ABSTRACT
Venezuela drowns in a sea of economic, political, and social failures. As a result, the people are without food, the economy is without money, and the government has ceased operating under any apparent code of ethics. The country is convulsing in pain and despair and the world is watching it happen. To find the source of this prolonged agony, it is important to examine the effects of an over-dependence on petroleum, a government riddled with the corruption, and culture that emphasizes gifting rather than earning. Further, it is important to look forward, to try to see the light at the end of the tunnel and by what means the people of Venezuela might reach it.
Letter from the Editor
My grandfather always said at the dinner table that Venezuela was going to crash and burn. In the seventies in the height of Venezuelan economic glory, he said the nation would fail. As a child, Venezuela was just a word I overheard in passing: around the dinner table, during family reunions, overheard on phone calls. Yet I never knew anything about the nation, only that I had a family living in Caracas, and they always talked about moving to the United States. I never understood their inner battle between wanting to find safety and not wanting to abandon their country. My older relatives never seemed overly-inclined to elaborate.
Once I hit an age of awareness, and began having an idea of the world around me, I realized the ugly truth of the crumbling nation and my family that was left in the rubble. While Venezuela often makes an appearance in headlines, few are aware of myriad factors that contributed to the crash as well as the culture that enabled it. This magazine aims to present an entirely raw picture of a nation in turmoil, and hopefully, when the dust settles, a solution will be found.