[legitster]

Venezuela had one of the largest government sectors compared to their GDP. Their solution to every economic problem was create lots of government busywork jobs funded by oil exports and loans.

Their crude is really only valuable to a handful of countries, the US being the main one. They could really not afford to have worsening relations with the US right as the fracking boom took off.

As their domestic industry shrank, they had to import more and more resources from other countries.