The Conflict

Who Is Behind The Crisis?

Since 2013 the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela has suffered from an economic crisis, that has demonstrated to be an institutional, political and social crisis as well, where opponents have taken the streets to rise their voices in frustration towards President Nicolas Maduro’s government mismanagement. His supporters, on the other hand, blame falling oil prices and the country’s “corrupt” business elites. Venezuela's inflation rate, which has been over 50 percent since 2014, reached 536.2 percent in 2017 largely due to the rapid depreciation of the local currency on the black market, the opposition-controlled National Assembly said in October.

The economic crisis is also hitting Venezuela's public health system the hardest. In the country's public hospitals, medicine and equipment are increasingly not available. There is food shortage, which reflects in the long lines of people inside and outside supermarkets and the attempts to cross the border with Colombia to buy basic goods, currently more than 600,000 Venezuelans have already fled their country and sought asylum in Colombia.

The increasing rate of refugees worries Colombian

citizens due to the fact that job opportunities have decreased and insecurity keeps escalating, but despite this, Venezuelans keep coming with the hope to start a new life, and most importantly, seeking wellness for their families.

Recently Juan Guaido has self-proclaimed himself as the president of Venezuela, which left Maduro’s regime in a weak position, because of the amount of people supporting Guaido, including countries such as United States, Canada, Chile, Argentina, Brazil, among others. But Maduro is not alone and he has backup countries as well, and very powerful ones as Russia and China.

After the attempt of giving humanitarian aid, and the constant videos shared on social media, tensions seem to grow more and more in the territory, leaving the feeling that there is only missing one minimum thing for foreign military interventions. It is highly possible that at a certain point the United States of America will get fully involved in the conflict, as we could witness in the past and in current issues around the world. They have the power to intervene, and they could get some benefits out of it.

But what would happen if Maduro’s allies counterattack too? the answer is simple, we would have international interventions between the greatest world superpowers, and trust me, they HAVE the arsenal and the capacities to start a third world war. In case this happens, Colombia would be in a compromising situation, as we are USA allies, we would also be an easy target for Maduro’s backup, and this would lead devastating effects from weapons we have never encountered before, but Colombia seems very determined to support Trump’s government at all means, meaning we should be prepared for absolutely. anything…...

By Valeria Villera, Step 9.