At the start of May, Maduro said he was going to form a new assembly to “restore peace” after months of violent protests. While he accused his opponents of waging economic warfare against the country, Maduro has been running Venezuela’s economy into the ground with haphazard economic and political policies, including price controls and convoluted currency interventions inherited from his predecessor, Hugo Chávez. Hyperinflation has made even basic food and medicine completely unaffordable for millions. People are fleeing the country in droves.

The US is now considering imposing more sanctions on Venezuela, this time targeting the oil industry, the source of almost all of the country’s revenue. Despite having the largest-known oil reserves in the world, erratic and ideological mismanagement by Venezuela’s “Bolivarian” socialist government has made its people poorer.

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