With the eyes of the world particularly focused on changes occurring in Venezuela, Javier Corrales, Dwight W. Morrow 1895 professor of Political Science at Amherst, is a voice being sought and cited. In two recent pieces:
“I think Guaidó is delivering exactly what the opposition wanted at this point, which is a bold, risk-taking response,” he told Reuters News Service, for a recent piece on European nations joining the United States in recognizing opposition leader Juan Guaido as Venezuela’s interim president.
He was also interviewed for a piece by Public Radio International’s The World, which explored what was it that transformed the once thriving democracy in Venezuela into a nation plagued with unemployment, poverty, malnutrition and crime.
“One theory is that the medicine that was applied was the wrong medicine. So, you make the patient worse,” he said, discussing cutbacks, eliminating price controls, and other efforts the government took to shore up the economy after the the price of oil dropped in the 1980s, dealing a blow to the oil-producing nation.
“An alternative argument is that they didn’t have enough time to apply the medicine,” he added.