Venezuela: Chaos and Decline

Abstract

As there are no balances between state powers, and all of them subordinated to the executive, there is no doubt that President Nicolás Maduro will use special powers such as setting up an illegal constitutional assembly formed to redraft the country’s constitution which he said was necessary to restore peace and prevent a coup. Luis Cedeño, director of a group that runs an organized crime observatory, says that Venezuela has “gone beyond a narco-state”: it’s a “mafia state” in which other criminal economies such as fuel smuggling and contraband in basic goods have become entrenched, contributing greatly to the acute shortage of food and medicines and social unrest such as rioting. As Venezuela falls further into a humanitarian disaster of economic collapse and political repression huge numbers of its citizens are fleeing to other countries to find havens in which they seek to build new lives.