Venezuelan Humanitarian Crisis: A Light at the End of the Tunnel
By Camille Loftin
Venezuela’s political instability and corruption have wielded a devasting blow to the nation’s citizens. Its citizens face human rights violations such as extrajudicial executions, excessive force, and unlawful killings,[1] as well as an economic crisis that is driving hunger-panged Venezuelans out of the country.[2] Over 5.4 million Venezuelan citizens have fled from the country, but nearby Latin American countries that initially welcomed Venezuelan refugees are now reaching a saturation point.[3]
The country’s economic and humanitarian crisis stems from the country’s ongoing political turmoil.[4] After Hugo Chavez’s presidency ended in 2013, Nicolas Maduro became the nation’s elected president.[5] However, when Maduro won a second term in 2018, in a low-turnout election, countries, including Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Brazil, Canada, Germany, France, and the United States, challenged his presidency.[6] Since there was low participation from Maduro’s opposing party, these countries viewed the 2018 election results as fraudulent and recognized Juan Guaidó as the nation’s interim president instead.[7] Nonetheless, Maduro’s followers, known as Chavistas, are a very loyal group that credits Maduro for giving the poor a political voice and redistributing wealth through Venezuela’s social programs.[8] As a result, the Chavistas seek to keep Maduro in power.[9]
Although Guaidó has international support, Maduro retains control of Venezuela’s military and courts.[10] Maduro uses his military jurisdiction to subject those who oppose his government regime to brute force and authoritarian repression, such as arbitrary detention and unfair trials.[11] In fact, there are multiple accounts of unarmed individuals in anti-government protests who were shot, severely beaten by law enforcement, prosecuted in military courts, and tortured through physical and psychological means.[12] There are also reports of enforced disappearances of individuals who were arbitrarily detained.[13]
The country’s political turmoil amounts to poor governance—deteriorating the country’s once-abundant economy.[14] At one point in time, the country had a successful private sector and economy,[15] since Venezuela has the largest oil reserves in the world.[16] However, Maduro and Guaidó’s political turmoil has affected the country’s foreign investment and foreign exchange.[17] Today, the country is more than $150 billion dollars in debt, which is "more than five times its exports.”[18] As a result, the Venezuelan government started to print money, but this led to hyperinflation and made basic necessities unaffordable for most of the population.[19] The International Monetary Fund (IMF) estimates that Venezuela will have an inflation rate of 5,500 percent by the end of 2021.[20] This is the highest inflation rate in the world.[21]
Moreover, since Venezuela’s foreign exchange has been severely affected, the nation faces challenges in producing enough domestic goods.[22] This has led to a scarcity of food, lack of adequate water, and medicine shortages that plague the country.[23] According to Amnesty International, Venezuela suffers from “one of the 10 worst food crises globally.”[24] The price of food and other essential products increases every month.[25] The basic “food basket,” which is a list of foods that are considered necessary for an average Venezuelan family, costs roughly 513.77 US dollars.[26]
As a consequence of Venezuela’s inflation and scarcity of goods, the minimum wage has become “practically useless” as salaries have not kept up with the rate of inflation.[27] The Centre of Documentation and Social Analysis of the Venezuelan Federation of Teachers (CENDAS-FVM) reported that this basic food basic required an income that was worth 184 times the minimum wage.[28] In July 2020, the National Survey of Living Conditions (ENCOVI) reported that 96 percent of families were in income poverty and 79 percent of families were in extreme income poverty.[29]
Moreover, the COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated Venezuela’s crisis.[30] The country’s health system has collapsed, so previously eradicated diseases, in addition to COVID-19, are reemerging and affecting Venezuelans and the countries they are fleeing to.[31] The pandemic has worsened citizen’s ability to access basic healthcare and ability to attain food and job security.[32] Moreover, Maduro has used the pandemic to strengthen his own political position, using the lockdown to suppress the opposition.[33]
Article 19 of the Venezuelan Constitution guarantees its citizens the right to the “indivisible and interdependent enjoyment and exercise of human rights.” [34] Article 29 of the Constitution also provides that human rights violations committed by Venezuelan authorities must be investigated and adjudicated by the courts.[35] However, these Constitutional provisions are consistently ignored as a consequence of the political turmoil. Additionally, Venezuelans lost access to the Inter-America Court of Human Rights when the country denounced the American Convention on Human Rights in 2012.[36] Citizens must seek human rights relief from their local courts; however, these courts are corrupted as they are under the control of Maduro’s political regime.[37]
Although foreign intervention is necessary, tensions between the political parties make humanitarian assistance a challenging effort.[38] Maduro has historically refused to accept assistance, and Guaidó’s requests for aid have fallen short due to a lack of military support or government distribution apparatus at his disposal.[39] Guaidó’s attempts to attain foreign aid have even resulted in violence, as a result of opposition groups clashing.[40] The most promising efforts that foreign countries can make are efforts that are not affiliated with either party’s political agenda. An example of this is the United Nations’ World Food Programme (WFP) and Venezuela’s most recent deal, where the United Nations is supplying food to school children in Venezuela.[41] This intervention is independent of either political party and is considered to be the first step towards providing food to more Venezuelans in need.[42]
Additionally, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the UN Refugee Agency, worked with around 137 partners to create a Regional Response Plan for Refugees and Migrants (RMRP) to help coordinate assistance to Venezuelan refugees.[43] This program is ground breaking as the “first of its kind in the Americas,” operating as a funding mechanism to respond to Venezuelan migrants’ needs.[44] While the future for Venezuelan refugees still hangs in the balance, the faintest spark of hope has been restored by those countries taking the first step towards providing Venezuela with humanitarian relief.
[1] Everything you need to know about human rights in Venezuela 2020, Amnesty International, https://www.amnesty.org/en/location/americas/south-america/venezuela/report-venezuela/.
[2] Kathryn Reid, Venezuela crisis: Facts, FAQs, and how to help, World Vision (Aug. 12, 2021), https://www.worldvision.org/disaster-relief-news-stories/venezuela-crisis-facts.
[3] Venezuela Situation, UNHCR, https://www.unhcr.org/en-us/venezuela-emergency.html; Kathryn Reid, Venezuela crisis: Facts, FAQs, and how to help, World Vision (Aug. 12, 2021), https://www.worldvision.org/disaster-relief-news-stories/venezuela-crisis-facts.
[4] Supra note 2.
[5] Class Action Reporter, VENEZUELA: Regime Reportedly Negotiating Oil Tax with China, Lexis (July 12, 2021).
[6] Id.
[7] Kathryn Reid, Venezuela crisis: Facts, FAQs, and how to help, World Vision (Aug. 12, 2021), https://www.worldvision.org/disaster-relief-news-stories/venezuela-crisis-facts; Class Action Reporter, VENEZUELA: Regime Reportedly Negotiating Oil Tax with China, Lexis (July 12, 2021).
[8] Why Venezuela’s Chavistas are fiercely loyal to Maduro, despite economic crisis, PBS NewsHour (Feb. 22, 2019, 6:40 PM), https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/why-venezuelas-chavistas-are-fiercely-loyal-to-maduro-despite-economic-crisis.
[9] Id.
[10] Supra note 1.
[11] Everything you need to know about human rights in Venezuela 2020, Amnesty International, https://www.amnesty.org/en/location/americas/south-america/venezuela/report-venezuela/; Tamara Taraciuk Broner, Putting Venezuela’s Crisis on the International Agenda, Human Rights Watch (July 8, 2021, 12:50 PM), https://www.hrw.org/news/2021/07/08/putting-venezuelas-crisis-international-agenda#.
[12] Tamara Taraciuk Broner, Putting Venezuela’s Crisis on the International Agenda, Human Rights Watch (July 8, 2021, 12:50 PM), https://www.hrw.org/news/2021/07/08/putting-venezuelas-crisis-international-agenda#.
[13] Supra note 1.
[14] Supra note 2.
[15] Marcela Escobari, Made by Maduro: The Humanitarian Crisis in Venezuela and US Policy Responses, Brookings (Feb. 28, 2019), https://www.brookings.edu/testimonies/made-by-maduro-the-humanitarian-crisis-in-venezuela-and-us-policy-responses/.
[16] Marcela Escobari, Made by Maduro: The Humanitarian Crisis in Venezuela and US Policy Responses, Brookings (Feb. 28, 2019), https://www.brookings.edu/testimonies/made-by-maduro-the-humanitarian-crisis-in-venezuela-and-us-policy-responses/; Kathryn Reid, Venezuela crisis: Facts, FAQs, and how to help, World Vision (Aug. 12, 2021), https://www.worldvision.org/disaster-relief-news-stories/venezuela-crisis-facts.
[17] Escobari, supra note 15.
[18] Id.
[19] Id.
[20] Troubled Company Reporter, VENEZUELA: Records Lowest 'Unsustainable' Inflation Since 2017, Lexis (May 20, 2021).
[22] Escobari, supra note 15.
[23] Kathryn Reid, Venezuela crisis: Facts, FAQs, and how to help, World Vision (Aug. 12, 2021), https://www.worldvision.org/disaster-relief-news-stories/venezuela-crisis-facts; Marcela Escobari, Made by Maduro: The Humanitarian Crisis in Venezuela and US Policy Responses, Brookings (Feb. 28, 2019), https://www.brookings.edu/testimonies/made-by-maduro-the-humanitarian-crisis-in-venezuela-and-us-policy-responses/.
[24] Supra note 1.
[25] Troubled Company Reporter, VENEZUELA: Basic Food Basket Jumps Nearly $30 in a Single Month, Lexis (May 4, 2021).
[26] Supra note 1.
[27] Troubled Company Reporter, VENEZUELA: Basic Food Basket Skyrockets in January, Lexis (April 8, 2021); Marcela Escobari, Made by Maduro: The Humanitarian Crisis in Venezuela and US Policy Responses, Brookings (Feb. 28, 2019), https://www.brookings.edu/testimonies/made-by-maduro-the-humanitarian-crisis-in-venezuela-and-us-policy-responses/.
[28] Supra note 1.
[29] Id.
[30] Supra note 2.
[31] Id.
[32] Moises Rendon & Lucan Sanchez, Covid-19 in Venezuela: How the Pandemic Deepened a Humanitarian Crisis, CSIS (Sept. 23, 2020), https://www.csis.org/analysis/covid-19-venezuela-how-pandemic-deepened-humanitarian-crisis.
[33] Id.
[34] Venezuela Const. art. XIX, https://venezuelanalysis.com/constitution/title/3.
[35] Venezuela Const. art. XXIX, https://venezuelanalysis.com/constitution/title/3.
[36] Venezuela Human Rights Profile, University of Minnesota Human Rights Library, http://hrlibrary.umn.edu/research/venezuela.html.
[37] Id.
[38] Escobari, supra note 15.
[39] Id.
[40] Supra note 8.
[41] Troubled Company Reporter, [*] VENEZUELA: 185,000 School Kids to Get Food From UN Deal, Lexis (June 3, 2021).
[42] Id.
[43] Venezuela Crisis: Aid, Statistics and News, UNHCR, https://www.unrefugees.org/emergencies/venezuela/; Venezuela Situation, UNHCR, https://www.unhcr.org/en-us/venezuela-emergency.html.
[44] Venezuela Situation, UNHCR, https://www.unhcr.org/en-us/venezuela-emergency.html.