CARACAS, Venezuela — This country is a kleptocracy ruled incompetently by thugs who are turning a prosperous oil-exporting nation into a failed state sliding toward starvation.

So a young mom named Daniela Serrano weeps for her baby girl, Daisha — and I can’t help wondering if American economic sanctions also bear some responsibility.

Serrano, 21, lives in the impoverished, violent slum of La Dolorita, where I met her. The baby was fading from malnutrition in May, so she frantically sought medical help — but three hospitals turned the baby away, saying there were no beds available, no doctors and no supplies.

One emergency room finally found someone to examine the 8-month-old girl — on condition that Serrano supply a blank sheet of paper, because the hospital had no paper of its own on which to record notes. It then discharged Daisha, who died at home that night.