Venezuela’s dismal economy piles pressure on Nicolás Maduro

{"text":[[{"start":11.05,"text":"Venezuela is grappling with a massive plunge in its currency and triple-digit inflation, piling pressure on authoritarian President Nicolás Maduro as US warships sink alleged drug boats off the country’s coast."}],[{"start":28.13,"text":"The currency has dropped more than 400 per cent against the dollar in the past year. The IMF sees inflation hitting 270 per cent by the end of the year — the highest in the world. In 2024, 86 per cent of Venezuelans were in poverty, the Venezuelan Finance Observatory reported."}],[{"start":50.78,"text":"“We’re seeing an enormous demand for dollars that cannot be met,” said José Guerra, a professor of economics at the Central University of Venezuela. “Whether or not we’re experiencing hyperinflation depends on how you define it, but it sure looks like it.”"}],[{"start":null,"text":"

"}],[{"start":66.87,"text":"As US President Donald Trump publicly toys with launching land strikes, citizens of the oil-rich country are growing desperate — with memories still fresh of the period of six-digit hyperinflation that rocked Venezuela from 2016 to 2019 and drove millions abroad."}],[{"start":87.27000000000001,"text":"Workers on a minimum wage now earn about 60 cents per month, after the bolívar fell from 43 to the dollar a year ago to 228 earlier this month, according to central bank data. State pensions pay out a $50 monthly bonus, plus 60 cents."}],[{"start":106.60000000000001,"text":"“Who can live like that?” asked one pensioner at a Caracas market."}],[{"start":111.38000000000001,"text":"At a supermarket, a shopper used a mobile credit app to buy food, with 30 eggs now costing $6.40 and a kilo of cheese about $10. “It’s exhausting to not have enough money to pay for food in one instalment,” she said."}],[{"start":128.73000000000002,"text":"Guerra said the dire outlook represents as much of a threat to Maduro as any US military action: “The deeper the crisis gets, the more people are clamouring for change.”"}],[{"start":141.71,"text":"The leftwing government tamed the last hyperinflation crisis by relaxing price controls and tacitly allowing the US dollar to be used for everyday transactions."}],[{"start":153.60000000000002,"text":"In the run-up to last year’s election, Maduro’s central bank propped up the bolívar by spending billions of dollars in reserves."}],[{"start":162.59000000000003,"text":"The Cuban-trained former bus driver and union boss then claimed a third term in a vote deemed fraudulent by international observers. An opposition count, verified by independent monitors, showed its candidate Edmundo González had won more than 80 per cent of the vote."}],[{"start":183.17000000000002,"text":"Soon afterwards, the central bank reduced its currency interventions, and Maduro jailed anti-government protesters and opposition figures. He has since cracked down on people reporting on the economy’s dismal state: independent economists and publishers of black market exchange rates have been arrested."}],[{"start":207.07000000000002,"text":"The IMF predicts annual inflation will soar past 680 per cent next year. The central bank has stopped publishing inflation data. Dollars are scarce on the street, and Venezuelans rely on cryptocurrencies to purchase goods and squirrel away savings. "}],[{"start":228.10000000000002,"text":"US sanctions on Venezuelan oil have further complicated the outlook. After initially allowing Chevron’s licence to produce Venezuelan crude to expire, the Trump administration renewed its permission in July. The state department said the US major would not be allowed to pay taxes and royalties to Maduro’s regime."}],[{"start":249.13000000000002,"text":"Meanwhile, at least 69 people have been killed in at least 17 strikes by the US in the largest naval build-up in the region in three decades. Trump last month threatened land strikes, but last weekend said he “wouldn’t be inclined to say” that was his plan."}],[{"start":null,"text":""}],[{"start":268.12,"text":"On Thursday, Senate Republicans blocked a measure that would have prohibited military action in Venezuela by 51-49. Washington’s largest aircraft carrier, the USS Gerald R Ford, is sailing from the Mediterranean with 4,500 troops to join the flotilla."}],[{"start":289.41,"text":"Maduro believes the deployment is aimed at removing him from office. “Everything they are doing against Venezuela is to justify war, regime change, and to steal our immense oil wealth,” he said during a recent televised meeting with officials.  "}],[{"start":307.25,"text":"But a survey of 1,324 Venezuelans, living in the country and in the diaspora, published this month by local pollster Es Noticia found only 20 per cent blamed US sanctions for the country’s economic woes, down from 33 per cent in September."}],[{"start":328.2,"text":"“If the gringos are going to intervene, let them do it already,” said one shopper at the supermarket. “We tried voting and they threw us in jail, and now we’re scraping by, so what else can we do?”"}],[{"start":341.63,"text":"At the central plaza in Caracas, a government supporter struck a defiant tone. “Maduro is our president and the US just wants to take our oil,” said Graciela Tortoler, a community organiser with the United Socialist Party of Venezuela. “They shall not pass; we will defend ourselves with our lives.”"}],[{"start":362.65999999999997,"text":"A spokesperson for the Venezuelan government did not respond to a request for comment."}],[{"start":376.29999999999995,"text":""}]],"url":"https://audio.ftcn.net.cn/album/a_1762736398_4873.mp3"}