Venezuela's People Problem
A state that spent decades alienating its professional class has lost the capacity to govern.
TL;DR
- Two recent earthquakes in Venezuela highlighted the state's inability to govern, with a missing GPS sensor symbolizing the loss of essential equipment and expertise.
- Venezuela's professional class has largely left the country due to mismanagement and corruption, leaving state institutions like seismic monitoring stations defunct.
- The country's decline from Latin America's wealthiest to one of its poorest is attributed to policies under Hugo Chávez and Nicolás Maduro that devalued expertise.
- Chávez's government replaced competent professionals with loyalists in key sectors such as water, electricity, and oil, leading to operational failures and corruption.
- The oil industry, once a meritocratic pillar, was crippled by Chávez's purges of skilled workers and replacement with party loyalists, drastically reducing its technical capacity.
- Rebuilding Venezuela requires not just money and political will, but the recovery of its "human capital," which has been deliberately eroded over two decades.