Now and Ven

“The regular entrances to the hospital were all manned by uniformed personnel with rifles — National Guard, mostly, but also police, both local and national, and other, less identifiable militia. Hospitals in Caracas were even more tightly secured. Why were hospitals so heavily guarded? Nobody threatened to invade them. The guards had orders, it was said, to keep out journalists. Exposés had embarrassed the government.” The New Yorker’s William Finnegan on the failing state of Venezuela (once the richest country in South America). How did this happen?