A few years ago, Venezuela seemed to be setting the standard for social welfare in the region.
In 2015, the United Nations recognized Venezuela as having made the most advances in the fight against hunger in the Latin American and Caribbean region. National rates of poverty and inequality declined under President Hugo Chávez from the early 2000s until 2012.
Yet this is the same country where inflation last year reached 2,616 percent. The International Monetary Fund claims that it could surpass 1 million percent this year. In a survey of hospitals across the country, 78 percent reported shortages of medicine. And the cost of basic food items like beans and pasta increases on a monthly, in many cases a weekly, basis.
The economy has indeed declined at an astonishing rate. This crisis has contributed to one of the largest population movements in Latin American history.
How many people are affected?
Around 2.3 million Venezuelans have left the country over the past few years. That’s about 7 percent of the country’s population.
According to the U.N., there has been a 900 percent increase in Venezuelan nationals living abroad...
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