Venezuelan Military Occupies Stores; Customers Seize Scarce Groceries

Food shortages in formerly prosperous Venezuela — a direct and predictable result of the country’s descent into socialism — have become so severe that the government has put the country’s “food distribution under military protection,” Bloomberg reported January 9.

 

Inflation, rigged foreign-exchange rates, and price controls, along with outright government takeovers of some stores, have caused supplies of basic necessities to dry up. Venezuelans have been forced to go from store to store and stand in long lines — “some stretching for blocks,” according to Bloomberg — in hopes of getting even small amounts of some foods and household products, many of which are being rationed.

 

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