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Millions of people in Venezuela have gone to the polls to vote in a presidential election. It started yesterday morning. The leader of the South American country has chosen through a simple majority vote and the incumbent president, Nicolas Maduro, is hoping to continue in its job for at least another six years.
One thing that's interesting about this is that the main group that opposes Venezuela's leader is boycotting the election. Many of those who aren't voting believe it's been rigged to give President Maduro the victory. In fact, the election has been criticized as unfair both inside and outside of Venezuela.
The country's leader blames the United States for trying to undermine the vote. Venezuelan and U.S. presidents have criticized each other for years.
But President Maduro says Venezuela's election would not be tarnished and that the outcome would be respected.
The controversial incumbent does have challengers. And while they have different ideas on how to run Venezuela, anyone who wins will have a hard job ahead.
SUBTITLE: Why Venezuela is in crisis.
PAULA NEWTON, cnn INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Venezuelan politics have always been complicated and temperamental. But even more so now, as the crumbling economy has plunged this country into a very dangerous political stalemate.
In 1999, Hugo Chavez was elected president and he turned to his very specific and personal brand of socialism, Chavismo. He gave out free flats, television sets, refrigerators, fixed prices for basic things, like flour and eggs.
And that made many people in Venezuela happy. It totally brought up the standard of living in the middle class. The problem was there was no way to pay for these things.
When Hugo Chavez died in 2013, his handpicked successor, Nicolas Maduro, was elected president. He continued with Chavismo.
The problem was that the price of oil collapsed from $100 a barrel to less than $50. The economy has never recovered.
AZUZ: It's completely collapsed. Inflation in Venezuela, when prices go up and currency buys less is estimated to reach 13,000 percent this year.
That's according to the International Monetary Fund promotes financial stability and cooperation. Empty shelves in grocery stores reflect the shortage of basic things like flour, medicine and toilet paper.
In the words of one woman, who says her family doesn't earn enough money to buy half a dozen eggs, quote, nothing is normal. An estimated 4 million Venezuelans have left the country over the past four years. There are around 31 million there now.
The results of the election hadn't come in by the time we produced this show.
A U.S. congressman from Texas says his community would grieve together, love one another and work together to get through a tragedy that took place last Friday. In the southeastern Texas city of Santa Fe, schools are closed today and tomorrow, following last week's shooting at Santa Fe high school. It ended after school resource officers confronted the suspect and Texas Governor Greg Abbott says the officers likely save lives.
He was expected to meet with family members of the victims yesterday, following a service at the First Baptist Church of Santa Fe. As the news media arrived to cover that, they observed a rainbow over the church that one reporter said appeared to reach to the school.
