CARACAS,
Venezuela — The courts? Closed most days. The bureau to start a
business? Same thing. The public defender’s office? That’s been
converted into a food bank for government employees.
Step by step, Venezuela has been shutting down.
This country has long been accustomed to painful shortages, even of basic foods. But Venezuela keeps drifting further into uncharted territory.
In
recent weeks, the government has taken what may be one of the most
desperate measures ever by a country to save electricity: A shutdown of
many of its offices for all but two half-days each week.
But that is only the start of the country’s woes. Electricity and water are being rationed, and huge areas of the country have spent months with little of either.
Many
people cannot make international calls from their phones because of a
dispute between the government and phone companies over currency
regulations and rates.
Coca-Cola
Femsa, the Mexican company that bottles Coke in the country, has even
said it was halting production of sugary soft drinks because it was
running out of sugar.
Last
week, protests turned violent in parts of the country where
demonstrators demanded empty supermarkets be resupplied. And on Friday,
the government said it would continue its truncated workweek for an
additional 15 days.
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