{"id":504532,"date":"2026-01-09T20:41:15","date_gmt":"2026-01-09T20:41:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/504532\/"},"modified":"2026-01-09T20:41:15","modified_gmt":"2026-01-09T20:41:15","slug":"venezuelans-struggle-with-crumbling-economy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/504532\/","title":{"rendered":"Venezuelans struggle with crumbling economy"},"content":{"rendered":"

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) \u2014 At the White House, President Donald Trump vows American intervention in Venezuela<\/a> will pour billions of dollars into the country\u2019s infrastructure, revive its once-thriving oil industry<\/a> and eventually deliver a new age of prosperity to the Latin American nation.<\/p>\n

Here at a sprawling street market in the capital, though, utility worker Ana Calder\u00f3n simply wishes she could afford the ingredients to make a pot of soup.<\/p>\n

\u201cFood is incredibly expensive,\u201d says Calder\u00f3n, noting rapidly rising prices that have celery selling for twice as much as just a few weeks ago and a kilogram (2 pounds) of meat going for more than $10, or 25 times the country\u2019s monthly minimum wage. \u201cEverything is so expensive.\u201d <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"People<\/p>\n

People exchange U.S. dollars for Venezuelan bolivars at a street market in Caracas, Venezuela, Thursday, Jan. 8, 2026. (AP Photo\/Matias Delacroix)<\/p>\n

People exchange U.S. dollars for Venezuelan bolivars at a street market in Caracas, Venezuela, Thursday, Jan. 8, 2026. (AP Photo\/Matias Delacroix)<\/p>\n

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Venezuelans digesting news of the United States\u2019 brazen capture of former President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro<\/a> are hearing grandiose promises of future economic prowess even as they live through the crippling economic realities of today.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey know that the outlook has significantly changed but they don\u2019t see it yet on the ground. What they\u2019re seeing is repression. They\u2019re seeing a lot of confusion,\u201d says Luisa Palacios, a Venezuelan-born economist and former oil executive who is a research scholar at the Center on Global Energy Policy at Columbia University. \u201cPeople are hopeful and expecting that things are going to change but that doesn\u2019t mean that things are going to change right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Whatever hope exists over the possibility of U.S. involvement improving Venezuela\u2019s economy is paired with the crushing daily truths<\/a> most here live. People typically work two, three or more jobs just to survive, and still cupboards and refrigerators are nearly bare. Children go to bed early to avoid the pang of hunger; parents choose between filling a prescription and buying groceries. An estimated eight in 10 people live in poverty.<\/p>\n

It has led millions to flee the country<\/a> for elsewhere.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A barber cuts hair at a barbershop in Caracas, Venezuela, Tuesday, Jan. 6, 2026. (AP Photo\/Matias Delacroix)<\/p>\n

A barber cuts hair at a barbershop in Caracas, Venezuela, Tuesday, Jan. 6, 2026. (AP Photo\/Matias Delacroix)<\/p>\n

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Those who remain are concentrated in Venezuela\u2019s cities, including its capital, Caracas, where the street market in the Catia neighborhood once was so busy that shoppers bumped into one another and dodged oncoming traffic. But as prices have climbed in recent days, locals have increasingly stayed away from the market stalls, reducing the chaos to a relative hush.<\/p>\n

Neila Roa, carrying her 5-month-old baby, sells packs of cigarettes to passersby, having to monitor daily fluctuations in currency to adjust the price. <\/p>\n

\u201cInflation and more inflation and devaluation,\u201d Roa says. \u201cIt\u2019s out of control.\u201d<\/p>\n

Roa could not believe the news of Maduro\u2019s capture. Now, she wonders what will come of it. She thinks it would take \u201ca miracle\u201d to fix Venezuela\u2019s economy.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we don\u2019t know is whether the change is for better or for worse,\u201d she says. \u201cWe\u2019re in a state of uncertainty. We have to see how good it can be, and how much it can contribute to our lives.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A kite flies over the Petare neighborhood of Caracas, Venezuela, Wednesday, Jan. 7, 2026. (AP Photo\/Matias Delacroix)<\/p>\n

A kite flies over the Petare neighborhood of Caracas, Venezuela, Wednesday, Jan. 7, 2026. (AP Photo\/Matias Delacroix)<\/p>\n

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Trump has said the U.S. will distribute some of the proceeds from the sale of Venezuelan oil back to its population. But that commitment so far largely appears to be focused on America\u2019s interests in extracting more oil from Venezuela, selling more U.S.-made goods to the country and repairing the electricity grid.<\/p>\n

The White House is hosting a meeting Friday with U.S. oil company executives to discuss Venezuela, which the Trump administration has been pressuring to open its vast-but-struggling oil industry more widely to American investment and know-how. In an interview with The New York Times, Trump acknowledged that reviving the country\u2019s oil industry would take years.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe oil will take a while,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Venezuela has the world\u2019s largest proven oil reserves. The country\u2019s economy depends on them.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Vendors<\/p>\n

Vendors display vegetables at a street market in Caracas, Venezuela, Thursday, Jan. 8, 2026. (AP Photo\/Matias Delacroix)<\/p>\n

Vendors display vegetables at a street market in Caracas, Venezuela, Thursday, Jan. 8, 2026. (AP Photo\/Matias Delacroix)<\/p>\n

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Maduro\u2019s predecessor, the fiery Hugo Ch\u00e1vez, elected in 1998, expanded social services, including housing and education, thanks to the country\u2019s oil bonanza, which generated revenues estimated at some $981 billion between 1999 and 2011 as crude prices soared. But corruption, a decline in oil production and economic policies led to a crisis that became evident in 2012. <\/p>\n

Ch\u00e1vez appointed Maduro as his successor before dying of cancer in 2013. The country\u2019s political, social and economic crisis, entangled with plummeting oil production and prices, marked the entirety of Maduro\u2019s presidency. Millions were pushed into poverty. The middle class virtually disappeared. And more than 7.7 million people left their homeland.<\/p>\n

Albert Williams, an economist at Nova Southeastern University, says returning the energy sector to its heyday would have a dramatic spillover effect in a country in which oil is the dominant industry, sparking the opening of restaurants, stores and other businesses. What\u2019s unknown, he says, is whether such a revitalization happens, how long it would take and how a government built by Maduro will adjust to the change in power.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s the billion-dollar question,\u201d Williams says. \u201cBut if you improve the oil industry, you improve the country.\u201d<\/p>\n

The International Monetary Fund estimates Venezuela\u2019s inflation rate is a staggering 682%, the highest of any country for which it has data. That has sent the cost of food beyond what many can afford. <\/p>\n

Many public sector workers survive on roughly $160 per month, while the average private sector employee earned about $237 last year. Venezuela\u2019s monthly minimum wage of 130 bolivars, or $0.40, has not increased since 2022, putting it well below the United Nations\u2019 measure of extreme poverty of $2.15 a day. <\/p>\n

The currency crisis led Maduro to declare an \u201ceconomic emergency\u201d<\/a> in April.<\/p>\n

Usha Haley, a Wichita State University economist who studies emerging markets, says for those hurting the most, there is no immediate sign of change.<\/p>\n

\u201cShort-term, most Venezuelans will probably not feel any economic relief,\u201d she says. \u201cA single oil sale will not fix the country\u2019s rampant inflation and currency collapse. Jobs, prices, and exchange rates will probably not shift quickly.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a country that has seen as much strife as Venezuela has in recent years, locals are accustomed to doing what they have to in order to get through the day, so much so that many utter the same expression<\/p>\n

\u201cResolver,\u201d they say in Spanish, or \u201cfigure it out,\u201d shorthand for the jury-rigged nature of life here, in which every transaction, from boarding a bus to buying a child\u2019s medicine, involves a delicate calculation.<\/p>\n

Here at the market, the smell of fish, fresh onions and car exhaust combine. Calderon, making her way through, faces freshly skyrocketing prices, saying \u201cthe difference is huge,\u201d as the country\u2019s official currency has rapidly declined against its unofficial one, the U.S. dollar.<\/p>\n

Unable to afford all the ingredients for her soup, she left with a bunch of celery but no meat.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Sedensky reported from New York. Associated Press writer Josh Boak in Washington contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) \u2014 At the White House, President Donald Trump vows American intervention in Venezuela will pour…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":504533,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[226079,64,1613,69,2239,79,10102,57,86,92551,266,22489,1612,92550,80,5877,4217,67,370,132,68,32322,14513,93,107],"class_list":{"0":"post-504532","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-economy","8":"tag-ana-caldern","9":"tag-business","10":"tag-central-america","11":"tag-donald-trump","12":"tag-economic-indicators","13":"tag-economy","14":"tag-energy-industry","15":"tag-general-news","16":"tag-government-policy","17":"tag-hugo-chvez","18":"tag-inflation","19":"tag-international-monetary-fund","20":"tag-latin-america","21":"tag-nicolas-maduro","22":"tag-politics","23":"tag-poverty","24":"tag-south-america","25":"tag-united-states","26":"tag-united-states-government","27":"tag-unitedstates","28":"tag-us","29":"tag-venezuela","30":"tag-venezuela-government","31":"tag-washington-news","32":"tag-world-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115867083489033882","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/504532","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=504532"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/504532\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/504533"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=504532"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=504532"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=504532"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}