ZARAZA, Venezuela—It was once billed as a model of socialist fraternity: South America’s first high-speed train, powered by Chinese technology, crisscrossing Venezuela to bring development to its backwater plains. Now all but abandoned, it has become a symbol of economic collapse—and a strategic relationship gone adrift.
Where dozens of modern buildings once stood, cattle now graze on grass growing amid the rubble of the project’s gutted and vandalized factory. A red arched sign in Chinese and Spanish is all that remains of what until 16 months ago was a bustling complex of 800 workers.
That’s when the project’s Chinese managers quietly cleared out.
As with many unfinished politically motivated projects dotting Venezuela—government critics call them “red elephants”—the decaying infrastructure contrasts with the railway’s promising beginnings.
