The lack of some products, the high prices for others or the time it took to obtain them, which was once very simple, have become a real responsibility for a large part of society. But this strategy to hinder people’s lives is combined with other elements, such as infrastructure sabotage. Poor maintenance in many areas and lack of supply due to this lack can be considered as incorrect sabotage. The lack of spare parts is also a consequence of the blockade. Sabotage can be less direct, but also sabotage, which has the same effect.

In addition, however, there have been direct attacks on infrastructure and the electricity grid. Electricity cuts are very frequent in current Venezuela, despite the differences between geographical areas. For a person who has traveled abroad, the naturalness with which Venezuelans live the cuts of light is striking. Besides the lack of light, the lack of electricity affects many other aspects in daily life: the activities of many jobs are obstructed or stopped in a straight line, the Caracas metro does not work, the pumping of water is suspended, refrigerators and other household electronics cannot be used, communications are cut in many cases... Moreover, due to the lack of infrastructure maintenance, often, when light comes back, it does so with obvious figs of intensity and it is not uncommon for connected electrical appliances to deteriorate. Although they adapt to these situations (which remedy...), the normal development of society is hindered and what should be simple becomes complicated and laborious. All this leads to a series of protocols: shutting down the light and disconnecting the appliances, ensuring the supply of water for a few days on the roofs, closer management of fresh and frozen food, installing electricity generators through fuels for which they have sufficient resources...

Another of the most spectacular indicators of the economic situation is transport. Compared to a few years ago, Venezuelan roads see fewer cars and public transport has far fewer units, creating longer queues of users and making the frequency of journeys more irregular. It's not because of a lack of fuel, but because of a lack of cars and parts to buy outside. As with electricity and water supply, fuel remains almost free of charge. Venezuela is the State with the lowest price in the world: The price is symbolic and the purchasers when they pay give a low value ticket containing the tip. In some areas, particularly near the border with Colombia, the long lines that can be seen at the gas stations have been created by the controls established by the government. Controls for a car not to fill the fuel store more times than would have been normal try to limit the transport and sales business to Colombia with relative success.

The metro does not stay out of this delicate situation. The Caracas Metro is in full swing, at least in peak hours, where there are frequent shocks and the inability to access. Another example of the situation can be seen at the time of dropping the metro: disabled ticket machines and militiamen to allow new and simpler paper tickets to be collected.

Although one of the areas that best reflects the impact of the economic blockade is transport, the differences between sectors of the population are also observed in the case of cars. Among the old cars that continue to operate, the new Hyundai and Toyota rancheras and other expensive cars are often seen.

One of the main attacks on Venezuela is that which is being carried out against the currency, but its consequences are for the people, especially for many citizens who cannot obtain dollars. On the website dolartoday has become a component of the life of many Venezuelans to see how many times the change between bolivar and dollar occurs. In August 2019, for example, the change was halved: at the beginning of the month a dollar went from 12,000 bolivars to more than twice that amount at the end of the month. Although at first it is called attention, in any store people pay with large sums of banknotes that don't get into their pockets is part of everyday life. Framed in the attack policy designed in the USA, the devaluation of the bolivar, which increases for many years, directly influences the cost of the products, constantly increasing prices. The only person responsible for this rise is not in the exchange of the currency made from the outside, as there are many other internal factors involved (speculation, money laundering, the power of the private sector in the face of the barbarism of the government...), but it cannot be concealed that many of these factors are related to the aforementioned hybrid war.

 

 

 

 

As a result, there is great uncertainty about the price of money. The Venezuelan cannot and must not know what the money he has in the short term, in an exceptional situation such as this. Among the measures taken in recent years to defend the planned attack of emptying Venezuela ' s coffers is the strict limitation of cash that can be withdrawn from banks, which makes payments to citizens difficult. Although a crisis of anxiety arose in Europe’s populations, most Venezuelans face this situation, combining patience, despair and understanding of the payment to defend their sovereignty. The particular idiosyncrasies of Venezuelans to understand life, an important subjective element to keep in mind, facilitates life to continue among the difficulties.

Health is undoubtedly the hardest point at which the effects of the blockade are perceived. As has been done throughout history in the sieges, they want to kneel the people of joy, thirst and, of course, disease. The blocking gringo often makes it difficult and expensive to obtain medical and medical equipment and sometimes makes it impossible. As in many other areas, Venezuela’s dependence on the other states becomes a major weakness in getting medicines. Even more so if we take into account that 34 percent of the drugs were imported from the United States. Although the public health system tries to supply products and tools to health centers, hospitals and pharmacies, medicines and other materials are not obtained or obtained in small quantities and at high prices. And not only those who come from the United States, but also the pressures of the Trump administration have made contracts with companies from other states break, as they have done for decades with Cuba. Many of the shipments of medicines to Venezuela have been cancelled and the Government has had to make a special effort to prevent the blockade, increasing trade relations with other States in order to obtain medicines and active substances. These states are mainly China, Russia, India, Turkey, Iran or Belarus, the powers that can suffer the pressure coming from the US. However, transport costs and the risk borne by companies make these products more expensive.

In any case, the supply of medicines and medical equipment is not enough and the consequences have been very harsh. About four million Venezuelans with diabetes or hypertension do not regularly receive the necessary medicines (for example, 300,000 doses of insulin already paid in 2017 did not arrive because Citibank blocked the purchase). Some 80,000 people with AIDS were left without antiretrovirals in 2017. It is estimated that there are about 16,000 thousand people who cannot support the necessary treatment with cancer (chemotherapy, radiotherapy, drugs…) and another 16,000 people who need dialysis are plunged into uncertainty. At the hospital visited in Guasdualito, for example, there were four dialysis teams stopped for lack of spare parts and two equipment that worked to treat all patients in the area. It is estimated that between 2017 and 2018 the death toll could reach 40,000 due to the blockade of the health sector. Beyond these figures, it is clear that the death sentence is signed in the USA every time a measure against health is signed. Rather than saying that “the sick die”, we should say that they “kill”.

When talking about economic blockade, the mandatory field to refer to is that of food. To give an example, the import of food in 2013 increased from $11.2 billion to $2.46 billion in 2018.Conocida Venezuela’s dependence on external food, its impact on the lives of most Venezuelans is easily understood.

With regard to food, we must abandon the double lie spread: The Government of Venezuela condemns the people to eat. On the one hand, because there is no hunger. If, in some sectors and in some families, it is being tightened up to ensure daily meals, the Government must be recognized for the enormous effort it has made to prevent anyone from leaving without protection, in a reality in which many aspects are interwoven. For example, there are Venezuelans who criticize government policy on family planning. Instead of giving format and sex education to marginalised young sectors, the granting of subsidies for each child has led the under-educated to have too many boys and girls, fuelling the spiral of poverty and exclusion. Ensuring adequate food for the population is not only an element of food supply, but must be placed in an integral perspective, encompassing many socio-economic aspects.

On the other hand, it is a lie that the Government of Venezuela is primarily responsible for food shortages in Venezuela. Food shortages and enrichment have undoubtedly been a tool used by the oligarchy since Chávez began a transformative process to this day. In this attack, carried out inside and outside, the main person responsible for situations of disability is found. The Maduro government launched in 2016 the CLAP (Local Drug and Production Committees) to address major food problems. Through these neighborhood and village committees, a box of food is transferred to each family at reduced prices (below their cost), due to difficulties. In fact, the frequency varies by place and time. In Caracas, where the problem of obtaining food is greater, the frequency is usually two weeks, but in the countryside it can be one month or less (there are more facilities to access food by other means). As for the foods in the box, you can find rice, oil, corn flour, sugar, legumes, pasta or fish packaged, but the type and quantity of food there is not quite regular. Many of these products are produced in other nations.

This box condemns some of the problems and realities that exist in Venezuela: the government’s efforts to ensure the essentials, the delayed production of food, the total dependence on imports, the lack of control and the dumping (diversion of products to parallel markets).