As Venezuelan I can confirm the whole situation you described. I emigrated three years ago and things were bad, I only can imagine how it is know.

Regarding Petro, I never had the curiosity to investigate the history behind it, actually your text was surpising to me! haha. I always saw the coin as another meme of the government, everything they expropiate or create is destinated to fail. One thing I could add is that the government is paying pensions with a little bit of petro, they even created a wallet for the citizens! anyway it doesn't change the fact that the coin has zero value, same as the official currency "bolivar soberano" (yes they change the name a bit in order to make it look "stronger" the last one was called "bolivar fuerte").