The Venezuelan Crisis Is Part of Maduro's Plan

It’s easy to see why the government’s nonchalance strongly suggests this is Mr. Maduro’s strategy. An extremist government like his prefers economic devastation to economic recovery because misery destroys civil society, and with it the potential challenges to tyranny.When economic conditions deteriorate, citizens often choose to protest. But when economic conditions deteriorate to the point of bringing the middle classes to living on less than $2 a month (lower than the average in Haiti) and spreading hunger, the better choice is to fend for yourself or leave the country. Add repression to the mix and the result is an exodus of almost 7 percent of the population, the largest in the Americas since the civil wars in Central America in the 1980s. More…