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Venezuela’s economic decline in the 1980s sparked one of the largest and most sudden social uprisings in the last half-century. Venezuela’s economy significantly depended on the exportation of oil since the boom of the early 1970s. After World War II the Venezuelan government networked its various agencies to rely purely on the profit made from this resource. This method dramatically increased government spending and the standard of living rose sharply. It also etched the idealism in the Venezuelan people that a state with such a highly profitable export could guarantee a socioeconomic status of such magnitude. This economic high often glazed over the fact that oil’s profitability is one of the most unreliable resources an economy can rely upon. With the drop in oil prices in the early 1980s many of Venezuela’s neighboring countries, who also relied heavily on the export, began to increase privatization, thus decreasing their reliance on state controlled oil. Instead of implementing similar policies, Venezuela’s political parties elected to ride out the dip in oil prices and pay off the huge debts the country owed when profits soon increased. The severe economic decline sent the government into debt and battered the living standards throughout the country. On February 27, 1989 the most violent protests in the country’s history erupted. Termed the Caracazo, the uprising began after the weekend of February 25-26 when gasoline prices increased one hundred percent.
Approximate Word count = 909
Approximate Pages = 3.6
(250 words per page double spaced)
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