Ysnet Antonio Rodriguez Mambel, farmer arrested for throwing food, along with an image of the viral video in which he starred in Pueblo Llano de Mérida (Venezuela). PUBLIC MINISTRY OF VENEZUELA
A series of videos featuring carrots, tomatoes and bananas went viral in Venezuela. They sparked police arrests and violent interventions in the National Assembly, where a few days ago Chavista MP Iris Varela justified the authorities’ actions. “You’re well captured,” he snapped into the microphone in front of the parliamentarians. He was referring to two farmers from the Venezuelan Andes, Ysnet Rodríguez and Jhonar Barazarte, who in protest or out of sheer resignation recorded how they were throwing away their rotting crops without having reached the markets. The reason? The aggravation of fuel shortages, which not only saps hours from Venezuelans queuing at gas stations, but is also crippling the country.
Taking a tomato to a supermarket is a feat in Venezuela. The episode of the farmers reveals the dimensions of the crisis in the South American country. But the government-allied prosecutor’s judicial assault on the farmers, seen in their photos of police scrutiny, has made it clear that the toughest years of controls on the economy that led to the worst period of shortages are not yet over are end. The move has sparked alarm from human rights defenders and trade unions, who have warned that the pursuit of justice must be aimed at those responsible for the fuel shortages. The NGO Espacio Público warns of violations of freedom of expression and protest in these cases. Following public pressure, both were released after their court appearances.
Prosecutor Tarek William Saab accused the farmers of the crime of boycotting under the Fair Prices Act, a tool the government has used unilaterally to lower prices and shut down farms. Typical of this offense are those who “collectively or individually develop or perform acts or commit omissions which directly or indirectly prevent the production, manufacture, importation, collection, transport, distribution and marketing of goods and the provision of services”. The penalty is 12 to 15 years in prison.
Venezuela’s 17 states that live off agriculture are being hit by fuel shortages, from which only Caracas, the capital, is being saved, where deliveries are made regularly. The agricultural unions have asked to meet William Saab to explain the conditions of his work and also some biology. “Vegetable cycles do not wait and above all horticultural production is perishable, it rots and is damaged if it cannot sell it because it cannot get it out for petrol,” Celso Fantinel, president of the Fedeagro organization, told EL PAÍS , which brings together the farmers of the country. “Out of 25,000 horticulturists, we only see three or four who have made these videos out of frustration and anger, but they represent everyone’s feelings.” This cannot be considered a crime.”
Of all the sectors of the economy that have been hit by the brutal crisis of recent years, rural areas are one of the most desolate. Farming is a profession full of uncertainty and expectations, but when you plant a seed in Venezuela you throw yourself into a vacuum with no access to credit, with migration that is left without a labor force, with high production costs and very low food prices oversupply that smuggling from neighboring countries has brought, to the vagaries of the weather and to the enormous chain of obstacles that exist from filling a crate of tomatoes on a farm to their arrival in the bag at the market. “How is that possible from La Grita? [un pueblo de los Andes emblemático productor de hortalizas] “There are 50 Alcabalas in Caracas,” Fantinel says indignantly. Goods are left at these alcabalas, or police checkpoints, for the police to let them proceed. A blackmail system that the government recognizes and has tried to control, but which continues to be denounced.
Added to this is the low purchasing power of Venezuelans, who have given up their daily food intake. Dealers have reported a sharp drop in sales in that difficult 2023, a new economic slowdown after the slight recovery in 2022. “In the field we produce what was produced 30 or 40 years ago when we were a country with less than half .” the resident now,” says Fantinel.
Join EL PAÍS to follow all the news and read without restrictions.
subscribe to
less gasoline
Gasoline seems to be a chronic disease. The country has gone from refining 1.3 million barrels per day to operating at 10% of its actual capacity of around 135,000 barrels per day; A decline that began in 2013, well before the international sanctions that Chavismo used to justify the disaster. This production is not sufficient to meet Venezuela’s internal demand and, moreover, its obligations to Cuba.
In recent weeks, ebbs and flows in the oil industry, which is operating patch and patch after years of mismanagement, have exacerbated shortages. PDVSA President Pedro Tellechea has denied fuel distribution failures and has asserted that normalcy prevails. He said that the complaints “are aimed only at creating stress”.
In 2020 Venezuela was restricted due to the pandemic and also due to fuel shortages. The halt opened the way for the government to finally adjust the price of gasoline, which had been subsidized for more than two decades, and to announce deals with Iran to restore PDVSA. Three years later, fuel sales, which have gone from virtually zero to 50 cents a liter, have not improved, nor have diplomatic relations improved. Nor are the licenses the United States has given some foreign oil companies like Chevron to operate in the country despite sanctions to pay off accumulated debts. Instead, in recent months, Chavismo has recognized a flood of corruption surrounding the oil company, which is already tantamount to the embezzlement of $20 billion.
“There is no case or example in the world of a model company occupying a shameful place in the hydrocarbon market,” says economist and oil expert Rafael Quiroz Serrano. “It’s on-site and almost completely non-functional, and that’s reflected in the decline in the country’s two key metrics, namely production and refining, which is affecting overall economic activity in the country.”
In the state of Mérida, where one of the farmers who was unable to get his harvest due to a lack of petrol was arrested, the governor distributed a few weeks ago in a kind of raffle with a bingo umbrella the gas stations in order to regulate the supply according to the number of the vehicle registration number. The Pico y Placa – which in Venezuela is not for traffic regulation but for access to gas stations – is maintained in several states and in some others it has been reactivated under military supervision these days, including overnight stays for another for fuel loads and others Survival methods that have emerged as Venezuelans try to deal with scarcity.
The Maduro government has yet to reckon with the rebuilding of industry, which remains its main source of income. As this happens, in Venezuela, where news broke that it had the world’s cheapest gasoline and could almost be given away, fuel lines appear to be lingering.
Subscribe to the EL PAÍS America newsletter here and receive the latest news from the region
Subscribe to continue reading
Read without limits