Venezuela’s Queer Future
New York Times that Venezuela was failing. It has only gotten worse.
Hugo Chávez’s once grand idea of a Bolivarian Revolution has collapsed by whatever measure you choose. Inflation reached 800% in 2017 and now remains the highest in the world at 8,900% according to www.tradingeconomics.com. The BBC reports that inflation is expected to hit 13,000% later this year.
The country has also been hemorrhaging people. Caracas-based sociologist Thomas Paez estimates around 1.5 million people left Venezuela between 1999 and 2015, a flight some have dubbed the “Bolivarian diaspora.” In a country of 32 million, that is approximately one in twenty; scaled to the United States, that is nearly the entire state of New York. And the exodus has only quickened since Nicolás Maduro assumed the presidency in 2013.