I am a little surprised that SWC has not posted on this nearby neighbour for sometime, perhaps it is too painful?

The Daily Telegraph has a long article on the current situation, as indicated by the sub-title:
Death in the streets, rationing by fingerprints and a general on the run: how oil-rich Venezuela has descended into chaos
These two passages provide the context:
The country is mired in a dangerous cycle of economic crisis and violent chaos, polarised between government loyalists in areas heavily dependent on state support and protestors who have taken to the streets over soaring crime rates, surging inflation and shortages of basic goods.

With the world’s largest known oil reserves, Venezuela should be reaping windfall gains. Yet in another sign of its parlous economics, the government has just announced a new rationing system using fingerprint registration to track purchases of subsidised but scarce foodstuffs milk, flour and rice.
Then I found this, which was a surprise, although given Venezuela's political path of late predictable, with my emphasis:
The rancour over “Cubanisation” of Venezuela is a growing theme of the protests. Indeed, what drove Gen Rivero’s rift with his former comrade-in-arms of Hugo Chavez, the late socialist autocrat who even in death still dominates life here, was the import of Cuban officers into the highest echelons of the the military and security services.
Link:http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worl...n-the-run.html