JUDY WOODRUFF: Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro was inaugurated today for a six-year
term.
He's been in power since 2013.
And, as foreign affairs correspondent Nick Schifrin reports, Maduro has presided over
an economic catastrophe.
NICK SCHIFRIN: Inside Venezuela's Supreme Court today, President Nicolas Maduro walked
into a hero's welcome, greeted by a phalanx of patriotic children.
And, as seen on state TV, he swore to build what he called 21st century socialism.
But while he flashed the sign of a victorious nation, his critics say he's created a failed
state.
In what used to be Latin America's wealthiest country, citizens lack basic necessities.
Venezuelans in Caracas have demanded access to a supermarket, even if the shelves were
empty because of a shortage of food.
Medical patients have protested a shortage of medicine.
Children play in the dark because of a shortage of power.
And a shortage of water means Venezuelans bathe with runoff from a mountain; 170 miles
southwest of Caracas, in the farmland of Cojedes State, 32-year-old Luis Cortes Otaiza represents
the country's lost hopes.
He's the son of a farmer and was successful, until hyperinflation and government regulations
raised costs above revenue.
Now he grows only enough for his family to survive.
LUIS OTAIZA, Farmer (through translator): We are working in vain, wasting our youth.
We have no future here.
NICK SCHIFRIN: The economic freefall is from falling oil prices and failed economic policies.
The government printed more money and bills became so worthless, women turned them into
art.
Inflation could hit 10 million percent.
That's how many bolivars it costs to buy a chicken.
It takes a stack of almost worthless paper to buy toilet paper.
All of it sparked the region's largest ever exodus.
More than three million Venezuelans have fled their homes and created a humanitarian crisis,
says Woodrow Wilson Center senior adviser Ben Gedan.
BEN GEDAN, Woodrow Wilson Center: The conditions in Venezuela are heartbreaking, in terms of
the collapse of the medical system, the extraordinary levels of violence.
It's become apocalyptic to live in that country, and then the conditions that these migrants
find themselves in neighboring countries.
NICK SCHIFRIN: Maduro was elected last May in a presidential election the U.S. called
unfree and unfair.
He's maintained power through corruption and ruthlessness, says Gedan, who was President
Obama's National Security Council South America director.
BEN GEDAN: The president of Venezuela has been willing to repress dissent ruthlessly
and relentlessly, in terms of attacking the political opposition, dismantling Venezuelan
democracy, destroying what had been the wealthiest country in Latin America, dismantling every
democratic institution under the sun in order to stay in power.
NICK SCHIFRIN: This week, the U.S. imposed sanctions on Venezuelans involved in what
it called corrupt currency exchange.
The U.S. has also imposed sanctions on Maduro, his wife, a vice president, and a foreign
minister.
And today, in a statement, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the U.S. will -- quote -- "continue
to use the full weight of U.S. economic and diplomatic power to press for the restoration
of Venezuelan democracy."
JOHN BOLTON, U.S. National Security Adviser: The troika of tyranny in this hemisphere,
Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua, has finally met its match.
NICK SCHIFRIN: The administration has made the criticism regional.
In November, National Security Adviser John Bolton aimed his sights at Maduro and Nicaraguan
President Daniel Ortega, and Cuba's new President Miguel Diaz-Canel as the U.S.' ideological
opponents.
JOHN BOLTON: They are clownish, pitiful figures more akin to Larry, Curly and Moe.
The Three Stooges of socialism are true believers, but they worship a false god.
NICK SCHIFRIN: Yesterday, Maduro accused the U.S. and an informal regional alliance known
as the Lima Group of plotting to overthrow him.
NICOLAS MADURO, Venezuelan President (through translator): A coup d'etat ordered by Washington
and the Lima cartel is under way against the legitimate and constitutional government over
which I preside.
NICK SCHIFRIN: The U.S. has considered imposing more pain through an oil embargo, but the
state would likely collapse, increasing the humanitarian crisis.
Gedan and others want Venezuela's neighbors to bring that pressure.
BEN GEDAN: There are a whole series measures you can do to increase the diplomatic isolation
and the economic pressure on Venezuelan elites and to encourage some of those elites to break
with the regime and make a moral decision to be part of the solution in Venezuela.
Latin American countries simply have not taken those steps.
NICK SCHIFRIN: Maduro faces some internal opposition, and no Latin American leader has
ever survived this level of hyperinflation.
But for now, senior U.S. officials say he can likely resist external pressure and stay
in power, despite the pain inflicted on his people.
For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm Nick Schifrin.