Venezuela: Oil, Power and Crisis

On 25 October 2026 the opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize laureate María Corina Machado returned to Venezuela, which has been led by an acting president since US forces captured Nicolás Maduro in January. This film explains the century behind it: the oil found under Lake Maracaibo, the founding of OPEC and the nationalisation of 1976, the ‘oil curse’ economists call Dutch disease, Hugo Chávez's oil-funded revolution, the collapse after 2014 and the arguments over its causes, the exodus of more than seven million people, the disputed elections, and the questions still open today.

Venezuela: oil, power and crisis

The most oil on Earth, and one of the deepest economic falls.

Black gold

A lake, a well, a gusher.

The oil curse

Why a resource boom can shrink everything else.

Chávez

Oil money for a revolution.

Collapse

One of the deepest peacetime falls on record.

Disputed power

Two results for one election.

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