10 Historical Leaders Who Financially Ruined Their Countries

9. President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela

Hugo Chavez was the President of Venezuela from 1999 until his death in 2013. He followed his own political ideology of Chavismo, a mixture of Latin American paternalistic governance, embodied through the word Machismo, meaning strong and masculine, and Marxist socialism.

He used the nationalized oil revenues to provide food subsidies and price controls, which resulted in massive shortages of goods across Venezuela since low profits could not sustain paying for imports. Large purchases of foreign goods and lower reserves contributed to subsequent shortages of dollars necessary for such large imports. The crime and the murder rate increased greatly under Chavez’s presidency, as well as corruption in the police and the government. In the face of his failed economic policies, Chavez had to rely on the intense government propaganda and the enabling acts.

Chavez made Venezuela overly dependent on oil exports and extremely vulnerable to the fluctuating hydrocarbon prices. By 2012 96% of the country’s exports and half of its revenue relied on oil production, and more recently exports of everything but oil collapsed.

As a result of Chavez’s policies, inflation rose and widespread shortages occurred. The situation has worsened under the current government of Chavez’s successor, Nicolas Maduro.Food shortages and the lack of basic amenities, combined with the falling oil prices has created a full blown economic crisis.