Venezuela: 10 years on

Business Daily

Ten years ago this month, in March 2013, Venezuela’s charismatic socialist leader Hugo Chavez died and current president Nicolas Maduro took over. In the decade since, the South American nation suffered an extraordinary economic collapse – the economy shrunk by two thirds, inflation hit six digits, the government chopped 11 zeros off the bank notes, oil production slumped and millions of people fled abroad to escape economic hardship. We talk to Venezuelans who lived through that collapse, from a shopkeeper who went bankrupt to a university professor whose salary in the local currency, bolivars, is worth just 25 US dollars a month. We also ask if the worst is over and what the future holds for this once wealthy nation – a founding member of Opec that sits on some of the world’s largest oil reserves. Producer and presented by Gideon Long Additional reporting: Vanessa Silva in Caracas (Image: A Venezuelan man holding a Chavez/Maduro balloon. Credit: Getty Images)