Page 12 - ARUBA TODAY

A12 WORLD NEWS
Wednesday 30 august 2017

US sanctions to pile misery on moribund Venezuelan economy

By JOSHUA GOODMAN 12 months, according to
Associated Press an estimate by New York-
CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) based Torino Capital.
— A small army of red-shirt- Venezuelans have made
ed workers mop the lino- a grim joke of the process.
leum floors as their super- The government once
visors, sitting under a giant boasted of guaranteeing
portrait of Hugo Chavez, a “precio justo” — or “just
look on. By the meltdown price” — for goods. Buyers
standards of Venezuela’s report there is now more on
economy, the shelves offer but only at a “precio
around the workers at the susto” — a “scary price.”
state-run Bicentenario su- That’s not to say shortag-
permarket in eastern Ca- es have gone away. The
racas are brimming with Bicentenario supermar-
staples like rice and pasta. ket hasn’t seen any fish or
What’s missing are the meat in about a year, part-
shoppers: They’ve been ly because the freezer sec-
scared off by prices that tion’s cooling system broke
double every few weeks and no spare parts can be
while wages in the crisis- found. Most shelves con-
wracked nation remain tain a single variety of any
stagnant. given product, much of it
“I don’t even look at my In this Aug. 23, 2017 photo, a street vendor sells avocados in Caracas, Venezuela. Venezuelan imported from China. Pri-
paycheck anymore be- President Nicolas Maduro has been celebrating calm returning to the streets after months of vate supermarkets aren’t
cause it just gets me de- deadly protests, yet the country’s imploding economy poses an ever more severe threat. much better stocked.
pressed,” said Norma Pena, (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos) Pena says she scrapes by
a bank teller who earns a ian path. plummeted. as at the strongest of three selling items — telephones,
little more than Venezuela’s Even before the sanctions But while daylong bread official exchange rates. In clothes, once even a wash-
minimum wage of around were announced, most lines have eased, the new- the past, merchants risked ing machine — left behind
just $15 a month. She left Venezuelans were strug- est scourge is the way having goods seized, or by better-off clients who
the store with a single bag gling like never before. galloping inflation has their businesses shut down, have abandoned Venezu-
of black beans. Since 2014, the year after reached even the basic if bolivar prices reflected ela. If she and her husband
While President Nicolas Maduro took office, the staples whose prices were the world market prices. didn’t already own their
Maduro celebrates having economy has shrunk 35 long controlled by rigid The result of the de-facto home, they wouldn’t have
calmed Venezuela’s streets percent — more than the price and currency restric- dollarization has been a enough to feed their two
after months of deadly pro- U.S. did during the Great tions. devil’s bargain: Shelves are daughters, she said. Even
tests, the country’s implod- Depression. In recent months authorities fuller than Venezuela has so, she’s lost 6 kilograms
ing economy poses an ever A bevy of foreign airlines have started allowing com- seen for months, but with (13 pounds) as a result of
more severe threat. And have pulled out of the panies to import everything prices that are out of reach what’s come to be known
the misery is likely to get country this year, oil pro- from canned food to new for the vast majority of poor as the “Maduro diet.” In
even worse due to finan- duction is at the lowest level cars and letting them pass Venezuelans. Inflation, the past year, 74 percent
cial sanctions imposed by in more than two decades the dollar prices on to con- which has been running of the population has lost
the Trump administration in and the government had sumers at the black market in the triple digits for more weight because of food
efforts to isolate Maduro for to add three zeros to its bills exchange rate, where the than two years, hit a record scarcity, according to a re-
taking the country down as the value of its currency greenback is worth 1,685 last month and has risen to cent study by three of Ca-
an increasingly authoritar- — the “strong bolivar” — times more bolivars than it 650 percent over the past racas’ largest universities.
At the normally bustling
outdoor Chacao market,
UN’s Guterres reiterates support for envoy in Guatemala poultry vendor Juan Dul-
cey said his middle-class
RAMALLAH, Guterres says he was Guterres praised the com- blocked Morales’ order on clientele fell by half over
West Bank (AP) — U.N. shocked by President Jim- mission’s work against cor- Sunday. the past month because
Secretary General Antonio my Morales’ order to re- ruption. On Friday, Velasquez and he has had to double
Guterres says he continues move Ivan Velasquez. Guterres made the com- Guatemala’s chief pros- prices to make up for sky-
to fully support the head The U.N. chief says he’d ments during a news con- ecutor announced they rocketing costs. A kilogram
of a U.N. anti-corruption met Morales just days be- ference Tuesday in Ramal- were seeking to lift Mo- of boneless breasts costs
commission in Guatemala fore, and while Morales lah, where he was meeting rales’ immunity to prosecu- around 27,300 bolivars per
despite the attempt by the had expressed concerns, with Palestinian officials. tion in order to investigate kilogram — about 10 per-
president of that country to he didn’t ask for Velas- Guatemala’s Constitu- alleged illegal campaign cent of the current month-
expel him. quez’s removal. tional Court temporarily financing.q ly minimum wage. q