The corruption and mismanagement of Nicolás Maduro’s illegitimate regime fueled food shortages, hyperinflation and the collapse of the public health sector.
Maduro’s authoritarian government required many local supermarkets to fix prices below vendors’ costs, which didn’t reflect market value and made it impossible for grocers to make money. Venezuelan supermarkets also were unable to convert currency to import food products. The result: Empty supermarket shelves. Shoppers stood in line for an entire day looking for food and medicine across the capital, Caracas.
In advance of the May 20, 2018, national elections the Maduro regime used a handout of rice, pasta and canned goods that was the main source of sustenance for 15 percent of the population, according to Andrés Bello Catholic University in Caracas.
The food package was distributed to those who carried a new ruling party card, called the Fatherland Card, which also was used to register their vote. Using these cards, the government tracked who voted for the ruling Socialist Party and rewarded them with food boxes.
The Maduro regime, responsible for creating the humanitarian crisis, used these food handouts and measles vaccine to purchase support in the presidential elections.
This was not the first time the regime tied much-needed basic benefits to politics.
Katerina Noriega, a street vendor in Santa Rita, told the Wall Street Journal that she was offered about a kilogram of rice and beans, or about 10 days’ worth of wages, for voting in the December 2017 municipal elections in Venezuela.
“They bought our votes,” Noriega said. She said she voted for the government candidate because she felt like she had to. “I did it because of our difficult situation.”
During recent elections, government supporters reportedly used the Fatherland Cards to track down people who hadn’t voted and remind them of their government benefits. The implication was clear: Vote or lose basic necessities. Areas that did not support the government reportedly saw their food benefits reduced.
A man-made crisis
Hunger, malnutrition and diseases have increased at alarming rates in Venezuela. According to a 2017 Survey of Life Conditions conducted by three local universities, 9 out of 10 Venezuelans can’t afford to buy the food they need. As a result, more than 60 percent of the country reported going to bed hungry.
“We have dramatic reports of mothers who have to decide which child to feed proteins to on a given day and which one not,” said Marianella Herrera, a doctor and one of the researchers, in an interview with El País.
In spite of the hunger, Maduro refused to acknowledge that there was a humanitarian crisis or accept international assistance. Hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans fled the country.
“This crisis in Venezuela, which is now spilling into the broader region, is man-made,” said Mark Green, administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development, on March 20, 2018, when he announced an initial, immediate donation of $2.5 million to Colombia to help Venezuelans crossing the border in search of food and medicine. An estimated 650,000 Venezuelans lived in Colombia in 2017, and an estimated 1.7 million more were expected to leave Venezuela in 2018.
Many are fleeing to border towns in Colombia and Brazil, challenging local social services. The March 2018 USAID support followed $36.5 million that the U.S. had provided over the previous two years to the regional operations of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and other international organizations to support vulnerable populations in the region, including Venezuelans.
The United States continues to assess the needs of Venezuelans, together with partner countries such as Colombia and Brazil, and continues to support international humanitarian assistance to help the Venezuelan people.
A version of this story was originally published on April 11, 2018.
