KW: While the local news media has much t say about the potential Russian ban from the Olympics or just what a Kardashian is wearing or not wearing we miss out on what is really going on in the real world
Zerohedge:
There was some good news for citizens of Venezuela yesterday, when the government – having mostly given up on trying to provide its citizens’ with even the most basic food needs – announced it has opened its border with Colombia for the second time this month to allow people to buy food and medicine unavailable at home in their country’s collapsing economy. Colombia’s government said 44,000 people crossed on Saturday to buy food, medicine and cleaning products and said it expected that number to almost double on Sunday.
Bus terminals were packed and hotels filled to capacity in the border town of San Antonio, with many traveling hundreds of miles to shop.
The result of the scramble to obtain much needed staples is shown in the photos below.
Venezuelan citizens waiting to cross into Colombia to buy supplies
More than 100,000 Venezuelans crossed into Colombia over the weekend in
search for food and medicine.
Venezuelan women buy food staples at a local shop in Cucuta, Colombia
Tebie Gonzalez holds a wad of Bolivar bills as she exchanges what remains of
her and her husband’s savings.
Crowds of people flooded the bridge that links to the Colombian city of Cucuta
to cross the border on foot
Activists handed out anti-government pamphlets, looking to galvanize the
frustration that has characterized food riots
The border was heavily packed by Venezuelan troops, the crowds were mostly
orderly amin and atmosphere of tense excitement
According to Reuters, last week, over 35,000 people crossed over for the first time since the governor of Venezuela’s state of Tachira, opened the border. Socialist President Nicolas Maduro shut the border last year in an effort to crack down on smuggling of subsidised products.
Venezuela’s product shortages have since worsened, creating further incentives to buy goods in Colombia and bring them back. Venezuelans routinely spend hours in lines at home seeking items ranging from corn flour to cancer medication to car parts. Shoppers complain of violence in lines, and looting is on the rise.
* * *
That was the good news. The bad news for ordinary Venezuelans is that unless they can permanently move to Colombia or any other country, their plight is only going to get worse. The reason is that according to the IMF, Venezuela’s consumer-price inflation is forecast to hit 480% this year and top 1,642% in 2017, according to the International Monetary Fund. At that point it will proceed into suborbital hyperinflationary territory, hitting 2,880% in 2018 before “plateauing” at 3,500% in 2019.