I’ve thought all along that VZ (which is actually just the puppet of Cuba) had a hand in some of this.
Maduro is not of African descent, but Chavez was, and one of the ways he first got elected was by stressing this and playing on the resentments of the large African descent population of VZ. Of course, the irony is that the Castro regime, which was so praised and influential in VZ from the time of Chavez onward, was insanely racist and despised black Cubans. And the situation of blacks in VZ certainly didn’t improve; they just all got to be hungry together, and it was usually only the white Venezuelans who had the money to flee the country.
That’s true... the Venezuelans who were pouring into Florida here when Chavez was consolidating power were upper and middle class, the rsst were still too giddy with socialism to have the sense to even try to get out.