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After Nicolas Maduro’s win in the recent Venezuelan “election,” The Wall Street Journal examines what that could mean for the nation facing growing chaos.
The election, which drew the lowest turnout for a Venezuelan presidential vote since the 1950s, leaves Mr. Maduro with little legitimacy, particularly as hyperinflation hollows out the economy and an estimated 5,000 Venezuelans flee the country every day. The U.N. expects up to 1.8 million people to leave by year-end, swamping Colombia, Brazil and other neighbors and creating South America’s worst refugee crisis in modern times.
For many ordinary Venezuelans, Mr. Maduro’s win means more of the same: a country sliding deeper into crisis with little chance of a turnaround. Prices double roughly every few weeks, the economy is nearly 50% smaller than it was in 2013, and food and medicines are increasingly scarce. Public services like electricity are collapsing, and so is oil production, which provides the country with nearly all of its dollar income. Diseases such as measles and malaria are spreading fast.
Read more here.