The Back Story
Venezuela is a country in the northern coast of South America. Since the discovery of oil in the 20th century, Venezuela has been one of the worlds leading exporter of oil. Oil is not only their main export, but also the leading generator of revenue for the government. Much of the country's history has fluctuated with the stability and instability of the oil industry.
Oil remains a constant and driving force behind Venezuela's political, social and economic scenes. From 1998-2013 Hugo Chavez was the president (with the exception of a brief oust in 2002). President Chavez served as president until his death in March 2013 after a battle with cancer.
The April 2013 elections elected current president Nicolas Maduro with 50.61% of the popular vote. Opponent Henrique Capriles Randoski had 49.12% of the vote. The elections were contested, but eventually upheld by the Supreme Court of Venezuela. Prior to the elections, Maduro was the Vice President to Chavez and is known as the handpicked successor to the Chavez administration.
How it began
February 12th, 2014 marked the beginning of the large scale protests in Caracas as students took to the streets protesting the state of the economic and social well being of the country. This was not the first protest, in actuality smaller protests have been happening around the country since January. The face of the opposition is Venezuelan politician Leopoldo Lopez. Protesters are demanding changes to the growing crime rates, record high inflation and the collapse of living standards in Venezuela.
Certain areas of the country are reporting drastically high crime rates, threatening the safety of civilians. A 2009 report showed that homicide rates were 49.0 per 100,000 citizens-making it the 5th most dangerous country in the world. Inflation rates have reached 56% in January 2014, and continue to be on the rise. Perhaps most notably, there is a dramatic shortage of basic goods in parts of the country-leaving citizens unable to access cooking oil, flour, sugar, toilet paper, medicine and other goods.
Government Response
After the February 12th protests, officials had Leopoldo Lopez arrested on a variety of charges, ranging from arson to terrorism. .Maduro has publicly blamed the protests and unrest of his country on a ploy by the United States government to overturn his socialist regime.
"I have ordered the foreign ministry to proceed with declaring those three consular officials persona non grata and expelling them from the country. Let them go conspire in Washington!"
On February 16th, three US diplomats were expelled from the country and given 48 hours to leave. The diplomats were accused of aiding protesters and plotting against the government. In September Maduro expelled three other US diplomats and made a speech on national television announcing the expulsion:
"Yankees go home! Get out of Venezuela! Get out of here! I don't care what actions the government of Barack Obama takes."
Future
