Venezuela is sitting on top of the largest oil reserves in the world and has a continual flow of dollars coming in. So they are not on the brink of a collapse. But they are progressively sliding into the swamp of serious economic dysfunction that will make sustained growth difficult and that could undermine Chavismo as a viable democratic political project.

David Smilde writes about Nicolás Maduro‘s first six months in office in the blog Venezuelan Politics and Human Rights.