Nescafé’s instant coffee machine at Maiquetía international airport only accepts 100 denomination bills. Twenty-five notes inserted later, a watery latte at a new standard price of 2,500 worthless Venezuelan bolivars is served. Inflation is one of the many problems President Nicolás Maduro’s government will continue to face regardless of the success of his recent power grab.
Venezuela’s president first announced in May he would be re-writing the constitution of his mentor and predecessor, Hugo Chávez, as a way to bring about “peace and reconciliation” after weeks of violent demonstrations against the shambolic state of the economy. A new assembly would be created, with the potential powers to dissolve the oppositioncontrolled parliament, scrap future elections and draft new laws. Its powers, in theory, even exceed those of the president himself.