A once-proud industrial city, now a monument to Venezuela’s economic woes

A half-century later and 15 years after Chávez came to power, Ciudad Guayana’s factories are crippled, starved for investment and roiled by labor disputes. So faint is Betancourt’s vision that his own monument is coated with rust amid weeds and knee-high grass in the city’s Founders’ Park, where national guard troops are bivouacked. The troops opened fire Aug. 11 on protesting steelworkers, injuring three. The workers’ standoff with President Nicolás Maduro — Chávez’s successor and a former union leader himself — has turned Ciudad Guayana into a crucial battleground for the socialist government as it faces economic meltdown and political infighting within the Chávez movement. More…