Coronavirus in Venezuela: panic is growing

Since the beginning of the crown crisis, the few foods have become scarcer and increasingly expensive. Also, there is practically no gasoline left. Fortunately, after a long wait, tank permits for a few liters of fuel will only be granted to military personnel and employees in the health and transportation sectors. In the state of Merida, farmers go to the barricades because with an allocation of 15 liters, they cannot take their potatoes, carrots and lettuce to Caracas, which is almost 700 kilometers away. Emergency doctors push seriously ill people across the street to the hospital because ambulances also stop. People carry coffins on skateboards.

Years of mismanagement, corruption, destruction of businesses and agricultural production areas, hyperinflation, international sanctions, and historically low oil production had made Venezuela an international social case even before Corona. Nicolás Maduro has ruled the country since 2013. During this time, economic power decreased by 70 percent.

Even before the outbreak of the crown crisis, according to the annual living conditions survey (Encovi), 87 percent of Venezuelans lived in poverty. “This number has increased in recent weeks,” says Luisa Molina, an agricultural scientist at the Universidad de los Andes in Mérida. For this year, the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America (ECLAC) foresees a further decrease in gross domestic product of 18 percent.

The virus has turned the crisis in Venezuela into a “perfect storm,” emphasizes Luis Vicente León, head of the Dataanálisis survey institute. In late April, the government also reintroduced price controls on 27 basic foods. This acts as a “fire accelerator,” says Leon. People would panic because the controls would take food out of the market and from supermarkets like they used to. This greatly increases the risk of looting.

“If I didn’t have children in France, I would have to go hungry”

According to the United Nations World Food Program (WFP), the crown crisis will bring a famine of “biblical proportions” to the country. The once rich oil country is now in the company of countries like South Sudan, Syria, Afghanistan and Haiti. “All of these countries already have more than a million people on the brink of starvation,” said WFP director David Beasley.

Professor Luisa Molina lives in Mérida at the foot of the Andes and receives her salary in the Bolívares national currency. It currently equates to around $ 10 a month. At recently regulated prices, you can only buy a kilo of meat, 30 eggs, two liters of milk, and a little cheese. “If I didn’t have children in France to support me, I would have to go hungry,” says the scientist.

In Venezuela, nobody lives on their wages in Bolívares. If you don’t have access to dollars, everything is missing. The fate of countless families depends on the transfers made by the more than five million Venezuelans who have left the country in recent years. However, in the coming weeks, economists will warn that they will also be unable to work in their migrant countries. Foreign transfers would collapse dramatically.

Stiff curfew for up to 18 hours

And therefore, not only the deputy Amércio de Grazia fears that looting and protests will increase. “If you are otherwise doomed to hunger, then you will make those decisions.” Furthermore, more and more people are violating the sometimes rigid curfews of up to 18 hours because they are looking for water, food or firewood to cook. If they are detained, they will be kidnapped in the barracks, where they must act as punishment and must be dissuaded from repeated acts. Venezuela reacted very drastically to the pandemic from the beginning and was able to keep the number of infected people low. By Thursday, 331 people were infected, 10 died, according to Johns Hopkins University.