France24: Venezuela close to breaking point

[brooklynite]

Venezuelans have been going hungry for months. The queues in the half-empty supermarkets are getting longer and locals say they are growing alarmingly thin. Basic food items such as coffee, sugar and flour are becoming increasingly scarce and the country is now forced to import all its consumer products. With rampant inflation, Venezuelans’ purchasing power has fallen by 30 percent in the last three years. Famine is threatening many families, while poverty is hitting the middle classes.

How did 17 years of Chavism and three years of falling oil prices - the country’s main resource - lead to this debacle? Why is Venezuela, with its fertile land, no longer able to grow crops?

As more and more people search for food every day, the future of the country looks bleak: there is rising crime, massive emigration, investment flight and corruption. Businesses are shuttering and tens of thousands of young people are dropping out of university, either to flee the country or to focus on helping their families survive. Meanwhile, the political class is stuck in an endless debate over the referendum on removing President Nicolas Maduro from power.

More than three years after the death of former president Hugo Chavez, who ran the country between 1999 and 2013, Venezuela is close to breaking point. Our reporters Laurence Cuvillier and Matthieu Comin examine the situation in this complex society.

(embedded video report)

http://www.france24.com/en/20161125-video-reporters-venezuela-chavism-maduro-opposition-economy-breaking-point

[Nevernose]

1. Chavez and American economic sanctions

N/t

[hack89]

3. There are no American economic sanctions

We are their largest trading partners.

[COLGATE4]

4. Shh. Don't tell them. Let them continue

to believe that while what's left of Venezuela tears itself apart.

[MADem]

2. They'll have to survive on fruit trees.

It's ghastly, the conditions there.


http://www.reuters.com/article/us-venezuela-food-idUSKCN0YT1RB

Venezuela's mango season is providing some relief during worsening food shortages that are forcing the poor to skip meals and sparking a rash of lootings.

Facing Soviet-style food lines for increasingly scarce products at supermarkets, more and more people are turning to the South American nation's lush mango, coconut and papaya trees.

While children have always scampered up trees or tossed stones to knock down the juicy yellow mangoes, workers are now joining them during lunch breaks, and parents are making long poles to scoop up the high treats.

"Sometimes when there's nothing in the fridge, I grab two mangoes," said Juany Iznaga, 13, whose family is going without some meals since her mother lost a job at the mayor's office.

"Mangoes help a little; they fill you up," Iznaga added as she shared a slice with her younger sister in the fertile town of La Fria by the Colombian border.

Around the crisis-hit nation of 30 million, people are consuming more starch and less protein. Many say they cannot afford three meals a day.

[UTUSN]

5. DRUMPF is on the way to install a BATISTA-type. n/t