The 'Tragedy' of Venezuela: Film Shows How Oil-Rich Nation Was Destroyed From the Inside
*By Bridgette Webb*
Venezuela, once among the wealthiest economies in Latin America, is now in a state of crisis.
According to Brian Price, executive producer of a new documentary "Venezuela: State of Disaster'" decades of greed and corruption have created an impenetrable barrier.
"They had tremendous oil resources and still do," Price said in an interview on Cheddar Wednesday.
"Right now they are sitting on 300 million barrels of oil ー in a conservative market call it $1 trillion dollars worth ー and they have no way of extracting that wealth because the entire system of extraction has been completely decimated."
Venezuela’s drop in oil production volumes was the largest global unplanned fall in crude oil in 2017. That trend has continued. Oil production in the nation now stands at its lowest level in more than 50 years.
Of the oil that is produced, much of it is being used to pay off interest on Venezuela's massive debt load to countries like China and Russia. Venezuela has borrowed billions of dollars from the two over the years, mostly through oil-for-loan deals.
The economic crisis is also hitting Venezuela's public health system.
In addition to a shortage of doctors, nurses, and supplies, Price said even the most basic needs of patients can't be met.
"They have to ask patients to bring their own light bulb when they check in the hospital because there is no light in the room. It's a good and it has value and people will steal that from the hospital," he said.
Meanwhile, the President of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, has been steadily shifting the country from a democratic nation into a dictatorship.
Since he was elected back in 2013 Maduro has consolidated power by jailing would-be competition and neutralizing any opposition.
Although his presidency is slated to end on Jan. 10 2019, Maduro is expected to be "re-inaugurated" that day on the basis of elections held last May, which are widely viewed as fraudulent.
There have already been rumblings that the International community is ready to act against Maduro, though Price believes it will be very challenging to remove him from power.
"He will do whatever he has to do to stay in power ー \[including\] moving up an election, that was supposed to occur in December because it fit his needs. He is a corrupt leader, like any dictator you have to be skeptical of any tactics he uses, specifically because he wants to stay in power."
State and county taxpayers will be asked to commit a record $850 million in public funds toward construction of the Buffalo Bills’ new stadium as part of a 30-year lease agreement.
As the war enters its second month, Russia may be changing course on its strategy in Ukraine. After suffering heavy losses, forces around the capital city of Kyiv appear to have stopped offensive operations and are now shifting their focus to taking over the south and east of the country. Terrell Starr, a foreign affairs reporter at The Atlantic Council, breaks down the latest from Kyiv. "Logistically this war has been a disaster. They have far more troops than [the] Ukrainian army has. What they don't have is good planning. The planning has been incredibly poor," he said.
Catching you up on what you Need to Know on Mar 28, 2022, with peace talks resuming in Ukraine as early as today, Colorado wildfires causing evacuations, Shanghai, China, ramping up restrictions once again, the Oscars debacle between Will Smith and Chris Rock, and more.
Volatility continues to be the name of the game when it comes to crypto. Bitcoin, the most valuable digital token, saw a small jump today - one of several small rallies throughout the month of March. Caitlin Cook, vice president of crypto education company Onramp Academy, joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss.
As of March 2022, almost 200 Anti-LGBT+ bills have been introduced in state governments across the country — especially directed at the transgender community. Human Rights Campaign State Legislative Director and Senior Counsel Cathryn Oakley joined Cheddar News to discuss the deluge of legislation. "Unfortunately we are seeing these bills come at transgender youth from every conceivable direction," she said. "Every support that a trans kid has, whether that's their parents, whether that's their family, whether that's their teachers or their guidance counselors or their coaches, whether it's their teammates or the librarians and the books that they read, whether it's curriculum, whether it's even just the ability to acknowledge that LGBTQ people have existed throughout history and are important in the fabric of modern American society. The bills that we are seeing filed across the country are targeting all of those pieces."
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy last week seemed to have put out a video that urged Ukrainians to put down their arms and surrender to Russia. It was later revealed that it was a “deepfake,” a computer-generated video to mimic the Ukrainian leader. Cheddar News speaks with security expert Morgan Wright about how the technology is being used in the war in Ukraine.
