Venezuela's crisis: Why now and what's next?

Local residents look for recyclables in a trash pile in Caracas on Jan. 30. More than three million people have fled the country amid shortages of food, medicine and other essentials. (Carlos Barria/Reuters)

More and more are joining to try to help Venezuela, which is an oil-rich country but still, is caught in a terrible crisis. In fact, a meeting was held in Ottawa on Monday. In it, the foreign ministers of the entire American continent offered more symbolic support to the leader of the Venezuelan opposition, Juan Guaido. This in order to try to overthrow the government of Nicolas Maduro.

Regardless of which party or political ideology Venezuelans support, they are all suffering a terrible crisis. Venezuelans are devastated by the shortage of food, medicines and other basic goods. It should be noted that they have already been suffering from this crisis for a long period of time. However this has intensified after that during the month of January, Guaido was declared interim president.

Likewise, the United States, Canada, Argentina, Brazil, and the European Union have recognized Guaido as the interim president of Venezuela. However, Russia, China, Mexico, Bolivia, South Africa, and others maintain that Maduro is the legitimate president.

Citizens in search of a better country

After Guaido declared himself as interim president of Venezuela, in front of a crowd in the streets of Caracas, there have already been several peaceful manifestations that have been held at the request of Guaido. In fact, it has been said that Saturday’s opposition manifestations were some of the largest in recent years.

According to analysts, the changing political winds in Latin America have undoubtedly increased the pressure on Maduro.

Now, it is well known that more than three million people have left the country in the midst of a shortage of food and medicines. Therefore, precise public opinion polls in Venezuela are difficult to obtain.

However, even so, some surveys are carried out. An example of it is one that was made in November. It was carried out by the Venezuelan public opinion research firm Datanalisis. It was found that 35 percent of respondents said they supported “foreign military intervention” to get Maduro out of office. More than half rejected the idea.

Venezuelans report that they lost an average of 11 kilograms of body weight in 2017, and almost 90 percent of the country lives below the poverty line, according to a study published by three Venezuelan universities last year. A “negotiated solution to get President Maduro out of power” was the most popular option to get out of the crisis, receiving 63 percent support.

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Source: Chris Arsenault | CBC News