Chaos as Gasoline Apartheid Kicks Off in Venezuela
By Carlos Camacho
CARACAS — The guy on the motorcycle was ecstatic: he had finally been able to fill up.Six liters of gasoline for $3.This is Venezuela, but those are U.S.prices: $0.50 a liter.
$3 is also one full month of the basic wage salary in Venezuela.
All of this was taking place just as Coronavirus seems to be peaking in Venezuela, with the total number of cases tripling to 1500-plus in just two weeks.
The first day of new gasoline prices in Venezuela was full of inequalities and irregularities: military at the pumps demanded proof of ruling party affiliation for those that didnt want to pay $0.50 per liter and wanted instead the subsidized price of Bs 5,000 a liter (2.5 cents or less than 10 cents a gallon) the one that lets you fill up an SUV for the equivalent of one US dollar.
But the Patria (fatherland) system — where you have to show your carnet de la patria social-control ruling party loyalist chip card to pay the subsidized price — was so full of glitches, clients decided to go for the international prices instead.
All of Venezuelas 1,000-plus gas stations are owned by the government since Chavez nationalized them in 2008, but staff and military are making rules as they go.
Rationing of 30 liters per car here, cash only there, carnet mandatory here, and, in some, no carnet at all.Some were closing at 1 pm, and at least one said it was remaining open until midnight.
Some 200 gasoline stations, the ones selling at international prices, are now private according to Maduro.The government never informed about such a bid, violating the public bidding Ley de Licitaciones, and has not said who the new owners are.
The international price line was shorter.Dog-faced military (no shortage of those) were a bit more amicable.
And service was much better: no scuffles and no proof of allegiance to the Maduro regime was requested.The top socialist principle is now being betrayed: people are getting what they pay for in Venezuela.
Venezuela had the cheapest gasoline in the world for several decades and until March, in spite of Maduro threatening to hike the price since 2018 and, already by then, saying those who didnt have the carnet he started issue in 2016 would get no subsidized gasoline and were going to be forced to pay a much higher price.
There were long lines outside gas stations already by 6 am and rationing of 30 liters per car, or 6 liters to a bike.Inequality, as those holding U.S.dollars (and willing to pay US prices) get to fill up first.
Now, the country with six refineries and the largest known oil reserves in the planet has to rely on gasoline imported from Iran.
By mid-morning, users were reporting that the carnet was not working: the scanned fingerprint did not appear and gasoline was not dispatched.
Only credit cards from state-owned banks are being accepted.
Blackouts in certain parts of Venezuela also mean no gasoline, at any price, since pumps cant work without electricity.
At 6 am, in Los Teques, in spite of the fact that several sectors of the city have been without electricity for more than 12 hours, vehicle owners waited in the dark, dangerous streets for the opening of the gas stations to fill up.Three service stations were affected by the power cut, since pumps didnt have electricity to function.
At 8 am, neither of these two stations had begun serving the public.
In Guarenas, at 7:30 am, in front of El Cercado service station, on the Gran Mariscal de Ayacucho highway, drivers awaiting gasoline blocked the road in both directions.They have been waiting since last Thursday, May 28, to refuel, although they were given tickets to refuel this Monday, June 1.
According to personnel at one of the pumps, they were told to accept credit cards of the state banks Venezuela or Bicentenario.Also, the driver must have a Venezuelan license or, failing that, have the vehicle registered to his name.
At the gas station on the Caracas-La Guaira highway, drivers dawned in line to fill up, but by 8 a.m.
they had not begun serving the public, even though it is one of the 200 stations licensed to charge in foreign currency and the Petro crypto-currency the Maduro regime has been flogging for years without success.
In Lara state, at 10 a.m., there were still delays in Barquisimeto and Cabudare because they have not yet installed points of sale or a bio-payment system, the one for state banks that lets you pay by scanning your fingerprint.Also pumps had been stopped for last minute maintenance..
