Por SCOTT SMITH y SHEYLA URDANETA
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In this Feb. 13, 2019 photo, Luis Gonzalez waits to fill up at a fas station in San Cristobal, Venezuela. Lines stretching over a mile to fuel up have plagued the western region of Venezuela for years, but shortages compounded by U.S. sanctions are likely to spread countrywide as supplies of petrol start drying up and a raging power struggle turning crisis into catastrophe. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano)
MARACAIBO, Venezuela (AP) — Marin Mendez leaned a shoulder into his rusty Chevy Malibu, rolling it forward each time the line of cars inched closer to the pump. Waiting hours to fill up, he says, is the high cost he pays for gasoline that’s nearly free in socialist Venezuela.
“You line up to get your pension, line up to buy food, line up to pump your gas,” an exasperated Mendez said after 40 minutes of waiting in the sweltering heat in Maracaibo — ironically the center of the country’s oil industry — and expecting to be there hours or days more. “I’ve had enough!”
Lines stretching a mile (kilometer) or more to fuel up have plagued this western region of Venezuela for years — despite the country’s status as holder of the world’s largest oil reserves. Now, shortages threaten to spread countrywide as supplies of petrol become even scarcer amid a raging struggle over political control of Venezuela.
The Trump administration hit Venezuela’s state-run oil firm PDVSA with sanctions in late January in a sweeping strategy aimed at forcing President Nicolas Maduro from power in favor of opposition leader Juan Guaido.
Doomsday predictions immediately followed — mostly fueled by Maduro’s opponents and U.S. officials — that Venezuela’s domestic gasoline supplies would last no more than a week or so. That hasn’t happened yet, but more misery is feared as expected shortages have economic implications far beyond longer gas lines, turning Venezuela’s crisis to a catastrophe.
“Crucially, it will lead to more shortages of food and basic goods,” said Diego Moya-Ocampos, a Venezuela analyst with the London-based consulting firm IHS Global Insight.
That’s because the vast oil reserves that once made Venezuela Latin America’s wealthiest country provide the primary source of the hard currency it needs to import food and other goods. Today, its basic infrastructure — roads, power grid, water lines and oil refineries — is crumbling. Food and medicine, nearly all of it imported, are scarce and expensive as Venezuela endures the world’s highest inflation.
Critics blame Venezuela’s collapse on the government’s two decades of self-proclaimed “socialist revolution,” which has been marred by corruption and mismanagement, first under the late Hugo Chavez and now under Maduro’s rule.
The U.S. sanctions essentially cut PDVSA off from its Houston-based subsidiary Citgo, depriving it of $11 billion in hard currency from exports this year that U.S. officials say bankrolled Maduro’s “dictatorship.” U.S. officials have turned control of Citgo over to Guaido’s interim government, essentially expropriating the company, a strategy Venezuela’s socialist government employed for years by seizing private companies.
Opposition leaders bent on ousting Maduro say they recognize the U.S. crackdown on the oil sector will be painful for their people, but add that the measures are necessary to keep Maduro’s government from further looting Venezuelan resources.
Meanwhile, a defiant Maduro says the economic war led by the White House is a precursor to a military invasion to oust him from power and seize Venezuela’s vast oil wealth. Maduro tweeted a warning on Wednesday that nobody should be fooled by apparent gestures of assistance, alluding to tons of U.S. humanitarian aid he recently blocked from entering.
“The Venezuelan opposition and the U.S. government don’t want to help the country,” Maduro said. “Just the opposite. They crave our natural resources. They want to unleash ‘The Oil War’ to invade and dominate our homeland.”
A pesar de los años de deterioro económico que llevaron a la actual crisis de Venezuela, los residentes disfrutan de la gasolina más barata del mundo: llenan un tanque por menos de un centavo. Pero el gas ya es difícil de conseguir en Maracaibo y en otras ciudades a lo largo de la frontera con Colombia, donde los contrabandistas introducen el sucio y barato combustible de Venezuela en el país vecino, vendiéndolo a precios internacionales para obtener un rápido beneficio.
Botellas de gasolina del mercado negro se venden en una acera en Maracaibo, Venezuela. (Foto AP / Fernando Llano)
Siempre se ha hablado de la “viveza criolla” que posee el venezolano, la cual se usaba para salir airosos de cualquier circunstancia adversa, sacándole el lado positivo a las cosas sin perjudicar a un tercero.
Esta característica del nativo en los tiempos que corren, se ha generalizado ya que por la hiperinflación galopante y los bajos salarios que devenga el venezolano, este ha hecho uso de esa “Viveza criolla”, para ganar dinero y poder subsistir.
Leamos los comentarios que generó este tuit en la red social de @ReporteYa
VivirMiVida @malvapica expresa: “No solo la gasolina, los puestos en las colas 10 dólares, y 20 dólares los primeros 10 puestos de la fila. ¿Qué tal?”
Roberto Machado @machado_rjmm60 redacta: “Están atrasados. Aquí en Acarigua, ya hay servicio a domicilio de pimpinas de gasolina desde hace una semana, y solo aceptan verdes”.
Girón @amgirons manifiesta: “¿Y así queremos salir de este gobierno? Creo que a los que hay que sacar del país es a los pillos”.
Edgar @Edgarjsan1987 afirma: “Ahora seguro que comienza la venta a domicilio hasta por Mercado Libre en 4,3,2,1… A lo que se llegó”.
Siga leyendo acá
Ahora comienza la venta a domicilio hasta por Mercado Libre en 4,3,2,1… A lo que se llegó…
— Edgar (@Edgarjsan1987) May 23, 2019