Pirate's Cove

Suddenly the NY Times is concerned about the economic viability of Venezuela

Venezuela Braces for Economic Collapse From U.S. Blockade

Even before American forces blasted their way into Venezuela’s capital and seized President Nicolás Maduro on Saturday, the nation was already facing dire economic prospects.

The partial blockade imposed by the United States on Venezuela’s energy exports was expected to shutter more than 70 percent of the country’s oil production this year and wipe out its dominant source of public revenue, according to people briefed on Venezuela’s internal projections compiled in December.

The Trump administration’s decision last month to begin targeting tankers carrying Venezuelan crude to Asian markets had paralyzed the state oil company’s exports. To keep the wells pumping, the state oil company, known as PDVSA, had been redirecting crude oil into storage tanks and turning tankers idling in ports into floating storage facilities.

If the blockade held, the Venezuelan government expected national oil production to collapse from about 1.2 million barrels per day late last year to less than 300,000 later this year, said the people briefed — a drop that would significantly reduce the government’s ability to import goods and maintain basic services. The people had access to the projections and discussed them on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.

OK, you see where this is going, Orange Man Bad for potentially maybe possibly seeing oil production crash. Even though one would think leftists who are usually climate cultists hate oil. And the money previously made was not going back into helping the people of Venezuela

Venezuela: The Rise and Fall of a Petrostate

Venezuela, home to the world’s largest oil reserves, is a case study in the perils of becoming a petrostate. Since it was discovered in the country in the 1920s, oil has taken Venezuela on an exhilarating but dangerous boom-and-bust ride that offers lessons for other resource-rich states. Decades of poor governance have driven what was once one of Latin America’s most prosperous countries to economic and political ruin.

In recent years, Venezuela has suffered economic collapse, with output shrinking significantly and rampant hyperinflation contributing to a scarcity of basic goods, such as food and medicine. Meanwhile, government mismanagement and U.S. sanctions have led to a drastic decline in oil production and severe underinvestment in the sector. Though Washington eased some sanctions on Venezuela’s oil and gas sector in 2023, signaling a potential détente, Caracas’s failure to meet conditions for a fair election prompted the U.S. government to reimpose sanctions in 2024.

Well, that’s one way to look at it, because it comes down to Venezuela being run into the ground by hardcore leftist dictators. Other petrostates are doing fine. And the above article was before Trump took office the second time.

(Economic Observatory) Living standards in oil-rich Venezuela plummeted by a staggering 74% between 2013 and 2023. This is the fifth largest fall in living standards in modern economic history.

The country’s economy collapsed under a single government during peacetime. But this economic implosion is comparable to those seen in Iraq, Lebanon and Liberia – countries that have been ravaged by war or civil war – or Georgia, Moldova and Tajikistan after the Soviet Union fell and brought down the state and entire economic system.

Venezuela had problems getting food to the point that zoos were being raided. They couldn’t get toilet paper and beer.

Here’s the UK Guardian as they attempt to say arresting Maduro was Bad and causing problems

“Anger,” said Sauriany, a 23-year-old administrative worker from Venezuela’s state-owned electricity company as she queued outside a supermarket on the other side of town with her 24-year-old partner, Leandro.

Leandro voiced shock as the couple waited in a 100-person queue to buy flour, milk and butter alongside a quartet of nuns. “Who could have imagined that his would happen? That right at the start of the year they’d bomb our country while everyone was asleep?” he asked. (snip)

But many locals were quietly rejoicing at the demise of a politician who many loathe for leading their oil-rich country into years of ruin and repression since he took power in 2013 and is widely believed to have stolen the 2024 presidential election.

The nation is already in economic collapse. It’s why about one third of the citizens left and moved to other countries: US, Argentina, Brazil, EU nations. Arresting Maduro didn’t lead to those food lines within a few hours. The Trump admin will use pressure to get reform into Venezuela via their oil production, which could lead to the ability to produce other products, like rice, corn, fish, tropical fruit, coffee, pork and beef in levels that would feed the citizens and allow exports. The nation needs political stability, and to actually rely less on oil revenues. We’ll see what happens, but, the current economic crisis is not because of Trump arresting Maduro, and can only get better.

Read: Venezuela Could Collapse Economically From US Oil Embargo Or Something »