Launch N | Venezuela: Paradise in Decay

Following 20 years of socialist rule, Venezuela has gone from being one of the world’s richest countries to one of the very poorest. The political and social project created by Hugo Chavez collapsed and today Venezuela is a state beset by problems: an utterly devastated economy, rampant crime, food queues and medicine shortages. It is a country where sheer survival is a major concern. In the book Venezuela: Rozklad ráje (Venezuela: Paradise in Decay), Eduard Freisler, a journalist, Czech Radio editor and freelancer for Deníku N, has captured the country’s crisis through gripping, often horrific, human stories. However, he also discovered triumphs and resistance to the mafia regime of Chavez’s successor, Nicolas Maduro, nicknamed the “Tropical Stalin.”