The crisis has hit every part of the economy and society: a huge portion of the government’s revenue is in question. Only the black market is active, just ten percent of households are above the poverty line, formal credit is virtually non-existent, the banking system could collapse, and the value of the currency dropped by well over fifty percent in the last year until draconian controls were put in place in January. By then, tens of billions of dollars in capital had already fled.
Seeing the debacle, global companies are leaving, tens of thousands of university educated Venezuelans have gone abroad, and a mood of deep pessimism hangs over Caracas, a city deeply polarised along political lines. A once stable democracy is sliding closer and closer to outright autocracy, and grim talk of civil war dominates not just the editorial pages, but the bakeries, barbershops and bus stops.
