legacy has now begun to make headlines once more.

“All nations of the world should resist socialism and the misery that it brings to everyone,” Trump said in a speech at the U.N. General Assembly. “In that spirit, we ask the nations gathered here to join us in calling for the restoration of democracy in Venezuela.”

The sanctions mark the latest of increasingly restrictive measures imposed by the Trump administration amid the Maduro government’s crackdown on political opponents, the collapse of the country’s economy and corruption that has reached into the state-run oil industry. Maduro himself was hit with sanctions in July 2017.

Though Maduro lashed out at the United States, he appeared to also reach out to Trump. “Trump, my president,” Maduro said, “You’re making a mistake. Venezuela is free and democratic. Trump, I am not a dictator. And I think the more you threaten us, the more our popularity grows because the people here are anti-imperialist.” 14 THE MEDIA

There was a media blackout on Venezuela’s crisis until April 2017 when the story broke about the Mother of All Marches. Many thousands of protesters took to the streets to contest the Maduro government and its involvement in the economic crisis.

Since then things have continued to escalate and the media is now aware and reporting on the situation.

The World Press Photo of the Year was awarded Fig. 8 to Ronaldo Schmidt for Venezuela Crisis. 15

Fig. 9 Fig. 10 INTO CREATION - THE PLAY

Elsewhere’s creation began in October 2016. Now two years down the road, the show is developed to tour and bring awareness about the crisis to communities across Canada. Throughout the process the artists have continued updating the script to current events in Venezuela. Though some information was changed or added, the heart of the piece has remained the same - to encourage empathy of human suffering caused by political mismanagement and bottomless greed.

“In Elsewhere we meet Venezuelans struggling to maintain positive dispositions under rapidly worsening conditions. While the characters are mostly able to find the hope and love they need to survive from day to day, the energy to hope and love, for some, is finite.

Venezuela is not the only country where people are struggling, and suffering, and dying.

Why Elsewhere? Why now? I had to do something.”

- Performer and Co-Creator Joy Ross-Jones

But foremost on my mind is this: Why do we continue to support and perpetuate certain social, evironmental, and economic systems we now know to lead us towards collapse? How can democracy so easily turn into a dictatorship? What is it about our experience and position in Canada that imbues us with this false sense of security? Are we really that far away from Venezuela’s situation?

- Director and Co-Creator Cristina Cugliandro THE CHARACTERS / THE THEMES

GRINGA REINA DE BELLEZA A Venezuelan-Canadian woman looks A Beauty Queen wonders on from afar, struggling with what how to feed her children. is happening in a country she calls home.

Figures from Immigration, Refugees and In Venezuela, competing comes at a high price: Citizenship Canada (IRCC) provided to CBC News Elaborate sequinned gowns and pricey cosmetic show the number of visa applications from surgeries are out of reach for most in a country Venezuelans has remained steady over the last where inflation is running in the five digits and few years — but the rejection rate has increased. state workers earn about $3 a month. Earlier this year the Miss Venezuela pageant was rocked by In 2016, there were 11,919 applications, with accusations that some contenders finance their 9,220 approved, 2,683 rejected and 93 withdrawn journey to the crown by finding wealthy men to — a rejection rate of about 22 per cent. Last pay for gowns and surgeries in exchange for sex. year, nearly half of the 11,640 applications were rejected. And in the first three months of 2018, As the nation plummets into economic ruin, even more than 54 per cent of the 2,307 applications more young women are holding fast to dreams of have been denied.16 becoming beauty queens.

After the leftist firebrand Hugo Chávez became Some like Esther Pineda, an expert in women’s president in 1999, thousands of Venezuelans — studies, believe the continued popularity of beauty especially from the upper classes — moved out of pageants in Venezuela is also an indication of how the country. But the current exodus is far more deeply sexist the country remains. 19.1 dramatic.17 As is often the case when official channels dry GUERRERO up, black market trade booms. Ordinary people A Teenager risks his life left with no other choice are turning to unofficial to join the fight for freedom. channels, with many taking advantage of the demand for drugs to supplement their meagre The government has been repressing dissent wages. 19.2 through often-violent crackdowns on street protests, jailing opponents, and prosecuting civilians in military courts. It has also stripped power from the opposition-led legislature.

Other persistent concerns include poor prison conditions, impunity for human rights violations, and harassment by government officials of human rights defenders and independent media outlets. 18

The rebellion of the Venezuelan youth, demanding the end of Nicolás Maduro’s presidency, has brought into the forefront the nature of a regime that can be defined as a highly corrupt narco- terrorist state supported by Cuban military forces and Colombian drug cartels. 19 POLICIA ABUELA A Cop questions the violence around him. A Grandmother reflects on her past.

But behind their shields and batons, many “When my children were growing up we police officers are enduring the same economic wanted for nothing. I worked for 38 years as a turmoil — and share many of the same seamstress, and it went very well. Now we don’t grievances — as the protesters they are battling, even have money for medicine. Just to buy pain testing their loyalties to the government they reliever costs 11 million bolivares (equivalent to have been sent to defend. two months wages of the minimum salary).”

“We are citizens, too, and we are not exempt Professionals and youth are leaving en masse, from this crisis affecting us,” said a 46-year-old leaving behind a country made up of the most member of the National Police deployed during vulnerable people — children and the elderly. demonstrations here in the capital, . Each departure rips apart communities and families. 22 What he feared most was returning home, he said. Crime was so rampant that gangs in his working-class town had taken to picking off police officers when they returned, he said, including a member of his unit, who was stabbed to death last year in front of his family. Before the killing, he said, the gang ordered the victim to put on his uniform.

“For the gangs, killing us is a prize,” the officer said. “The government does nothing.” 20

INDIGENTE A Homeless Man begs God for food.

Former foreign minister and top aide Delcy Rodríguez has denied the country has a food crisis, denouncing the “blackmail of hunger”. She told the new legislative super-body she heads: “In Venezuela there is no hunger, there is willpower. There is indignation and courage to defend Venezuela.” 21

“I ask for help, but sometimes I have to rummage through the rubbish to feed my kids.” 21.1 TRIP ADVISOR CANADA EXCERPTS 23

What can 9000$ USD buy in Venezuela right now??? Jun. 23, 2015, 2:42 a.m.

Hello I have cash and I wanted to go to venezuela with 9000$, I know the exchange rate is ridiculous on the black market. What can I buy with 9000$? it is very confusing.I looked at this website but now the ex- change rates are around $450+ bolivars for 1 USD. If anyone can shine light on this weird currency situation that would be great! thank you very much.

2. Re: Jun. 23, 2015, 8:32 p.m.

You could buy about 35,000,000 liters of gasoline.

48. Re: Apr. 3, 2017, 1:21 a.m.

Perhaps more important is “what can 9000 US$ not buy in Venezuela right now?

In no particular order of importance I’ll start the list with; - parts to keep your vehicle, appliances, etc. running - medicine to keep you running - sterile operating rooms - security in your home day or night - freedom to safely leave your home after dark - relief from shakedowns from various security and military personnel - reliable honest lawyers, judges, government employees et al - adequate honest banking services - feel free to add on (the thousand daily nuisance items don’t count)

100. Re: Apr. 1, 2018, 12:41 p.m.

With $9,000, you better hire some body guards.

157. Re: Dec. 17, 2018, 8:36 a.m.

The country. THE VISUAL WORLD OF ELSEWHERE The following are some of the sources of inspiration for Elsewhere from Set and Costume designer Liv Wright. DISCUSSION JUMPING OFF POINTS

Fig. 11

What is the role of the international community in alleviating this crisis?

What are the advantages to Canada’s signing the request for the International Criminal Court to investigate the Venezuelan government?

What is a country? What is a government? What is the relationship between these two?

When a government ceases to represent their people, is this still a government?

What is the national voice of a nation whose government has ceased to represent them?

How does each character identify with the nation?

From a philosophical perspective can a country ever be separate from a government?

What are the systems that keep laying the groundwork for authoritarian governments to take hold?

Political Labels: Socialism gets appropriated by dictatorships Conservatives weaponize socialism against the people

Disempowering Techniques: Food security Sense of safety Revocation of rights THE HEART OF VENEZUELA

This showy orchid can be white, pink, purple, red or practically any color in between. It was declared Venezuela’s national flower in 1951, and can still be seen in the wild in many parts of the country, particularly in the coastal mountain range and on the slopes of the Venezuelan Andes.24

Listen to a folk song by composer Otilio Galíndez called “Flor de Mayo,” click HERE THE GREATEST DAMAGE - LAUREANO MÁRQUEZ 25

Perhaps the greatest damage the regime The tyrant, “stripped of reason, allows himself has done is not the destruction of the oil to be dragged by instinct, like the beast, when industry. Or the disappearance of gold. Or the he governs,” says the Angelic. He manages to bankruptcy of agriculture and industry. It is not vilify the citizens to the extreme because he the condemnation of 10% of the population knows that, in this way, he can better subdue into exile, the destruction of the educational them. Without a doubt, in Venezuela this system and the fact that Venezuela has the instinct has worked perfectly. Venezuelans greatest inflation on the planet. Or that the have been vilified to the extreme. What will we daily mortality is only a statistical figure, and do to believe in ourselves again, to consider that children are dying of malnutrition. ourselves a people worthy of progress and well-being, of freedom and democracy, worthy The greatest damage inflicted has been of living happily without having to flee the the destruction of the national soul, of homeland? It is a question that concerns us all. the hope of the citizens, of the dignity of a people. On our horizon there is too much hunger, too much blood, too much hatred. Common sense, kindness, tolerance, compassion and respect have also succumbed We urgently need to believe again in in this assault on sanity. The greatest damage something: to believe that we are possible, that done has been to our hearts, which have we can respect and tolerate each other, that become incredulous, distrustful, now seeing eating is a normal human activity, that we can only evil and betrayal everywhere. We no walk the streets in safety, that disagreements longer trust anything or anyone; any opinion do not condemn us to murder each other, that other than our own seems to us to be self- there is hope and a future, and that this future interested, despicable, deserving of aggression can reflect the effort we put into it. and insult. It cannot be that a land that is capable of producing so much talent, so many intelligent We are in a Tower of Babel of emotions. and capable individuals, is condemned to failure as a common project. The destruction is, therefore, much greater than it seems at first glance. Already we doubt This struggle is inside us. that Venezuela will be saved. We are a land in which all evil reigns. We are close to what In our hearts, in our spirits, Venezuela must Hobbes called the “state of nature,” that is the be reborn, a country committed to values, state prior to judiciary ordinance, to moral principles and ideas. laws, to norms of coexistence that make the individual a human being. The struggle is outside and it is inside. Believing in ourselves once again is the first We are, Hobbes would say, “in a state that step to overcome, because no human force is called war: one where everyone is against can subdue this belief. everyone.” When that day comes, we will see tyranny St. Thomas Aquinas said that a tyrant vanish, becoming only a bad memory. As if we appropriates not only the material goods of were looking at an old portrait of ourselves his people, but also their cultural patrimony. and saw how ugly we once were. A tyrant negates values because he requires people to be the least virtuous possible and Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator promotes enmity among citizens by appealing to the old principle of “divide and conquer.” EXTRA LINKS

Al Jazeera report on Venezuela (Youtube)

Quick Facts about Venezuela (Bloomberg)

30 day journal from a mother in Venezuela (Bloomberg)

Venezuela Tragedy: 15 Images Capture a Nation’s Sorrow and Turmoil (LA Times)

Venezuela Fast Facts - Photography Slideshow (CNN)

Fig. 12 A protester holds a national flag as a bank branch, housed in the magistracy of the Supreme Court of Justice, burns during a rally against Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro, in Caracas, Venezuela June 12, 2017. PORTFOLIO SOURCES 1. Pope Francis has a plan for Venezuela: Give it time to work https://cruxnow.com/commentary/2017/05/19/pope-francis-plan-venezuela-give-time-work/

3. How oil-rich Venezuela ended up with a miserable economy https://www.marketplace.org/2016/04/01/world/resource-curse/how-plummeting-global-oil-prices-have- devastated-venezuela

5. Venezuela Crisis 2018: How Caritas is helping vulnerable Venezuelans with food and health care during the current economic crisis https://www.caritas.org/2018/09/ venezuela-crisis-2018/

6. Venezuela Rise and Fall of the Petrostate https://www.cfr.org/article/venezuela-rise-and-fall-petrostate

7. A historic exodus is leaving Venezuela without teachers, doctors and electricians https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the_americas/a-historic-exodus-is-leaving- venezuela-without-teachers-doctors-and-electricians/2018/06/03/8c6587a8-62d7-11e8-81ca-bb14593acaa6_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.f228da735576

8. Dutch Disease definition http://lexicon.ft.com/Term?term=dutch-disease

9. How oil-rich Venezuela ended up with a miserable economy https://www.marketplace.org/2016/04/01/world/resource-curse/how-plummeting-global-oil-prices-have- devastated-venezuela

10. Venezuela’s crisis explained from the beginning https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2017/04/venezuela-happening-170412114045595.html

10.1. Venezuela: about 3m have fled political and economic crisis since 2015, UN says https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/nov/08/venezuela-migrants-fleeing- exodus-increase-united-nations

11. Canada joins hemispheric partners in referring Venezuela to ICC https://www.canada.ca/en/global-affairs/news/2018/09/canada-calls-on-venezuela-to-cooperate- with-international-criminal-court.html

12. Canada, Latin American countries won’t recognize Maduro’s new government https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/canada-lima-group-not-recognize-maduro- venezuela-1.4966487

13. Going Undercover In Venezuela https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3QjufrxigE4

14. U.S. sanctions target Venezuela’s first lady and president’s inner circle https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/us-sanctions-target-venezuelas-first- lady-and-presidents-inner-circle/2018/09/25/e5994c9d-11ff-4060-8f38-349ef14e2f27_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.d4256b1d68ea

15. World Press Photo of the Year https://www.worldpressphoto.org/collection/photo/2018/world-press-photo-year-winner/ronaldo-schemidt

16. More Venezuelans denied entry to Canada as country’s political, economic crisis deepens https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/venezuela-visa-canada-hussen-1.4685689

17. The Crisis Next Door: Mass exodus of desperate Venezuelans is overwhelming neighboring countries https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/world/wp/2018/03/02/ feature/i-cant-go-back-venezuelans-are-fleeing-their-crisis-torn-country-en-masse/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.1ee192df1e8e

18. Venezuela: Events of 2017 https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2018/country-chapters/venezuela

19. Venezuela-Cuba Military Cooperation and the Narco-Terrorist Connection https://panampost.com/valerie-marsman/2014/03/18/venezuela-cuba-military-cooperation- and-the-narco-terrorist-connection/?cn-reloaded=1&cn-reloaded=1

19.1 In beleaguered Venezuela, young women use beauty pageants to escape poverty https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/beleaguered-venezuela-young-women- use-beauty-pageants-escape-poverty-n889361

19.2 ‘It feels like we’re all dying slowly’: Venezuela’s doctors losing hope https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/apr/05/it-feels-like-were-all-dying-slowly-venezuelas- doctors-losing-hope

20. Police and Protesters in Venezuela Share Common Grievances https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/17/world/americas/venezuela-police-protests.html

21. Hunger eats away at Venezuela’s soul as its people struggle to survive https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/aug/26/nicolas-maduro-donald-trump-venezuela- hunger

21.1. Venezuela crisis: Mothers giving away babies, children living on streets https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-latin-america-45879534/venezuela-crisis-mothers- giving-away-babies-children-living-on-streets

22. Venezuela Crisis 2018: How Caritas is helping vulnerable Venezuelans with food and health care during the current economic crisis https://www.caritas.org/2018/09/ venezuela-crisis-2018/

23. Trip Advisor https://www.tripadvisor.ca/ShowTopic-g316066-i3370-k8582368-o10-What_can_9000_USD_buy_in_Venezuela_right_now-Caracas_Capital_Region.html

24. Venezuela’s Blooming Beauties: Orchids https://venworld.wordpress.com/2008/04/24/venezuelas-blooming-beauties-orchids/

25. The greatest damage, by Laureano Márquez http://elvenezolanonews.com/el-mayor-dano-por-laureano-marquez/

FIGURES 1. https://widerimage.reuters.com/story/venezuelans-rush-to-shops-before-monetary-overhaul

2. https://www.bloomberg.com/features/2016-venezuela-diary/

3. https://www.dailysignal.com/2018/06/01/venezuelas-long-sad-socialist-downward-spiral/

4. https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2018/country-chapters/venezuela

5. https://www.mercycorps.org/articles/venezuela-crisis-quick-facts

6. https://www.cfr.org/report/venezuelan-refugee-crisis

7. https://www.barrons.com/articles/is-there-hope-for-change-in-venezuela-1491627029

8. https://www.opensocietyfoundations.org/voices/qa-journalism-and-crisis-venezuela

9. https://www.spectator.co.uk/2018/08/venezuelas-great-socialist-experiment-has-brought-a-country-to-its-knees/

10. https://www.cartoonmovement.com/s?q=venezuela&p=2

11. https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2016/10/venezuela-maduro-chavez-protest-caracas/505874/

12. Carlos Garcia Rawlins http://www.rcinet.ca/en/2017/06/21/canada-policy-in-venezuela-is-anything-but-neutral/ For any questions about the Portfolio please email [email protected] or call 514-274-3222