Venezuela has a ‘let them eat cake’ moment
inspections. “They are hiding the bread from the people”, the President said recently on his weekly TV programme, 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.
A video posted online by the authorities shows chief inspector Williams Contreras leading one bakery sting.
“There are going to be some arrests here”, he said, after finding a sign outside reading “No bread until further notice.”
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.
Maduro, who was elected to succeed Chavez in 2013 and is fighting efforts to force him from power, blames the crisis on an “economic war” by USbacked business interests.
His opponents blame the failure of 18 years of socialist “revolution” under Maduro and Chavez.
The government heavily subsidises imports of basic food products such as flour via an artificially high exchange rate. But plummeting oil revenues mean the dollars needed to keep the scheme going are in short supply.
Bakeries allowed to buy subsidised flour are supposed to use 90 per cent of it for bread and only 10 per cent in cakes and pastries.
On presidential TV show, Vice President Tareck El Aissami accused bakeries of flouting that regulation by making too many cakes.
It was a moment reminiscent of Marie-Antoinette’s apocryphal quote, “Let them eat cake” — which the queen is held to have said of the breadless, starving peasantry on the eve of the French Revolution.
The Venezuelan Federation of Bread Manufacturers says cake is not the problem.
According to the industry group, Venezuela’s 8,000 bakeries are receiving just 30,000 tonnes of flour a month, when they need four times that to meet demand.
“When there’s flour, we sell bread. But they deliver it every 15 or 20 days. They give us 20 sacks. In normal circumstances, we’d use eight a day”, said Fran Suero, 41, an employee at a bakery on the east side of Caracas.
Bakers are increasingly nervous. Mario, a bakery manager in the Catia neighbourhood of Caracas, said inspectors came to visit him last week and threatened to arrest him. Luckily, fresh loaves of bread came out of the oven just in time, he said. “The government is the one that imports all those things. But they’re trying to put the blame on us.” — AFP