Venezuela: the road to paradise begins in hell
By: Beatrice E. Rangel - 01/09/2026
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In his Divine Comedy, Dante Alighieri warns us mortals that we cannot ascend to Paradise from our human condition without first traversing the horrors and sufferings of Hell, then climbing the mountain of Purgatory, and finally becoming worthy of Paradise. Only after this journey will we be able to fully comprehend the nature of sin, the power of justice, and the transformative properties of redemption.
Europe followed Dante's path, unleashing two world wars in the same century, the consequences of which were between 80 and 115 million deaths and destruction of extraordinary proportions. Today, Venezuela seems to share that misfortune without having experienced any armed conflict.
Between 2000 and 2026, approximately 3.6 million people died as a result of diseases and epidemics that were thought to be under control, a figure equivalent to about ten percent of the population. Furthermore, 7.9 million Venezuelans emigrated to various parts of the hemisphere, with Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru bearing the brunt of this exodus. Since 2003, the country's international relations have been subject to increasing Cuban intervention. And between 2000 and 2026, Venezuela's GDP fell from approximately $118 billion to $97 billion.
In short, the 21st century in Venezuela has been Dante's Inferno.
This week, the government installed on February 4th of this year announced the conclusion of an agreement transferring ownership rights to 65 billion barrels of oil. The agreement will apparently last for a century and, in return, will include an investment injection into Venezuela exceeding $100 billion.
This raises an inevitable question: Is Venezuela beginning its journey through Purgatory to reach Paradise again?
The answer will, of course, depend on a set of variables that have not yet materialized in Bolívar's land.
The first is the existence of a legal framework capable of guaranteeing any investor that their invested resources will be protected during the investment maturation period and until they begin to generate dividends. This condition only exists where solid institutions operate, capable of ensuring compliance with the law and resolving the conflicts that inevitably arise in any economic activity. This requires legitimacy of origin, institutional independence, and public trust.
The second condition is the restoration of the essential infrastructure necessary to guarantee the extraction, storage, and transportation of hydrocarbons. Without it, oil reserves, however extraordinary, represent potential wealth, but not necessarily realizable wealth.
Because oil can finance Venezuela's reconstruction, but it cannot replace the institutions necessary to make it possible. The Venezuelan experience demonstrates precisely that an abundance of natural resources does not, in itself, guarantee prosperity, stability, or development.
The third condition is perhaps the most important: that the governed have the certainty that there is equality before the law and that opportunities are open to all, and not reserved exclusively for the elites.
A fourth condition will be the recovery of human capital. Venezuela not only lost infrastructure and productive capacity; it also lost millions of citizens, including a significant portion of the professional, technical, and entrepreneurial talent needed to rebuild the country. Transforming the diaspora into a force for return, investment, knowledge, and connection with the world will be as important as attracting foreign capital.
But there is also a variable that no agreement can accelerate by decree: time. Between the promise of investment, the rehabilitation of industry, the increase in production, and the transformation of that wealth into well-being, years will pass. The Venezuelan purgatory, if it has truly begun, will not be brief.
These conditions are still far from being met. And until they are, neither the guardian government nor Venezuela will be able to ascend the mountain of Purgatory to reach the gates of that Paradise which, in our time, has two inseparable names: freedom and development.
Because you can get out of Hell; what doesn't exist is a shortcut to Paradise.
«The opinions published herein are the sole responsibility of its author».