To detail things a bit more.
No, the sanctions arent the reason of the collapse. First, no, there is no blockade, and “embargo” is a bit too much. But yes, some of the latest sanction are going to impact, severely, the operations of PDVSA, or stuff like the sales of gold, thus impacting the budget of the government to operate. They for sure arent going to make things better (unless they work on getting them out, and thats… well, not looking like it)
But that kind of sanction is, at most, from 2018. The country has been having a severe downturn since… well ,since forever but 2014 and the oil crash. So no, not only the sanctions havent been the root cause of this, they also dont explain how the inmense oil boom before 2014, handled by the Chavistas, ended up with all around negative results to show.
Again, the problem with this kind of discussion is that people go for the knee-jerk reaction (something the Chavistas very much love), while ignoring, because of course they dont have to know, the YEARS of tales about everything from widespread corruption, boneheaded economic measures, and human right abuses that we know about. The CIA didnt made the Chavistas commit to a policy of priting money to the tune of exponentially increasing the money supply. The CIA didnt made them stick their guns to the stupid foreign exchange controls that were a source for them to become incredibly rich and to even, in the middle of the boom, bribe the middle classes - Venezuela was the only place in the world you would go out on a vacation and come back with more money, because the government would sell you dollars at a ridiculous low price and you would come back and sell what you didnt spend at the actual black market rate. The CIA didnt made the “Pudreval” scandal, where containers full of rotting food imported by PDVSA were found. The CIA didnt threw councilman Albán out of a window in a SEBIN jail and then pretended it was suicide. The CIA didnt beat capitan Acosta Arévalo to death. The CIA didnt force the PSUV to arm paramilitary gangs to shoot at opposition rallies. The CIA didnt sabotage the power networks - the Chavistas were warned, several times, by local engineers that maintenance was abandoned and a collapse was more than likely, and sure as hell the CIA didnt force the Chavistas to respond by jailing or harassing those. And we can be here for days with this list.
I’m not particularly happy with having the Trump administration playing a role in this now, I would very much love him not to be US president. But again, no, the source of Venezuela being what it is is on the hands of Chávez, Maduro, and their fellow party members.
