Having wrecked the economy, Venezuela’s rulers see no reason to change

ONE MORNING last month Luis Manuel Cómbita was trying to sell large green mangoes in a pedestrianised street in the historic heart of Bogotá, Colombia’s capital. He was stopped by a policeman because he lacked a permit. Mr Cómbita, aged 24, rake-thin and with a peeling fake leather jacket, said he had arrived from his home town of Mérida in Venezuela two weeks before. “There’s no future in Venezuela,” he declared. On his wages as a building worker “you go a day and half a week without eating.”

Mr Cómbita is one of at least 2.5m Venezuelans who have emigrated since 2014 (out of 32m). Some put the diaspora at over 5m. There is no sign of the exodus ending. What began as a political confrontation under Hugo Chávez, an authoritarian army officer first elected to the presidency 20 years ago this month, has under his chosen heir, Nicolás Maduro, mutated into a national collapse.