Chicken Riots



In Venezuela the economy appears to be going from bad to worse, if this Sunday Times report of 'chicken riots' in Caracas is anything to go by.


While President Maduro seeks to blame everybody else for his country's problems, I find it hard to believe that a scarcity of chickens can be laid at the door of America or some other outside force.  

Chicken riot rocks hungry Caracas

As Venezuela is squeezed by the oil slump and basic foods run low, shoppers scramble for all they can get, writes Iain Dey


Iain Dey - The Sunday Times
A riot policeman stands guard in a Caracas supermarket (Meridith Kohut)

IT WAS when a shipment of chickens arrived in the Abasto Bicentenario supermarket in the centre of Caracas, the Venezuelan capital, that the crowd of hungry shoppers lost control.

Grasping hands grabbed for the shrink-wrapped birds tossed into the scrum by shopworkers, the first chickens seen for days. Arguments broke out; the shoppers’ shrieks could be heard over the salsa music blaring through the loudspeakers.

Caught in the middle of the squabble was Carlos Osorio, the country’s food minister, whose propaganda mission had just turned sour.

Osorio had gone to the pristine state-owned supermarket last week to proclaim in front of television cameras that the shortages of food, medicine and other basic supplies that had seen queues form outside shops across Venezuela were nothing more than a temporary logistical problem.

No sooner had he stopped talking than chaos ensued. Social media was soon filled with pictures and video clips of the minister looking bemused and making pleas for calm.

One of the world’s largest oil producers, Venezuela was until the 1980s also one of the world’s fastest-growing economies.

But thanks to the idiosyncratic economic policies of its late left-wing leader, Hugo Chavez, and his successor, Nicolas Maduro, the current president, food shortages have become common.

Venezuela’s woes have been exacerbated by the recent crash in the price of oil, which has fallen by roughly half since June to $50 a barrel. As a result, the supply of almost all imported goods into the country, which gets 96% of its export earnings from oil, has dried up.

Mothers complain of searching for days for disposable nappies. Even basic drugs such as paracetamol have sold out. McDonald’s has run out of potatoes in all of its 100 outlets in Venezuela, forcing it to serve its burgers with deep-fried yucca plant and maize-based side dishes instead of chips — prompting state television to accuse the American chain of “joining an economic war” against the country.

Below, Nicolas Maduro with Xi Jinping of China: Venezuela has borrowed billions from Chinese banks

Such is Venezuela’s need to tighten its belt, it is also rumoured to have started trimming the subsidies it has paid to keep afloat the economy of its ally, Cuba. “The cuts have begun,” said Ted Piccone, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, an American think tank. “The subsidies from Venezuela to Cuba have been cut.”

Queues had started to form outside the Abasto Bicentenario supermarket at 1am on Thursday after word got out that the shop would open its doors for the first time in days. Armed riot police stalked the aisles.

“Humble people have to choose between spending a whole day waiting to obtain some staples or working for a meagre salary,” said one businessman.

Rosa Maldonado, 72, joined the queue at 6am. Although the shop opened its doors at 10am, it was another hour before she was allowed to enter — by which time they were already out of vegetable oil and sugar.

Dayana Brito left her home in Charallave, a 45-minute drive from central Caracas, at 4.30am. “I didn’t know what was there. I came to queue just to see if they would open and if I could find the things that I lack at home. I found powdered milk, which I have spent months looking for — but they only let me take one. I also took a packet of 12 rolls of toilet paper because that was all they would let me buy.”

In rural areas, villagers are said to be smuggling fish into neighbouring Colombia to earn cash that can be used to buy imported goods.

Wealthy Venezuelans are stockpiling expensive whisky, and using it as a form of currency among themselves.

Maduro, who went cap in hand to China last week, claimed to have secured another $20bn from Beijing — in addition to the $50bn borrowed from Chinese banks over the past 10 years.

Yet it was unclear whether this was a loan that could be used to fund imports and make debt repayments or simply a promise of long-term investment. A special relationship between the two countries was established during the reign of Chavez, who died in 2013. China is showing a keen interest in South America, investing in a new canal through Nicaragua that will rival the Panama Canal and providing financial support to Ecuador.

Domestically, the Venezuelan government has focused much of its efforts on propaganda — taking control of El Universal, one of the country’s oldest newspapers.

It may not be enough. People have been tweeting pictures of empty supermarket shelves, while parents at some schools have been reported to be burning textbooks that proclaim Chavez as a hero.

“The government has branded this situation as ‘economic war’ hinting grandly at real wars once waged against Lenin’s Russia or Fidel’s Cuba,” said one senior business leader in Caracas.

“But according to most economists this is simply self-inflicted through textbook mistakes such as destroying private sector production capacity and instead using a hypervalued currency to import from all over the world.”

@iaindey

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