Venezuela’s Shortages Spur Perilous Sea Journeys

[Dashinka 24,600]

By 

Kejal Vyas in Irapa, Venezuela and 

Sara Schaefer Muñoz in Chaguaramas, Trinidad and Tobago

Updated June 23, 2017 5:30 a.m. ET

89 COMMENTS

 

Struggling to find basic staples in her own country, Mariana Revilla and five neighbors here took to crossing a treacherous 60-mile gulf under the cover of night to the island of Trinidad.

On her last trip, they made a good haul, securing seven tons of flour, sugar and cooking oil from the former British colony in exchange for fresh shrimp from home. But on the way back their rickety 46-foot boat capsized, leaving Ms. Revilla and her companions clinging to the wreckage for nearly two days before she and two others ran out of strength and drowned, according to survivors. Her stepfather says her 3-year-old daughter, Isabel, keeps asking, “Where is my mama?”

As Venezuela’s economy crumbles, an increasingly desperate people are doing all they can to get food and medicine. Here that can involve great peril.

 

Venezuelans make trips as long as 10 hours to hawk shellfish, plastic chairs, house doors, ceramic pots and even exotic animals like iguanas and brightly feathered macaws. They are exchanged for basic goods—rice, detergent, diapers—that Caracas is increasingly unable to provide.

 

https://www.wsj.com/articles/venezuelas-shortages-spur-perilous-sea-journeys-1498172121

 

[IAMX 3,055]

Leftist paradise!

[TBoneTX 45,542]

5 hours ago, Bill & Katya said:

her 3-year-old daughter, Isabel, keeps asking, “Where is my mama?”

Beyond the completely avoidable economic travesty, this ^^ is the most heart-rending part.

[The Nature Boy 7,659]

Seems like in my short history on earth folks are always dying trying to escape a workers paradise 

[Boiler 45,672]

You would have thought the Libs would be flocking to this paradise to get away from the beastly Trump?

[IAMX 3,055]

3 minutes ago, Boiler said:

You would have thought the Libs would be flocking to this paradise to get away from the beastly Trump?

They only threaten to move to Canada.. strange how they never threaten to move to Mexico, Venezuela, Brazil, etc.

[Boiler 45,672]

And the Canadians want them, give them a free bus pass problem solved, New California rush.

[IAMX 3,055]

1 minute ago, Boiler said:

And the Canadians want them, give them a free bus pass problem solved, New California rush.

I can tell you now that sentiment is not shared throughout the prairies. Send them to Ontario, Quebec, or BC.