Controversial Issues

Venezuela

Type of government:

Venezuela is a federal presidential republic. The chief executive is the President of Venezuela who is both head of state and head of government. Executive power is exercised by the President. Legislative power is vested in the National Assembly.

How long has the population lived this way?

Venezuela has been a republic since 1953.

What have been the effects on economy, culture and society? 

The three-digit inflation in which the country is immersed and of which we have not had official data for more than six months, is however measured day by day in the experience of each of the citizens. Going up prices for specific "staple" products requires government authorization, which translates to those products (things like rice, flour, milk, or toiletries) being artificially low in price and not often listed on the shelves (in fact, their rotation is so high that employees don't bother putting them on the shelves, they just leave them on the pallets in the middle of the aisle, and disappear within a few minutes). For all these products, there is a black market, people who obtain an official price (either by making long queues at dawn to buy the allowed quota, or through other less legal ways) and then resells them at a significant price premium. They are called "bachaqueros".

Another obvious consequence of controls on the free market is the omnipresence of queues. By now, any Venezuelan is already used to the notion that the mayor will spend part of his day waiting in line for anything: for any purchase, procedure or diligence he needs to do.