Venezuela on the brink: a journey through a country in crisis

The proud face of the revolutionary hero Simón Bolívar gazes from a stack of banknotes dumped in a grubby box on the floor of a supermarket that doubles as a foreign exchange bureau in a small border town in the Amazon. No disrespect is intended: there is simply not enough space in the till for the thick wads of cash. Nor is it practical to treat the 100 bolivar bills with more care: they are worth barely more than the paper napkins stacked rather more attentively on the shelves. This, however, is Venezuela’s highest denomination, a note that once represented Latin America’s most powerful petro-economy – but is now a near valueless symbol for one of the most dramatic reverses in a country’s fortunes. More…