Rampant inflation, food and medical shortages, socialist policies, corruption, and malaria, and still Venezuela is trying to pull itself out of the dregs.
The people of Venezuela are calling in droves for a referendum on the upcoming presidential election and the Socialist Party of Venezuela is trying desperately to block the referendum, according to American Enterprise Institute. Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro is attempting to raise oil prices to provide financial relief to the hurting nation as a means to trying to thwart the possible uprising.
Venezuela has long been a major oil exporter, and the exports act as a driving engine of their economy. The country’s oil production is currently at a “13 year low,” reports CNN Money. Two years ago, price on the barrel head of oil was $110, today the price is down to a staggering $45 dollars.
Maduro is trying to “secure an agreement to freeze oil production,” at an OPEC meeting in September in attempts to drive up the price of oil and hopefully bring the nation out of economic turmoil (even if it only helps marginally). Maduro stated in a public television address that he thinks “the price of oil could and should easily reach $70 a barrel.” He is refusing to acknowledge that the socialist policies under his regime have largely created much of the economic and political turmoil in the struggling nation.
These efforts to reach an agreement on a freeze in oil production are nothing new, the Latin American nation has been calling for two years for such an agreement. The Saudi’s, however, have been very content to let the oil glut continue to have their competition (like Venezuela) hurt and drive down competitiveness in the marketplace.
If Maduro cannot fix the problems for his nation, it is likely that the political unrest amongst starving Venezuelan’s will reach new heights and he will have an entirely new set of problems to deal with.
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