As Venezuelans live with an unprecedented and recurring shortage of food and medicines, suffering through an economic crisis characterized by the highest inflation in the world and the lowest wages in the region, President Nicolas Maduro continues to send millions of barrels of subsidized crude oil to Cuba.

Venezuelan oil production is plummeting. The government has no money to purchase basic things like food, medicine, or consumer goods, nor does it have the money to pay its debts. In the only official foreign exchange market, Dicom, only 20 million dollars have been traded in the first semester of 2018, whereas in 2002, Venezuela traded 80 million dollars per day.