Hunger and oil in Venezuela
PDVSA crews are having trouble doing their jobs as nourishment runs short
A lack of food is contributing to a slump in energy production.
At 6:40 a.m., Pablo Ruiz squats at the gate of a decaying refinery in Puerto La Cruz, Venezuela, steeling himself for eight hours of brushing anti-rust paint onto pipes under a burning sun. For breakfast, the 55-year-old drank corn-flour water.
Ruiz’s weekly salary of 110,000 bolivares — 50 cents at the black-market exchange rate — buys him less than a kilo of corn meal. His only protein comes from 170 grams of canned tuna included in a box the government gives to low-income families. It shows up every 45 days or so.
“I haven’t eaten meat for two months,” he said. “The last time I did, I spent my whole week’s salary on a chicken meal.”
Hunger is hastening the ruin of Venezuelan’s oil industry as workers grow too weak and hungry for heavy labor. With children dying of malnutrition and adults sifting garbage for table scraps, food has become more important than employment, and thousands are walking off the job. Absenteeism and mass resignations mean few are left to produce the oil that supports the economy.
Venezuela, a socialist autocracy that once was South America’s most prosperous nation, is suffering a collapse almost without precedent. Petroleos de Venezuela SA, the government oil company and economic linchpin, has fallen into chaos. Production has fallen by half since 2001.
Much of the decline is due to lack of money for maintenance and exploration. Recently, though, hunger is also to blame. A survey by three Venezuelan universities found that that more than 64 percent of residents lost weight in 2017, on average 25 pounds.
Ivan Freites, a PDVSA union leader and critic of President Nicolas Maduro, said Wednesday that in Zulia State 12 malnourished workers collapsed in November and December and had to be taken off drilling platforms for treatment. More go down each day, he said.
For decades, PDVSA was a dream job in a socialist petrostate. The company supplied workers not only with a good living, but also cafeterias that served lunches with soup, a main course, dessert and freshly squeezed juice. Now, the cafeterias are mostly bare, and employees are leaving to work as taxi drivers, plumbers or farmers.
“They’re giving up because of hunger,” said Jose Bodas, general secretary of United Federation of Venezuelan Oil Workers.
“They’re giving up because of hunger.” Jose Bodas, oil workers union