After living through shortages of water, electricity, medicine and banknotes, Venezuelans are struggling to find one of the most basic foodstuffs of all, unleashing what President Nicolas Maduro has dubbed the “Bread War.”
Bread has become all but impossible to find at many Venezuelan bakeries, which say Mr Maduro’s socialist government is not importing enough flour for them to make it. Not so, insists the mustachioed heir to the late Hugo Chavez, who accuses bakeries of hoarding flour to destabilise his government and using it in expensive cakes and pastries rather than cheap, subsidised bread.
Mr Maduro, whose popularity has plummeted amid a crushing three-year recession, has sent inspectors and soldiers into more than 700 bakeries around the capital this week to enforce a rule that 90% of wheat must be destined to loaves rather than more expensive pastries and cakes. “They are hiding the bread from the people,” the President said, vowing to crack down on greedy bakers. “They are going to pay for this, I swear. Those responsible for the Bread War will pay. And don’t go around calling it ‘political persecution.’”
This week the authorities arrested four people in the crackdown and confiscated two bakeries accused of charging more than the official bread price.
Home to the world’s largest oil reserves, Venezuela has skidded to the brink of economic collapse as low crude prices have laid bare its overwhelming dependence on its chief export.
