Venezuela Protest News: Rafael Correa Says ‘Economic Errors’ By Venezuelan Government Helped Fuel Protests

Rafael Correa, the Ecuadorian president who forged a close alliance with late Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez, criticized the administration of Chávez predecessor Nicolás Maduro on Wednesday, suggesting that poor economic policies helped stoke protests which have erupted in cities across the country for the last three months. “With respect, from my point of view, economic errors have been committed,” said Correa in a radio interview while in Chile, where he met with Chilean president Michelle Bachelet. “As such, there have been economic problems and that exacerbates the contradictions.”

Many protestors have cited inflation that skyrocketed to over 50 percent in Maduro’s first year in office, as long as the shortage of basic goods, in explaining their decision to take to the streets. But as El Universal notes, Correa also defended Maduro. “Venezuela was the Saudi Arabia of the world, and where did that money go? Now that justice is being done in Venezuela, all these conflicts come about because the oligarchies don’t want to let go of power,” he said.

“Poverty in our America is not for lack of resources, but rather because of the perverse power relations of the most powerful.” The Ecuadorian president added that some opposition protestors had turned up to demonstrations with the intention of provoking clashes. “They call a protest which people of good faith go to, but others who are in the minority of bad faith go too, to generate incidents, provoke, to later say that the government is repressive.”