After two months, Marinez came back to Maracaibo, "without any money in my pockets," he said. Marinez tried to RS gold find work however he could not find anything in the market for jobs destroyed due to the pandemic. It also led to a prolonged economic downturn.

Ten years ago, Venezuela, a petrostate under the administration of Hugo Chavez, witnessed a plunge in oil prices. In 2017, the cost of a barrel fell up to nearly $50 from a record high of $100 in addition, The U.S. instituted wide-ranging sanctions against the authoritarian Venezuelan government.

"When oil prices began to fall in the early 2000s, there was not enough money to import the products," said Alejandro Velasco, a professor of New York University who specializes in Venezuelan political issues, in an interview over the phone. "As consequently, there was no more money in the real world for the country's economy."

Venezuela's coffers were empty after the country spent its most recent oil profits on social services such as subsidized food, medical treatment, or literacy education programs. Chavez also removed perceived dissidents in the oil industry an attempted coup d'état, that affected production.

And widespread corruption in the government has also hurt the economy, according to Paul Angelo, a fellow at rs 3 gold the Council for Foreign Relations who is an expert in Latin American politics.