'We want out of this agony': What it's like to eat in a country that's on the verge of collapse

REUTERS/Carlos Garcia Rawlins

Despite breathless coverage of Venezuela's vanishing supply of condoms, toilet paper, and beer, perhaps the country's most debilitating shortage has been that of food, which appears to be a motivating factor for growing anti-government sentiment.

"I want the recall because I don't have food," one woman told Venezuelan commentary site Contrapunto, referring to a referendum to recall President Nicolas Maduro that has so far reportedly drawn more than a million signatures in support. 

"We want out of this agony, there is too much need in the streets," another woman told Contrapunto. "We have much pressure because there is no food and every day we have to ask ourselves what we are going to eat."

Soaring prices and rampant shortages of most goods have left many Venezuelans struggling to put regular food on their tables and maintain a balanced diet.

Government supporters have long pointed proudly to the improvement in eating under late socialist leader Hugo Chavez, who used oil income to subsidize food for the poor during his 14 years in office (1999-2013) and won UN plaudits for it.

But, Reuters notes, Maduro, Chavez's successor, has faced a collapse in the price of oil, which provides almost all of Venezuela's foreign income. He has also blamed an opposition-led "economic war," which critics deride as an excuse.

With a severe recession and a dysfunctional state-run economy, poorer families say they sometimes skip meals and rely more on starch foods, Reuters reports. 

"We are eating worse than before. If we eat breakfast, we don't eat lunch, if we eat lunch, we don't eat dinner, and if we eat dinner, we don't eat breakfast," Liliana Tovar, a Caracas resident, told Reuters in late April.

At times, high demand and limited supplies have left Venezuela's shelves heavily stocked with items no one buys, like soft drinks, while high-demand items like milk are nowhere to be found.

According to a recent study, 87% of Venezuelans say their income is now insufficient to purchase their food needs. Shoppers routinely spend hours in lines to buy staples ranging from corn flour to laundry soap, turning lines into sites of shoving matches and now more frequent attempts to plunder shops.

That study of nearly 1,500 families also found rising percentages of carbohydrates in diets, and found that 12% of those interviewed do not eat three meals a day.

In an effort to shore up wages, Maduro announced on May 1 a 30% minimum-wage increase, which comes after a 25% hike on March 1 and is the 33rd wage boost since 1999. Beginning this month, workers and pensioners will earn 15,051 bolivars a month — only about $13, based on the black-market conversion rate, according to El País.

That amount may become even more paltry. Venezuela's inflation rate in 2015 was 180.9%, according to the central bank, and the IMF expects inflation in the country to reach 720% this year.

A minimum wage is now only around 20% of the cost of feeding a family of five, according to one monitoring group cited by Reuters. Lines snake around state-run supermarkets, where regulations keep prices low, from before dawn.

"You have to get into these never ending lines — all day, five in the morning until three in the afternoon — to see if you get a couple of little bags of flour or some butter," said taxi driver Jhonny Mendez, 58.

"It makes a person want to cry."

The opposition in Venezuela's national assembly last week ordered the firing of the country's food minister because of the country's worsening food situation, though the Maduro government may ignore or circumvent the order.

Reuters recently documented the in-home food stocks of residents in Petare, a poor barrio east of Caracas where once stalwart government support has weakened over the past few years: