Virginia Lopez

Oil has per­me­at­ed every as­pect of Venezue­lan life since pump­ing be­gan in 1914, but mis­man­age­ment has fu­elled a cri­sis.

Po­lice raids in poor ar­eas dur­ing anti-crime ini­tia­tive lead to al­le­ga­tions of “se­ri­ous abus­es”, rights groups say.

Res­i­dents of Toas en­dure wa­ter and pow­er short­ages as part of de­cline in qual­i­ty of life due to de­te­ri­o­rat­ing econ­o­my.

Gov­ern­ment sub­si­dies blamed for spawn­ing il­le­gal lines of busi­ness as Maduro gov­ern­ment grap­ples with eco­nom­ic slow­down.

Cit­i­zens of oil-rich coun­try feel­ing the ef­fects of many eco­nom­ic chal­lenges, es­pe­cial­ly hy­per in­fla­tion.

Gov­ern­ment seen as seek­ing to block op­po­si­tion’s su­per­ma­jor­i­ty and “cheat” its way into amass­ing more pow­ers.

Sun­day’s elec­tion is un­like­ly to end Bo­li­var­i­an rev­o­lu­tion, but it might force em­bat­tled po­lit­i­cal class to ne­go­ti­ate.