The new shortage in Caracas: there is now food, but what is missing are tickets – 27/01/2019

If the Venezuelans had a quarter of the melancholy of the Argentines, the country would not exist anymore. But they take daily dramas with enviable humor. Until recently, the shortage was overwhelming, but the situation has changed. "At the moment, there is food, but there is no money, there is nothing to buy," says Mercedes Gómez with humor, summarizing the eternal conflict which is rampant in the country.

What is happening is that, to get out of the brutal shortage that characterized the last years of Venezuela, the government has left the hands free to market commodities. But hyperinflation makes them quote at exorbitant prices. "There is a cash price and another with a debit card.When you buy cash, it costs less.But how are you going to buy money there? Do not you? You go to the bank and they give you 2, 5 or 10 bolivars, which they do not accept in the stores, "explains Mercedes.

Clarin Bulletins

What happened today? We tell you the most important news of the day and what will happen tomorrow when you get up

Monday to Friday afternoon.

Mariavela, like her friend, comes from a region of the middle clbad tired and knows what it is to keep her family with a salary. "The minimum wage is 18,000 bolivars ($ 6 in parallel), and one kilo of potatoes is worth 7,200 bolivars ($ 2.5) .How do you provide the house?" He asks.

Given the lack of liquidity, Venezuelans are treated with a debit card. The problem is that most of the products are obtained in the positions of "bachaqueros" (black market sellers), and they do not accept the cards to avoid the control of the state. "The official price of an egg box is 8000 (2.8 dollars) with a card, but you go to the bachaqueros and you get 12 000 (4 dollars) .It is outrageous, crazy what is happening, "said Mercedes outrageously.

For the poorest sectors, the alternatives are official positions. This involves long queues to get basic necessities at a reasonable price for their income. "When the flour arrives, they form a huge queue, about 700 or 800 people, and it's worth 800 kilos, but if you go to a bachaquero, you'll have 3,000." Last week, I bought salt and the kilo came out at 1,200. Yesterday I went to Petares and it was 3,000. A kilo of salt, how can it be It's national, we produce it here, "María Isabel says.

Amalia, from a wealthy neighborhood, refuses to surrender to the crisis. Something embarrbaded, slips: "I'm going to confess something, in these queues do not participate, I find it humiliating and degrading." At the moment, I can pay in cash, but we'll see more late because it was very difficult. "

In downtown Caracas, in Chacao, there are two major catering centers. They are known as the old and the new market. There, the social division that inhabits the country is cruelly expressed. The former go to the most humble, and to some very hard-hit sectors of the middle clbad. Do you get a price difference because it belongs to an official agency. In the old market, positions are scarce, with lower level goods. In the other, an badociation of merchants, vegetables and fruits are fresh and quality.

But both are experiencing a weekly inflation of 10 or 15%. "We are doing what we can, we can not go through the prices because it is not sold, but we have to increase them, and every two days the wholesalers charge us a different price," Valentina explains. one of the posts.

"Yes, now you get more products, but at an exorbitant price.And with a big difference depending on where you buy it.An oil that is worth 200 bolivars if you line up (in the places official), in a bachaquero you get 1,500 But I will tell you that the bachaquero does not do anything illegal, the illegal is Maduro.It is not a crime of what they do, but it's terrible for us, "says Mariavela.