Delcy Rodríguez’s Venezuela is in such dire straits she can’t afford to reject aid from either friends or foes

 

Four hours after powerful earthquakes devastated parts of Venezuela’s northern coast and the capital of Caracas, El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele announced on X that he had offered aid to the Venezuelan government to help deal with the aftermath of the tragedy.

Ninety minutes later, Venezuela’s acting President Delcy Rodríguez retweeted the message from the Central American leader – a man whom the regime’s Chavista movement has long regarded as a political nemesis – not only thanking him for the offer but also instructing Venezuela’s foreign ministry to coordinate the support.

“Solidarity between our peoples is an invaluable force at times like these,” wrote Rodríguez, former vice president of ousted leader Nicolás Maduro.

Beyond the solidarity such tragedies inspire and the accompanying political rhetoric, Rodríguez has little room to turn away any government willing to lend a hand during this crisis.

The earthquakes have compounded problems created by years of economic and political strife, particularly for the overwhelmed healthcare system. The South American nation’s economic situation is critical, following disastrous fiscal management and the imposition of US economic sanctions on the Central Bank of Venezuela and the state-owned oil company, Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA). Between 2013 and 2021, the country’s economy shrank by three-quarters.
Figures from the Central Bank of Venezuela offer a glimpse into the magnitude of the task facing Rodríguez. In 1998 – the year before Hugo Chávez took office – the country’s total external debt stood at US$28.311 billion. Twenty years later, in the last year for which official figures in this category were published, the country owed US$108.369 billion.