President Nicolas Maduro’s announcement last week that the military will lead the battle against widespread food shortages overlooks one key fact: The armed forces have played a big role in Venezuela’s economic mess.
Since Maduro took office in 2013, he has named a number of active and retired generals to run the economy. All five of his food ministers who manage one of the government’s largest budgets have come from the armed forces. And they in turn have placed dozens of their military cohorts to lead everything from a state-run chain of supermarkets to an agency overseeing food imports.
