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Angelica Vera, of the state of Zulia, in western Venezuela, was planning to cremate her father's remains after the death of her cancer in November, as hyperinflation had the effect of raising the cost of funeral services.
But the cemetery could not offer cremation service as there was no natural gas, which is little stocked even with the huge energy reserves of the OPEC member country .
She also could not leave her father's remains at the morgue while waiting for the gas supply. Each additional day costs more than a month's minimum wage.
She then resorted to the only possible option: to leave her father's body in an anonymous common grave at the end of the cemetery, an area traditionally reserved for indigents.
"My father died and I could not even wander because I could not get that money," said Vera, 27, who works as a cashier. "What we Venezuelans live is humiliating."
The deterioration of the Venezuelan oil industry has hit citizens for months with long queues for fuel and periods of shortage of cooking gas. It now affects families who have said goodbye to their loved ones.
Venezuelans began to choose cremations, which cost about a third of the price of burials, but the growing demand has created difficulties for crematoriums.
Up to now, mbad graves have been used in Zulia, where power outages and lack of gas have become more extreme, but decaying services in other states may generalize the practice.
Lack of wood and metal for coffins and cement for tombs complicated traditional burials Some families expect the crematoriums to obtain propane gas. But waiting also increases costs, with annual inflation reaching 1 million percent.
"The cost of cremation has increased by 108% in just one week," said 36-year-old Ana Hernández, who is about to cremate her sister in a graveyard in Barquisimeto, 39, west of the country.
People attend a burial ceremony at Eden Gardens Cemetery in Maracaibo, Venezuela on November 29 – Photo : Reuters / Isaac Urrutia
The shortage of medicines, food and commodities has been constant since the collapse of oil prices affected the socialist economy of Venezuela in 2014. About 3 million people have emigrated since 2015, according to United Nations
President Nicolas Maduro accuses the "economic war" waged by political opponents with Washington's help. The Minister of Information did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the cremations.
Gladys González, 52, a lawyer from the second largest city in Venezuela, Maracaibo, spent four days waiting to cremate her mother, who died at age 72 without receiving antibiotics to treat an infection. ;stomach.
"Nobody deserves so much suffering," she told the Maracaibo cemetery.
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