Venezuela's Unseen Disaster: The People Problem The recent earthquakes that ravaged northern Venezuela, killing at least 6,000 people and injuring tens of thousands more, have exposed a grim reality: the country's infrastructure is collapsing due not just to natural disasters but also to a catastrophic loss of human capital.
Venezuela's brain drain has been decades in the making. Skilled professionals – engineers, physicians, nurses, firefighters, and rescue workers – have left the country, taking their expertise with them.
This exodus was driven by the government's policies to purge institutions of professionalism and replace it with loyalism.