Venezuela opposition legislator José Manuel Olivares has fled the country claiming he, as well as his wife and brother, had been threatened by secret police agents, BBC News reported Saturday.
"My family's wellbeing comes first," said Olivares. "They were now even harassing my wife, who gave birth only a few months ago."
Olivares, a doctor, said he and his family in recent weeks had been targeted by the secret police who were threatening them with persecution unless he stepped away from politics. He blamed President Nicolás Maduro and added his family feared for their lives.
Writing from Colombia, Olivares said his family was "not prepared for this neither politically, financially or emotionally."
Venezuela has been rocked as the country is going through one of the worst economic disasters in world history. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) said this week Venezuela was "stuck in a profound economic and social crisis," predicting inflation would hit 1 million percent by year's end, CNBC reported.
The country, reported to have the largest oil reserves in the world, relies on oil exports, accounting for about 90 percent of total exports. This imbalance showed the fragility of the country's economy, beginning in 2014 when the price of oil began to collapse.
Maduro, who succeeded Hugo Chavez in 2013 and was re-elected president this past May, has opted to print more money rather than cut government spending, leading to what has become a staggering level of inflation. Sanctions imposed against Venezuela have compounded the problem, while scaring off potential investors in the process.
"We expect the government to continue to run wide fiscal deficits financed entirely by an expansion in base money, which will continue to fuel an acceleration of inflation as money demand continues to collapse," the IMF said in a statement.
Venezuelans have been fleeing the country, with the United Nations reporting that over 1.5 million people have left since 2014. Those who remain behind face continuing shortages of food, medicine and other basic necessities.
In 2017, at least 124 people were killed in protests and another 600 are political prisoners of the regime, according to The Conversation, an independent global network of newsrooms.
For his part, Olivares pledged to continue his opposition against Maduro from abroad to try and secure humanitarian aid for Venezuela's citizenry.
"I will highlight the problems faced by patients in the health system, including the chronic shortage of medicines," he wrote in a letter he posted to Twitter. "And I will continue to campaign for the opening of a humanitarian channel, to bring food and medicine to the Venezuelan people."
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