Corruption in Venezuela

Corruption in Venezuela is high by world standards and is prevalent throughout many levels of Venezuela's society. In the case of Venezuela, the discovery of oil in the early twentieth century has worsened political corruption. While corruption is difficult to measure reliably, Transparency International (TNI) currently ranks Venezuela among the top 20 most corrupt countries, tied with four other countries as the 8th most corrupt nation in the world. A 2014 Gallup poll found that 75% of Venezuelans believed that corruption was widespread throughout the Venezuelan government. Discontent with corruption was cited by opposition-aligned groups as one of the reasons for the 2014 Venezuelan protests.

The history of Venezuela has been mired with "persistent and intense presence of corruption". In 1991, author Ruth Capriles wrote The history of corruption in Venezuela is the history of our democracy depicting the many instances of corruption in the country. In 1997, Pro Calidad de Vida, a Venezuelan NGO claimed that some $100 billion from oil revenue has been misused in the preceding 25 years.

During the Venezuelan War of Independence in 1813, Simón Bolívar made a decree that any corruption was punishable by death. According to Beddow and Thibodeaux, Karl Marx called Bolívar a "[f]alsifier, deserter, conspirator, liar, coward, and looter" stating that Marx dismissed Bolívar as a "false liberator who merely sought to preserve the power of the old Creole nobility which he belonged". According to Marx, after Bolívar arrived in Caracas in 1813, Bolívar's "dictatorship soon proved a military anarchy, leaving the most important affairs in the hands of favorites, who squandered the finances of the country, and then resorted to odious means in order to restore them". On 1 January 1814, an assembly gathered and "a junta of the most influential inhabitants of Caracas" gathered under Bolívar, legally naming him dictator. Bolívar, who had a troubled relationship with General Manuel Piar, allegedly created a plan to get rid of Piar that involved false accusations of Piar "having conspired against the whites, plotted against Bolivar’s life, and aspired to the supreme power" which ultimately resulted in Piar's execution. During his presidency in the 1820s, Bolívar made two decrees stating corruption was "the violation of the public interest" and reinforced his edict by saying such actions were punishable by death. Marx also states that Bolívar instigated many armed situations in order to maintain power and that he sought "the erection of the whole of South America into one federative republic, with himself as its dictator" which eventually led to his downfall.

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