Venezuela in fevered political chaos and economic crisis

In his four years in power the Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro has lurched from catastrophe to catastrophe. Food shortages, lack of medicine and now, according to the IMF, the country is “mired in a deep economic crisis.” The mandate he inherited from the charismatic Hugo Chavez has been shredded. Maduro went to the polls in April 2013 shortly after the death of Chavez and scraped victory over Henrique Capriles by 1.49 percent the previous, year Chavez has beaten Capriles by 11 percent. More…