From inflation to emigration, Maduro faces a crisis on all fronts

The misery inflicted on the people of Venezuela worsens by the day. Prices have been doubling every 26 days on average and the International Monetary Fund predicted that inflation could reach one million per cent this year.

The government of Nicolas Maduro is trying to stop the slide by knocking five zeros from the bolívar and re-denominating the currency but this is likely to make matters worse. To try to stem social unrest, he has announced that the minimum wage will rise by 34 times its previous level from September 1.

But the population is already voting with its feet by leaving Venezuela, placing pressure on neighbouring countries to accommodate the emigrants. Brazil and Ecuador have imposed controls at the borders to halt the flood.

Some economists fear the new currency will rapidly be destroyed by inflation because the root causes of the crisis are not being addressed.

President Maduro, the protégé of the late Hugo Chavez, has pursued the same social policies undone by the collapse in the oil price. As with all socialist leaders, he refuses to concede that the ideology is wrong. His response to the calamity his country is facing is to pledge to “dismantle neo-liberal capitalism’s perverse war”. He blames the US in particular and everyone else in general for the dire predicament he has created.

It cannot be said too often that Venezuela was considered the model for socialists around the world, including here in the UK. Jeremy Corbyn was a great supporter of Mr Chavez, praising him for showing that “there is a different and better way of doing things. It’s called socialism”. For Venezuelans, it is an unmitigated disaster.