CNN News:委内瑞拉经济崩盘 局势加速恶化

Venezuela has been in the news a lot this year. Massive protests have been taking place since cities across the country, including Caracas, the Venezuelan capital. Since April, more than 120 people have died in protests against the government. Why?
The Venezuelan economy has practically collapsed. Its government gets almost half of its revenue from oil. It nationalized or took over Venezuela's oil industries in 1976.
But when oil prices dropped in recent years, so did Venezuela's revenue and that led to extreme inflation, a recession that's lasted for years, an unemployment rate of 25 percent. Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro blames his political opponent and the United States for his country's economic problems.
A vote last month allowed President Maduro to replace his country's legislative branch. It used to be controlled by a political party that opposed him. The new one is filled with people who support him.
The president says the constituent assembly will help bring peace to a divided Venezuela. But his opponents, as well as other countries like the U.S. called the vote a sham, and America put economic penalties on President Maduro. He faces growing crises at home and abroad.今年委内瑞拉经常出现在新闻中。委内瑞拉全国各城市都爆发了大规模抗议事件，包括首都加拉加斯在内。自四月以来，反政府抗议活动已造成超过120人死亡。为什么？
委内瑞拉经济实际上已经崩盘。委内瑞拉政府近一半的收入来自石油。1976年，委内瑞拉将石油产业国有化并由政府接管。
但是，近年来石油价格暴跌，所以委内瑞拉收入大幅减少，引发了极端通货膨胀以及持续了数年的经济衰退，委内瑞拉的失业率高达25%。委内瑞拉总统尼古拉斯·马杜罗将国家的经济问题归咎于其政治对手以及美国。
上个月进行的投票允许马杜罗总统代替委内瑞拉的立法机构。这一机构此前由反对马杜罗的政党控制。现在新机构将由支持马杜罗的人所掌控。
总统表示，制宪大会将有助于为分裂的委内瑞拉带来和平。但是，他的反对者以及美国等国家认为这一投票是场骗局，而且美国对马杜罗实施了经济制裁。他在国内外均面临着日益增加的危机。
 

PAULA NEWTON, cnn INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Venezuelan politics have always been complicated and temperamental. But even more so now, as the crumbling economy has plunged this country into a very dangerous political stalemate.
In 1999, Hugo Chavez was elected president and he turned to his very specific and personal brand of socialism, Chavismo. He gave out free flats, television sets, refrigerators, fixed prices for basic things, like flour and eggs.
And that made many people in Venezuela happy. It totally brought up the standard of living in the middle class. The problem was there was no way to pay for these things.
When Hugo Chavez died in 2013, his handpicked successor, Nicolas Maduro, was elected president. He continued with Chavismo. The problem was that the price of oil collapsed from $100 a barrel to less than $50. The economy has never recovered. One in four Venezuelans is unemployed. Inflation could hit 700 percent this year and there are shortages of very basic things like that flour, that medicine, even things like toilet paper.
In the meantime, President Nicolas Maduro was being encouraged by the international community to sit down with the opposition and negotiate an opposition that he continues to try and undermine. The opposition here won elections in 2015 for the national assembly, an assembly that Nicolas Maduro continues to undermine.
As of now, the international community would like Nicolas Maduro to release hundreds of political prisoners, trying to stabilize his economy and come to some kind of peace with the opposition.