NewsTracker Answers for week of Feb. 09, 2015

Q: Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro is arresting retailers and taking over food stores and pharmacies after blaming them for severe shortages of goods and accusing businessmen of conducting an "economic war" against his socialist government. Where is Venezuela?

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Q: In addition to empty store shelves, Venezuela is suffering from rampant inflation, high unemployment and violent crime. The nation's economy is closely tied to the price of . . .

A. Oil

B. Bananas

C. Coffee

D. Gold

A. A huge drop in prices has devastated Venezuela where oil accounts for 96 percent of the nation's exports and much of the government's budget. Venezuela has some of the world's largest proven oil deposits as well as huge quantities of coal, iron ore, bauxite and gold. It also grows both coffee and bananas.

Q: Since Maduro's socialist predecessor the late Hugo Chavez was first elected in 1999, oil production has fallen 25 percent. What else has declined sharply?

A. People in poverty

B. Foreign investment

C. Value of currency

D. All of the above

D. While spending on social programs cut the percentage of people living in poverty in half, socialist policies scared off foreign investment needed to improve oil production and other industries. As oil prices have fallen more than 50 percent, Venezuela has printed more and more currency leading to an annual inflation rate of 64 percent.

Q: Oil prices have been driven down by Venezuela's fellow members in . . .

A. OAS

B. EU

C. OPEC

D. NATO

C. In a bid to gain market share, Saudi Arabia and its Persian Gulf allies in the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) are pumping high volumes of oil which lowers prices. Venezuela also is a member of the Organization of American States (OAS) but not the European Union (EU) or North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).

Q: Killings of police officers have surged to almost one a day in Venezuela, far more than the nation with the highest murder rate. What is the Central American nation which has the world's highest murder rate?

A. Haiti

B. Honduras

C. Columbia

D. Mexico

B. Honduras - the only one of these nations that is in Central America. - had a murder rate of 90.4 per 100,000 people in 2012, versus 53.7 in Venezuela, U.N. data shows.  Central America is the southernmost, isthmian portion of North America, connecting to South America in the southeast and Mexico in the north.