The successes of socialism: Venezuela is already the poorest country in the American continent
To the surprise of few, Venezuela has become the poorest country in Latin America as revealed by ENCOVI’s latest work in its 2019-2020 report. The report places the country even worse than Haiti, and finds 96% of households in poverty and 79% in extreme poverty.
The report produced reflects a critical situation at different levels in the Venezuelan population, the product of 20 years of socialism. The average income of the Venezuelan population positions 79.3% of Venezuelans below the poverty line, as they cannot purchase the basic food supplies.
From the left they will try to argue that this is the fault of the “United States trade blockade”, but the first Trump embargo was established on August 5, 2019. Not even the coronavirus can leave almost 80% of the population in extreme poverty in less than a year.
The report estimates that 21% of the population is at risk of malnutrition and 8% suffers from severe malnutrition. Those most affected continue to be those under 5 years of age, with approximately 600,000 children in starvation.
In education, an approximate loss of 1.7 million students between the ages of 3 to 24 years is estimated, with no improvement in coverage of the current student population, causing high levels of school dropout.
Lastly, the report reflects the high rates of economic inactivity; in recent years, mainly since 2015, 44% of unemployment was reached among those over 15 years of age, numbers that are not found in any other country in the world.