Who will rescue Venezuela? The real role of the private sector

Tomorrow, public offices will open again and the government will keep talking about revolution. But the reality is that the Venezuelan state no longer has the muscle to rescue the country.

Public coffers are committed and access to international public credit is paralyzed. Given this vacuum, the question is urgent: who will rebuild Venezuela?

The answer began to take shape this week with meetings of IDB Invest and its willingness to finance the Venezuelan private sector. Companies such as GeoPark already plan to inject $7 billion into oil fields. The private sector is today the only engine with the technical and financial capacity to reactivate employment and modernize the infrastructure that the state allowed to collapse.

But beware: Venezuela does not need a savage capitalism of extraction that comes to carry off its resources for a song. It needs a rational private sector, “pro-Venezuelan,” aware of its social role, that pays fair taxes, generates decent wages and transfers technology.

Venezuela’s rescue will not come from state subsidies or foreign charity. It will come from hard work, responsible private investment and a legal framework that protects both the entrepreneur and the worker.