Venezuelan Crisis: Is There Anyone Actually Concerned? [OPINION]

There are some vivid memories I have about my basic school times, back in Brazil.

They are normally on Geography or History classes. Maybe Literature, but that was more at High School.

And during Geography classes, we learned a lot about the history of South America. This wasn’t actually a thing until the times of my basic education.

Just giving some background, my generation was one the first to be fully educated on a democratic, stable environment in Brazil. In fact, very few people were able to complete their graduation without any political instability, during the whole country’s history.

This already tells a lot about South America.

Why there is always a climate of political instability over the continent? Why no one ever could bring actual peace and progress, in an unified manner, to the region? In the end, it seems that every single force involved in the South American international politics lost the nature of political actions, that should be helping who needs.

But getting back to my memories. We learned that South American countries are actually very rich, until nowadays. And even though they passed a few centuries losing their resources to other people, that came to bring civilization to them, they could be important internationally someday.

Actually, that was the time that Brazil became one 7th economy in the world, on the mid-2000s. The country was distributing more wealth, and people could finally have a dignified life.

Venezuela was full of natural resources and would also be an important participant of the continents uprising on an international level.

Since 1999, they were commanded by a charismatic leader, Hugo Chavez, that seemed to be forgotten in power since the Cold War. In fact, he was outdated — even aesthetically, with all the military speeches and vestment. However, he got a good relationship with all the other leaders and was known for having an important role in keeping the national resources… national.

However, things started to change. The 2008 crisis hit the countries fully.

For Brazil, it took more time than the expected to see the effects on the economic conjuncture of crisis. However, this has more to do with the fact that the Brazilian economy is more diversified than their neighbors.

Especially the Venezuelan. As we all may know from now, they have vasts amounts of oil, and heavily rely on them for money. In 2017, according to the Organization of the Petroleum Countries (OPEC), the total national exports revenue was approximately $32 million, which $31,5 million come from oil exports.

And when oil price dropped, so did their economy. Graphs that tracked the national inflation versus the oil price show a very strong relationship between them.

Together with that, Chavez died. He wasn’t, definitely, the best. His government was totalitarian, the opposition was suppressed by the regime, and he may have isolated the country from an integrated world economy. But he was really efficient in maintaining the national interest as the first topic on the agenda.

In his place, Nicolas Maduro rose into power. A much less charismatic, and less strategic leader. Together with the whole political and economic conjuncture of the world, he lost control of things.

Today, we have a context of eminent collapse happening in Venezuela. The last few elections on the country are very much debatable, Maduro lost international recognition, and countries with high international power, such as the U.S, are doing what they do best: act on their self-interest.

Of course, it’s important to fight for free, independent and sovereign elections anywhere in the world. But it seems that this willing to provide freedom never comes by itself. There are always an economic interest on the land, that will benefiate the liberator. Examples, throughout the last three centuries, do not lack.

The tendency for countries holding power is to exercise their influence — politically and economically — to keep the oppressed and colonized peoples under these conditions.

In the end, those who claim that Maduro is sovereign and should hold the national power are so mistaken as those who think that an international intervention on Venezuela would bring national stability and peace at the continent.

The best exit to the Venezuelan crisis is, therefore, a negotiated reestablishment of democratic practices on the country, mediated especially by the Mercosur bloc. This would empower the continent to take decisions and actually solve political problems without having to appeal to other western potencies.

In the end, there’s no one really thinking on a solution that will bring a stable environment to the country. But it is the best opportunity to create leadership for such action.