Last weekend I had the pleasure of catching up with the brilliant Jose De Bastos and Mariano de Alba, the producers of the Venezuela Global podcast, to assess the latest in Venezuela’s crisis. We talked about the U.S. response, dynamics within Venezuela, and the all-important question: which actors stand to gain as the current situation drags on?
Two relevant things have shifted since this podcast was taped. First, the United States pulled its diplomats out of Venezuela after talks with the Maduro government broke down. Second, Venezuela’s main Indian oil customer , Reliance Industries Ltd., announced it had not increased crude purchases (although India seems slated to remain an important purchaser of Venezuelan oil, which I mention in the podcast). Neither fundamentally changes my opinions or analysis of the current state of affairs, though I am concerned that important spaces for communication appear to be closing.
Listen below (in Spanish).