Risottia wrote:Venezuela isn't exporting much of its oil, that's exactly why their economy has gone into complete shit. And it isn't exporting its oil because 'Murica has stopped buying it from Venezuela as a way of putting "pressure" on the Venezuelan government (basically as a way to foster a regime change either via a civil war or a military coup, as usual).
I would say it's not to put pressure on Venezuela, but just because the US has started to produce a lot more oil domestically.
You can see that if you look at total US oil imports, not just those from Venezuela. And on top of that Venezuelan output capacity hadn't been maintained properly for years, while the government promised away significant quantities to other countries in return for political support... so much so that at one point
Venezuela actually bought US oil to keep going.
The problem of Bolivarianism was that it was basically a repeat of
late Soviet socialism... inefficient crony corporatism and price controls, kept afloat by oil revenue (which was made worse by a lack of interest in keeping production facilities up-to-date and in good shape). Oil revenue eventually slumped as the cycle turned negative, as it did for everyone, not just for Venezuela. But while other countries had enough of a buffer to be able to tighten their belts slowly, Chavez
had left no penny unspent and Maduro was worse if anything. So the place went to shit.