Venezuela’s continued economic hardship outweighs geopolitical tensions

Source: CNN

For millions of Venezuelans, the daily struggle for survival outweighs the geopolitical standoff sparked by US warships deployed to the southern Caribbean in August. While the US claims the mission targets drug trafficking, with Caracas suspecting a bid to oust President Nicolás Maduro, the more immediate concern for residents like Samuel Carreño is the crippling domestic economy.

Carreño, a 49-year-old informal worker from Petare, has seen his life upended not by international tensions, but by a personal emergency. Since his 75-year-old mother, Tita Carreño, fractured her left femur in August, he has been unable to work, dedicating himself to her care.

As an informal worker who lives day-to-day, a medical emergency is an insurmountable financial hurdle. “For the operation they were asking us for US$3 000,” Carreño said, a sum his family had to scramble to raise even after a price reduction secured by his brother.

Carreño’s daily routine highlights the country’s decaying infrastructure: he must heat water on a gas stove for his bedridden mother because his home, shared by five, lacks a water heater. Furthermore, running water is rationed, arriving only three days a week, requiring him to fill a dozen buckets to cope.

This personal crisis unfolds against a backdrop of severe economic instability. In the two months since the US warship deployment, the Venezuelan bolivar depreciated by 50 per cent against the dollar, according to the Central Bank.

For many, the fear of political persecution and endless economic decline outweighs the fear of external conflict. As the aunt of an uncharged political detainee since September 2023 expressed, when asked if she feared a military overthrow: “Afraid of what? Sooner or later a war will end, while for me the fear is to be here forever, or for our allied countries to leave us alone in the fight.”