The most severe economic crisis in recorded Latin American history is getting worse.
“The situation is critical,” says Nancy Rodríguez, who runs a produce stand at the Quinta Crespo market in Caracas. By Mary Beth Sheridan and Mary Beth Sheridan Correspondent covering Mexico and Central America Email Bio Follow Mariana Zuñiga March 21 at 6:00 AM CARACAS, Venezuela — The lights are back on at Quinta Crespo, a bustling public food market in central Caracas.
Already, the economy of this oil-rich nation has shrunk by about half since 2014 — the most precipitous drop in recorded Latin American history. This year, economists expect imports of food, medicine and other goods to plummet by 50 percent or more, as new U.S. sanctions choke off income from Venezuela’s mismanaged oil industry.
At Quinta Crespo, a vast warren of fluorescent-lit shops smelling of poultry and overripe fruit, shopkeepers are nervous. Luis Eduardo Alvarez, 29, who sells deli meat, cereal, pasta and other groceries, says he’s ordering half as much stock as usual, for fear that hungry people will start looting.
“We are at a point of total collapse,” said Julio Molina, head of the electrical engineering faculty at the Central University of Venezuela. The second-tier effects of the power failures could be profound. In many areas, water service still isn’t back to normal, because there isn’t enough electricity to run the pumps.
Venezuela’s agricultural production had been slumping for years under government price controls and the expropriation of farms. Now, the country’s farms can fulfill only about 20 percent of domestic food needs, said Carlos Albornoz, head of the national dairy and livestock association.“We are 30 days from the start of the agricultural cycle, and we simply don’t have the inputs, the tools, the seeds,” Albornoz said. “An agricultural collapse is absolutely inevitable.
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