Desperate Venezuelans buy spoiled meat as electricity fails
MARACAIBO: In a city once called the Saudi Arabia of Venezuela for its vast oil wealth, residents of Maracaibo now line up to buy spoiled meat as refrigerators fail amid nine months of rolling power outages that recently got worse.
Some people fall ill eating the rotten beef, but at bargain prices, it’s the only way they can afford protein as the country’s crisis hits bottom.
“It smells a little foul, but you rinse it with a little vinegar and lemon,” said Yeudis Luna, a father of three young boys buying darkened cuts at a butcher shop in Venezuela’s second largest city.
Venezuelans are enduring the worst economic downfall in the oilrich country’s history. Basic services like running water and electricity have become luxuries. The governor of Maracaibo’s Zulia state, Omar Prieto, recently said the rampant blackouts were being repaired, but relief has yet to come.
The sprawling port city of Maracaibo on the banks of a vast lake once served as a hub of Venezuela’s oil production, producing roughly half of the nation’s crude.
A bridge over Lake Maracaibo stands as a reminder of better times. The 8km-long structure built five decades ago once glowed at night with thousands of lights, linking the city with the rest of Venezuela. Maracaibo was clean and bustling with international restaurants.
Today, the bridge’s lights no longer shine and broken down oil platforms span the lake with down- wind shores soaked in oil. The once-posh shopping centres have fallen into ruin and the international businesses have packed up and left.
For the last nine months Maracaibo’s residents have endured rolling blackouts. Things turned dire on Aug 10 when a fire destroyed a main powerline supplying the city of 1.5 million people.
Refrigeration units fell idle and meat began turning. At least four butcher shops have been selling spoiled meat in Las Pulgas, Maracaibo’s central market.
Butcher Johel Prieto said the outage turned an entire side of beef rotten. He ground up much of it and mixed it with a fresh, red meat in an attempt to mask the spoilage.
A pungent tray of ground meat and other graying cuts on display at his counter collected flies – and a steady flow of customers. Some feed it to their dogs, said Prieto, yet others cook it for their families.
“Of course they eat the meat – thanks to Maduro,” Prieto said. “The food of the poor is rotten food.” — AP