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The Venezuelan Crisis Venezuela has been undergoing a series of economic social and political crisis during the past decade. Corruption, incompetence and failed economic policies have left the entire region in frightening chaos, leading to several attempts of coups and political unrest. In 1958, Admiral Wolfwang Larrazabal won the democratic presidential elections over the leftist party led by Marcos Perez Jimenez. However, through the 1960’s the leftist party tried repeatedly to overthrough the new Democratic Party. By 1973, Venezuela underwent through an economic boom due to the raise of nationalized steel and oil industries. Due to this, the United States became economically involved with the Venezuelan government. Nevertheless, the economy declined during the 1980’s due to poorly managed oil production, which lead to several drastic changes in government. During that decade, disconformity of the Venezuelan society is evident and therefore by 1992 two coups were attempted, killing about 120 people. The first one lead by the future president colonel Hugo Chavez, and the second by his supporters. From 1993 to 1996, continuous acts of corruption in government lead to social and political uncertainty. In 1998 Hugo Chavez was elected president. He won the support from the poor and disarmed the fears of the more wealthy by basing his political platform on reforms to abolish corruption. After being in power he established friendship with some of the most radical leaders in the world according to the United States. For instance, Cuba’s Fidel Castro, Libya’s Moammar Gadhafi, Iraq’s Saddan Hussein, North Korea’s Kim Yong-Il and the Palestinian Yasser Arafat. In 2000, Chavez won another 6 years in office. Chavez ones more promised to reverse years of corruption through land reforms, housing and cheap credits for the poor. Furthermore, in November of 2001 Chavez established political reforms including land and oil industry reforms that were passed under powers, which did not require them to be approved by the National Assembly. Those reforms created by Chavez, which were said to help the poor, were criticized by economists saying that would put at risk jobs and therefore the national economy as well. Today, the United States is unofficially involved in the political crises of Venezuela. This is due to the fact that it holds an economic interest since Venezuela is one of the top 5 world largest oil exporters.
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