Book Talk: The Collapse of Venezuela
What does the collapse of the Venezuelan economy tell us about U.S. relations with Latin America?

The announcement of a $50 million bounty for the arrest of President Nicolas Maduro is the latest twist in the tangled relationship between the United States and Venezuela.  A spiraling political and economic crisis in the South American country driven by ever-deepening polarization between its two dueling political forces has led to both sides pushing scorched-earth economic policies. U.S. sanctions only added fuel to the fire. All this led to a GDP crash of more than 70%. While Venezuela is an extreme case, there are broader lessons here for Latin America and the Caribbean about the risks of long-term reliance on commodity exports, dangers of winner-take-all systems, and how a neighboring great power should not behave.
August 2025

26
11:00 AM ET
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Join us for a timely and important discussion with:

Francisco Rodrí­guez

Francisco Rodrí­guez is the Rice Family Professor of the Practice of International and Public Affairs at the University of Denver's Josef Korbel School of Global and Public Affairs. A native of Venezuela, he is also the founder of Oil for Venezuela, a non-profit organization focused on finding solutions to Venezuela's humanitarian crisis. 

Karthik Sankaran (Moderator)

Karthik Sankaran is a senior research fellow in geoeconomics in the Global South program at the Quincy Institute. Originally trained as a historian, he had a long career in finance beginning in 1997, where he focused on foreign exchange and fixed income in emerging markets. He then joined Eurasia Group as Director of Global Strategy.
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